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About this mod
Overhaul of the Awakening encounter system, so that encounters trigger more reliably.
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The first couple times I played through Awakening, I legitimately did not even know it had random encounters. Nor did I know that Velanna had a personal quest. -_-
Awakening doesn't use the same encounter system as DAO, instead hiding exactly how encounters are triggered behind incomprehensible code, but I did manage to remake the world map travel system, using Origins' system as a base.
The result is that encounters, especially unique encounters, like the ones for Velanna and the sword Dragonbrand, are much easier to get now. Also, new encounters can be added via .gda extensions, which I admit is more niche, but still a nice side effect.
V1.2: The post-Blackmarsh cutscene should now play reliably, and Vigil's Keep will upgrade upon completion of Voldrik's quests. Also, random encounters won't occur directly after a cutscene. When updating from 1.1 to 1.2, please only replace gxa_module_travel.ncs, to prevent the trip counter from possibly resetting. If updating from 1.0, also replace the 'encounter fixes' folder.
If you want the gritty details:
Other smaller changes:
The Crow assassin at the Burning Bridge now drops a note and 20+ gold, as he is supposed to. (v1.1) An alternate version of the note will now drop if the PC is Orlesian, removing reference to them being the Hero of Ferelden.
The trigger condition for the Avvar encounter was incorrectly set in the 'forest' encounter table; it has been fixed.
Nathaniel & Lillith had generic encounter checks for the 'plains' tables, causing them to potentially show up again (and in the case of Nathaniel, resetting his inventory to newly-recruited).
There was a random mercenary in the Avvar encounter; he's been replaced.
There were 6 empty barrels that were uselessly interactive in the pirates encounter; they've been deactivated.
(v1.1) Plot items that are no longer needed will be removed when travelling. A list of what and when is included in the readme.
This is best installed on a new playthrough of Awakening, but can be installed on an ongoing game, with a couple extra steps.
COMPATIBLE WITH: general bugfixes, most mods that change enemy inventory/equipment, and/or areas
NOT COMPATIBLE WITH: anything that also changes the below:
Known issues:
Sometimes you may find yourself on a map you've already cleared. This happens because some encounters are listed on two different tables, so you can trigger it once for each table. This can happen on an unmodded game as well, it's just unlikely due to the very low encounter frequency.
On occasion you will be unable to leave an encounter map. It only happened for me on my older computer, not my new one, so I suspect it's related to engine strain / RAM issues. As it seems to be a compounding issue, I've included a runscript to get your party travelling again if saving/reloading doesn't fix it.
Sometimes choosing a travel destination on the world map will cause a blink, or a popup that says "travel is not possible at this time". Waiting a few seconds & trying again fixes it. Again, only seems to happen on an older computer.
Awakening doesn't use the same encounter system as DAO, instead hiding exactly how encounters are triggered behind incomprehensible code, but I did manage to remake the world map travel system, using Origins' system as a base.
The result is that encounters, especially unique encounters, like the ones for Velanna and the sword Dragonbrand, are much easier to get now. Also, new encounters can be added via .gda extensions, which I admit is more niche, but still a nice side effect.
V1.2: The post-Blackmarsh cutscene should now play reliably, and Vigil's Keep will upgrade upon completion of Voldrik's quests. Also, random encounters won't occur directly after a cutscene. When updating from 1.1 to 1.2, please only replace gxa_module_travel.ncs, to prevent the trip counter from possibly resetting. If updating from 1.0, also replace the 'encounter fixes' folder.
If you want the gritty details:
Spoiler:
How Origins determines random encounters is to first decide if a trip via the world map can have an encounter. It does this by keeping track of how many times you travel via the world map, and checking a table to see if that trip# is eligible. If the check comes back 'yes', it then goes through the list of encounters for that terrain type, and rolls a random number (1-100) to check against the encounter chance. If the RNG is less than the encounter chance, it then checks for repeatability - if an encounter is non-repeatable and has already been done, it's rejected. If the encounter passes, it then checks for plot conditions. If you've met plot requirements, the encounter triggers! If not, it goes to the next encounter on the list until it either finds one that can run, or returns you to normal map travel.
In Awakening, however, the system is largely hidden inside the gxa_module_travel.ncs, which, if opened, is largely computational gibberish with some recognizable strings scattered about. One of the strings seems to be a function called "GXA_CheckRandomEncounter", hinting at different conditional checks. The game still calls on the various rand_***.gda files for some things, which is why simply increasing encounter chance in those files does help a bit.
