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

[Qwinn]

Thank you! And speaking of barks...

 

127. (v3.0) "The Final Battle": Restored party commentary in the Fort Drakon exterior area, just before entering the large double doors into the Fort itself.

 

Looking through party_barks.dlg, I'm seeing a handful of other barks I don't remember hearing. Thankfully I have saves everywhere. Going to see if there's a few more I can restore.

 

EDIT: Yep.

 

30. (v3.0) Restored party commentary in the center of Haven village.

 

 

For the Fort Drakon Exterior one, the area file was just missing the trigger altogether. Nothing odd about that.

 

The second one is weird, though. The trigger is there in Haven, but I couldn't freaking get it to work, no matter what I tried. Until I went into the party_barks dialogue and set the bark in question to not be "Only show line once per game". Then suddenly, it played fine. That's really weird - where else could that line have played before I got to Haven that I wouldn't have noticed it? The barks are along the lines of "What's this village doing way out here? Never even heard of it." The only other area I can think of where that line might play without seeming totally out of place would be - Honnleath? But I tried loading a game where I was at the entrance of Honnleath and ran around without hearing it, so unless that line triggers when you first load the area, doesn't seem that's what happened. Very strange. And annoyingly can't just look at the Honnleath area file cause it's DLC. At any rate, I can make it work by making it a normal line (meaning, can play more than once) that just unsets the variable after the line is spoken. Seems to work okay, and wouldn't disable the line if it's actually being deliberately used somewhere else.

 

EDIT 2: I just thought of a way I can test where this variable may have been set before - but it's going to potentially take a while, and I need some sleep. 4am here. G'nite folks.

Edited May 25, 2017 by Qwinn

[Qwinn]

Found it! And really glad I took the time to look, too! The Haven party bark was actually playing in Ortan Thaig, not far from where you first see Ruck! Of course, down there, quips about "what a lovely village" just sound like sarcasm, lol - at least, I can see why I didn't see anything wrong with the party I had down there. So ...

 

Orzammar:

 

104. (v3.0) If you went to Ortan Thaig in the Deep Roads before visiting Haven, the party commentary that was meant to play in the center of Haven instead played in the middle of Ortan Thaig (about where you first spot Ruck) instead of the intended party comments, and you would get no comment in Haven. If you went to Haven first, the Haven comments would play correctly but you'd hear nothing at all at the proper spot in Ortan Thaig. This fix restores the proper party comments in Ortan Thaig - and, I must say - YOU HAVE NEVER PLAYED DRAGON AGE until you hear Oghren's comment there.

 

Urn of Sacred Ashes:

 

31. (v3.0) Party comments by Leliana and Shale in the Wyrmling Caverns have been disabled because they make references to lava that doesn't exist anywhere in the area. Also, the trigger has been moved so that Zevran's comment that you haven't met the leader of the cultists yet can no longer be false.

Edited May 26, 2017 by Qwinn

[Qwinn]

Well, slightly bad news. I previously said I restored a couple of Hespith's poem lines as you approach her in the Dead Trenches, but nope, can't be done. The way it is was done deliberately, because sadly the hallway leading to her just isn't long enough to accommodate all 10 lines of the chant. If you run as fast as you can through the tunnel, there's JUST enough time for her to get what lines she's coded to say out (all but lines 3 and 4, actually) without their overlapping one another. So, that fix is retracted. She'll still say all 10 lines when you actually get to her.

 

On the other hand, I *think* I can restore a party comment that should play immediately after Hespith runs away when you meet her. There's actually a number of other unused party comments meant to play in the Dead Trenches, but unfortunately there's no good place for them as the things they refer to (piles of darkspawn bodies as Legion fight in the background, etc.) didn't make the final cut of the game. (EDIT: One exception - found one that can be restored, and did so, see next post.)

 

One thing I am thinking of doing - in a bunch of the Deep Roads party barks, if Oghren is in the party, it's always his that plays and no one else's - he preempts everyone. In a couple of them the scripting comments say that that wasn't supposed to be the case - that they should be random like everyone else's. It's quite possible they changed their minds and wanted his to preempt everyone's though. Given the competing evidence of intent, I am debating whether, *just in this case*, I can implement the "multiple barks" bit where, if Oghren is there, his line will play, but then one other companion's bark gets to play, so that you don't *have* to leave Oghren behind if you want to hear anyone else's barks. Haven't decided I'm going to do that yet, it reaaaaally skirts the line of what I can call a bug... but there's a restoration aspect to it too (IMHO Oghren gets way too much content that it'd be almost irrational to not take him all the way through the Deep Roads, especially after the ton of content I've restored for him there, which basically makes the other follower barks practically inaccessible if not technically inacessible, hence the restoration angle...)... so I'm going to let that possibility bake in my head overnight and make a decision tomorrow. Any input on that is welcome.

Edited May 26, 2017 by Qwinn

[Qwinn]

Orzammar:

 

105. (v3.0) Restored party commentary after dialogue with Hespith.

 

(That is another one where Oghren overrides everyone else).

