Qwinn´s Ultimate DAO Fixpack v3 (no longer beta!)

[Qwinn]

Hi Aden: Yeah, that's why I'm giving it the Planescape treatment. I suspect version 3 will have several hundred bug fixes in total.

 

Now, I'm looking for opinions, as what I'm about to talk about may or may not be considered a "bug", but in my opinion really needs doing anyway.

 

There's tons of places in the game (at least 79, in fact) where one of your party members will say something pertinent to where you are or what you're doing. Now, for my testing purposes, to make sure all the proper party barks fire where they're supposed to and make sure none of them are broken, I'm going to extensively revise party_barks.dlg so that I *always* get a party bark at those locations, because quite frequently, you randomly don't! The way it's set up, in most party bark situations, each party member in your party has a 33% chance of giving their bark... but if they all fail that random check, you get nothing. I've rewritten it so if it fails all the checks on the first pass, it'll keep going and going doing it's 33% checks until at least one of the party barks gets delivered (assuming you HAVE a party, of course).

 

Now what I'm wondering is: should I make this a part of the fixpack? I'm inclined to say yes. Some of these barks are important - like, when you're first leaving Lothering, one of your party members SHOULD say "If we have anything left to do here, we should do it now, the Darkspawn are coming and this place won't be around much longer." That's pretty important information for a first time player that I don't think should be denied to them because the random number generator failed them. I know *I* didn't get that bark when I left Lothering during this playthrough (I've yet to determine if it was bugged or just unlucky).

 

So what do you guys think? Should that be a part of the Fixpack, a fix that you will no longer randomly fail to get warnings from your party at various locations around the game? Cause that's what it boils down to.

[AdenYeshua]

Easy fix if something is in the "grey area" label the folder as a (Tweak) much like some of the other mods. Giving the end user a choice in the matter. You could even go the extra mile and explain why you think the tweak is needed.

 

EDIT: My personal opinion - I want as much content as possible it kinda pisses me off if I fail some asinine random check somewhere. Especially when often times I don't know the requirement of that check.

Edited February 5, 2017 by AdenYeshua

[Qwinn]

Hmmm... it may actually not be possible. Realizing there's some logistical issues with my method under certain party conditions (for example, without me working around the problem, if you hit a party bark trigger with ONLY Dog in your party, the party barks dialogue would go into an infinite loop and probably crash the game).

 

The Secret Companion is another issue. He only has a handful of barks near the end of the game, but... remind me. Once you've acquired the Secret Companion during Landsmeet, is it possible to return to any of the previous main plot areas? As in Denerim, the Circle Tower, Brecilian Forest and so on? I don't recall if it's possible. If it's NOT possible, that would make this a lot more feasible for general release. Basically I'd run into the same issue as with Dog if you took him alone (or just with Dog) to a party bark trigger that was somehow not triggered previously in those areas.

 

EDIT: Actually, come to think of it, if I make this "must play bark" logic work ONLY if the party is a full 4 members, that would avoid 99% of the problems and I can deal with any exceptions case by case. That'll be enough to make it functional for me to test with, but an odd requirement like that probably takes it out of the "release as fix" category.

Edited February 5, 2017 by Qwinn

[AdenYeshua]

Could require the "Extra Dog Slot" mod as a requirement for that fix, not sure if the infinite loop would trigger if the summon slot was used.

[Qwinn]

Do still need to know if you can take the Secret Companion back to previous areas... if there are no more than 9 possible companions in most of these areas, instead of 10, that will allow me to apply the logic to more places.

[AdenYeshua]

I believe you can because even after you complete the game it lets you the game tells you to play the DLC. Sadly I'm not 100% he stays with. I don't have a late save file to test.

[Qwinn]

31) (v3.0) Restored party comments that were meant to play when you discovered the door blocked by the werewolves in the top level of the ruins. The comment will play when you click on the locked door.

 

And okay, thanks Aden. For now I'm just using it as a testing tool. I'll think about releasing it as optional, or a separate mod, when this is all over. That won't be for some time though so no need to decide now.

Edited February 5, 2017 by Qwinn

[AdenYeshua]

I dunno man I think you've already shattered the speed record with fixes. lol I've been around the DAO community a very long time and Ive never seen a pace like this. heh

[Qwinn]

And believe it or not, I have a job, and live with a girlfriend!

Neither of which was true back in the days of my PS:T mods or the early DA:O fixpack. I was doing this about 80 hours a week back then. Now I can get maybe 20 hours a week in. Still, yeah, the pace is going pretty well. Still probably won't be ready for a few months though, seems to be taking about 3 weeks per game area.

Edited February 5, 2017 by Qwinn

[AdenYeshua]

And believe it or not, I have a job, and live with a girlfriend!

 

Neither of which was true back in the days of my PS:T mods or the early DA:O fixpack. I was doing this about 80 hours a week back then. Now I can get maybe 20 hours a week in. Still, yeah, the pace is going pretty well. Still probably won't be ready for a few months though, seems to be taking about 3 weeks per game area.

 

Actually I don't believe it. LOL I kid. Yeah I'm really looking forward to this thank you! Whatever magic you've got going on I'd stick with it your pace is brisk.