NS4 Change Log

[Flailer]

Some updates today:

- Subrace SR decreased to level + 5. We felt this was a more balanced amount.
- Implemented manual method for mobs to use correct SR penetration for spells. Toolset has a limitation for spells cast as Special Abilities to be cast as a level 15 caster, maximum. Some code is now being used to handle this correctly, taking into account the actual level of the caster. Examples of it's use on current mobs are some of the dragons, Col'Grim, Unknown Evil, etc. You will still get a message 'Spell resisted' but then if the SR is handled after that correctly, you'll get the message 'The might of this creature overcomes your spell resistance'.
- Drow/duergar can be blinded by bright lights from spells. You'll get a blinded/dazed effect for two rounds and a temporary reduction in spot, AB, AC for a few rounds afterwards from the spells flare, fireball, delayed blast fireball, searing light, firestorm, flamestrike, sunbeam, and sunburst. This effect can only happen once a minute at the most (prevents spamming bright spells on drow). This effect is separate from spell resistance - you can resist a fireball, but there is no save from the blinding effect.

We're also currently trying to track down a problem with some creature spawns. If you find some spawn errors, please let us know.

[Metis]

Double-sided weapons and 2 handed weapons have been updated.

Added massive criticals to Doubl-sided and 2 handed crafted weapons.

I will post the specifics in general forum so our hard working wiki people can transfer them over.

[Flailer]

Some updates to what's allowed in the factions today:

The Circle:
- New Cleric domains added to the existing Plant and Animal domains[Allowed new domains are: Air, Earth, Fire, Water, Healing, Protection, Sun, Destruction]
- Monk will now be an allowed class in TC.
- Fighter also allowed in TC

Mystral Ascendancy:
- Cleric domains added to the current Magic and Trickery domains: Death, Evil, Knowledge, and War.

Northern Coalition:
- Ranger now allowed (makes sense with all the territory they need to protect and with their alliance with The Circle)

Ragnar's Kin:
- Gnomes now allowed in RK (the opening cutscene and dialogs haven't been altered to reflect that yet, but we'll get to that soon)

[shield]

A new drop system has been release. The main benefit being that it's allows new items to be added a lot easier, but here are a few other new things it brings:

* Small chance of dyes dropping
* Ammo drops are more frequent
* Small chance of artifacts dropping.....

I'll probably be fine tuning it for a little while, but have fun anyway.....

Shield.

[Flailer]

Merchant going into Frostdale today.

He only sells throwing weapons and ammo (at the same level as Avendell), but the good thing is he's a rich mercantilist who's interested in bringing goods back to the mainland of Aetheria.

You can sell and identify higher level items at this merchant than the one in Avendell.

[Metis]

Some tweaks to ice giants. Amazons will be reacting better to darkness.

[Flailer]

Minimum Level Requirements now in:

Based on Zing's brilliant code that was published a while ago, but altered slightly to allow some additional flexibility in builds.

For characters that existed in the database before this update:
• 5 level minimum requirement for the classes of Paladin, Monk and all Prestige Classes.
• This requirement isn't enforced until the end of your build, before you reach level 40.

Example:
• Your PC is currently a 29 Rogue/1 Shadowdancer. Before you reach level 40, you'll be required to take 4 more levels of Shadowdancer.

For characters created from this point forward:
• The above requirements *plus*
• You also have a 5 level minimum for any class added or added to after level 20 that doesn't have at least 5 levels.
• Classes that are added before level 20 that are below 5 levels are acceptable.

Examples:
• You start off by taking 3 levels of Wizard to qualify for Palemaster. You're allowed to go all the way to level 40 without taking any more classes in Wizard if you wish. However, if you add any more levels of wizard post level 20, you must take an additional level to round out your Wiz levels to a total of 5.

• You start off by taking 2 levels of Bard and the rest Fighter, all the way to level 40: no restrictions on that, 2 Bard/38 Fighter. However, if you take 20 levels of Fighter and then take 2 levels of Bard, you'll be required to take 3 extra levels of Bard before you reach level 40 and your build will end up being 35 Fighter/5 Bard.

• You start building a Monk/Rogue/Shadowdancer, a mix of all before level 20. You'll be required to end up with 5 levels of Monk and 5 levels of Shadowdancer.

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The 5 level minimum requirements for Monk, Paladin, and Prestige classes are to prevent just 1 level to be taken in those classes to reap the benefits without the commitment.

The additional complexity thrown in is the alternative to a flat 5 level minimum. This system was designed to give flexibility to builds that require an earlier combination of classes to do so without having to take the full 5 levels.

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Other changes:
* Meteor Storm changed by Lokey to have a new effect.
* Dialog for RK intro and cutscene altered to reflect admission of Gnomes.

In addition, reports of instability in the fabric of Aetheria have been reported. Please be on your guard....

