ALFA Release Notes v1.86

This document records the changes and the state at the time of documentation accompanying the release, on April 28th when it was released.

Change Log

New Systems:

Servers that are under significant load are now capable of adjusting the object update timers on logged in players, in order to recover performance when the server is very busy. The object update timer will now range from once every 200ms to once every 600ms, depending upon the current load of the server.
It is now possible to tool regions in game where swimming is possible, with correct mechanics and animations, both with and without breathable air above. Players are encouraged to use caution when going through such areas-- it is very possible to drown, and very possible to die while attempting to rescue dive.
When a DM attempts to open the Player List (default pressing P), they will now receive a report of players logged onto the same server. More verbose notes of its function below.
ALFA now provides a system for the automated crafting of magic consumable items. The player-facing documentation exists here, and the state of the documentation at the time of this rollout is copied below.

Fixed Systems:

The chat list GUI will be more accurate when deciding whether to display /t or #t before a given character's name in the list box.
"Players" and "DMs" in the chat list box read "Local Players," "Remote Players," "Local DMs," and "Remote DMs" when expanded, and include the number of people in each group in parenthesis.
If a player logs out with the chat list expanded, that player will no longer be missing lists of remote players and DMs upon returning.
Our systems for detecting the Client Extender will now refresh every time a player logs in, and players can expect to more-consistently see functionality that best uses their chosen client.
Log file entries are now written when a PC is saved from death by the damage cap.
Treants are now huge, not medium, creatures.
Corpses now decay in 20 days, instead of 55.
Players who are healed from negative to positive hit points are capable of again being saved from death by the damage cap immediately.
Players who are struck multiple times within a flurry will be saved from death by the damage cap for that flurry, and will again be made killable during the next.
People who speak drow can understand both drow and elven, and vice versa.
Custom loading screens introduced in ACR v1.84 are again visible and functional
Custom loading screens introduced in ACR v1.84 are now visible to DMs who are jumping through areas by use of functionality like the chooser.
The spell preparation GUI associated with offline rests will no longer claim that you've created a bug when double clicked.
Paladins and Rangers need to be level 4 to prompt the offline resting spell preparation functionality.
Divine Spellcasters can no longer get a second spell preparation on their first day online.
NPCs who are attacking characters who are incorrectly labeled as flat-footed (either because of not being actively engaged in combat at the moment or because they have uncanny dodge) will receive a penalty to attack which will require them to roll the same number on their d20 to hit their target as if the engine had not counted them as flat-footed. This fix does not (yet) prevent sneak attacks made on characters who are incorrectly seen as flat-footed.
The chat commands #hideremoteplayers on and #hideremoteplayers off can be used to make the chat list GUI not display players from other servers.
Fatigue when resting follows the SRD guidelines: resting in medium or heavy armor will always restult in fatigue, and resting in light armor will never result in fatigue.
New copies of the DMFI tool will be weightless
Walkmesh helpers are now deleted as part of a module's startup event-- while leaving the walkmeshes they created intact. The effect of this change will be fewer objects present in any given area and fewer visual artifacts, such as red sparkles on the ground or black blocks in the air.
KEMO chairs will be much more adamant about restoring typical collision calculation after moving away from them. It remains an exploit to use KEMO chairs to subvert collisions, and attempting to do so outside of the context of supervised testing can expect censure.

New Models

Half-Elf and Drow Male heads 42, 44, 45
Jaeson's tapestry pack of placeables.

New Feats

A series of placeholder feats for skill foci in ALFA's custom skills have been added. They are presently non-functional, and only represent a place to sink the feat if it was intended to be spent as such.

Known, But Not Fixed

Occasionally, a character's spell book GUI will appear empty as part of the triggering of the offline resting functionality. We believe that this is caused by a race condition (that is, the particular order of events of information received from the server relative to the particular speed at which events are processed by the client), which has proven to be rare. We, thus, have not been able to create a reliable fix for this bug, but we are aware that the downstream effects are serious. If anyone can reliably reproduce this bug, it would help enormously in getting these systems functioning well; until then, players who see a spellbook appear as inappropriately empty should relog.

1.86 Hotfix
We also resolved a few issues with this release in a hotfix, namely:

Bad logic in the player reports, resulting in many unnecessary invalid textures
An inadvertently-killed self-check in the IPC code, causing cross-server tells to function uncommonly-slowly (roughly 5x slower, in fact)
Some performance and logic issues on the Phat Lewt system.