 

106. (v3.0) Restored party commentary about the Deep Roads, added near the entrance in Aeducan Thaig.

 

107. (v3.0) Restored party commentary about the Dead Trenches, in the tunnel after the bridge.

 

(That one, Oghren doesn't override everyone else.)

 

 

That's about all I can do for restoring or fixing party barks/commentary. There's a handful of other unused barks (particularly re: Hespith and Branka), but for one reason or another I either found the lines to be inconsistent with the game as it finally shipped (I get a strong feeling siding with Branka wasn't always going to be an option), or the only logical place to put them is already too cluttered with party banter triggers, combats, and other things that would interfere with them. The ones I did restore seem perfectly consistent with the rest of the game, and I couldn't find any reason they shouldn't be restored.

Edited May 26, 2017 by Qwinn

[shades01]

Excellent work on those barks. One other thing is bugging me (and the game obviously), when you take several board quest (and complete them), you get reward for only one of those upon return. First time this occurs in Lothering (Chantry quest board). Is this fixable?

Edited May 26, 2017 by shades01

[Qwinn]

You actually got all the rewards (except for one very special case), it's just that the on-screen message only showed one reward. But if you looked at your money, all rewards were awarded. I did already fix the notification issue by making it so that you only get one reward and one quest closure each time you speak to the board contact. The quest marker will remain over the contact's head until all quests you can complete are turned in.

 

But now that you mention it, I'm not sure if I took care of the Lothering chanter. His script is not the same as the other chanters, I don't think. I'll double check tonight. The fix was applied and tested to the other chanters, the mage collective and the blackstone irregulars. I couldn't apply it to the rogue board ("Favors for Interested Parties") in Denerim because of the way the final steps of the two main quest chains are mutually exclusive and the rest are sequential.

Edited May 26, 2017 by Qwinn

[Totalbalance]

So...I tried to replicate a bug related to Oghren's crisis conversation (-100 approval) that I saw online, and ended up going through them all. So much yelling...

 

Here's what I found:

Oghren:

• If you tell him to leave when he confronts you he will simply blip out of existence.
• Same thing happens if you fight and choose to kill him. Choosing “No Oghren, I’m done with you (Kill him)” - poof and he’s gone.
• Also, for some reason the dialogue after the fight doesn’t trigger automatically - I had to click on him again to trigger it.
• Finally, unlike all the other companions (that I tried) if you talk to him directly after convincing him to stay he will attempt to leave again. The others you can still talk to until next time you return to camp.

Zevran:

• For some reason, only Zevran’s crisis conversation can be triggered anywhere instead of in camp. Intentional? I have no idea.
• His codex entry doesn’t update after you kill him.

Leliana:

• She doesn’t actually leave the party after the conversation. (Actually, I think you maybe already got this one? Whatever, I’ll mention it just in case)

Wynne:

• Just a tiny one: If Wynne is hostile the camera will be zoomed in on her face when she says “What do you want from me?”. Very minor, I know, but it looks really off and out of place.

And some other stuff I remembered:

• I haven’t actually tried this out in the game, but I’ve heard that the conversation you have with Wynne about your relationship with Zevran will act like you are sleeping with him even if you’re not. You can romance Zevran without sleeping with him, but I’m pretty sure Wynne will always bring up the the fact that the rest of the camp “haven't been getting any sleep” and so forth. Not sure if there’s a way to solve it, but there you go.

• Another minor restoration I remembered: When you meet a blighted Tamlen your companions have reactions to seeing him. But since you’re in camp means no party, and no party means no companion interjections.

 

• Improved Atmosphere fixed something related to the elf Gheyna, who would sometimes stand in the middle of a bench instead of sitting down on it. I believe there are also some similar issues with other elves in the camp sitting in mid air.

[Qwinn]

Great stuff TotalBalance!

 

I haven’t actually tried this out in the game, but I’ve heard that the conversation you have with Wynne about your relationship with Zevran will act like you are sleeping with him even if you’re not. You can romance Zevran without sleeping with him, but I’m pretty sure Wynne will always bring up the the fact that the rest of the camp “haven't been getting any sleep” and so forth. Not sure if there’s a way to solve it, but there you go.

 

5. (v3.0) When Wynne discusses your relationship with Zevran with you, she will no longer claim you're keeping everyone up at night having sex if you never actually slept with him. Thanks to TotalBalance of the Nexus Forums for alerting me to this one.

 

Leliana:

• She doesn’t actually leave the party after the conversation. (Actually, I think you maybe already got this one? Whatever, I’ll mention it just in case)

Yep, this was already taken care of, no worries though, letting me know "just in case" is good!

 

Another minor restoration I remembered: When you meet a blighted tamlen your companions has reactions to seeing him. But since you’re in camp means no party, and no party means no companion interjections.

