Zap Gun For Hire

Also a game mechanic to consider: Your crew doesn't consume food/drink when one is off ship, and won't even get paid at certain ports. Maybe they're off fishing somewhere or boozing it up in a town if you're at port. So even if one doesn't like the fact that your crew is eating you out of house and home, that can be mitigated with clever sailing. And, as said, Rice Wine and Ale is cheap (especially if it is bought at certain stores) and so is Rice and other +0 food. Even keeping the crew at the initial state of +70 isn't a big deal in the grand scheme of things. No one says you HAVE to get your crew to 100 morale. Just hire folks you think you like and dump the ones who offend your sensibilities. Plenty of sailors looking for work at various ports, after all.

You don't have to attack other ships. +0 morale food/drink is fairly cheap. Gold, to buy said food/drink, even for strict Ultra Good Folks, is fairly plentiful. There are random events/encounters on the World Map which can boost morale of the crew. So, sure, the game makes it easy to be a pirate. It certainly will give you many advantages and little to no disadvantages. But near as I can tell it doesn't force one to act like a pirate. Especially if you tell all the people who are trying to get you to act like a pirate to shove off. === NOTE: The difference between being a pirate, a mercenary, and a privateer can be a mighty thin one indeed. Especially for a place where just who is in charge can be... fluid. The game lets one be a merc fairly easily. This much is true. Whether one thinks of one as a mercenary or if one chooses to cover themselves in a veneer of respectability is up to the Watcher in question.

That's because they're not summons, as near as I can tell, but part of the encounter. They show up on the map (technically crawling out of the ground) when Mama Cass gets to Hurt/Bloodied/Near Death for the first time, as well as at the beginning of the encounter. Also, this is one of those encounters where aggro is never broken. Which is why I mentioned/thought of Chanter Cheese in the first place, as their abilities never stop. As an aside, thinking Chanters might be pretty useful in the Magran's challenge where one technically can't run away. I presume that means aggro is never broken once it starts. Which gives a decided advantage to folks who can run far distances away quickly and summon scores of critters on enemies endlessly. Might need to chip chip chip away. But, hey, if Obsidian wants to make it so combat can't end in some situations, why not take advantage of that situation?

Kinda wonder what happens if one severs the binding of Guardian's Plate and tries to give it to someone else to bind with...

Yeah, that's definitely it alright. A bit of background for those who care. For whatever reason (and maybe it's a JSON standard for all I know), Obsidian is doing a validity check for all Parameter calls. Which is fine for us modders who are just copying and pasting a parameter call. Less fine for those of us changing a parameter call or making an entirely new one. There are a couple of ways Obsidian has designed the engine to handle this. If I recall correctly (and I might not!), one way is to make it so a new validity check will work is to take one that looks like this: "FunctionHash": 901380568, "ParameterHash": 1860858659 and instead turn it into this: "FunctionHash": 0000000000, "ParameterHash": 0000000000 The other way Obsidian allows it is to just leave out the validity check altogether and the game engine will do it on its own in the background. I presume (and, yes, it's dangerous to presume ) that's why the game engine wasn't choking on those extra commas; it was then doing the validity checks on its own in the background. Which makes me hesitiant to strip them. I suppose I could see what is happening when I leave that comma out there. If it still works, I suppose I'll clean up the code the next time I update this mod. If that causes the mod to stop working, I suppose I'll grit my teeth and put in the blank validity check. If only for future proofing. So, again, thanks for the heads up, maplejar. I'll play around with it over the next few days when I have the time and see what happens when I attempt to 'clean up' the code.

Oh, I think I see what might be happening. Might be complaining that it's the last function being called in an array which shouldn't have a comma then. Huh. Strange that it was working though. *thinks* Ah. Could be the partial override system at play, perhaps. What I did was just plain ignore the "unreal" call as I didn't want to mess around with it. So the Deadfire interperter is probably putting it in automatically and thus the trailing comma isn't an issue. Yeah, I might want to change it to keep it clean. On the other hand, leaving out the comma might break the code since I don't have Flags/Unreal/FunctionHash/ParameterHash in my code for various reasons. I suppose I can test it to see what happens if I strip out those commas that the checker is bitching about. But I'm kinda afraid it might break the mod. Still, if I must I suppose I can put in 0s in those function checks if I want the code to be clean. So, again, thanks for the heads up. At the very least it was in interesting intellectual exercise.

