LucasForums - [KOTOR] HardCore 2011 Talchia Style

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HardCore 2011 Talchia Style

EDIT: If you installed the old version of this, you will want to delete the file k_def_buff from your override! Keeping that in with this new version may make your game annoyingly difficult at times, and in general is overkill.

Hello!

From the ReadMe:

Quote:

Get HARD CORE BUFF with a single script!

//////////////////////////////////////////////////
//::qg_hardcore (was k_def_buff)
//:: Copyright (c) 2001 Bioware Corp.
//:://////////////////////////////////////////////
//:: Created By: Preston Watamaniuk
//:: Created On: April 8, 2003
//:: Modded By: Qui-Gon Glenn
//:: Contact: see me at Lucasforums!
//////////////////////////////////////////////////

Searching for source scripts to things entirely unrelated, I just thought I would look at the standard buff script the game uses for buffing your opponent according to the PC level. In it, I noticed that although it was intended that Jedi get buffs to their Charisma as well as their Dexterity and Wisdom, Charisma had been left out. So, I fixed that, and then thought... well that just made jedi tougher at these levels, why not do the whole thing?

Then I realized that Talchia's famous Hardcore Mod was essentially doing what k_def_buff was doing, but inside of k_ai_master - nearly identical script. Thinking that editing k_def_buff alone could do alone what the HARDCORE mod was doing, I released that. Kalaxia then brought up the excellent point - most of your opponents do not call on k_def_buff at all!

The issue I have found with Talchia's mod is that it is buried inside of a massive script (k_ai_master), so changing values can be intimidating as you do not want to break a master script! For adaptability, it is better to inject a sub-script into k_ai_master (thanks stoffe!) that the end-user can change easily/at will, as it is very focused and easy to read.

The standard buffs have been increased significantly, and by PC Level 17+ your opponents are uber-buffed, like Hanz and Franz! The bonuses are almost identical to Talchia's (some are slightly greater), and additionally this mod fixes the un-bonused Charisma bonus that Bioware Corp. intended and noted, yet did not script in. It also adds a dexterity bonus to Beasts, and a constitution bonus to Droids, just to spice things a little further.

Enjoy, post any issues you find in the HERE!!! - shouldn't be any!

Disclaimer: Look at the copyright above - I didn't write this script, Preston did. I altered it, cleaned up unnecessary comments, and made it behave as described in PW's dev notes. Therefore, I have no rights to this whatsoever- belongs to GL and LA and BioWare.

Thanks: Fred Tetra, KotOR Tool is still essential!
: Holowan Labs for being a great environment to bang my head against a wall
: Talchia, for inspiring the mod and providing an illuminating ReadMe, albeit no source code
: Fallen Guardian, for beta-testing
: Yoda

Do not play this *with* Talchia's mod - they both alter the same file (k_ai_master) in a different way... simply choose hers or mine :p
If you are using a mod that already alters k_ai_master, it is easy to integrate this mod... you will simply need to copy my lines 157-161 from my version's .nss and paste them into the perception field... for help doing this, please see the links provided in post #9

For the specific of what it does, from the in-script description

Code:

/*  Buffs the target object based on the level of the main PC



    Default buffs have been replaced with values inspired by Talchia's Hardcore mod.

    Charisma Bonus for Jedi has been fixed - it was not finished by Bioware Corp.

    Strength Bonus for Jedi added per Talchia's original mod.

    This mod may be a good bit harder than Talchia's concerning Dark Jedi, considering the fixed Charisma buff.



    Jedi (class) will get the following:

    Player Level 8+: +6 to Wisdom, +6 to Charisma, +6 to Strength, +75 Force Points, +75 Vitality Points. 

    Player Level 13+: +12 to Wisdom, +12 to Charisma, +6 to Strength, +125 Force Points, +125 Vitality Points.

    Player Level 17+: +20 to Wisdom, +20 to Charisma, +20 to Strength, +200 Force Points, +200 Vitality Points.



    Beasts (subrace) will get the following:

    Player Level 8+: +9 Strength, +6 Dexterity, +90 Vitality points. 

    Player Level 13+: +12 Strength, +10 Dexterity, +120 Vitality points.

    Player Level 17+: +20 Strength, +16 Dexterity, +200 Vitality points.



    Droids (race) will get the following:

    Player Level 8+: +9 Dexterity, +9 Constitution, +90 Vitality points.

