[0.10.23] Soul Trap doesn't seem to work properly

[Lombardi128]

I'm not 100% familiar with how Daggerfall's mechanics work, however I think the Soul Trap spell may not be working properly. Casting the spell on an enemy works fine. It says the "Trap Set" notification, it's what happens when the enemy dies that feels off. Occasionally when the enemy is killed, it will say "Trap Failed". Very rarely it will say "Trapped Soul". However, most of the time it just says nothing. So what? Is the soul trapped? Did it fail? I guess the game will get back to me later on that.

It doesn't feel like the spell should behave this way. Logically it should only be able to fail or succeed in capturing the soul. So I conclude that something must be wrong, or there is some game mechanic I don't know about that's causing this to happen. I am using mods, however none of them affect how spells work.

On a side note. One idea I have is that casting Soul Trap on an enemy should guarantee capturing the soul, Casting the spell is the part that should have a chance to fail. This may not fit with the vision of Daggerfall Unity, but for anyone with the know how, there's a mod idea for you.

[JorisVanEijden]

When I look at the code it seems it should work as you think.

You get a "Trap active." message when the spell takes hold on a monster.
When that enemy's health goes to 0 or below a soultrap is attempted.
If it fails you get a "Trap failed." message.
If it succeeds you get a "Trapped soul." message.
If it succeeds but you have no empty gems you get "You have no empty soul traps!" and the enemy is restored to 1 hp.

Is this something that you can reproduce? Like with a save just before battle. See what the soultrap does to the enemy, then reload and do the same again. Does it behave the same? If so, could you share the save?

[Interkarma]

However, most of the time it just says nothing. So what? Is the soul trapped? Did it fail? I guess the game will get back to me later on that.

Soul Trap always gives you feedback on outcome. If you get no feedback, this could mean the trap spell has expired before you were able to kill the enemy. I was caught by this myself only recently.

This effect went through a code review last month, I'm reasonably confident it's working as designed. If you're able to provide a save in front of a monster you're consistently having troubles with, I'm happy to try and reproduce and see what's going on.