Crafting:

Magical crafting requires several things:

A crafting project. This is an item signifying a work in progress. Consumable crafting projects can be created by players with the appropriate consumable crafting feats. Other projects must be DM-created.
A quiet work area. In ALFA this means PCs can only work on crafting projects in places where they'd ordinarily be able to rest comfortably (inside rest triggers). Tents out in the wilderness do not cut it.
The necissary feat (Craft Wand, Brew Potion, Scribe Scroll, Craft Arms and Armor, etc.).
The proper spells imbued into the item. In the case of consumables, the needed spell is always the spell cast by the consumable. In the case of permanent magic items, the needed spells (if any) are automatically picked by the crafting system and depend on the nature of the item. These spells can come from anything: a scroll, wand, another PC, etc.
Gold. The cost to create consumables is paid for up-front, though other crafting projects are pay-as-you-go.
Experience. Crafting is a drain on experience. A PC loses experience as they craft, though they cannot lose a level doing so. If their XP total would drop below their last level, crafting becomes impossible.
Magic power. The person doing the crafting work (not imbuing the spell) must have a caster level equal to or exceeding the minimum caster level required to craft the item.

To examine the costs, needed spells, and minimum caster level of a crafting project, simply examine it.

Creating Crafting Projects

Players can "purchase" consumable crafting projects by using the appropriate feat (Brew Potion, Scribe Scroll, Craft Wand). This will open a store allowing the player to purchase any item they have a high enough caster level to create. Note the store includes items the character may not have the ability to imbue with the proper spells - this is intentional, as the character may wish to create something which needs the hepl of others.

Purchasing something from the "store" represents the character gathering the necissary ingredients to create the purchased item, and should be roleplayed as such. There are no refunds, so chose wisely.

Experimental:

DMs can create crafting projects out of any item. To do this, they simply use their Craft feat (in the same manner a player would) on an item. This turns it into a crafting project, which can be worked on like any other. Note that if a DM saves a crafting project on their avatar, the project will be ruined due to technical limitations. The game will worn a DM acquiring a crafting project. They should be left in the hands of PCs.

DMs can complete a crafting projects by using the Craft feat from their avatar on it. Note this will destroy any saved progress made by PCs.

Doing the Work:

To craft:

Examine the item to see what spells are needed (if any).
Cast those spell(s) on the item.
Acquire the necissary GP and XP.
Use the 'Craft' feat (which all characters have; it can be dragged onto a toolbar slot from the feats list in the character window) on the item while inside a rest zone.
Repeat as necissary to complete the item.

Known Issues:

Many consumable prices are a few percent off, due to the annoying way NWN2 calculates item prices. I'm looking into this.
In the case of oddball crafters (rangers, paladins, bards, sometimes even clerics or druids) the price of some consubles will be off. Because we are limited in how many different combinations of items, prices and caster levels we can represent, we have to make best guesses on who will be crafting what. This means guessing the most common spell level, and going with it.
DMs cannot convert stacks of items into crafting projects.
Trying to "use" an unfinished project will make a potion unusable until resting. It will also deplete charges of an ability which consumes multiple charges per use. Don't use unfinished projects. They don't work anyhow.
The description of crafted items is often destroyed. I'm looking into this one.
Projects saved into DM or local-vault character files will be made uncraftable and unusable.
Turning an unidentified item into a crafting project will make that project completely free.

Player Report

Beginning with this version, DMs who open the Player List (by default, "P" is mapped to this GUI) will only briefly see the default Player List, while our scripts verify (for security reasons) that they are indeed DMs logged in as DMs before it is replaced by the ALFA Player Report. This report is more directed toward DMs, and focuses on player groups and tracking, and has removed the player-facing functionality for character vs. character hostility management, joining parties, and managing party leadership.

As such, the interface reads differently:
Party Membership is color coded on the Player Report. These colors are assigned and re-assigned to parties at the moment the Player Report is opened, so this will only be consistent between DMs if it is opened by both DMs with no players logging in or out in between the instances of color assignments. There are seven "teams" that the Player Report is capable of displaying: blue, cyan, red, magenta, green, brown, and grey.
Character Alignment is represented by the default NWN2 icons, in a column next to the character name.
Character Deity is represented by the deity's holy symbol-- or blank, if none-- in a column beside the character's alignment
Character Primary Class is represented by the class' default icon. If the character has a prestige class, it will display that icon; if the character is multiclassed without a prestige class, it will display the higher-level class' icon. If all class selections are equal, it will display the one taken at level 1.
Character Wealth Level is represented by new icons: an out-turned pocket represents characters who have less than half of their target wealth (and thus desparately need loot). A stack of copper coins represents characters who have more than half of their target wealth, but less than target (and thus need loot). A stack of gold coins represents characters who have at least their target wealth, but less than 150% of their target wealth (and thus can advance some before anyone has to worry about loot). A pile of gold coins and bars represents a character who has more than 150%, but less than 200%, of their target wealth (and thus could stand to waste or give away some money, and should probably actively have their rewards reduced). A money bag with an exclamation point represents a character who has more than 200% of their target wealth (and is thus ineligible for any wealth-related drops, and should likely have their items evaluated for appropriateness and Standards/ guidelines compliance).
Player Play Style is not yet implemented. In the future, it will contain icons representing a suit of cards representing play style, by Bartle's taxonomy (clubs for killers; spades for explorers; diamonds for achievers; hearts for socialites) and colored by the GNR theory (red for gamist; green for simulationist; blue for narrativist). For instance, a green spade would represent a cliche tech person.

