I returned to the game after several years and tried your mod, works great. I did one Don playthrough and now I wanted to do a 2nd playthrough as a mage but I have this weird bug... When you join them and get brought to your room, the Inquisitor is standing there at the corpse but doesn't initialize any conversation with me and I couldn't talk with him at all so it didn't start the "Find Hemlar's murderer" quest at all, I just ignored it and continued with the rest of the quests there and am in ch2 but was wondering if you knew what could have caused it? I doubt its this mod right?
Hm, could be. I made the mod when I was already at chapter 2, so I did not ran into that bug. The unofficial patch fixes a lot of dialog files, maybe here is an inconsistency? I have to look into it!
Alright, let me know! Btw I like the thought of introducing the Cleaver weapon as a craftable but I didn't feel it was worth it stat-wise. It's a 40 dmg 25 str req weapon that you need to craft, learn to craft (5 LP + 100g) + pay 100 for the recipe, while we can buy a 36 dmg 20 str req or 48 dmg 30 str req axes just for gold. The crafted one even feels like the worst value per stat out of these 3. You could argue the cost of crafting you need to do anyways for later weapons but at the beginning of the game the LPs are tight and would be more beneficial to put those 5 LPs into str and just get a higher dmg weapon for gold IMO... just my thought ^^
Btw when does the black pearl necklace become available to craft? How does that actually work in the game, is it chapter based? I really like the idea of the amulet, especially as a mage or order warrior since you can't learn pickpocket lvl 3 at all. Im in ch2 rn and cant craft it while on my first playthrough I can see it available in ch4. I would make it available from ch2 since you can learn pickpocket lvl 3 as a Don member by then (even sooner) but it would make sense for us to get it in ch2 to be able to utilise it, IMO
Ah yes the cleaver... Im not that experienced in axe fighting. I thought it was a good idea to have a low stat requirement weapon available, since you don't have that much strength in the beginning of the game, but appeareantly i did not consider the other axes available directly from the start. Doesn't make sense, if the weapon is immedeately outclassed by an other weapon you can get from the same guy.
I didn't find the bug with the inquisitor yet and i don't have time to mod in the next weeks, i will look into that later in detail.
The black pearl necklace should be available in chapter one. You just have to buy the black pearl from Jack, it should tell you the ingriedients in the item description.
Yeah, I would change up the stats of cleaver somehow so it stands out in some way.
I just tried the Inquisitor bug again by just letting myself be recruited by them and joining as a order warrior and again, I get brought to my room and Inquisitor is just stuck standing there with no dialogue.
Great with the black pearl necklace, definitely worth getting asap, thanks
And there is another bugged quest for me, the "Open the great gate". It doesn't trigger as complete at all after opening it. It should trigger completed after you inform Mendoza you found the 2nd winch but it doesn't, it happened in the first playthrough and now in 2nd as well. Can you also look into it if it's because of the mod?
Hi, im back at looking into those issues, but could not find any cause!
I tried to trigger both your events.
I let myself get caught, was brought into the volcano fortress, was shown around by 'Bruno' (german localization) and found the Inquisitor in my room and he gave me the quest, as expected. I took the changes from the unoffical patch: https://www.worldofrisen.de/download_82.htm. None of these changes affect this event.
The second one could be linked to a change from the unofficial patch. If yes, the dialog of doubt is this one: KALVERAMX2B_00102. I must make a playthrough to get to this point, to see if this dialog really causes this problem.
I played with the new 64bit update, this mod is made for. Did you use the original release?
Hey, long time... its weird that you didnt get the same issues as me. Im playing the new 64 bit update as well, using public beta on steam tho so idk if that might have caused it? It shouldn't be the case tho.
Hey, afaik the public beta branch is just a collection of patches for the 64 bit version, doesn't work perfect but fixed some stuff like the parry etc. And other than those 2 things I mentioned everything worked flawlessly with your mod.
Ah, that might be the problem! I guess the public beta also provides a libraries.p0x file, where the fix for the combat is in. Maybe there are some interferences here.
I use the GOG version, so i don't have the beta. I will take a look into it, when i have time again.
Edit: I checked it out. Its indeed my mod causing the problem with this quest. Thats very strange, as the mod does not even change the dialog file related to this quest. Because the new dev team does not use the patch mechanism provided by Piranha Bytes, but edit the library.pak directly, i guess the mod does include a non altered dialog file, which unchanges something the current devs have changed. This may cause the problem.
