SimDing0 - regarding the QuestPack

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Specifically, an aspect of the Harpers Plot component.

I have a quibble with this.

If romancing Jaheira, Meronia doesn't normally appear until after the "attacked by bandits after resting in the wilderness scene". In my current game, romancing Jaheira and with the Alternative Harpers Plot component installed (and with Xzar long dead), Meronia didn't appear at this point.

No problem, I thought. There's some note about that in your readme I remembered. But Meronia still didn't appear after several days (no further Jaheira lovetalks occured either). It was not until I returned to the area of the bandit ambush (in this case, the Druid Grove), that Meronia appeared. In fact, as soon as we arrived at the Druid Grove, Jaheira started walking away and I had to manually move the party to keep up with her as she sought out the freshly spawned Meronia.

Unless there is some specific reason to delay Meronia's appearance, I don't see the value in it. Potentially it's a problem because it can stall the entire Jaheria Romance. I had absolutely no reason to ever return to the Druid Grove, and if I hadn't tried it on the off chance that Meronia might only spawn there, Jaheira's Romance, and all the Harper stuff, would have stalled indefinately.

Also, the text I quoted from the readme is misleading, because it doesn't point out that the location of Meronia's spawning is (or may be?) dependant on the events at that location earlier. For people who usually rest just before leaving an area (which was what spawned the bandit ambush), this is awkward. Why stick around for eight or so hours after completing (for good) an area?

I find this an oddity in what is otherwise a very polished and enjoyable mod.

 

Aargh. You're right, this is a very big oversight on my part, sorry. The delay is there purely because it feels contrived to have Meronia pop up immediately after the bandit encounter, and I don't think it was ever the intent for her to do so. I could adjust it to ensure she always spawns correctly wherever you are, but given the nasty "tacked on" feeling I'm getting in retrospect, I'm inclined to just remove the darn delay. I think it's a good change, but pretty irrelevant to everything else I'm doing in the mod.

I'm currently cooking up a new version, so expect to see this fixed soon. Thanks for your thoughts, and I hope you've been enjoying the rest of the mod.

 

The original "Meronia insta-spawn" always did seem contrived, you're right. How about delaying Meronia's spawn until the next time the party tries to rest (regardless of where that is)? Might that solve potential problems (heh, or add new ones)?

EDIT: Yeah, this mod pretty much rawks so far! You get bonus points for seamlessly and subtly integrating an entirely appropriate and very amusing song lyric into the Burgled Book-keeper quest dialogue.

 

Anything new and exciting? or is it just tedious bugkilling?

 

Well.

The bad news is that I've got other things to concentrate on, so it should really just be tedious bugkilling.

The good news is that I'm easily sidetracked and already have a lot of new content implemented. With that in mind, there are various new components that might well end up in the next release, including:
- A quest to return to Irenicus' dungeon
- Helping the Fallen Paladins inflitrate the Order
- New NPC quests--one with Anomen in Ust'Natha, for example
- A new encounter sequence based around the Elven Court Bow
- A revamp of the abyssal area you travel to in the planar sphere so it's more than just a killing field

Can't take credit, I'm afraid. The bookkeeper quest is Andyr's.

 

HoHoHoHo Santa Claus is coming early this year

 

As a lame attempt at promotion, here's a screenshot that I found in my BG2 folder of a small new area from the next version of QP!

http://www26.brinkster.com/simding0/ormand.jpg

 

Sim, I'm just not convinced that a plain white background with no detail or scenery is going to integrate quite as seamlessly into the BG2 universe as you might have hoped. But that's just my opinion.

 

Oh, is Brinkster blanking out the direct linking? Try this:

http://forums.pocketplane.net/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=20393.0;attach=580;image

If that doesn't work, I give up. Just imagine something that looks really cool.

 

Works fine, thanks.