"Odyssey of The Summoner" is OUT!! Find it here...

[nekarcos]

"Odyssey of The Summoner" has been updated!! (Version 0.4.8)
*** Version: 0.4.8 ~ "Now with more Fire Drake!"

*** This took a while... Sorry about that! Asides from maybe a few side effects, I can assure you Fire Drake is VERY functional now! Enjoy!
*** Also-- I guess I'll go back to the old "buff/nerf" scheme (where relevant). Makes the patch notes a little more clear, I suppose.

[STORY]
- Fixed a minor dialogue bug with Aeryn.
- Fixed a dialogue bug with the Sher'Tul Fortress conversation.
- Corrected the entrance position of "Summoner's Graveyard".


[GENERAL]
- Clarified "Consume" a bit.
- "Keen Awareness" now correctly generates vision UPON usage as well.
- Objects that can naturally be worn in the mouth now have a description in the object text.
- Corrected some issues concerning crowns.
*** I still don't have an answer for making "Crown of Burning Pain" work correctly; No amount of investigation is yielding an "elegant" solution due to how it was programmed...


["BLIGHTED"]
- "Corrupted" Avatars no longer breathe.
*** I HAVE noted this MIGHT present issues with the "Corrupted Sigh" talent (you can no longer disease yourself-- And thus, "contamination" becomes impossible). Let's just see how much of a hinderance this is for now...
- Clarified "Transfusion" description text.


[HYDRA]
- Removed the message when "Voracious Feast" is resisted by fear immunity
- Did a major overhaul/tune-up to the "Hydra Clasp" menu. Particularly, you can now see which objects you are replacing when you clasp!


[FIRE DRAKE]
*** Because of how EXTENSIVELY I have modified the Fire Drake class (and its Drakelings), its pointless to create compatibility with old versions. As such, I strongly recommend finishing your [0.4.7] Fire Drake runs before updating to [0.4.8]!
(BUFF)
- "Blazing Body" now blocks "ice" effects as well.
- Corrected a bug with "Renewing Flames" which prevented damage from reaching actors through walls
- "Titanic Roar" now grants Stun and Knockback immunity if it mind crits.

(NERF)
- Slightly reduced the range of "Torrential Blaze".
- The "diminishing" effect of "Torrential Blaze's" damage is now SIGNIFICANTLY greater.
- Reduced the "maximum" damage of Torrential Blaze (from 530 to 430)

Code: Select all

*** Examination:
> TL5 Torrential Blaze a line-up of 4 training dummies (range is up to 4 tiles away)
- Range 1 ~ 584 damage
- Range 2 ~ 526 damage
- Range 3 ~ 467 damage
- Range 4 ~ 409 damage

*** AFTER diminishing distance patch...
- Range 1 ~ 584 damage
- Range 2 ~ 511 damage
- Range 3 ~ 438 damage
- Range 4 ~ 365 damage

*** Conclusion: *thumbs up* Decided to keep the nerf "small" for now.
********************************************************************************

(CHANGE)
- Clarified the 4th level of "Parental Bond"
- Most of "Heatstroke" is now considered as "Breath" talents (different speeds, silenceable)
- Most of "Tyrant" is now considered as "Breath" talents (different speeds, silenceable)
- "Heatstroke" no longer has any targetting warnings.
- "Idealists" now requires a certain number of levels in "Role Model" to order to be improved.
*** ToME Bug: The requirement is not quite "right"! This is somewhat beyond my control (believe me, I've tried everything...)


