What, no bug thread?

[SixOfSpades]

This post is full of spoilers on how I beat Sendai, so consider yourself warned.

 

 

 

 

Core Rules, though it hardly matters, as I never saw any of Sendai's new AI. The problem was caused by Sendai starting to buff herself as soon as her first cutscene (with Master Bennon) ended. While my party was merrily slaying Duergar and Orogs and Spiders and Umber Hulks and Mind Flayers, Sendai was busy casting Project Image, and Spell Immunity, and Quaffing Potions, and pairs of Drow were casting Hardiness. So by the time we actually reached her lair, most of her fancy buffs were gone, which was good, but she had an astonishing twenty-four goons jam-packed in the entryway--which was bad.

 

First attempt was an utter failure, and taught me that there's no way in heck I was going to be able to fight fair and still be able to keep those Drow Wizards from bringing five Comets down on my head at once, and that's not even counting the Holy Smites.

 

Second attempt was the winner: Three (out of five) party members died, one of them twice, but thankfully none of them permanently. That alone is saying a lot, this was by far the most "touch and go" battle I've fought in a long time. Unfortunately, the majority of that was due to the crowd of extra Drow: We entered under Mass Invisibility, and quickly booked it over to the other side of the room, and thankfully we had a Fire Storm (which ignores Magic Resistance)memorized, so we were able to draw the warriors over to our side to come & be killed, leaving room to get at the spellcasters. I was lucky enough to tag the first Sendai statue with an Insect Plague, so we could ignore her. By the time the second statue fell, we had the stairs clear again, and decorated it with a few Traps during each 'round' of combat--we placed a couple of Traps near each unactivated statue as well. The Sendai statues are still rather a doddle: A simple Potion of Invisibility was enough to stop the fight cold, giving my resurrected teammates all the time in the world to strap all their equipment back on (before, all I would allow them was to run over to their gear, grab 1 weapon, and get back to fighting). The last statue fell, meaning the real Sendai was back at last, but I still didn't get to see any of her new fancy AI: Her appearance triggered a Time Trap that I'd left on the stairs, and since the guy who set it also had Carsomyr and Greater Whirlwind, and since Sendai's auto-buffs hadn't had time to kick in, and since I'm not a damn fool and had lost 3 party members in this fight already, Sendai essentially appeared just in time to say her death speech.

 

Well, as I say, the bug (which I'm assuming it was) was caused by Sendai going into her AI far too soon. Weimer's words of wisdom on this issue are

"Game engine bug, sorry. It chooses when to run scripts somewhat mercurially."

so I don't know if you can really fix it or not. But I thought it best to at least mention it to you. Oversight Version 2.6, by the way.

Suggestions: Beef the statues up a bit, like making the Thief one capable of Detecting Illusions, and the Berserker willing to drink Potions of Invisibility.

The Sling+3 has no Item Description picture.

It's kind of silly that everybody and their grandmother has a Drow Piwafwi Cloak (what is piwafwi, anyway?), when in Chapter 5 it was a unique item. I'd suggest that only the Wizards or the Priestesses have them.

If Elves get a racial bonus with Long Swords, why the heck do all of Sendai's Drow use Katanas? Did they corner the Kara-Turan market on +2 Katanas?

 

In a related issue, why the heck does the game sometimes steal 1 item from every stackable item in my Bag of Holding? I was rather peeved to notice that of the 2 Potions of Heal that Sendai was carrying, the game saw fit to nick one for itself.

[Rastor]

This bug can be fixed pretty easily. Just add Allegiance(Myself,ENEMY) to the conditions of all of her fighting blocks.

 

InMyArea(Player1) would also work well.

[Kish]

Well, as I say, the bug (which I'm assuming it was) was caused by Sendai going into her AI far too soon. Weimer's words of wisdom on this issue are

"Game engine bug, sorry. It chooses when to run scripts somewhat mercurially."

so I don't know if you can really fix it or not. But I thought it best to at least mention it to you. Oversight Version 2.6, by the way.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

This was an issue that came up during testing, but now none of her AI should go off unless the party is her enemy, as Rastor suggests. I haven't heard about it happening with the newest Oversight, so I'm inclined to think I probably added new code to prevent it from happening sometime between version 2.6 and now. (Clarification: The code definitely exists now. I'm inclined to think [some of] it probably wasn't in v2.6.)

 

No clue about the Bag of Holding stealing items. I didn't do it. Every noble drow has a piwafwi, so I'm inclined to think there's only one droppable version in Chapter Five because it has plot significance. Think of it as Sendai surrounding herself with more important drow than you previously met (they're certainly higher level). It's not like the cloaks actually matter here when they'll disintegrate immediately when the party takes them to the surface. (I suppose there are probably ways around this by cheating, but anyone who wants them badly enough to cheat can just CLUAConsole them in anyway, so it's not my lookout.)

[SixOfSpades]

This was an issue that came up during testing, but now none of her AI should go off unless the party is her enemy, as Rastor suggests.

Goody. Incidentally, at what point in the fight is her new AI supposed to kick in: At the very beginning (meaning, do you briefly tussle with the real Sendai before she activates the statues), or at the end?

[Kish]

Goody. Incidentally, at what point in the fight is her new AI supposed to kick in: At the very beginning (meaning, do you briefly tussle with the real Sendai before she activates the statues), or at the end?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

After the statues. When she pops in and says, "The statues have fallen but I shall not!" she should follow that up with different spells than in the unmodded game.