I will try if it helps, if i just compile the edited dialog files and not all.
Edit²: Sadly i can't fix this. I tried to compile just the changed dialog files, but this lead to endless now missing dialogs in game.
Note for the future: I could try to take the library.pak file from the compiled folder in the public beta, move it to a 32bit Risen installation, dump the raw files and sort the files by changed date. Hopefully the dialog files, which very edited for the public beta, stand out, so i can look into them. If all files are changed at the same date i guess i have no chance in finding the file causing the problems.
Oh, I see... that's a shame. Will you still try to fix it? With the method you mentioned at the end, taking the file from the public beta? I would like to use your mod when I do another playthrough and ideally if everything works xD Which quest are you talking about btw? The "Find Hemlar's murderer" or "Open the great gate"? I mentioned both and neither is working. Also, are you planning to add anything else to the mod or change something in the future?
Hm, i will try, but i can't promise it will work then. If my plan works out, i will just have to move the edited file from the public beta to my mod and it should work. But i don't know what else they might have changed and if there are some more file dependencies to discover.
I wanted to leave the mod that way. Do you have more suggestions?
I'm using the Risen Improvements Pack mod and literally no other, and the glitch with the inquisitor not starting a conversation with me about the Hemlar murder happened for me as well. Kalib spoke to me, mentioned the Inquisitor was in my room, then bailed, and then the Inquisitor ignores me indefinitely. Upon reloading the save, I made sure to get to my room before Kalib and the Inquisitor immediately spoke to me like normal. I therefore suspect the cause is the Inquisitor attempting to speak to you while Kalib is speaking to you, but since the player is in a conversation with another NPC, for some reason this specific trigger bugs out and never continues whereas that very same thing doesn't happen with other npcs trying to force you into a conversation at the same time (to my knowledge). It could also be related to how Aric and Kalib both force you into a conversation in basically the same spot on your way to your room, and maybe the game is queuing forced-conversation triggers in a weird order it doesn't know how to get itself back out of? I noticed on my successful attempt from my reload that speaking to Aric while not far enough toward Kalib for him to try and speak to me too was a small difference I also performed on that second attempt.
Either way, whatever is causing this specific issue is shared with Risen Improvements Pack changes, but fortunately jank-ing your way through this lovely old janky game is once again the solution to any jank you come across. That's why cheating and multiple saves are always your friend no matter what. Hope you have a save from before this glitch occurs, or you really are just stuck and your only hope would be looking into trying to manually start specific quests with console commands.
Hey, thanks for reporting your findings, did you get into the volcano already? There was another bugged quest for me, the "Open the great gate". It doesn't trigger as complete at all after opening it. It should trigger completed after you inform Mendoza you found the 2nd winch but it doesn't. I wonder if you had the same issue as well or not.
One thing bothers me a lot is why a magic crystal now costs 10 mana...it's like being a magician and only having half the power, can't they set it back to 5?
Last time i checked the Magic Crystal still costs 5 mana to shoot. Also my mod does not contain a change for that item. Do you have any other mods installed?
Do you use the next-gen-version of Risen, not the Beta-version from Steam, not the original DVD-Release? Did you start a new game or did you use an existing save file? The items will be put into the traders inventories at the chapter transition. So if you are already in Chapter 3, you can't get the items which were put into the inventories at Chapter 1,2,3.
I fixed it, I was just being an Idiot. I tested the mod with a new game on the next gen version, but I forgot that chapter 1 doesnt start instantly, but you need to play a bit to get the dialogue with Sara. This refreshes the trader inventory, and now everything seems to be in order. Thank you very much :D
My bigest gripe with this 64bit version, is the health and mana bar so high, why the devs maked this stupid change? Can someone revert to the original frame?
I uploaded a new version of this mod, fixing two things:
The double bladed obsidian staff had missing textures, which resulted in weird lighting issues, when used.
Made the recipe for the Cleaver a lot cheaper and adjusted the damage to fit in the line with the other axe weapons
I did not make the Cleaver better than the Bearded Axe, because the Bearded Axe is bigger. Would not have made sense, if the smaller weapon makes more damage. I know the usefulness of the Cleaver and the Small Obsidian Axe is at least questionable, since there are better weapons to buy at the point, where the axes become available. Just see it as an enhancement of selection. As i mentioned in the original post. this mod does not want to rebalance.