[DRAKELING]
(BUFF)
- "Flare Powder" now additionally increases all Fire damage (in case you were unlucky enough to get this FIRST)
- Drakeling "Spotting" now correctly updates vision of actors
- Fixed a bug which caused Drakelings to deal diminishing damage with distance when using "Torrential Blaze" (they DON'T anymore)
- Added a new menu option to the Drakeling menu called "Give to parent", which directly places the object into the parent's inventory. Beware, this can only be used when the Drakeling has line of sight (unlike "Transfer to Party" which COMPLETELY disregards that)
*** This is a fresh new feature! Please, by all means, find as many ways to break this as you can!
- Drakelings will now perform "Natural Combat" alongside you (if available). Note, however, this requires a "Compliancy" check!
*** When a Drakeling has too little knowledge or is otherwise indisposed, they may entirely fail to follow orders/commands such as "Role Model" or "Concurrency". This is called a "Compliancy" check!
- Clarified "Compliance" checks for Drakelings when they happen (they were pretty vague before)
- Drakeling Compliancy is now tested against the higher of Cunning and Knowledge (the chance of succeeding orders/commands is SIGNIFICANTLY higher now!)

(BUG)
- Corrected some issues concerning the Drakeling's "spotting" effect.
- Absent Drakelings will no longer be inspired by feats
- The Drakeling equipment menu no longer allows you to "use" objects (this caused a lua error)





PS: I made A TON of changes, and wasn't exactly "thorough" about logging them all. I hope that this was everything, and that nothing unexpected shows up... Cheers!

[emblempride]

Since winning as a Hydra, I am entirely unable to create a new character without having OotS active...

Oh god... I think I know EXACTLY what this glitch is... It happened to me before, and I wasn't sure what exactly was causing it.
You see, when you win the game, it puts your character into a "winning characters" list, right? I'm thinking maybe the list is having trouble loading the character if the add-on isn't on!
For example, imagine if you won "Arena Mode" with an add-on character. If you removed the add-on and beat Arena mode again, there's no way you could fight the add-on character because it wouldn't know how to load all of its important values and talents...


*** (Tried creating a character with "OoTS" off) ... No... It seems like everything is fine-- But this is extremely concerning. Can you tell me anything about the error? Any issues? If it's not saying anything, try getting the "te4_log.txt" file in the Tales of Maj'Eyal program directory. I was DEADLY scared when this happened to me, and the only way I could fix it was by renaming my save file directory [<computerAccountName>/T-Engine/4.0/tome/save] (and thus, preventing the game from knowing about my "Odyssey of The Summoner" characters).

I'm really sorry about this-- But I've never been able to make it happen again, so I wasn't sure how to do anything about it.

No worries, renaming the directory was a quick enough fix and I wasn't happy with the other run I had going so no loss. Works fine now. Just a note for anyone else who encounters the bug, it also prevents the fortress library from loading and THAT was a bummer.

Hydra thoughts -
I think a good go-to pattern is to max out breaths, pick up Ravenous, pick up a support tree, then go Triad (maybe Triad earlier if you can't find another way to silence). With this in mind, most builds only really need one of the three unlockable "support" trees - tried Glob in the Arena and it is incredibly weak, especially compared to the other class trees. Thought I could make it work with Mist, but enemies are too concerned with delusions. There's other things to with your turns and class points then spend them on Glob. Swamp is also a bit meh, but not nearly as bad and has the added benefit of being fun in a niche way. Mist Beat is super powerful, I didn't get it till level 36 and was kicking myself in the head because of how great it is. It caused massive slowdowns everytime I used it lol, but it helped so much that I could be patient for it. The last skill in the tree is a bit underwhelming though when you can easily lay like 300 damage in DoTs without it, but I still want to try a poison-focused build on the Hydra and could see that working well.