As if the weird encounter check system wasn't enough, Awakening also wasn't even trying to call random encounters very often -- only about 1/3 of trips on the world map were eligible for random encounters (as determined by enc_trips_gxa), as opposed roughly 3/4 in Origins (determined by enc_trips_sp).
Show
How Origins determines random encounters is to first decide if a trip via the world map can have an encounter. It does this by keeping track of how many times you travel via the world map, and checking a table to see if that trip# is eligible. If the check comes back 'yes', it then goes through the list of encounters for that terrain type, and rolls a random number (1-100) to check against the encounter chance. If the RNG is less than the encounter chance, it then checks for repeatability - if an encounter is non-repeatable and has already been done, it's rejected. If the encounter passes, it then checks for plot conditions. If you've met plot requirements, the encounter triggers! If not, it goes to the next encounter on the list until it either finds one that can run, or returns you to normal map travel.
In Awakening, however, the system is largely hidden inside the gxa_module_travel.ncs, which, if opened, is largely computational gibberish with some recognizable strings scattered about. One of the strings seems to be a function called "GXA_CheckRandomEncounter", hinting at different conditional checks. The game still calls on the various rand_***.gda files for some things, which is why simply increasing encounter chance in those files does help a bit.
As if the weird encounter check system wasn't enough, Awakening also wasn't even trying to call random encounters very often -- only about 1/3 of trips on the world map were eligible for random encounters (as determined by enc_trips_gxa), as opposed roughly 3/4 in Origins (determined by enc_trips_sp).
Other smaller changes:
The Crow assassin at the Burning Bridge now drops a note and 20+ gold, as he is supposed to. (v1.1) An alternate version of the note will now drop if the PC is Orlesian, removing reference to them being the Hero of Ferelden.
The trigger condition for the Avvar encounter was incorrectly set in the 'forest' encounter table; it has been fixed.
Nathaniel & Lillith had generic encounter checks for the 'plains' tables, causing them to potentially show up again (and in the case of Nathaniel, resetting his inventory to newly-recruited).
There was a random mercenary in the Avvar encounter; he's been replaced.
There were 6 empty barrels that were uselessly interactive in the pirates encounter; they've been deactivated.
(v1.1) Plot items that are no longer needed will be removed when travelling. A list of what and when is included in the readme.
This is best installed on a new playthrough of Awakening, but can be installed on an ongoing game, with a couple extra steps.
COMPATIBLE WITH: general bugfixes, most mods that change enemy inventory/equipment, and/or areas
NOT COMPATIBLE WITH: anything that also changes the below:
Spoiler:
gxa_module_travel.ncs
enc_trips_gxa.gda
gxa_world_map.map
target_wps_gxa.gda
terrain_types_gxa.gda
(new) line 30000 of m2da_base_gxa.gda
lines 80-84 of var_module_gxa.gda
line 1 of rand_forest_gxa.gda
lines 6 & 7 of rand_plains_gxa.gda
rxa130cr_crow_assasin.utc
rxa140ar.are
rxa150ar.are
Show
gxa_module_travel.ncs
enc_trips_gxa.gda
gxa_world_map.map
target_wps_gxa.gda
terrain_types_gxa.gda
(new) line 30000 of m2da_base_gxa.gda
lines 80-84 of var_module_gxa.gda
line 1 of rand_forest_gxa.gda
lines 6 & 7 of rand_plains_gxa.gda
rxa130cr_crow_assasin.utc
rxa140ar.are
rxa150ar.are
Known issues:
Sometimes you may find yourself on a map you've already cleared. This happens because some encounters are listed on two different tables, so you can trigger it once for each table. This can happen on an unmodded game as well, it's just unlikely due to the very low encounter frequency.
On occasion you will be unable to leave an encounter map. It only happened for me on my older computer, not my new one, so I suspect it's related to engine strain / RAM issues. As it seems to be a compounding issue, I've included a runscript to get your party travelling again if saving/reloading doesn't fix it.
Sometimes choosing a travel destination on the world map will cause a blink, or a popup that says "travel is not possible at this time". Waiting a few seconds & trying again fixes it. Again, only seems to happen on an older computer.