EDIT:::: Ignore this post please, as I figured out what was going on. See next two posts.

======= EDITED. Mostly ignore this post and the next one, as I figured out what was going on as I pointed out a couple of posts later on. Put in spoiler bars, as most of my slightly confused commenting was offbase. Again, thanks for the heads up.

Got my home mod to work just fine. Maybe something wrong with the mod? Are you doing a challenge that disables mods, by any chance? If not, and the mod is properly structured, sounds like it might be a bug to me.

This is a non-spoiler section of the forum, so I really can't say more than the following. Maybe, just maybe, there is a different way to solve this problem. EDIT::: By the way... Hope you have enough Stealth to actually be able to steal this stuff unobserved.

I've gotten the same thing. It's supposed to be a trap according to the game log, for what it's worth.

Do you think these techniques would work for a level 8 party?Unless you buff out your melee front line up the wazoo, probably not. I mean, using consumables and what not, maaaaaaaaaybe level 8 characters might not get steamrolled. But your best bet is probably Chanter Cheese. Have a chanter constantly send out summoned creatures, get rid of the support types that will show up during the fight as the dragon loses health first, and then slowly whittle the dragon down. Biggest problem with this strat is that it has access to regenerative magic via a drain health from enemies spell (away from computer, so I can't look up the name). The bad news is that it usually lasts 30 seconds, which means it can suck a low level party dry pretty fast. The good news is summons will probably 'wink out' before the duration is over, meaning the dragon won't get as many HPs back as it might. But between its terrify AoE attack, it's huge base damage, its high defenses, and its attack that can drain your hp and convert it to health, this isn't an easy fight. Really, the fight is something of a "are you tall enough to ride this ride" marker. If you can survive that first fight, it's more or less a benchmark for much of the rest of the DLC. But. I dunno, maybe? If one is willing to use consumables/figurines and spend a lot of time grinding and having the perfect party for a single fight, a lot of things can be done super early. Maybe some of the things sold over at th new Deck of Many Things might help. Haven't really checked them out yet. .... Or just hire something like four level 7 Chanters and just spam the battlefield with summoned critters from far away and see what happens. ========= Maybe I'll try it with a level 8/9 party on Casual or a similar level and see just how hard it is to do. Probably doable if one cheeses hard enough. But' it take a lot of tactics and planning with maybe a little bit of luck.

There is one slightly cheesy way to deal with The Messenger. When fighting The Messenger one might note it never moves. Like, ever. However all of the critters which do join the fight can and will move if properly aggroed. So fall back a bit when the next wave of attackers show up, deal with them, and then go back to ol' Chatty. Another, if mega cheesy, way to deal with it is to have a Chanter constantly send their summoned critters into the fray from a distance and take out the extra forces before dealing with the Messenger. Finally, when in doubt, go for Mule Kicks, Concussive Tranquilizers or any other good Interrupts. Especially when ol' Chatty is about to fire off one of its super nasty abilities. It's a motto that rarely fails when my back is against the wall.

Might be a suggestion to make to the devs (maybe in the Tech Support forum??), as that's an interesting idea. === Not to make poor Stardusk78 suffer anymore than they already are, but I am LOVING Vatnir's personality in his initial set of conversations post Messenger defeat. The guy is just the right shade of disreputable to be charming. At least to me. His personality is also completely ringing true and is a welcome contrast to most of the other yahoos in Harbinger's Watch. Not at all what I was expecting and very very welcome. What special abilities does Vatnir have as a Priest of Ryrmgand?Decay/Ice/Poison spells. So a bit redundant if you have Aloth or a good substitute. His Symbol/Incarnate spells are pretty good. I still prefer Skaen's though. As a Ryrmgand Godlike he has: "Plague Host": When he is Bloodied or Near Death, he gives off a Foe Area of Effect that causes Sickness. "Child of the Void": +5 defenses against Body/Mind Afflictions For the record, his core/auto Priest spells are: 1 Touch of Rot 2 Blizzard 3 Spreading Plague 4 Noxious Burst 5 Blast of Frost 6 Ninagauth's Freezing Pillar 7 Death Ring 8 Symbol of Rymrgand 9 Call of Rymrgand