    Player Level 13+: +12 Dexterity, +12 Constitution, +120 Vitality points.

    Player Level 17+: +20 Dexterity, +16 Constitution, +200 Vitality points. 



    Scoundrel, Soldier, Scout (class):

    Player Level 8+: +6 Dexterity, +6 Strength, +75 Vitality points.

    Player Level 13+: +12 Dexterity, +12 Strength, +130 Vitality points.

    Player Level 17+: +20 Dexterity, +20 Strength, +200 Vitality points.

*/

EDIT: Thanks Marius!! :devsmoke:

new KotOR Files Link Pending

My apologies to all who have downloaded and not experienced HardCore buffing.... You will now, and thank you so much to Kalaxia for taking the time to test and troubleshoot!!
Enjoy!

Downloaded and in Override. Thanks for adding a little bit of more fun to Kotor.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fallen Guardian (Post 2765769)

Downloaded and in Override. Thanks for adding a little bit of more fun to Kotor.

Thanks for testing the initial version and confirming that it was noticeable... now it is certainly noticeable o_0

It is quite easy to tweak this mod to your own liking, so if anyone feels the difficulty is too high or too low :carms: let me know, I can walk you through the edit. All you would need is KotOR Tool and a few minutes!

Have you tested this and know if this works for sure? It doesn't appear to be doing anything for me... at least the vitality boosts that I can see are not increasing health at all.

I'm aware that already-generated mobs in savegames won't pick up buff modifications like this, but I even made sure I was using brand new areas at level 8 where the mobs were (I believe) definately spawning from scratch when zoning to someplace brand new. Even tried to start a new game.

I also tried removing every mod, just to make sure another script wasn't messing with it. Also tried compiling my own ncs from your script. Nothing for any of them.

I remember the old k_ai_master script (like talchia's) would work, but the k_def_buff one doesn't seem to even do anything.

Any help would be appreciated. Thanks.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kalaxia (Post 2766117)

I have tested it, but that does not mean I have tested all of the correct circumstances. Sorry :(

Can you please provide me a couple of the "situations" that you were in where you expected to see a difference in gameplay, and did not? As in, location in-game (planet, as specific as possible, a whereami coord would be really helpful)?

Thank you for playing, and for the feedback! I will work on it immediately!

EDIT: I think that the problem must be in how k_ai_master calls k_def_buff. I will investigate this, I would guess that currently the level 8+ bonuses are being skipped entirely because k_def_buff was defined to start working at level 12+. Hopefully I am right on this brainstorm and can find the conditional quickly!

Quote:

Originally Posted by Qui-Gon Glenn (Post 2766123)

I just tested the same savegame 2 different ways, zoning into a new undiscovered area (which should generate brand new mobs):

Zone: Vulkor base level 2
Mob types: vulkors and droids

1st test> Your k_def_buff file - No health or difficutly seemed to be increased on either mob type.

2nd test> Removed k_def_buff and put Talchia's k_ai_master in - you can see the health pools and difficulty definitely increase.

In theory the k_def_buff file looks like a good way to do it, but I think Talchia purposely copy/pasted that out of there and into the k_ai_master for a reason. Seems like it works better inside the k_ai_master directly... and I have no idea why :confused:

I'm totally with you on the fact that the k_def_buff file should theoretically be easier to modify and tweak.. but it just doesn't seem to be working? And I think Talchia maybe knew this? Or maybe it only works with like Jedi mobs or something?

TBH, I would really like to have Talchia's uncompiled script to modify, but I could not find it anywhere :( If you know where I can download that, I'd love to know.

Thanks

I messed around with scripting for a bit.. I remember when I tried to do some stuff 2 years ago there was some really screwy things going on with certain things.

For starters, the ncs's from the compiler that comes with the kotor tool don't seem to work properly for me, even if its flagged for KOTOR1. I had to use hazard's compiler.

Even with that, nothing I modified would take effect via the k_def_buff file. From my end, it looks like this file is basically doing nothing.. at least for "regular" mobs, that I saw.

Modifying the k_ai_master file definately does work for me. You can SetMaxHitPoints and whatnot, and you see it work in game just fine. I can add 100 health to mobs and I know the mobs have 100 more health. You just need to make sure you set special trigger flags so it doesn't keep adding the health or stats multiple times.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kalaxia (Post 2766152)

Uh, thanks.