First off, great mod. I really feels like it completes the game. However, there are some issues with it: -some of the item icons are jumbled (ex: the common Stone icon is now that of a Fire Crystal; some keys icons, like Jack's Key, have an Ice Crystal icon; the Golden Plates from the Harbor Town quest now have the War Shield icon etc.) -the Leather Helmet texture is all screwy, like it belongs on another mesh or something. -the Cleaver (the axe you craft with the blueprint from Oscar) is missing the mesh file. It's just invisible. -the War Shield (the one that some guards from Harbor Town wear) now looks like a Paladin shield from Gothic 3. Personally I don't like bringing in aesthetics from other games. Risen should look like Risen, not Gothic. -the Rune Shield (Patroscan's shield) has a rusted worn out look to it. This might not be a bad thing but now the light reflection on it is a bit screwy. Only half of the shield reflects light at a time, depending on the angle. -some of the item names are screwy. Here's a couple of examples: the Berseker Sword is now called Mighty Axe... for some reason; the Runesword is now called Unknown Sword. There might be more examples but I can't remember them now. -I'm not very sure, but I'll mention it anyway: with this mod installed I can't leave Harbor Town anymore via the gate guards. Every time I selects the "I want to leave town" dialogue option, the game immediately crashes. The same thing happens after I kill the Lizardmen Hunting Party with Drok (the twice captive ogre that you set free). When the last lizardman is dead Drok tells me that his honor debt has been repaid and the game crashes. I've played Risen with a lot of other mods and I've never experienced these issues, so I'm gonna assume they're from this mod.
Other than these issues that I've come across on so far, the mod is great. I especially like the magic balancing and the dexterity swords which feel like they should have been in the game all along. I have some suggestions, however, to further improve the mod and keep the vanilla feel of the game intact: -the Master Epee and the Katana do too much damage i.m.o. The Katana does 80 damage same as the Titan Sword and I really think it shouldn't. The Titan weapons need to be in a class of their own. -give the Epee 50 damage and +1 to sword fighting, the Master Epee 60 damage (instead of 70) and +2 to sword fighting, and the Katana 70 damage and +2 to sword fighting and slightly increase their DEX requirement (they are, after all, backup weapons for archers). -the pearl necklace requires 8 pearls to craft and that's too much. 8 pearls sell for 56 gold and a pearl necklace sells for 60 gold. The profit isn't enough. It doesn't feel like the work of crafting it is justified.How about 6 or 5 pearls instead. -the Open Locks rune has always bugged the hell out of me because it requires the 3rd circle. How about changing that to the 2nd circle so It can be used immediately as it's found (on the 3 impossible chests in the Gyrger's lair). -I would recommend reverting the player walking speed back to its normal state. While 5% doesn't help that much with the tediousness of exploration it does make a huge difference when kiting monsters with ranged weapons. This is a major gameplay change, in my opinion, because it's a difficulty influencing element.
This is about it with the constructive criticism. Again, I have to say that I love your mod: the Mage hood, the permanent mana potions crafting, the big Saphire being accessible sooner rather than later, the Inferno spell etc. These are all great changes to the game. The mod addresses a lot of the issues I personally had with Risen. Thanks.
The errors come from the fact i mingled these three existing mods together and put also some of my own changes on top of it. I already noticed some of the errors and will try to fix them.
- Errors with jumbled icon items come from the Risen Extended mod, afair these errors have already been there in the original mod. I'm not sure what i can do about it, lets see - Errors with guardsmen and Dork come from the Unofficial Patch. In the dialogs there are references scripts, which cant be used in the 64bit version. I have to remove the references in the dialog files - I forget to add the Cleaver mesh indeed. I will fix that - The new look of those shields and strings for the swords/axes come from the Risen Extended mod. felsenschmied wanted to bring Gothic Look&Feel to Risen. I tried to revert those changes, but obviously i missed these shields.
Thanks for your suggestions for the item stats, i guess i will implement then as you mentioned.
For the Open Lock and also the Summon Skeleton rune i'm not sure what to do yet. In my current playthrough i see those runes as the reason why a mage should have the 'write scrolls' perk, since you need those runes especially in chapter 2, but you can't have the third circle yet. You can either solve those problems by increasing the wisdom available in chapter 2, so you reach that circle earlier or by lowering the circle requirement for those runes or - as it is now - by writing scrolls. On the other hand the summon skeleton rune is not of much use anymore once you reach chapter 3.