He's very vocal about slavery on the Slaver questline. Considering his background, not exactly a surprise. He also, under the right conditions, will yell at the Watcher for dabbling in slavery (real or imagined). Enough so that I think it is possible for him to leave your party. ====== I think a large part of the problem is with a game this complex it's nearly impossible to see all of the companions/sidekicks attitudes on a couple of runs. Even several runs in and I'm still discovering new things about the characters. As an aside, I think Serafen is one of the better written companions: Has a cheerful, almost hedonistic surface that is actually a defense mechanism for a **** ton of pain and suffering. That's not so rare. His insistence on saying "**** it" to the pain when it actually bubbles up to the surface, a bit more rare. And welcome, from where I'm sitting. As for Pallengina? Already chimed in a large degree about her, but her actions make complete sense to me. Even in the exile path. After all it doesn't have to be how you or indeed most people might react to a situation. All it has to be is believable that someone with her personality traits and background might react that way. ========== Finally, this ain't a Visual Novel or similar RPG. The companion quests/plotlines ARE important, but they're not the main dish. Having two radically different Pallenginas in the game, even if it might make sense, is a tall ask. Ultimately it comes down to an issue of priorities and where one spends money/time. What they did with Pallengina worked for me (a lot, BTW). Might not have for you. That's why it's called YMMV, I suppose.

Might be a suggestion to make to the devs (maybe in the Tech Support forum??), as that's an interesting idea. === Not to make poor Stardusk78 suffer anymore than they already are, but I am LOVING Vatnir's personality in his initial set of conversations post Messenger defeat. The guy is just the right shade of disreputable to be charming. At least to me. His personality is also completely ringing true and is a welcome contrast to most of the other yahoos in Harbinger's Watch. Not at all what I was expecting and very very welcome.

If I understand the code correctly, after I 'defeat' The Messenger when it attacks Harbinger's Watch I can get a discount from Harbinger Karlodh's store if I select option three in the dialogue below: The reason I say I think I am supposed to get a discount after that dialogue, as that is Node 40 in her conversation bundle, and according to this vendor code (in lax2_factions.gamedatabundle): { "$type": "Game.GameData.VendorGameData, Assembly-CSharp", "DebugName": "LAX02_Vendor_01_Fish_Vendor", "ID": "02ea9b9a-5ef8-4534-a2db-ce1127b34e4a", "Components": [{ "$type": "Game.GameData.VendorComponent, Assembly-CSharp", "VendorName": 660, "StoreIconPath": "gui/innicons/storesign_generic.png", "PortraitPath": "", "StartingFactionID": "00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000", "ConditionalRates": [{ "RatesID": "bd6efb6b-45e0-477f-b80e-95931b37fa53", "Condition": { "Operator": 0, "Components": [] } }, { "RatesID": "d9ec906b-3f4c-4507-9cf1-235b466fbbc8", "Condition": { "Operator": 0, "Components": [{ "$type": "OEIFormats.FlowCharts.ConditionalCall, OEIFormats", "Data": { "FullName": "Boolean HasConversationNodeBeenPlayed(Guid, Int32)", "Parameters": ["455dfe14-6cd4-496e-a983-34b7464dbbaa", "40"], "Flags": "", "UnrealCall": "", "FunctionHash": -1870187966, "ParameterHash": 1344194718 }, "Not": false, "Operator": 0 } ] } } ], "LockedDescriptionString": -1 } ] } if Conversation Node 40 in her bundle has been played, she should start giving me a 10% discount. I know that node got accessed, as I got the fish that are given in that node. I'd send a save file, but my game is pretty heavily modified, including custom items. But if it's needed, I suppose I could still send it if that doesn't matter too much on your end.

Nope. As long as The Messenger is still around in the (first) encounter with it, Vatnir isn't recruitable. Just checked when I went back in to the building he's in with The Messenger still hanging about. (Also last 25% of the game sounds like an exaggeration)

Can also get a +1 boost to all skills for the Watcher by using Irwena's services. Between that, the putty and the Burglar's Gloves that's +5 on the main character.