Tried the Recuperate tree this time and it still never helped in a significant way. 700-1500 health gain towards endgame the few times I needed it, which was nothing when I'm dropped to >1000 from 5000+ health. Truthfully, I didn't even really need Hungry Eyes either towards the endgame except when a crowd could hit me simultaneously or a Room of Death wyrm hit me with a breath through my mist, but it was still a huge difference from the almost-nothing Recuperate gave, instant or not. In fact, between Hydra's tankiness and wild power and heal mod boosting my base regen rate, I think the additional regen was probably more helpful than using the instant heal, if still not that great. My con was in the 100s (without me touching it at all and BEFORE I picked up Pain Enhancement System), so the recuperation durations were nothing. Still as Death also felt like a waste though I love the idea, even with the high "die at -" I was always killed a turn or two after it activated. Getting hit that hard tended to mean that the higher recuperation rate was not going to match up against more attacks from whatever caused it to activate. The third skill in the Recuperate tree though, the name escapes me, the max life gain from that towards the endgame was insane. The long duration gives you time to find a way to heal up to your new max life AND maintain that crazy 2000+ health gain for the entirety of just about every fight (and because of this, I never found an opportunity where I thought turning it off to add to recuperate was worth it)

THW + PES = RIDICULOUS. THW was giving me +34 to all of my stats (Acera, Rod of Sarrilon, etc., got reaaaaaally lucky with unknown drops), and by the time I got to level 42 for PES, I had no stat under 60 I believe. Not even magic. Throw PES into the mix, I believe everything was 100+. I saw the duration for the third skill's recuperation effect go to 0 turns (effectively another instant heal that I didn't need) because of my con (which I never put a single point into).

All in all, the Hydra feels at a pretty stable place, playable, powerful (while requiring some work and a different approach than usual to get there), and most importantly, fun even in the endgame. That's more than can be said of certain base classes, honestly. Without a doubt the most focused and well-designed addon class I've played so far, good work. Gonna reacquaint myself a bit with the base game before I tackle Blight-dra and Fire Drake.

[nekarcos]

@emblempride

All in all, the Hydra feels at a pretty stable place, playable, powerful (while requiring some work and a different approach than usual to get there), and most importantly, fun even in the endgame. That's more than can be said of certain base classes, honestly. Without a doubt the most focused and well-designed addon class I've played so far, good work.

I'm very honoured by this, thank you! It would be "the dream" if I could make Fire Drake and Ritch get this same sort of reception (they are GROSSLY unpopular compared to Hydra at the moment).


RE: "Glob" is underwhelming
I'll give them a nice kick and see if it makes them a little more appealing. The "heart" of glob lies in that they are low-maintenance, CC-inducing traps (think of things like "Bear Trap" or "Gravity Trap"). They're also supposed to be an additional damage option if you intend to go 100% breath and no melee-combat. Though they do a bit of damage, what makes them great is that they can be used to terribly punish advancing waves of enemies en masse-- Even bringing their advance to a halt. However, I get the feeling people would rather just use breath attacks and completely annihilate advancing waves of enemies-- So *shrug*... Might need an overhaul, but let's let it rock for a while and get a little more input after I buff its numbers a bit.

RE: "Mist Beast" is CPU intensive
There's actually a lot of ways I could optimize it-- But I simply haven't gotten around to doing it yet, heh...
I think if enough people bother me about it, I'll have to look into it right away-- But for now, I've hung it up as "not broken; don't fix".

RE: "Regenerate" still feels meh
Hmmm... So no matter how you try it, "Regenerate" still doesn't quite have that punch, huh? I suppose, one day, I'll need to examine it myself and see "exactly" what it's doing for a REALLY tanky hydra.
I mostly suspect that "Physical" damage becomes rare towards the late game (especially in "Room of Death"), so that's probably the biggest culprit.

RE: "Hungry Eyes" is unnecessary
Good! That was pretty much my feelings when I gave it that sudden nerf. I knew nobody would really feel the difference, and it's good to hear (one) confirmation so far.
After all, this talent mainly exists for Ritch's devices-- It would be a shame if ALL the avatars were using it, too!

RE: 0-Duration Recuperates
... Oh. That's... That's not a good thing. I need to fix that.

RE: "Still As Death"
Still tweaking it a bit, but I'm hoping I can get that "deception" effect to be a little more "reliable" (perhaps it shouldn't be a "chance", since the player is LITERALLY betting their life on it).
However... I can't allow it to work against bosses and such (uncontested) because it would simply be TOO effective! Imagine-- The player ALWAYS revives to full life, and ALL their talents have cooled down. Meanwhile, the boss is simply sitting there watching this, picking its nose... Complete madness! I guess I'll need a bit more input on how people feel about this before I can do anything major to it.