Thanks for the reply. The Open Lock rune should make the creation of scrolls obsolete, that's the whole point of being a mage. The ability to create scrolls is still something that a scholarly fellow should learn, but once he enters the circles I believe that a self respecting mage should never have to craft another scroll in his entire career. At least that's how I roleplay. I know that the game makes scrolls a better option because of the 1/2 mana cost, and the fact that any class can learn them, but to me roleplay is important and a proper mage doesn't cast from scrolls :D. I don't think anything should be done about the Summon Skeleton rune. It's fine at circle 3. The skeleton is a must have for a mage, especially if playing on hard, and summoning Fred at will shouldn't be an easy thing. The Open Lock is a utility spell that should make the distinction between a mage and everybody else very clear. If it were up to me, Open Lock would be a circle 1 rune that would be obtainable as soon as possible... maybe in the monastery library. But anyway, that's just my opinion
Oh, and another thing I remembered. The Cleaver axe (the one without the mesh) is pretty weak, considering that it requires a lvl 2 in smithing to craft. It's completely outclassed by the Bearded Axe (48 damage - 30 STR - 400 gold to buy). To make it worthwhile in any kind of way I suggest increasing its damage from 34 to 40, give it a 25 STR requirement and reduce the smithing level requirement to 1. You could also make the blueprint a bit more expensive (100 gold instead of 70) to not have the whole thing be too much of a bargain but, as it stands, the weapon is completely useless. It makes no sense to spend money and learning points on smithing that early in the game when you can just buy a much better axe.
P.S. I've discovered another texture issue, this time with the guard Helmet (the one with 3 defense). The left half of the helmet is transparent. The textures for the Titan Crossbow and Ursegor's Armor set are also funked.
I fixed the mentioned problems and implemented your suggestions. As soon as a mod declares the file as malware free, you can try the version 1.3 out!
I did not manage to fix the leather helmet. And im also not sure if the titan armor and crossbow look like they suppose to look. Funny thing is the mod does not include mesh changes for these items and also the textures those meshes use have not been altered. Very odd.
The armor and crossbow definitely didn't look right. Too bad I didn't make a screenshot. Anyway, it's great that you fixed the other issues. I had some other suggestions regarding the two swords you have to forge from pieces scattered across the map, Stormwind and Souldrinker, to be more precise. The vanilla stats of those swords suck. They're supposed to be great weapons of legend, with unique names and models, and after you manage to find the pieces and assemble them, they're immediately outclassed by the Obsidian swords. How about you give Stormwind the same stats as an Obsidian Bastard sword and Souldrinker the stats of an Obsidian Two-handed sword. Both of these weapon types require the same level of smithing, they're similarly difficult to acquire, so they should have the same stats. Then the choice between obsidian weapons and the legendary swords would only be an esthetic one. Stormwind and Souldrinker have a great unique look to them and it's a shame that once you finally get to forge them you discover that they're useless. Anyhow, thanks for all the great work you put into the mod.
I've discovered another issue: the Black Pearl Necklace is completely bugged. At the goldsmithing station no icon appears when trying to create the necklace and, after you've crafted it, nothing appears in your inventory and the ingredients disappear. Also, at the station it doesn't really say that you're making a necklace, it just has the same inventory description as the black pearl itself. It's a shame because it would have been cool to craft a unique amulet that gave you some skill bonuses, something similar to the unique Black Pearl Earring from Risen II. If I find any more errors I'll post them here: -the Cutlass looks like the Orcslayer sword from the Gothic games. Not exactly an error, but I felt I had to mention it.
Oh, okay. That means the black pearl necklace have not been in the original game and felsenschmied made the item icon himself... Thats very unfortunate, because in order to put a new item icon in the game, you have to replace an existing one. This was the reason, why the item icons were jumbled in the initial version of this mod. That gives us two possible solution:
Let the black pearl necklace have the same inventory icon as the normal pearl necklace
Remove the black pearl necklace from the mod again.
If you still want to do something about the Black Pearl necklace here are a couple of suggestions: -if you don't want to create a new icon for the necklace you could give it the Fire Protection Amulet's icon. It kinda looks like a black pearl anyway, just with some fire effects on it... whatever. Another option would be to give it the icon of the Amulet of the Don's Family. It's a unique item that you have to get rid of anyway, and it kinda looks like a pearl necklace, just not very black, unfortunately, but good enough. -as for the properties of the amulet... the best idea that I can come up with is to give it a +1 bonus to all thief skills (lockpick, pickpocket and sneak). It would make it useful all throughout the game, but only as a thieving tool, not your main amulet and it would be thematically similar the the Risen II Black Pearl Earring that gave you a +1 bonus to Cunning (which governed the thieving talents). Pretty appropriate for a future pirate, I think.
