Jay_H wrote: ↑Sat Apr 23, 2022 3:13 am
I have set apart time this weekend, specifically for
this single mod, in exclusion of all others in my attempt to show support for it.
[...]
Nevertheless, this mod delivers on the things I expected it to! I very much congratulate you for making it this far.
[...]
I will definitely be trying this mod out more.
Thanks Jay for the support, the kind words and the detailed feedback. I will now try to give a preliminary response to some of what you said and outline how I plan to continue the development of the mod.
First, could you please supply me with player.log files? The mod dumps a lot of info into these that I could use to identify/solve potential issues.
Second, some of the issues raised have their root cause in the fact that the mod is still rough around the edges (the end result is as it was intended but the reasons are not communicated to the player well). I guess it might be time to improve on this.
Jay_H wrote: ↑Sat Apr 23, 2022 3:13 am
My first dungeon sent me to a fairly tough sorcerer den, where everyone was equipped with Elven plus some Dwarven and Mithril. They were quite hard to kill. It would be great if some indicator showed what level each dungeon has, in some way.
From what you are saying, the material generator seems to be working like it was intended to. Will have a look at what I could do to somehow signal to the player the difficulty level of the dungeon he is entering.
Jay_H wrote: ↑Sat Apr 23, 2022 3:13 am
In the spellmaker, the topmost line is empty:
This is probably a genuine bug. My game actually hangs when I try to make a spell from that empty line. Interestingly enough, I recall taking that part of the code from the core game files... I will have a look. (Up until now, I never thought of clicking on the empty like...
)
Jay_H wrote: ↑Sat Apr 23, 2022 3:13 am
On an unrelated matter, I'm trying to buy Cure Poison from the guild merchant, and inexplicably am told that I don't have enough money:
[Removed the picture link]
I have more than 900 while the spell costs around 500.
[...]
After adding 10,000 gold to my character, it finally informs me that I don't have enough magical expertise to handle the spell.
This is the 'rough around the edges' part. I will endeavor to smooth these things out, so the player is informed of the most pressing issue first.
Jay_H wrote: ↑Sat Apr 23, 2022 3:13 am
I did previously buy a Cure Disease spell, and the transaction worked like in normal; there was no teaching window nor offer time. Now I don't get the teaching window for the too-expensive spells either (except when trying to buy the special spells you modded in).
This is very interesting. So, it was as if the mod was not even there?
Jay_H wrote: ↑Sat Apr 23, 2022 3:13 am
Furthermore, the spells "Abundantia" and "Reparo / Reparo Parvulus" have no data in them. I suppose I'm missing the mods that they connect to.
No, these should work even if only MMM is loaded. These spells work fine for me, but I am using 0.13.4. So, it may be a version difference issue. These spells do some item handling stuff, so if 0.13.5 introduced related changes, this could be causing this issue. I will be switching to 0.13.5 in May and then, I shall see if this is the case.
Jay_H wrote: ↑Sat Apr 23, 2022 3:13 am
So far on my new character, the difficulty curve seems pretty high.
This is more of a feature than an issue. Learning magic that you are not familiar with should be hard and should take a lot of work and/or ingenuity to find the right path to mastery.
Jay_H wrote: ↑Sat Apr 23, 2022 3:13 am
I continue using the new Recall spell to return after each quest, and when I step outside the Mages Guild after teleporting, I'm high in the sky. I have to use TGM to survive the fall each time this happens.
When I play, I use the core game's Recall (I plan on re-introducing the advanced version as a part of High Magic, as a new spell). Will need to have a look. Just to be sure I got this right. When teleporting, you appear in the building where you are supposed to appear, but then, when you exit the building, you are dropped from the sky. Is that correct? By any chance, could there have been any change in the terrain sampler since you created the anchor?
Thanks again for testing and giving these detailed descriptions.
I will try to keep you updated on the progress of resolving the issues you raised.
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For the next two weeks, I plan little improvement in MMM. I will be busy doing other things. The little time I will have for DFU, I plan to use to update the dev posts on the first page.
Then, I will probably be introducing minor fixes and improvements as part of the 0.5 series, but also, in the background, will be adding the infrastructure that will be needed to introduce the changes I plan for 0.6. These changes can be considered quite ambitious.
Would like three new factors to influence effectiveness in spell casting. These are
- experience with spells with the relevant target type (ExpTT)
- experience with the given element (ExpElement)
- experience with the given effect (ExpEffect)
These could range from 0.7 to 1.0 and function as coefficients in determining effective magic skill. So, the effective skill for e.g. a single-target-at-range frost spell with Damage-Health would be: Destruction * ExpTT-single-target-at-range * ExpCold * ExpDamage-Health.
So, if you gained your destruction skill in some other way than casting similar spells, your effective skill when casting this spell could be reduced to as low as 34% of the nominal skill. (Resulting in an effective skill of around 20 when the nominal skill is 60. With all the relevant consequences. Lower spell level. Higher cost of casting - which would also automatically increase the cost of learning/crating the spell - so I could dispense with the current system of using the spells present in the spellbook to approximate experience with these relevant aspects.)
This will need the mod to keep track of what kind of spells the player casts and keep the relevant tallies. Under the hood, this means getting reliable and detailed information about all player spells cast, keeping the tallies and being able to get them saved and loaded. At this point, I confident enough to say I can probably do this properly.
Would like to introduce the spell confidentiality mechanic. This would mean that certain spells/effects will only be available after gaining a certain rank in the given guild. This would open up new avenues of possibility... could very well include:
- effects that are identical but cheaper than effects available at lower ranks
- some of the more potent effects present in the core game (disintegrate, banish, continuous heal, continuous damage, silence etc)
- new potent effects (new ways to get around - Advanced Teleport, Teleport to Mages Guild, Teleport to Map location etc. new ways to transport things - magic containers etc.)
Would also like it if stronger spells counted more towards skill/experience gain than simple spells.
As I see things now, 0.6 may be out sometime in summer. (But still, other things might come that warrant my attention more so still promising nothing.)