Can't get into spoilers in this section of the forum, but it does appear that at least one quest in the base game is slightly different if the DLC is completed first. Well, at least some of the conversation dialogue that is there is different. But I haven't looked at it that closely as I want to play the DLC without getting TOO spoiled. Aside from that, like Achilles said, there's some reactivity from the new sidekick which is always nice to see as they're usually pretty quiet once one has hired them.

On a more general point, it does appear that Vatnir is quite chatty when it comes to sidekicks. Not nearly as much reactivity as a full companion, no. But he does appear to have conversation comments in a few places outside of DLC Island #1. And, yes, it does appear that the Glimpse Beyond quest is a little different if it is done after the Beast of Winter DLC. Anywho, seeing just looking at the data files, I'm seeing minor reactivity at Ukaizo, Wahaki Island, Splintered Reef, Drowned Barrows, Poko Kohara, Fort Deadlight, and a few faction related quests. Not anything major, I hasten to add, with the possible exception of the different conversation with Ryrmgand during the Glimpse Beyond, which I haven't looked at in detail as I want to finish the DLC first.

Got the intro letter immediately after getting my crashed ship fixed and off of Port Maje. Proceeded to get my ass kicked when facing The Messenger. Even on Story Mode. Miiiiiiiight be possible to deal with him at a lower level. Wouldn't be surprised if folks figure out builds which can as there are clever boffins out there. But one has to defeat/drive off Ol' Chatty and his friends first (i.e. The Messenger and the critters who join during the fight) which is a formidable fight to say the least. Unless one thinks that a critter which can fire off power level 8/9 abilities is a pushover, that is. So, afraid Obsidian means it when they say this is for higher level characters. One might be surprised at EXACTLY how one 'recruits' Vanti once the fight is over though. So basically you have to spend most of the game without Vatnir? That sucks. I wouldn't say "most of the game", no. Beast of Winter, IIRC, was designed for 14-16 level characters. Quite easy to get that by the mid game. I would think a lvl 10 party could probably do it with the right tactics/build. Maybe even lower with enough game/system mastery. Just saying that one can't waltz in, take Vatnir, and then ignore the DLC until the mid game.

Did you kill the creatures that pop up during the fight as well? Every hostile critter needs to die for the quest to advance, including the ones that join in as The Messenger gets to Hurt/Bloodied/Near Death.

Got the intro letter immediately after getting my crashed ship fixed and off of Port Maje. Proceeded to get my ass kicked when facing The Messenger. Even on Story Mode. Miiiiiiiight be possible to deal with him at a lower level. Wouldn't be surprised if folks figure out builds which can as there are clever boffins out there. But one has to defeat/drive off Ol' Chatty and his friends first (i.e. The Messenger and the critters who join during the fight) which is a formidable fight to say the least. Unless one thinks that a critter which can fire off power level 8/9 abilities is a pushover, that is. So, afraid Obsidian means it when they say this is for higher level characters. One might be surprised at EXACTLY how one 'recruits' Vanti once the fight is over though.

As promised, v2.0 of Vindictive Ship Battles. There have been no changes in how the game operates, but I did update the FAQ in regards to version history and the behavior of the Principi Boss Ship (see below). If one has not updated to 2.0 for Deadfire, I personally would not apply the updated version of this mod, as I don't know how the game would handle the new code introduced in 2.0. As such, version 1.0 of this mod will be left in the OP for folks to download if they need to use the older version for their games. Happy Hunting, Watchers. ===== Q: So where can I find these ships? A: You can find the ships in the following areas: VTC (Estulario Parfitto): Will be circling Maje Island. Huana (Whenena Eel's Kiss): Will be circling Neketaka Island. Principi (Arterio the Avenger): Will start off at near the island that has a permanent storm next to it, sail to Dunnage before headding through the the Karatapu Channel near the Oathbiner's Sanctum before heading back to Storm Isand to start its route over again.* RDC (Hazanui Yaro): Will sail near Sayuka and then stay there. *NOTE: The Prinicpi ship occasionally seems to stop on the World Map for no apparent reason for a period of time. So it might not be 'on patrol' for some games, but it should be found somewhere roughly in the route described above. If you have already fought any of these ships for any reason they will not spawn should you install this mod after that point in your game. Vindictive Faction Ships_V2.0.zip