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

[Qwinn]

I'll start putting together my notes on the changes I made to those, though I haven't gotten to the "lite_multi_gax" or Urn areas yet. If you'd like to tell me what you're actually fixing so I can also fix them, and it's not something I've already found out about, I'd be happy to extend credit for your making me aware of it in the readme. I'm guessing the gax one is to prevent the areas from being closed off if you still have other quests to do in that area - that one I'm already planning on when I get to Denerim. For the Urn, I know there's bugs there where party members can lose their equipment.

 

I noticed you're brave enough to touch player_core, btw. For anyone who's curious about this, be aware that I have studiously avoided making any changes to any of the _core files or the more widely used _h files. In fact, the only _h files I've touched so far are sys_treasure_h, lot_functions_h and arl_siege_h. Really though, the only time I've been *tempted* to change a core or _h include is for the staves-don't-scale bug. Other than that one, I've been able to make do with more localized changes.

Edited March 19, 2017 by Qwinn

[Qwinn]

1. (v3.0) It should no longer be possible to steal invisible plot items from your party members, anywhere. This includes the party camp, Arl Eamon's Estate during the Landsmeet, and anywhere else party members are accessible without currently being in your party.

 

(Which, of course, just to make a liar out of me in my last post, involves a change to an include - camp_functions_h.nss. Thankfully, like the others, only used in a handful of scripts.

Edited March 19, 2017 by Qwinn

[squareinc]

I'll start putting together my notes on the changes I made to those, though I haven't gotten to the "lite_multi_gax" or Urn areas yet. If you'd like to tell me what you're actually fixing so I can also fix them, and it's not something I've already found out about, I'd be happy to extend credit for your making me aware of it in the readme. I'm guessing the gax one is to prevent the areas from being closed off if you still have other quests to do in that area - that one I'm already planning on when I get to Denerim. For the Urn, I know there's bugs there where party members can lose their equipment.

 

I noticed you're brave enough to touch player_core, btw. For anyone who's curious about this, be aware that I have studiously avoided making any changes to any of the _core files or the more widely used _h files. In fact, the only _h files I've touched so far are sys_treasure_h, lot_functions_h and arl_siege_h. Really though, the only time I've been *tempted* to change a core or _h include is for the staves-don't-scale bug. Other than that one, I've been able to make do with more localized changes.

 

I can send you an in depth list of the changes I've made. Most of them are minor. The player_core is necessary for my soundset fix unfortunately. As such, I only touched the sys_soundset_h file. It was the only way to fix that issue (http://www.nexusmods.com/dragonage/mods/4492/?).

 

The others like the gax file is to prevent the area from closing as you've said. The Sten files are to add a tiny journal entry for his personal quest (since you don't get one after you speak with the merchant in Orzammar) and maybe to clean up some lingering quest arrows. The urn files are to remove the quest arrows from the innkeeper when doing the ashes quest. The dagna and her father's files are to fix that quest. It tweaks the father's dialogue so that it will better reflect what you've done (need to check my notes since i'm not too sure what it was in the first place) as well as fixes some minor dialogue bugs.

 

The other orzammar files fixes the potential bug you can run into if you end up working for both sides vying for the crown. It's mostly a minor dialogue tweak so that if you've double crossed one of them, you shouldnt be able to double cross the other (and then get stuck). I haven't tested this though so who knows if it works.

 

The nature of the beast files make the most subjective changes. Dragon Age in a sense, holds the player's hands. You should not ever be able to get stuck and have to start the game over. If you destroy all the werewolf pelts in the game and kill the Grand Oak, you're stuck. So I changed it. I made it so when the Grand Oak dies, you find a 'Great Werewolf Pelt' entangled amidst its roots. You save it for later. You get it as a plot item. This is the item the Hermit wants. Can't be dropped. Can't be destroyed.

 

Also, the expensive lyrium quest in Orzammar. I changed it so you can't exploit it. You can't just sell it and deliver it as well. It is now a plot item. If you kill the dwarf or fail the quest, it reverts back to a regular item that you can drop and sell so that you can make back your money. Once the quest is active and not failed though, it is a plot item.

 

Sorry for the rambling mess. I can send the files if need be. I don't have the source for all (maybe not most :sad: ) since I am not really a good modder. I just bang my head against these annoyances and get excited when I fix them and I forgot to save the important source files. I can send a more detailed explanation on these and if I forgot any, I can send those too. If you want, you can feel free to use anything I have, though I expect that my stuff is not up to par and you'd have something much better.

Edited March 19, 2017 by squareinc

[Qwinn]

Cool, thank you for the descriptions! Good stuff.