I looked into the matter with the Cutlass. The mesh has not been altered, but appeareantly felsenschmied altered the texture the cutlass is using. Because this is the same file which also contains the texture-changes of the obsidian weapons, i won't adress this. The sword does also not look to bad. ;)
The stats of a black pearl necklace sound interesting. I have doubts, because there is only one black pearl in the game and it is available in chapter 1, right away. I want to prevent you can cheese yourself through the game without learning any thievery skills. You can already find a sneak ring in the harbour town. I hover between +1 lockpicking and +1 pickpocket. Usually no one learns all 3 levels of lockpicking, since you can open the few level 3 chests with scrolls instead. An amulet providing this skill makes you independent of that, which can be pretty useful. Usually no one learns pickpocketing at all, because the skill is not that rewarding. So a black pearl necklace could also be used to give you that skill, so you can get at least some extra cash. After chapter 1 it becomes irrevant anyway.
The idea was to create an all around thieving item that removes the need to switch both a ring (for sneak) and an amulet when you're going on a thieving spree. A +1 to lockpicking would indeed save you 5 learning points (because it's very tedious to open impossible chests via lockpicking so going to lvl 3 in that skill, either by learning it or with an item bonus, isn't worth it) but if the amulet gives you +1 to pickpocketing as well, you'd be encouraged to spend points on that skill as well. For just +1 bonus to pickpocketing I wouldn't spend any learning points on the skill, but if I'm using the 5 learning points that I would have spent on lockpicking for pickpocketing, I'd be encouraged to spend another 5 points to get it to lvl 3 (via necklace). A level 3 pickpocketing is required for 5 or 6 npcs, important ones like Don Esteban and Ignatius, sure, which have some nice stuff on them, but nothing spectacular (no permanent stat potions like in Gothic 2), so learning two levels of pickpocketing would only be worth it if you spend just 5 points on them. That's how I see it, anyway.
P.S. Reforging Stormwind currently requires lvl 1 in smithing. It should require lvl 2... it is a bastard sword, after all.
I uploaded a new version, including the changes you suggested:
Made strombringer and souldrinker better, by giving them a damage and skill boost
Included black pearl necklace providing boni for both lockpicking and pickpocket
I did not alter the crafting cost for the bastard sword, because i'm not trying to do an unofficial patch here. This is a minor illogical inconvinience for me, but nothing breaking the fun with the game in any way.
You can also alter item stats yourself, if you want to. Thats quite easy to do. You need the mod tools risenaut, risenpak and Tpledit. You open the templates.pak/.p0x file with risenaut and remove the write protection from the file you want to edit. Then you open the file with Tpledit and change the stats you want to. You save the file, put it into a folder named 'templates' and pack it using risenpak. If you increase the file extenstion to be one higher than the present one (e.g. .p02 over .p01), it overwrites the lower version in the game.
Great. Thanks for the modding tips. Everything looks good at this point. I'm currently doing another playthrough and I haven't discovered any other issues. Exiting the town via guards is working, selling pearl necklaces crafted by you actually gives a 25g profit (you don't get rich with them, but it makes crafting them feel worthwhile), the item icons are back to normal, the wonky textures have been fixed (even the Leather Helm looks ok), the Cleaver that you craft is very good as a cheap early game weapon etc. Too bad you didn't give the Black Pearl Necklace a bonus to sneak as well, so I wouldn't have to switch 2 items in the inventory when I'm thieving, but it's a minor inconvenience anyway. All and all the changes added by your mod feel like they complete the game, like they should have been part of it from the beginning. Great work.
P.S. If I stumble upon any other issues I'll continue to post them here, If you don't mind.
Hello, the mage hood will be mingled then, because it uses an original texture, which was altered. Otherwise texture mods might work. Best is you just try it out! You don't need to start a new game to use textures, so you can just add/delete the images.p0x files as you want to!
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Btw I like the thought of introducing the Cleaver weapon as a craftable but I didn't feel it was worth it stat-wise. It's a 40 dmg 25 str req weapon that you need to craft, learn to craft (5 LP + 100g) + pay 100 for the recipe, while we can buy a 36 dmg 20 str req or 48 dmg 30 str req axes just for gold. The crafted one even feels like the worst value per stat out of these 3.