This mod does work. Provide a specific example of your problem or I will consider your posts spam. I have seen that this mod is working in some circumstances (all I tested it in) yet you have provided no example for me to test against, just told me about how you used to do so and so. There is a reason why this mod is different than Talchia's - otherwise what would have been the point?

On my side, I am by no means an expert scripter... but KotOR Tools compiler seems to work just fine :giveup: And if you would provide some sort of example for testing, I will try to verify then fix your claims... PC character level, planet and module you are in, who you were fighting.

k_def_buff does work in KotOR. It does not in TSL.

In KotOR, I have yet to figure out how the game does use k_def_buff, which is probably why Talchia put the guts of k_def_buff (as I saw Pavlos noticed once...) *inside* of k_ai_master. It is not done in any .utc's (thank God), my guess is that it is doing it in the module AreaOnEnter, which are decompilable because of their include files.

Again, if you do want to help me/want to see this mod work the way it is expected to, provide me an example.... don't tell me about how you did this and that, or someone else did something. This is how I did this, let me fix THIS.
************************************************** ****************************

EDIT: Kalaxia, I apologize for somehow missing your the post that is two-up... I only read the last post before this and missed your testing description. Thank you!

From my research, I have found that the reason Talchia did it how he did is that k_def_buff only gets called by certain NPC's in their specific OnSpawn script. This does not help me very much, of course, as we want it to effect every NPC opponent.

After REALLY searching these forums, I see now that this little mod of mine is not nearly as original as I thought.... I wish Evil Q has let me in on his work in this area, but I guess he doesn't hang Holowan much anymore...

Stoffe has released code snippets that will do exactly what Talchia's mod does, actually equivalent code that can be held in a separate script. It is just a higher level rehash of k_def_buff, coded like a pro (as in, uh, I dunno how to code like that....), but works the same as what I have done.

The main issue: k_ai_master must be altered as well as k_def_buff if it is to effect EVERY NPC you battle. I did not realize this, and would have had I researched the exact topic ON THIS FORUM more vigorously. I consider this a lesson learned.... for about the millionth time.

So, I will be releasing an embarrassing update to the mod shortly, with an altered k_ai_master that calls k_def_buff OnPerception, just as did the original Talchia mod. Really, the only significant difference between what Talchia did and what this mod should/will do, is make it easier to change your "hardcore" level by editing a much smaller, more directly focused script, namely k_def_buff and not the monstrous k_ai_master.

Also, I need to add in a little widget stoffe reminded me of... we need to make sure the effect is only applied to any enemy NPC only once....

So, Kalaxia, my apologies for the incompleteness of the mod, and your testing notes. They have been helpful!

EDIT #2:This link provides the original source and location inside of k_ai_master for the original HARDCORE mod;

This link provides stoffe's code, to see a more elegant way of accomplishing Preston's/my code.

Bump!

I am resubmitting this mod with several changes, thanks to Kalaxia for pointing out the shortcomings of what I had done.... I tested very specific cases, and indeed it turns out I was lucky/unlucky enough to test scenarios where k_def_buff was being called on :(

I now realize, as will you if you follow the links provided in the last post, that MANY people have done just what I have done here, but simply for their own private purposes. As embarrassing as this is, still what is done is done, and I have released it... so I need to fix it and have it work correctly!

To accomplish this, guess what.... I have had to modify k_ai_master :lol:

Thankfully, through this little process, I have added a few things that were not in the original version, but that will make the mod work *more* properly and save you from impossible Firaxa sharks :)

Also, this mod will no longer alter k_def_buff whatsoever.... now I realize why it was eliminated in TSL, as between a .2da and k_ai_master, the buff script is mostly useless!!

However, this mod does not prevent the old versions k_def_buff from being used by the game, so in some circumstances, having the my old k_def_buff ALONG WITH either this new version or with the original Talchia, your game will be ridiculously stupid hard.... because as my original testing did prove, some enemies do use the k_def_buff script.

I am editing the first post now to reflect a few new changes I made, buffing droids and beasts a little just to provide *some difference* to all of the previous variants.

Also, it should be noted - this mod is going to be extremely user-customizable, which is the one benefit perhaps of a released public mod... if anyone wants to tweak the values, they are well commented in the qg_hardcore.nss this is included in the "Source for Modders" folder of the download. Editing values there is as simple as changing numbers in any document, and if that is all you change, compilation will be automatic :)

Hello, this mod looks very nice, any way to have it already ? The Kotor Files link is still pending, and the other link is for the old version.
Thanks.