In addition:
Double Clicking a character on this list will teleport the DM avatar to the character, if that character is far away. Double Clicking again, or when the character is nearby initially, will cause the DM avatar to autofollow the chosen character.

In addition, there are buttons associated with the new display. By selecting a player row and clicking the button, different acts can be accomplished:
Allow Rest overrides the resting restrictions placed on characters in game, allowing them to immediately take perform a typical rest.
Allow Study overrides the study and prayer restrictons placed on characters in game, allowing them to immediately prepare spells.
View Inventory opens the Inventory Report (below) for the selected player.
Boot Player functions as the one on the Player Report, excepting that the player receives a message indicating who did the booting, and the event is logged.

Inventory Report

Beginning with this version, an inventory report is available and can be accessed through the Player Report, above. It is designed to be more-focused on the concerns and items monitored inside of ALFA than the DMFI tool currently presented. With this release, the DMFI Inventory Tool is still supported in ALFA, as the Inventory Report does not replace all of its functionality.

When the report first opens, it displays all of the player's equipped items in a table format with four columns:
Item Icon is the icon used to represent the item in the player's inventory.
Item Name is the assigned name of the item, as it will appear through the typical inventory interface and the logs.
Item Value is the assigned gold-piece value of the item.
Item Level is the lowest level at which the item would be considered an appropriate drop.

Equipped Items appear at the top of the list, and are tinted gold.
Cursed Items appear with violet text, which is brighter when equipped.
Stolen Items appear with green text, which is brighter when equipped.
Plot Items appear with cyan text, which is brighter when equipped.

In addition:
Double Clicking an item will take that item from the character.
Clicking and Dragging an item from your inventory, provided that item was in your inventory when your avatar logged in or has moved since you acquired it, will give that item to the character.

The bar immediately above the table presents the character's current wealth, on the far left, followed by how far off they are from the nearest milestone presuming a push toward target wealth. For example, a character who has less than 50% of target wealth (which was 30,000 gold), by 1500 gold, the line would read:
"13,500 | 1500 below Low End (15,000)" -- presumably this would be more useful for characters whose wealth is in an "emergency" status (that is: how much must this change for us to no longer define the situation as extreme?) while still providing useful feedback about typical characters (that is: how far off the mark is this character and in what direction?)

There are also three buttons along the top of the UI which clarify the status of the selected item and allow one to toggle certain features:
(Un)Curse is represented by the Bestow Curse (if the item is not currently cursed) or Remove Curse (if it is) icon. Clicking will toggle the cursed status of the selected item.
(Un)Stolen is represented by the Pick Pockets icon (if the item is not stolen) or the Pick Pockets icon surrounded by the blue circle typically used to indicate removal (if the item is stolen). Clicking will toggle the stolen status of the selected item.
(Un)Plot is represented by the Neverwinter Nights icon, which changes color based on the plot status of the item. Clicking will toggle the plot status of the selected item.

Swimming

This release, ALFA adds automated support for swimming. Areas that are capable of handling swimming are added by builders, and no watery area follows swimming rules until the build team has had a chance to convert the areas.

Players should be aware that mobility while swimming is extremely restricted for PCs who wear armor, and for PCs who are encumbered-- and that both is certain death in water too deep to stand in. By default, Water Genasi are able to breathe under water indefinitely and move with their swim speed (30'/ rd) without checks. Other characters must succeed at a swim check to move at 50% speed. Characters can hold their breath for their constitution score * 12 seconds (for example, a character with 12 constitution gets 2 minutes and 24 seconds) before making constitution checks of escalating difficulty. Failure on a constitution check will cripple the character that round, place the character into negative hit points in the next round, and kill them on the final round. Magic healing, if provided, can slowly and awkwardly stave this effect off, but it does not provide breathable air, and the character will still be suffocating. Spells which stop a character's metabolism (Living Undeath, Stone Body, Iron Body) will halt suffocation, but it will begin again where it left off once the spell expires, and movement restrictions imposed (such as by Stone Body or Iron Body) stack with movement restrictions imposed by the water.

Water breathing, as the spell, is not yet implemented.

Builders may tool areas as this by placing a walkmesh 1.15 meters below the surface of the water and laying a water trigger down (if the expectation is that the character will be swimming on top of the water) with the specification that breathable air -is- available. If the expectation is that characters are swimming under water, such as under a flooded tunnel or to escape some hazard on the surface of the water, place the walkmesh more than 2 meters below the surface of the water and use a swimming trigger with the specification that there is -not- breathable air available.