Don't know if this is common knowledge but an interesting thing happened when I stated messing around with the provided AI scripts:
After encountering a hostile party with some spellcasters, I started looting and exploring ahead while Mazzy and Jaheira were finishing of a few Sahuagin. For easy battles, I use AI to make this (my 2nd game) go a bit quicker.
WARNING: The "spellcaster attack" script does exactly what it says it does...so after the battle with the fishheads Mazzy started attacking our own party!!
Wish I'd known about this one while Aerie was still around....
I figure with arrows of piercing the little "truesword" could drop the crip in less than six shots, before my "good" cleric even notices. So even if my party is all good we could make mistakes...
@Aegnor: Weird thing. The source of spellcaster attack attacks only enemies, it does not attack allied spellcasters. Either the source does not correspond to the built-in compile or somethig was wrong with Mazzy and Jaheira. Perhaps a possible explanation: Jaheira is a TN. If your reputation was above 18, then she was unhappy in your party. Some kind of morale failure was perhaps involved. Also, it is not known to me whether the description in the manual isn't too coarse. What happens with Jaheira if your reputation is 15? 16? 17? Nothing? Or the problems become more and more probable?
@Radek - OK but she didn't just go for Jaheira another time (before I clued in) it was my main guy - a cleric. I thought I must have made a "clicking" error.
Maybe Mazzy's just jealous
Yes our rep is pretty high at least 18 last I looked. Mazzy is "most pleased".
EDIT Anyhow I won't be able to experiment with the scripts again til next week. Umm, for a non-programmer how hard is it to edit your own scripts? I've messed around with game logic a bit before (CIV II).
[This message has been edited by Aegnor (edited 02-02-2001).]
@Aegnor: The scripts are super simple linear chain of "IF <option> THEN <action> END" blocks. The script is checked from top to bottom and when an <option> is found TRUE then the <action> is taken and the rest of the script is skipped.
The problem you will solve again and again is the documentation. It is poor, incomplete and highly cryptic.
Thanks, Radek. I will check these out when I have more time. Meanwhile I've just changed Mazzy's script and so far so good my spellcasters are all alive.
Who needs documentation when there's these forums?
Originally posted by Radek: @Aegnor: Weird thing. The source of spellcaster attack attacks only enemies, it does not attack allied spellcasters. Either the source does not correspond to the built-in compile or somethig was wrong with Mazzy and Jaheira. Perhaps a possible explanation: Jaheira is a TN. If your reputation was above 18, then she was unhappy in your party. Some kind of morale failure was perhaps involved. Also, it is not known to me whether the description in the manual isn't too coarse. What happens with Jaheira if your reputation is 15? 16? 17? Nothing? Or the problems become more and more probable?
As near as I can tell, Jaheira (or any Neutrals) won't actually leave the party if your reputation climbs too high, but they will become "unhappy". Jaheira will begin making comments about how the party isn't working towards the greater balance once you hit 18 or so, but nothing else will happen.
I myself have run into weird situations where Mazzy attacks party members. It generally happens when a spellcaster casts dispel magic on my team (e.g., the random encounters one gets when traversing between city districts). Have no clue why, and yes she's using the spellcaster attack script! She's managed to kill Aerie and Jaheira quite a few times when I start reading a book while playing.