 

And WOW on that soundset bug. I hadn't noticed it yet, though I think Alistair just hit 100 and I would have soon. That's a big one. So big that yeah, I may have to touch player_core for that one. Thanks for making me aware of it, if I fix it, I'll definitely extend credit in the readme.

 

Also hadn't noticed that there was no journal entry for "The Sword of Beresaad" between Faryn and Dwyn. Nice catch. Will fix and extend credit.

 

This one I haven't gotten to yet, can't speak to it: "The urn files are to remove the quest arrows from the innkeeper when doing the ashes quest."

 

I haven't done the werewolf pelt plot item thing. Not sure if I like the solution, as it basically makes that stage of the hermit's quest automatic... he's sending you out for an item you already definitely have. If I were to try to solve that issue, what I'd probably do is, when you talk to the hermit after killing the oak, if all werewolves are dead, respawn one last set of werewolves somewhere on the map that you can kill for a pelt, and if the player somehow destroys *that* one as well, knowing he needs a pelt for the quest... well... I really can't be bothered to help them beyond that.

 

These have already been fixed in v3.0 of my fixpack:

 

Dagna and Janar

All mentioned bugs relating to the Orzammar contenders for the crown

All bugs related to Rogek, Godwin and Lyrium (I did it differently - you CAN sell it, but you can't give it to Godwin if you do, I also update the journal if it leaves your possession and reset it if you get it back, so if you sell it and then buy it back you can continue on the quest)

Edited March 19, 2017 by Qwinn

[Qwinn]

So I'm looking at Denerim now. I knew there'd be a TON of stuff to fix here - the only things I fixed in my first versions was restoring a reward to Honor Bound for the high persuade dialogue option, and a whole crapton of fixes to the Crime Wave quest line (which will take me a bit to reimplement, I think - I completely reworked the entire horribly broken Steal the Teyrn's Crown portion of the quest back in the day.)

 

But here's a cool find for The Trial of Crows quest... one reported bug is that there's no reward for the first part, killing Paedan at the Pearl. And it's true, there isn't, even though the journal and Ignacio's dialogue assures you that you were rewarded. Well, I found 4 unimplemented lines in rewards.xls that were definitely put there with the 4 stages of this quest in mind. They each have an experience reward and 6 gold. Now, I don't want to just implement those lines as is because that would give you the gold at the end of the dialogue where Ignacio is telling you to go look in the chest for your reward. What I'm going to do is modify those rewards so it's just the experience, awarded when talking to Ignacio, and then add the 6 gold to the chest at each stage so that the reward is actually *in* the chest as the dialogue dictates. That will boil down to this:

 

DENERIM:

 

9. (v3.0) "The Trial of Crows": Restored the experience and monetary rewards at each of the four stages of this quest. The reward amounts are in the rewards table, but not implemented - 50 xp awarded at each of the first 3 stages, 150 xp upon completing the entire chain, and 6 gold will be found in the chest upon completing each stage.

 

(Note: I haven't actually done this yet, so not sure if I'll run into any problems implementing it - I'll mention it if I do, of course - but the above is my intent.

Edited March 19, 2017 by Qwinn

[aeroldoth]

Some very minor suggestions

 

In the mage tower, there are numerous "soldier corpse" you can loot. They're obviously templars, and should be called "templar corpse".

 

In the "foyer" area of each map region, you have the option to switch party members. I know you had concerns with what to do in the mage tower, but it seems like the entry area where Gregoir hangs out (before the sealed doors) should also be a switchable area.

 

Are you able to adjust space between dialog lines in cutscenes? I just listened to this scene again, and while Anora talking over Howe in the first line is appropriate, Howe keeps talking for several seconds after she says "enough". The rest of lines seem poorly spaced, especially when she asks her father if he killed Cailan. Such a line needs more of a pause due to its gravitas. The whole scene either has lines that are too close or too far apart IMHO, which damages the potential emotional impact.

 

 

EDIT are you saying the four assassin quests are supposed to give 50/50/50/150 xp and 6/6/6/6 gold?

Edited March 19, 2017 by aeroldoth

[squareinc]

Cool, thank you for the descriptions! Good stuff.

 

And WOW on that soundset bug. I hadn't noticed it yet, though I think Alistair just hit 100 and I would have soon. That's a big one. So big that yeah, I may have to touch player_core for that one. Thanks for making me aware of it, if I fix it, I'll definitely extend credit in the readme.

 

Also hadn't noticed that there was no journal entry for "The Sword of Beresaad" between Faryn and Dwyn. Nice catch. Will fix and extend credit.