Oooh, good one. Took a fair amount of work, not as simple as changing the condition on the dialogue lines, just doing that resulted in cameras showing "under the world" views during the party dialogue. Had to do a bunch of stage and camera settings, but those seem to work at least as solidly as it does in vanilla now. It *might* not work if Alistair isn't recruited at that point, but I am fairly certain that's not possible at this point in the game (which means you'll never see Leliana, Shale, Zevran or Sten's lines, as Alistair should always preempt theirs - which is actually good, cause I'd have had to create an entire and massive new stage in the party camp area to make THAT work.).

 

Sidequests/Other section:

 

27. (v3.0) During the party camp shriek ambush, party comments have been restored to the additional dialogue that only plays for Dalish elves. Thanks to TotalBalance on the Nexus forums for making me aware of this one.

 

28. (v3.0) The "Tormented Shriek" in the party camp shriek ambush has been renamed to "Tormented Ghoul".

 

Zevran:

• For some reason, only Zevran’s crisis conversation can be triggered anywhere instead of in camp. Intentional? I have no idea.

Can't find evidence that it *isn't* intentional. "Fixing" it would require massive dialogue surgery (moving a huge chunk of dialogue from one dialogue file to another, re-attaching all the sound files to the dialogue lines in that dialogue, etc. etc.) that I'm not prepared to make without a *really* compelling reason to do so, and I'm not seeing one here yet.

 

His codex entry doesn’t update after you kill him.

Ewww. VERY tricky. Actually, really easy if I could set the codex entry the moment he goes hostile, but kinda sloppy to have that codex notification pop up before he's actually dead. I might have a way to not have the codex update till he actually dies. Will work on it. (As a curious side note, the proper codex entry for this event, COD_CHA_ZEVRAN_KILLED_AFTER_HIRING, has this comment: "NOT ADDED CNM: not applicable. Zevran is only killed by the PC at the beginning, or when he betrays them to the Crows." Plans change, I guess.)

 

Oghren:

• If you tell him to leave when he confronts you he will simply blip out of existence.

• Same thing happens if you fight and choose to kill him. Choosing “No Oghren, I’m done with you (Kill him)” - poof and he’s gone.

Took a bit but I think I've figured out how I can resolve these. Will let you know. Unfortunately may result in the same codex-not-updating issue as Zevran if I change it so you have to actually kill him in combat.

• Also, for some reason the dialogue after the fight doesn’t trigger automatically - I had to click on him again to trigger it.

This one I think I can do something about. Will work on it.

• Finally, unlike all the other companions (that I tried) if you talk to him directly after convincing him to stay he will attempt to leave again. The others you can still talk to until next time you return to camp.

I think I know what's causing this too, and I think it's just a straight out bug (the scripting comments do call for what I think should happen). Will work on it as well.

 

Improved Atmosphere fixed something related to the elf Gheyna, who would sometimes stand in the middle of a bench instead of sitting down on it. I believe there are also some similar issues with other elves in the camp sitting in mid air.

 

Sigh. Yeah, I worked on Gheyna for a while (bow chicka bow wow!) but no dice in fixing her. In fact the stage work for a couple of the endings of that quest is absolutely terrible, but at that point I was sick of the Brecilian Forest and wanted to move on rather than get into a bunch of stage and cutscene work (and there's really no other place I can think of where I just got lazy and moved on). I'll give it a little more work, but I really don't want to hold up release very long for just this one. Frankly, ambient glitches like that are not all that uncommon, and reloading usually fixes them - I've had soldiers in Ostagar buried up to their waists on a few occasions after marching around for a while, but it's the ambient mechanics that can cause that to happen, and it seems more of an engine bug than anything. Still, if IA fixed it successfully... I'll see what I can do (quickly).

 

More to come... I'm going to work on this project for the next 3 days. That's gonna be my Memorial Day weekend. Thank God I have such an understanding and awesome girlfriend who puts up with me.

Edited May 27, 2017 by Qwinn

[Thandal]

<snip>

Thank God I have such an understanding and awesome girlfriend who puts up with me.

 

Aaaaaay-MEN! :thumbsup:

[Qwinn]

I got a few things done and will post them soon, but I need to gripe first:

 

In working Zevran, I noted that Taliesen's dialogue is set up such that the encounter would work even if you killed or never recruited Zevran. Taliesen *should* show up no matter what, and if you killed Zevran, it's a revenge for killing his friend attack. But in testing, I found that if Zevran isn't recruited for whatever reason, Taliesen doesn't show up anymore. The wiki confirms that Zevran has to be recruited for Taliesen to show up.

 

I'd love to restore his revenge attack - but for the LIFE of me, I *cannot* find where the conditions for that encounter (or most other Denerim map random encounters, for that matter) are determined. I know where all the conditions for all the world map random encounters are, and random_encounters.xls does have a sheet with 4 of the Denerim map encounters, but the Taliesen encounter and a few other random Denerim map encounters are frikkin' nowhere to be found. NOWHERE. I've already spent over 2 hours looking. Sigh.

 

EDIT: Woohoo! Found it! I'm gonna see if I can restore the Taliesen attack if Zevran was not recruited, or was killed.

Edited May 27, 2017 by Qwinn