RE: "The 3rd talent in the Regenerate Tree"
... Is called "Splitting Wounds"-- As in, that legendary thing hydras do when one of their heads get sliced off-- Two more heads emerge from the wound!
But yes! It seems you have been using this talent to the fullest! If you are capable of healing up to the new maximum life that this buff grants, you are sitting pretty! However, I MAY have over-buffed this talent when I changed the effect to "ALL" resistance (instead of just "PHYSICAL" resistance). I'm probably going to reduce the maximum life it grants just a little bit (30% might be too much), since it synergizes INSANELY with things like "Draconic Body", "Bloodspring", "MOST OF BLOOD GEYSER" and whatnot.

RE: "THW+PES"
... I still have yet to see what "Pain Enhancement Systems" can do... Sounds OP though!



PS: Thanks for the input emblempride! Fire Drake is nicely shined and polished for you whenever it is that you start (though, I have a running track record of missing horribly game-breaking errors/bugs no matter how thorough I am). Anyways, have fun with it!

[emblempride]

You're welcome, thanks for the work!

Went ahead and started a drake run. Huuloc was set to Claw and Breath and at level 10 I changed his focus to just Breath. I'm at level 12 and both of the times Huuloc has leveled, I've gotten a lua error (that I keep closing accidentally) and Huuloc doesn't invest any of his stat or talent/NC points

[nekarcos]

You're welcome, thanks for the work!

Went ahead and started a drake run. Huuloc was set to Claw and Breath and at level 10 I changed his focus to just Breath. I'm at level 12 and both of the times Huuloc has leveled, I've gotten a lua error (that I keep closing accidentally) and Huuloc doesn't invest any of his stat or talent/NC points

Got it. I've replicated it, so you can bet this'll be fixed VERY soon!

... Uggghh... Just once, I'd like to release a major update WITHOUT some game-breaking-ish bug like this happening...


Update: I figured out the issue. No problem!
To summarize, it has to do with changing your autolevelling scheme "at a bad time" (hence why this bug eluded me and caught you), and will ONLY happen when using a single-tree style (I used a double-tree style in my playthrough). It seems ToME does not support changing your autolevel scheme on the fly-- So it causes a (pretty trivial to fix) lua error.

[hexonix]

1) Why not available Prodigies "I Can carry the World!" ?

2) Hmm.... May be Prodigies "Rak'Shor's Cunning" transform Hydra to Skeleton or Ghoul Hydra?
Create an additional quest to Summoner, conflict with them. With the transition under the patronage of the Grand Corruptor for example.

3) Wild Heart / Feral Hydra - practically useless branch. Damage just tears, 3 skill - analogue grabbing theoretically, but in practice ... "censorship" does not work. Even when there is difference in 2 size and a <50% chance. In general, better to let one target works, but as grabbing of branches Melee.

It is lacks Hydra single massive attack with high damage, albeit with a lot cooldown to the example. Because "tear apart" is "Death by a thousand cuts", and the same turtle-Boss bare 95% of the damage, and the remaining regen. The result - a draw, which is sad.
Voratum helmet with "Skull Craker" 5lvl can solve the problem ... But this is a perversion already.

My Hydra

4) At the end of the game, if you select "Continue the adventure" is sent back to the Summoner with the good news. But Summoner does not respond, currently sitting in meditation .. It's BUG or what ?

5) Many items marked "looks delicious" - give nothing after eating. I understand they are not to Hydra can still worth to share? Or is it difficult to implement in the code?

p.s: Conflict with Midnight addon flies out error when "escort" accompanies being "Lost" to the portal. While solved a problem disconnecting addon "Midnight".

[nekarcos]

@hexonix
Errrm, I'll try to interpret this as best as I can...