You could argue the cost of crafting you need to do anyways for later weapons but at the beginning of the game the LPs are tight and would be more beneficial to put those 5 LPs into str and just get a higher dmg weapon for gold IMO... just my thought ^^
I didn't find the bug with the inquisitor yet and i don't have time to mod in the next weeks, i will look into that later in detail.
The black pearl necklace should be available in chapter one. You just have to buy the black pearl from Jack, it should tell you the ingriedients in the item description.
I just tried the Inquisitor bug again by just letting myself be recruited by them and joining as a order warrior and again, I get brought to my room and Inquisitor is just stuck standing there with no dialogue.
Great with the black pearl necklace, definitely worth getting asap, thanks
I tried to trigger both your events.
I let myself get caught, was brought into the volcano fortress, was shown around by 'Bruno' (german localization) and found the Inquisitor in my room and he gave me the quest, as expected. I took the changes from the unoffical patch: https://www.worldofrisen.de/download_82.htm. None of these changes affect this event.
The second one could be linked to a change from the unofficial patch. If yes, the dialog of doubt is this one: KALVERAMX2B_00102. I must make a playthrough to get to this point, to see if this dialog really causes this problem.
I played with the new 64bit update, this mod is made for. Did you use the original release?
I use the GOG version, so i don't have the beta. I will take a look into it, when i have time again.
Edit:
I checked it out. Its indeed my mod causing the problem with this quest. Thats very strange, as the mod does not even change the dialog file related to this quest.
Because the new dev team does not use the patch mechanism provided by Piranha Bytes, but edit the library.pak directly, i guess the mod does include a non altered dialog file, which unchanges something the current devs have changed. This may cause the problem.
I will try if it helps, if i just compile the edited dialog files and not all.
Edit²:
Sadly i can't fix this. I tried to compile just the changed dialog files, but this lead to endless now missing dialogs in game.
Note for the future: I could try to take the library.pak file from the compiled folder in the public beta, move it to a 32bit Risen installation, dump the raw files and sort the files by changed date. Hopefully the dialog files, which very edited for the public beta, stand out, so i can look into them. If all files are changed at the same date i guess i have no chance in finding the file causing the problems.
Also, are you planning to add anything else to the mod or change something in the future?
I wanted to leave the mod that way. Do you have more suggestions?
Upon reloading the save, I made sure to get to my room before Kalib and the Inquisitor immediately spoke to me like normal.
I therefore suspect the cause is the Inquisitor attempting to speak to you while Kalib is speaking to you, but since the player is in a conversation with another NPC, for some reason this specific trigger bugs out and never continues whereas that very same thing doesn't happen with other npcs trying to force you into a conversation at the same time (to my knowledge).
It could also be related to how Aric and Kalib both force you into a conversation in basically the same spot on your way to your room, and maybe the game is queuing forced-conversation triggers in a weird order it doesn't know how to get itself back out of? I noticed on my successful attempt from my reload that speaking to Aric while not far enough toward Kalib for him to try and speak to me too was a small difference I also performed on that second attempt.
Either way, whatever is causing this specific issue is shared with Risen Improvements Pack changes, but fortunately jank-ing your way through this lovely old janky game is once again the solution to any jank you come across. That's why cheating and multiple saves are always your friend no matter what. Hope you have a save from before this glitch occurs, or you really are just stuck and your only hope would be looking into trying to manually start specific quests with console commands.
There was another bugged quest for me, the "Open the great gate". It doesn't trigger as complete at all after opening it. It should trigger completed after you inform Mendoza you found the 2nd winch but it doesn't. I wonder if you had the same issue as well or not.
Can someone revert to the original frame?
I did not make the Cleaver better than the Bearded Axe, because the Bearded Axe is bigger. Would not have made sense, if the smaller weapon makes more damage. I know the usefulness of the Cleaver and the Small Obsidian Axe is at least questionable, since there are better weapons to buy at the point, where the axes become available. Just see it as an enhancement of selection. As i mentioned in the original post. this mod does not want to rebalance.
-some of the item icons are jumbled (ex: the common Stone icon is now that of a Fire Crystal; some keys icons, like Jack's Key, have an Ice Crystal icon; the Golden Plates from the Harbor Town quest now have the War Shield icon etc.)
-the Leather Helmet texture is all screwy, like it belongs on another mesh or something.
