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

[aeroldoth]

Here's a small request. When you look at mage staves, they don't tell you what damage type they use. Neither the item description nor equipping them tells you anything, you have to wait for combat and then equip and use them to find out. I think it would be helpful if something in their description simply said "nature damage" or "cold damage".

 

I like to keep a few staves on hand to change damage types against different opponents, and it's a pain to have to keep a written list of what type each staff does.

[Qwinn]

Aeroldoth - that's actually a neat idea. I know I would like to play with it. Very sadly, I have to say it wouldn't count as a bugfix. I might be interested in making a tweak as a separate mod that would be compatible with my fixpack that does it, if I could figure out *how*. Maybe adding +0 of its damage type?

 

Either way, I'm not working on that until v3.0 is released. Cool idea though.

[Enkida]

Here's a small request. When you look at mage staves, they don't tell you what damage type they use. Neither the item description nor equipping them tells you anything, you have to wait for combat and then equip and use them to find out. I think it would be helpful if something in their description simply said "nature damage" or "cold damage".

 

I like to keep a few staves on hand to change damage types against different opponents, and it's a pain to have to keep a written list of what type each staff does.

 

Not sure how helpful this is as I haven't looked and seen if it lists it on the staves, but Dainbramage's "More Detailed Tooltips" might do that for you already.

[theskymoves]

post deleted

Edited May 18, 2017 by theskymoves

[Qwinn]

Wow. I had no idea how utterly schizophrenic Alistair is during the Landsmeet if he's hardened. One second - yes, absolutely, I want to be king! The next, no, hell no, I don't want it!

 

And unfortunately, there's not a lot of *good* options for fixing it. A bunch of options that *should* have a hardened response only have a "if Anora betrayed you during the Landsmeet and you lost it" response and a non-hardened response. I think I'm mostly going to have to wind up putting checks to block asking Alistair those certain questions if he's hardened and a bunch of other conditions are met, just to weed out the cringy not-hardened "Please don't make me king!" lines right in the middle of a bunch of "Yes, make me king, rawr" lines.

 

That's going to take some work. Will keep you updated on how it goes.

 

One possible nice thing, though - I *think* I've found a much better, longer and more detailed ending sequence to the Landsmeet if Alistair and Anora are getting married than the one that I've been getting in game. I see the much longer ending in there, I just haven't seen what, if anything, can make it trigger yet.

Edited May 19, 2017 by Qwinn

[Qwinn]

Okay, it's not as bad as I thought. There's just one really problematic option - when talking with Alistair during the Landsmeet, if you ask "Should I choose Anora?", even if he's been hardened he'll say "She seems to want it, anyway, and I know I don't. So... yes? Maybe? I don't know.". That contradicts everything else he says in the conversation, so yeah, I'll be blocking that question if he's been hardened.

 

As for the alternate ending I mentioned - it's odd. If Loghain was executed and Alistair and Anora get married, Alistair's response sounds really not-hardened (whether he's been hardened or not):

 

"But I... I mean... I-I did swear an oath. What I mean is, I'm-I'm all for founding a new line of kings, but... well, there's the Blight..."

 

At which point Anora butts in and says Alistair will go with you to face the Blight, and he says "Uh, yes. That.". It's pretty lame. She walks all over him. Then as soon as the Landsmeet's done, he'll be in Arl Eamon's Estate telling you how he won't let her walk all over him, he's a changed man now!

 

On the other hand, if Alsitair is *sole* king, he'll say this instead of "but but but Blight!":

 

"I may be Maric's son, but I am also a Grey Warden. I took an oath: I swore I would stand and fight the darkspawn, no matter the cost to myself. I can't break that oath just to wear the crown. I have to go with my fellow Warden to face the Blight."

 

And following this, the conversation is actually already perfectly routed to dealing with whether Alistair is marrying Anora. If he is, she'll say "Until then, I shall stay in Denerim and rule in my husband's absence", etc.

 

I'm so tempted to make him deliver the "I may be Maric's son" bit if he's hardened, instead of the very un-King like "but but but Blight!" bit you always get. The latter just seems very out of hardened Alistair's character, especially letting Anora walk all over him in that conversation. It would only take a single re-route of the conversation if he's hardened at one point, and everything else would play out correctly. What do you all think? Does it seem out of character enough that I should fix it? It was jarring enough to bug me, and there's a suitable alternative.

Edited May 19, 2017 by Qwinn

[Thandal]

Yes! Fix that whinging Alistair. I really hate it when I go to all the effort to Harden him only to have him be a wimp 50% of the time anyway.

[Qwinn]

One thing that makes me think that may actually have been intended at one point is that Anora is actually placed in the stage when he delivers his "I may be Maric's son" line, even though the only path that actually gets you there has her already imprisoned (she doesn't actually show up because she's been deactivated in the only route that gets you there, but the stage is set up as if she *could* be there... and the only way that could be is if they are getting married).