[Flailer]

First four planar areas released

The first (of many) planar areas go in today. Fire, Air, and Earth planes as well as Dwarf Home. Each of these planes has two entrances - one found in a faction city rift portal and another...somewhere else.

The rift portals found in the faction cities are only usable by the faction that contains it. The other entrance is open to all factions and will either be found in that faction's territory or in a 'logical' place for the faction.

You must be level 21 or above to enter the planes.

Some stats about the areas released:
60 new creatures, CR 27-33 (bosses around mid-40's)
33 new areas (comparable to Sunken Ilse, Frostdale, and Amazons combined)
65 new droppable items, from 21-30 min level requirement

Updated Content:
- Includes a visual effects system that can dish out constant damage in the planes.
- New visual effects for spawned creatures including death effects
- Custom auras for new monsters
- Stealth AI added for HiPSing creatures
- New portal system that can restrict entry based on level and faction

Credits:
Just wanted to take a moment to give credit to those that went before me who originally developed these planes. DeputyDog, Lokey, Joran (and other old guards) did these maps and some of the initial creature designs a while ago. Hat's off to them for their vision, creativity, and work. With the help of the rest of the current dev team, we redid the mobs, some aspects of the maps, and new scripting support.

Have fun!

[Flailer]

Some updates and tweaks today:

• Air, Fire, and Earth Guardians had their offense boosted a bit, but defense lowered a bit. Being the same CR as Lord Col'Grim, use him as a benchmark.
• Alzaara drops an item now. She has a somewhat more interesting aura however...
• More mob tweaking in general
• Zing adjusted the properties on Solor
• Greater Restore now acts more like a beefier Heal spell with full effect curing rather than a guaranteed heal all hitpoints spell. As an aside, it can also be boosted by maximizing, empowering, and focus in the Healing Domain.

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There was an issue with the items database not loading properly, so some additional changes have been backed out until that can be addressed.

[Lokey]

I ended my NWN vacation recently, and threw in some things from the "it's so simple, why didn't I ever get around to it" pile. Let us know what kind of functions should be added to the Diary item, I started with some standard stuff and some tedium savers (heh besides the planned functions for it, sigh). Dice roller is party visible only (add that to conversation eventually), craps and do-it-yourself-Yahtzee/Crowns is all you get unless someone really feels the need to make Blackjack or Holdem (Edit: forgot that gods always roll 20, 7 the hard way or 5 sixes--but that would take actual thought to do.)

[Flailer]

Updates today:
• Tweaking of more planar mobs
• Dwarf Home weapons that weren't keen should be now - let me know if any were missed.
• Drow should no longer be blinded when they cast their own flamestrike.

Changes to item loss on faction raiding:
You no longer automatically lose an item when killed by an enemy in their home territory. You will now lose gold (between 0 and 30k in the worse case scenario, depending on how far apart in levels the two PCs involved are). If you don't have enough gold, you'll lose an item from your inventory just like it's been. This was done to make faction raiding slightly less painful.

[Netrom.dk]

- Fixed the monk speed stacking with LA messenger token

- Lokey added some functions to the diary.

[Lokey]

Healing spell rework. First the chart:

Code: Select all

             Amount healed/damage
Spell         Minimum   Maximum   Die Rolled
Minor            10        20         d2
Light            20        40         d4
Moderate         40        80         d6
Serious          75       160         d8
Critical        150       320         d10
(Cure Other)
Heal/Harm       300       640         d12
Healing Circ     50       140         d8
(each target)
Mass Heal       150       400         d10
(each target)

A spell will always heal you the minimum amount or hurt undead that amount (they get will save for 1/2, plus a spell resist check and you have to make a touch attack except for the area of effect spells). If a caster level amount of dice (no cap) is more than minimum that value is used up to the maximum the spell will do. Healing domain adds an extra 1/3 to the roll (cast spell only), metamagic works as normal but won't increase the maximum a spell is capable of doing.

Obviously you can't heal someone to more than 100%, extra is lost. Heals/inflicts do not kill their targets, they will never lower hitpoints below 1.

Examples:
1) Level 12 cleric casts heal. Roll 12d12 (average 72, max 144), that's less than 300 so 300 is used. (Healing domain, average 96, max 192; the minimum of 300 is still used).

2) Level 36 cleric casts heal. Roll 36d12 (average 234, max 432), anything above 300 is used. (If he has healing domain, average 311, max 575.)

3) Level 36 cleric casts cure minor wounds. Roll 36d2, that's always higher than the max or 20 so 20 is always used.

Undecided on Greater Restore yet, probably just make it heal half full or something in all cases.

[Joran]

I believe I've managed to fix the broken spawns issue when a dead player logs out of the module. The update should also reduce some lag that was brought about due to this issue....hopefully. Let us know how it goes :)

[Netrom.dk]

Added the second RK job.