-the Cleaver (the axe you craft with the blueprint from Oscar) is missing the mesh file. It's just invisible.
-the War Shield (the one that some guards from Harbor Town wear) now looks like a Paladin shield from Gothic 3. Personally I don't like bringing in aesthetics from other games. Risen should look like Risen, not Gothic.
-the Rune Shield (Patroscan's shield) has a rusted worn out look to it. This might not be a bad thing but now the light reflection on it is a bit screwy. Only half of the shield reflects light at a time, depending on the angle.
-some of the item names are screwy. Here's a couple of examples: the Berseker Sword is now called Mighty Axe... for some reason; the Runesword is now called Unknown Sword. There might be more examples but I can't remember them now.
-I'm not very sure, but I'll mention it anyway: with this mod installed I can't leave Harbor Town anymore via the gate guards. Every time I selects the "I want to leave town" dialogue option, the game immediately crashes. The same thing happens after I kill the Lizardmen Hunting Party with Drok (the twice captive ogre that you set free). When the last lizardman is dead Drok tells me that his honor debt has been repaid and the game crashes. I've played Risen with a lot of other mods and I've never experienced these issues, so I'm gonna assume they're from this mod.
Other than these issues that I've come across on so far, the mod is great. I especially like the magic balancing and the dexterity swords which feel like they should have been in the game all along. I have some suggestions, however, to further improve the mod and keep the vanilla feel of the game intact:
-the Master Epee and the Katana do too much damage i.m.o. The Katana does 80 damage same as the Titan Sword and I really think it shouldn't. The Titan weapons need to be in a class of their own.
-give the Epee 50 damage and +1 to sword fighting, the Master Epee 60 damage (instead of 70) and +2 to sword fighting, and the Katana 70 damage and +2 to sword fighting and slightly increase their DEX requirement (they are, after all, backup weapons for archers).
-the pearl necklace requires 8 pearls to craft and that's too much. 8 pearls sell for 56 gold and a pearl necklace sells for 60 gold. The profit isn't enough. It doesn't feel like the work of crafting it is justified.How about 6 or 5 pearls instead.
-the Open Locks rune has always bugged the hell out of me because it requires the 3rd circle. How about changing that to the 2nd circle so It can be used immediately as it's found (on the 3 impossible chests in the Gyrger's lair).
-I would recommend reverting the player walking speed back to its normal state. While 5% doesn't help that much with the tediousness of exploration it does make a huge difference when kiting monsters with ranged weapons. This is a major gameplay change, in my opinion, because it's a difficulty influencing element.
This is about it with the constructive criticism. Again, I have to say that I love your mod: the Mage hood, the permanent mana potions crafting, the big Saphire being accessible sooner rather than later, the Inferno spell etc. These are all great changes to the game. The mod addresses a lot of the issues I personally had with Risen.
Thanks.
The errors come from the fact i mingled these three existing mods together and put also some of my own changes on top of it. I already noticed some of the errors and will try to fix them.
- Errors with jumbled icon items come from the Risen Extended mod, afair these errors have already been there in the original mod. I'm not sure what i can do about it, lets see
- Errors with guardsmen and Dork come from the Unofficial Patch. In the dialogs there are references scripts, which cant be used in the 64bit version. I have to remove the references in the dialog files
- I forget to add the Cleaver mesh indeed. I will fix that
- The new look of those shields and strings for the swords/axes come from the Risen Extended mod. felsenschmied wanted to bring Gothic Look&Feel to Risen. I tried to revert those changes, but obviously i missed these shields.
Thanks for your suggestions for the item stats, i guess i will implement then as you mentioned.
For the Open Lock and also the Summon Skeleton rune i'm not sure what to do yet. In my current playthrough i see those runes as the reason why a mage should have the 'write scrolls' perk, since you need those runes especially in chapter 2, but you can't have the third circle yet. You can either solve those problems by increasing the wisdom available in chapter 2, so you reach that circle earlier or by lowering the circle requirement for those runes or - as it is now - by writing scrolls. On the other hand the summon skeleton rune is not of much use anymore once you reach chapter 3.
