invisibility, again

[Regalis]

The best solution is to have invis add a silenced effect, bump it up to a 3rd level spell if there is great concern about it being overpowered, and make see invisibility and true seeing more prevalent. It's a double-sided equation. You can't control the invisibility side, but you can control the other side to influence the "power" of the ability. Having vendors sell see invis pots, for instance.

Or you can spend another 8 months chasing your tails?

[Sandermann]

I think we have a solution.

What we don't have yet is time to implement it. This isn't a matter of over debating its a matter of finding the time to get it scripted and implemented.

[Zelknolf]

The best solution is to implement functions to handle perception. It's being worked on. But, frankly, the ACR has issues of data integrity and hundreds of literally unnecessary engine calls being repeated in every core script, all of our servers have major (I would argue crippling, as we've had mass quantities of content cut roughly out of modules, with raw nerves leaving hilariously-obvious bugs behind) issues of performance, and our core content can bring down our clients. I'm working on that first, and it's more than a little bit of work to fix these problems without taking any actual power away from DMs.

If you'd like to write an interim solution, Regalis, until we get a function to directly alter a given creature's perception finished, feel free to write that and put it in front of the admin.

[Regalis]

I did write one that was text based.

If you weren't in search mode, you got your rolls halved or whatever it's supposed to be. If your listen beat the move silent but did not pinpoint, you got a message that you thought you heard something.

If you made the pinpoint roll for either listen or spot, it told you what direction and how far.

Additionally, I had planned to create a feat that would have a 50% chance to pop invis in a small radius if the character had recently made a successful detection roll.

Curm didn't seem much moved.

As far as implementing new functions to handle perception, that solves how creatures interact with PCs and that's not too bad to script. I wrote one that worked when I first started working on the invis issue. IIRC when the NPC whacks a PC, it drops them into the semi-transparent 50% concealment state that it's supposed to. The critical issue is that it is not possible to address PCs detecting other PCs with scripts, which I thought was the more important of the two.

It's good to hear you are optmizing the ACR. It looked sorely needed when I browsed them looking up the vaultster code.

[Zelknolf]

Yes, you are correct that there are no existing functions to just directly edit perception. That's why they need to be made; fortunately, ALFA is perfectly comfortable using a shell that edits nwn2server's memory directly (see also: NWNx4), and what bits of information I've been able to gather do point toward the notion of it being possible to get the results we're looking for on the client side with memory edits. I'm sure we'd be tickled if you wanted to take that up to get it in sooner, too. Imagine that the NWNx4 forums would do X-rated things to you, too.

[Curmudgeon]

Curm didn't seem much moved.

Sorry, Regalis, I must have missed that one. I'd love to see Invisibility fixed so that it works right. How much will it cost me?

[Regalis]

Well, it was an imperfect solution, but basically worked.

What it did was make the rolls, roughly as they are supposed to work. (Can't really check for intervening materials in a resource efficient manner, so in interior areas the DC scales up much more rapidly with distance. Plus a few other small kludges.)

If you succeed in a basic but not pinpoint check, there is a vague message in the chat box. If you make a pinpoint roll, it gives you a distance and a general direction and pings more rapidly to help you zero in.

If you are a caster, an AOE spell should put the target into the translucent and concealed state.

Everyone would get a feat that would only become clickable when they had sensed somebody. It would represent tossing pixie dust in a small cone in front of them. It should be possible to have it either do the above or outright break invis.

It'll just remind people of their MUD days or something.

[Zelknolf]

How does the AI respond to this?

[Regalis]

Well keep in mind it's closing in on a year since I did this, but IIRC NPCs can attack players just fine when given the command to. The players get their 50% concealment.

I believe I had it set so that when NPCs succeeded on a passive, non-pinpoint check they would go into search mode (+10 to rolls) temporarily. A pinpoint success would do a faction check and attack if hostile.

As I understand it, NPC on NPC works correctly.

More complex logic like moving towards the sound or something should be possible.