 

This one I haven't gotten to yet, can't speak to it: "The urn files are to remove the quest arrows from the innkeeper when doing the ashes quest."

 

I haven't done the werewolf pelt plot item thing. Not sure if I like the solution, as it basically makes that stage of the hermit's quest automatic... he's sending you out for an item you already definitely have. If I were to try to solve that issue, what I'd probably do is, when you talk to the hermit after killing the oak, if all werewolves are dead, respawn one last set of werewolves somewhere on the map that you can kill for a pelt, and if the player somehow destroys *that* one as well, knowing he needs a pelt for the quest... well... I really can't be bothered to help them beyond that.

 

These have already been fixed in v3.0 of my fixpack:

 

Dagna and Janar

All mentioned bugs relating to the Orzammar contenders for the crown

All bugs related to Rogek, Godwin and Lyrium (I did it differently - you CAN sell it, but you can't give it to Godwin if you do, I also update the journal if it leaves your possession and reset it if you get it back, so if you sell it and then buy it back you can continue on the quest)

 

 

Wow you've done a lot already! The urn quest is concerning the quest arrow remaining at the Spoiled Princess if you don't get ambushed (you find the diary in Denerim and it opens up the Hidden Village). I like your suggestions concerning the lyrium quest. My solution was chosen because I couldn't get the journal to update so yours is better (it's perfect since you can sell the lyrium and buy it back etc).

 

Concerning the Nature of the Beast, I like your solution. I actually was trying to spawn a werewolf mob, but again I couldn't get it to work so I had to choose a compromise. The only suggestion I would make is that I still don't like the thought of all the pelts being destroyed even if the player has warning (this is just my mental illness showing though and your reasoning is sound). I would still prefer a way to make the pelts at least temporarily indestructible, or something like that. My reasoning was that if you sided with the Oak, the acorn you get is a plot item. Since you only got the 'Great Werewolf Pelt' in my version when you kill the Grand Oak, it was almost as fair as siding with the Oak. I like your idea of spawning one more mob though. I would just ask that one pelt be 'special' or something.

 

For the soundset bug, that made me stop playing for weeks. I had to fix it. The source code is in the sys_soundset_h.nss that is included in the download so you can check it out. It isn't a pretty or efficient fix, but it works flawless and after many hours that was good enough for me. I will check my notes and send any other stuff I did tomorrow or so. If you would like the files or any of my surviving sources, let me know. I'm glad you're including some of these fixes in your fixpack. I use the old version of your fixpack and when I saw it was being updated I was worried how I would update and keep my fixes. Incorporating the fixes takes a load of my mind.

 

PS

One other file that I changed was the Orzammar constants file and the ntb_constants or some similar file. This was to add the plot version of the werewolf pelt and to add the plot version of the raw lyrium.. If I think of any other changes I'll let you know.

[Qwinn]

squareinc: On the soundset thing, yeah, as soon as you told me you were looking at sys_soundset_h.nss, I found the faulty bit of code. Just downloaded your script, and there's nothing wrong with the way you fixed it, it's how I would have as well. One interesting thing is that, having found where those soundset constants are set in 2da_constants_h.nss, there's one that isn't implemented:

 

const int SS_EXPLORE_SELECT_HATE = 38;

 

 

When I do the fix, I'm going to set it to just play that soundset, and see if they're all there for every party member and see if there's any reason they shouldn't be implemented. If it all looks okay, might make them work as a fix as well.

 

Incidentally, though - I don't think this bug would be triggered only at approval 100. It should be triggered for any follower whose personal quest you have completed and with whom you have approval 76+. That's why I haven't seen it this run through... I've postponed doing any of the romanceable character's personal quests till just before the landsmeet, so I won't have to rerun through everything if I need to test stuff in the endgame both with and without their personal quests complete.

Edited March 20, 2017 by Qwinn

[Qwinn]

For the werewolf pelt thing, what I think I'll do is make the first werewolf pelt the player ever acquires a plot item, use it if necessary, and otherwise turn it back into a sellable wolf pelt after the barrier is crossed.

[Qwinn]

Aeroldoth: To your edit, my answer is yes.

 

I don't have a problem with the cutscene you linked to. Howe only says a couple of words after Anora's "Enough!", and I actually like how she threw in her question about killing Cailin.

 

And as for the mage tower party picker idea, it was to my deep annoyance that I discovered you can switch the party in the room you pick Wynne up in as well, and even switch Wynne out of the party there. Close enough to the foyer, albeit on the wrong bloody side of the doors for my taste. I so wish I had anything to point me to a belief that that, or the area on the 4th floor, weren't intended, cause it sure makes no sense.

Edited March 20, 2017 by Qwinn