Oh, and another thing I remembered. The Cleaver axe (the one without the mesh) is pretty weak, considering that it requires a lvl 2 in smithing to craft. It's completely outclassed by the Bearded Axe (48 damage - 30 STR - 400 gold to buy). To make it worthwhile in any kind of way I suggest increasing its damage from 34 to 40, give it a 25 STR requirement and reduce the smithing level requirement to 1. You could also make the blueprint a bit more expensive (100 gold instead of 70) to not have the whole thing be too much of a bargain but, as it stands, the weapon is completely useless. It makes no sense to spend money and learning points on smithing that early in the game when you can just buy a much better axe.
P.S. I've discovered another texture issue, this time with the guard Helmet (the one with 3 defense). The left half of the helmet is transparent.
The textures for the Titan Crossbow and Ursegor's Armor set are also funked.
I did not manage to fix the leather helmet. And im also not sure if the titan armor and crossbow look like they suppose to look. Funny thing is the mod does not include mesh changes for these items and also the textures those meshes use have not been altered. Very odd.
I had some other suggestions regarding the two swords you have to forge from pieces scattered across the map, Stormwind and Souldrinker, to be more precise. The vanilla stats of those swords suck. They're supposed to be great weapons of legend, with unique names and models, and after you manage to find the pieces and assemble them, they're immediately outclassed by the Obsidian swords. How about you give Stormwind the same stats as an Obsidian Bastard sword and Souldrinker the stats of an Obsidian Two-handed sword. Both of these weapon types require the same level of smithing, they're similarly difficult to acquire, so they should have the same stats. Then the choice between obsidian weapons and the legendary swords would only be an esthetic one. Stormwind and Souldrinker have a great unique look to them and it's a shame that once you finally get to forge them you discover that they're useless.
Anyhow, thanks for all the great work you put into the mod.
I like the way you think, i will consider to change the stats in the next version.
If I find any more errors I'll post them here:
-the Cutlass looks like the Orcslayer sword from the Gothic games. Not exactly an error, but I felt I had to mention it.
-if you don't want to create a new icon for the necklace you could give it the Fire Protection Amulet's icon. It kinda looks like a black pearl anyway, just with some fire effects on it... whatever. Another option would be to give it the icon of the Amulet of the Don's Family. It's a unique item that you have to get rid of anyway, and it kinda looks like a pearl necklace, just not very black, unfortunately, but good enough.
-as for the properties of the amulet... the best idea that I can come up with is to give it a +1 bonus to all thief skills (lockpick, pickpocket and sneak). It would make it useful all throughout the game, but only as a thieving tool, not your main amulet and it would be thematically similar the the Risen II Black Pearl Earring that gave you a +1 bonus to Cunning (which governed the thieving talents). Pretty appropriate for a future pirate, I think.
The stats of a black pearl necklace sound interesting. I have doubts, because there is only one black pearl in the game and it is available in chapter 1, right away. I want to prevent you can cheese yourself through the game without learning any thievery skills. You can already find a sneak ring in the harbour town. I hover between +1 lockpicking and +1 pickpocket.
Usually no one learns all 3 levels of lockpicking, since you can open the few level 3 chests with scrolls instead. An amulet providing this skill makes you independent of that, which can be pretty useful.
Usually no one learns pickpocketing at all, because the skill is not that rewarding. So a black pearl necklace could also be used to give you that skill, so you can get at least some extra cash. After chapter 1 it becomes irrevant anyway.
P.S. Reforging Stormwind currently requires lvl 1 in smithing. It should require lvl 2... it is a bastard sword, after all.
- Made strombringer and souldrinker better, by giving them a damage and skill boost
- Included black pearl necklace providing boni for both lockpicking and pickpocket
I did not alter the crafting cost for the bastard sword, because i'm not trying to do an unofficial patch here. This is a minor illogical inconvinience for me, but nothing breaking the fun with the game in any way.You can also alter item stats yourself, if you want to. Thats quite easy to do. You need the mod tools risenaut, risenpak and Tpledit.
You open the templates.pak/.p0x file with risenaut and remove the write protection from the file you want to edit. Then you open the file with Tpledit and change the stats you want to. You save the file, put it into a folder named 'templates' and pack it using risenpak. If you increase the file extenstion to be one higher than the present one (e.g. .p02 over .p01), it overwrites the lower version in the game.
All and all the changes added by your mod feel like they complete the game, like they should have been part of it from the beginning. Great work.
P.S. If I stumble upon any other issues I'll continue to post them here, If you don't mind.
the mage hood will be mingled then, because it uses an original texture, which was altered. Otherwise texture mods might work. Best is you just try it out! You don't need to start a new game to use textures, so you can just add/delete the images.p0x files as you want to!