 

I think the reason it may have wound up the way it did is because at the last minute they decided the "but but but Blight!" line needed to branch a different way if you didn't kill Loghain, and they may just not have had a "Loghain dead and Alistair hardened" condition ready to go to make it branch properly. I will experiment and give what I'm contemplating a shot, and see if it all plays out smoothly. If other problems come up, that'd be a sign that I'm evaluating that incorrectly.

Edited May 19, 2017 by Qwinn

[Qwinn]

One sad thing is that there is a whinging Alistair bit that I don't see how I can fix. Check out this sequence. Right after killing Loghain:

 

Eamon: "So it is decided. Alistair will take his father's throne."

 

Alistair, IF he meets a condition called ALISTAIR_WILL_TAKE_THRONE_WITHOUT_PLAYER_APPROVAL, which is if he's hardened, if he is the one who killed Loghain, and he doesn't want to marry the player and didn't agree to marry Anora, then he takes the throne immediately, without your having a say. "I accept this decision. I will be king, if the Landsmeet will have me."

 

Now, if that check fails, there's actually another line where he takes the throne unequivocally (and sounds non-hardened), but it never plays because the condition is that he's *already* been made sole king, and nothing does that up to that point that I can find. "Sigh. I have a recurring nightmare that sounds just like this... all right, yes. I guess it's decided, then.".

 

Both those options lead to imprisoning Anora (though the second one, as I said, never actually plays - I have to assume it was deliberately disabled, and even if I thought otherwise, I have no idea what the conditions for it *should* have been, there's no hints anywhere.).

 

But what you wind up getting in every other circumstance, hardened or not, is:

 

Alistair: "Wait, what? No! When did this get decided? Nobody's decided that, have they?"

 

Which leads to Anora saying either "So much for our plan to rule together. If Alistair would rather not have the throne, I am more than willing to take it.", or if you didn't arrange their marriage, "He refuses the throne. Everyone here has heard him. I think it's clear then, that he abdicates in favor of me."

 

Then Eamon steps in and has you mediate... "I hardly think you're the appropriate person to mediate this, Anora. Warden, will you help us?"

 

At which point Hardened Alistair is quite positive he wants to be king.

 

It sucks, but I don't think there's anything I can do about this. It's clear that it does need to be possible for you to mediate a hardened Alistair's claim to the throne, and that a hardened Alistair *can* marry Anora... but there's no line leading into the mediation where those outcomes are possible that doesn't sound like he clearly doesn't really want it. I'll keep looking, but that bit of wimpy Alistair - along with Anora calling him out as a wimp - may not be removable.

 

EDIT: Yeah, I looked everywhere for some line by Anora where she argues against Alistair taking the throne, that I could maybe insert after any hardened Alistair saying he accepts the throne, so that Eamon could interject with his "I hardly think you're the appropriate person to mediate this, Anora". But I can't find anything, not even something I could adequately assemble using Audacity. The only lines she has along those lines are her "Look, he abdicated to me!" lines. Bleah!

 

EDIT2: Oooh, wait! I think I found a way! If - and only if - you let Loghain live, Anora does have a line "I'm afraid it's not as simple as that, Alistair." (which leads to her executing/exiling him). That might actually be perfect, since it's mutually exclusive with the whole Loghain dead mediation thing, so you wouldn't hear that line twice. Here's what I'm proposing:

 

Eamon: "So it is decided. Alistair will take his father's throne." leads to these 3 possibilities, in order:

 

1. ALISTAIR_WILL_TAKE_THE_THRONE_WITHOUT_PLAYER_APPROVAL: Unchanged, leads to Anora's imprisonment. "I accept this decision. I will be king, if the Landsmeet will have me.", followed by Eamon saying "Anora, the Landsmeet has ruled against you,".

 

2. Hardened Alistair: "I accept this decision. I will be king, if the Landsmeet will have me.", BUT, instead of Eamon speaking, Anora says "I'm afraid it's not as simple as that, Alistair", followed by Eamon saying ""I hardly think you're the appropriate person to mediate this, Anora. Warden, will you help us?"

 

3. Non-Hardened Alistair: "Wait, what? No! When did this get decided? Nobody's decided that, have they?", followed by Anora's "See, he abdicated!" lines.

 

Whatcha all think? It will take some serious work on my part, but I think it'd be worth it to make hardened Alistair fully non-schizophrenic.

Edited May 19, 2017 by Qwinn

[Enkida]

Man, I think following is thread is going to spoil my current playthrough with alistair. Do they have spoiler tags in this forum? We might want to start using them.

 

Anyway re all questions, a more consistent Alistair is always my choice, although this is really convincing me that those Alistair romance extension mods that also fix dialogue on the side really are essential bugfixes ATM.