1) Simply put, not every prodigy is available to Avatars (mostly because they usually require the ability to equip certain things). A bit of a bummer-- But that's why I've given Avatars their own set of "unique" prodigies.

2) I haven't touched "Embers of Rage", so I can't really ensure much "cooperation" between my add-on and that DLC. You're best off disabling that DLC while playing Odyssey of The Summoner, if possible.

3) This is a matter of preference, really! I've been told otherwise in the past.
*** I absolutely CANNOT understand what you're trying to say after that... Sorry!

4) Not finished yet.

5) It would be too easy to just TELL you what objects do what. Experiment!

(PS): I CANNOT assure any kind of functionality between add-ons I have not myself created. Do not bother asking me to fix incompatibilities-- I've already done everything I can.

[nekarcos]

"Odyssey of The Summoner" has been updated!! (Version 0.4.9)
*** Version: 0.4.9 ~ "Now with more patches!"

*** This one's a small update while I continue monitoring what's going on with Fire Drake.
*** I DO realize how quiet its gotten (likely due to summer ending and school starting), but this is actually a good thing!
*** This peace has given me a lot of time to work on some new content, so it will at least be new content if it is not bug fixes and class balancing!

- Fixed an error that occurred when a Drakeling switches from a double-tree style to a single-tree style, then levels up.
- Added a few (missing) "drakeling growth" events to a few Fire Drake reflections
- Modified the effect of various Drakeling "Reflection" events

[hexonix]

@hexonix
Errrm, I'll try to interpret this as best as I can...


1) Simply put, not every prodigy is available to Avatars (mostly because they usually require the ability to equip certain things). A bit of a bummer-- But that's why I've given Avatars their own set of "unique" prodigies.

Thank you, I will seek a second unique prodigy. Currently I found only one

2) I haven't touched "Embers of Rage", so I can't really ensure much "cooperation" between my add-on and that DLC. You're best off disabling that DLC while playing Odyssey of The Summoner, if possible.

There is no conflict, the prodigy change the appearance and race to the ghoul, and adds generic talent branches ghouls. Ghoul only looks like a humanoid. And the logic of history is broken.

4) Not finished yet.

I'll look forward to the continuation of the history of the Summoner.Thank you that you find time to work on add-on.

5) It would be too easy to just TELL you what objects do what. Experiment!

IT's work...work... work... Errrrr.... Need more brains!!! - gone to feed the hydra and check the stats

(PS): I CANNOT assure any kind of functionality between add-ons I have not myself created. Do not bother asking me to fix incompatibilities-- I've already done everything I can.

It does not claim you as the creator of the add-on. I just think it would be nice to make a table which would have pointed to the incompatibility or conflicts. And as the players just to fill its posts. Because in the middle of the game to get hurt because of incompatibility error.

Thanks for your work

[Toles of Maine Exits]

It does not claim you as the creator of the add-on. I just think it would be nice to make a table which would have pointed to the incompatibility or conflicts. And as the players just to fill its posts. Because in the middle of the game to get hurt because of incompatibility error.

Thanks for your work

It seems like hexonix is asking for a list of what files you've actually changed, so the user could more easily find out what's compatible by themselves.

Aside from that, I think it would help some of the reception of this mod as it progresses if you put different races into different races based on how feature complete they are. An example would be a race defined as Monstrosity and a race defined as Monstrosity W.I.P. or something.

Aside from that aside, your first post mentions a log of your progress. Have you been keeping up on it? I (and I suspect at least a few other people) would be very interested in it even if not, I've been trying to make a mod for ToME for awhile but I don't know LUA that well yet. Any resource that I can get my hands on is great at this point. Maybe you could include it as a .txt file in your download, or P.M. it to me if not?

[nekarcos]

@Toles of Maine Exits
RE: Add-on Conflicts
The nature of how add-ons work... Well, NOTHING should conflict AT ALL if you've programmed it well! I have taken A LOT of measures to make sure "Odyssey of The Summoner" itself caused absolutely NO conflicts (besides maybe some naming conflicts that can't be helped).
... Now, I'm not exactly saying "I am void of any possible fault"... But I AM taking the defense that I have been RATHER THOROUGH in making sure my add-on was not the cause of ANY conflicts whatsoever. That is to say, I have programmed this add-on VERY DEFENSIVELY!
If you DO find an add-on conflict though-- Tell me, and I will QUICKLY investigate and try to do everything I can (on my side of the programming) to make sure it doesn't conflict anymore. If I can't... Well, you'll have to ask the other add-on maker to pitch in too!

RE: Separating Races
It's a "ToME" thing. I can't separate them without "cloning" code-- That is to say, certain "behaviors" are inherent to certain "races" (such as every "Undead" being considered as anti-nature and such). It would also REALLY mess up a lot of checks I have scattered about the game (for example, the "Behemoth Hide" checks if you're a "Monstrosity" precisely to determine if the special effect can happen).
Correcting this "precise" behavior wouldn't be hard-- But I would honestly rather not do it, considering I would be "multiplying" the code in some way or another.

RE: Change Log
I used to keep a log of everything, but people didn't seem all that interested in it-- Or rather, nobody outright "voiced" interest in it. Since logging everything takes A LOT of time (and there was no demand for it), I stopped doing it for the sake of expediency. If anything, I can always start doing it again once all is done and said-- But at the moment, the "Patch Notes" are the closest thing I have to an actual "change" log.
What you COULD do though (if you know how), is find some versioning software and put each of the different versions of "OoTS" into it to see where changes have occurred.

RE: Learning Lua
Y'know, I only started "Lua" about a year and a half ago (the same time I started this project)-- But I picked it up rather fast!
I wouldn't mind giving lessons or demonstrations on how stuff works in ToME. Mind you, I wouldn't consider myself a "guru" or anything-- As long as that's fine with you.

[hexonix]

Found big trable... In Shadow Crypt battle my Hydra VS my Clone.

Too many hits from both sides, too many indirect damage. Huge recursion. The game just dies. It must be such as to cut off the problem, but this kind of thing in the game engine and not in your addon. I can send your save game and the archive with addons if you need.

[nekarcos]

Found big trable... In Shadow Crypt battle my Hydra VS my Clone.

Too many hits from both sides, too many indirect damage. Huge recursion. The game just dies. It must be such as to cut off the problem, but this kind of thing in the game engine and not in your addon. I can send your save game and the archive with addons if you need.

Oh man... I hate the Shadow Crypt... That clone is such a programming nightmare!

Go ahead and send me the save file and I'll see what I can do. Hopefully, you didn't have too many add-ons active though... It won't be fun sifting through 20 sets of superloaded code...

[hexonix]

Oops ... even 1 problem was, I think I ate too many items, stomach broken - says that it is nothing, but gives a bonus as it should be.
The problem can be seen in the same save game, perhaps because I was shooting point with the skill of the stomach - to see how changing bonuses.

Update: in All backup save stomach not work(stomach is empty, bonus - work). Addon broken ? Try to download new version.

Update: After reinstall addon - error persists. Screenshot below - issues when you try to eat something else. Error disappears after eating any natural infusion or white items. But the stomach is still "empty" with preservation of bonuses. (After eat white item - write "In stomach 1 item", but no drop it)

p.s: Hmm ... maybe that clone in Shadow Crypt broke? There's also a theory, it also had to drop out after the death of items and the game in this place and was dying?

[nekarcos]

@hexonix
It's hard to say for certain what went wrong-- Especially since your character has so many add-ons active. I'll look into your save file and see what I can figure out... But this is... Hmmm... It seems to be complaining about a body part being missing... Like you said, perhaps the "Stomach"? Hmmm...

Important question: When you get a Lua Error... You aren't... CONTINUING... Are you? If an error occurs, or something breaks... You should reset the game! Who knows what might have gone wrong??