BUG: Cipher focus gain permanently disabled by Drinking Horn of Moderation

[ossy_87]

I noticed that my main character (cipher) suddenly stopped being able to generate focus, and tested until I found the reason, namely the "Drinking Horn of Moderation" neck slot item. 

 

To test:

I created a new cipher adventurer ("the character" below), and saved the game.

 

I loaded the saved game and equipped the character with a blunderbuss and nothing else, and attacked a paralyzed lion.

2 grazes, 3 hit, 1 crit, grazes at 6~ hits and crits around 12. 

Result: went from 15 to 29 focus. This is what is expected.

 

Reloaded the saved game, equipped blunderbuss and horn of moderation, exited inventory screen (to let the buff happen), entered inventory screen, unequipped horn, and then attacked the same, paralyzed lion.

2 grazes, 3 hit, 1 crit, grazes around ~7, hits and crits around 11. 

Result: went from 15 to 18 focus. Same result if you leave the horn equipped.

 

Reloaded the saved game, equipped horn and blunderbuss, got character knocked out, won the fight, and then used the character to attack a paralyzed lion.

3 grazes, 3 hits, grazes around ~7 and hits around 10.

Result: went from 15 to 14 focus. All attacks made after this one leave focus unchanged. Focus still refills to half after each fight ends.

 

This is irrevocable and persists through save/load, and also stops draining whip from working entirely, if you level up to 2 and take it and redo the tests with it.

[yogurtking]

I've got this one too, from amulet of the unconquerable I think as I haven't found the horn mentioned. no int bug though. started with 19, still at 19.

[drake1713]

Bump this please.  This needs to get fixed!  My poor Cipher is useless!

[Hanma]

Any news on this yet? Really ****ty bug to be 20+ hours in and all of a sudden my main character sucks...

[Devilish]

WARNING: THE FOLLOWING ADVICE IS ONLY FOR PEOPLE WHO KNOW WHAT THEY'RE DOING. IF YOU DON'T KNOW WHAT A HEX EDITOR IS OR CAN'T QUICKLY FIGURE OUT WHAT 4C IS IN BASE 10 THEN DO NOT ATTEMPT. ALSO MAKE SURE TO BACK UP YOUR SAVES.

 

*Snip*

 

Just posting to say many thanks for this XenoCrash, being a techie this wasnt hard for me to do nor figure out and I'm just posting to say that yes this works.

 

*EXTRA DISCLAIMER: YES THIS WORKED FOR ME, IT MAY BUGGER UP FOR YOU. WE ALSO HAVE NO IDEA HOW THIS WILL AFFECT STUFF ONCE THEY ACTUALLY RELEASE A PATCH THAT WILL HOPEFULLY RETROACTIVLY FIX THIS PROBLEM*

 

I have no idea if Draining Whip works after this, however in my active effects (in combat) Soul Whip is listed as having +2 focus gain on hit, and x2.4 damage - no idea if they are actually working however.

 

Regards,

Devil

[conanthelibrarian]

Yeah, got the same problem from amulet of unconquerable.  My INT is sky high, but no focus regain.

 

Surprised someone from Obsidian hasn't chimed in yet on this thread.  Just a quick "we know and are working on it" would be nice.

 

Should I just leave the thing on now, or take it off and sell it?

[Caidh]

Likewise, have the horn (though wasn't sure that was the issue until seeing this post) and am not regaining focus in battle.  I also have the 'sky high' INT (38).

[Cym]

I'm really hoping this Soul Whip deal is fixed in 1.03... I tend to save over games, and so I would pretty much have to remake my whole character and start the game over... ~30-40 hours...  As is, it's unplayable, and I'm not very inspired to continue . =(

Any sort of acknowledgment from obsidian would be awesome on this one.

[Llamageddon]

Why on earth has my intelligence dropped to 7 though? I haven't actually tested if my focus is not regenerating properly but it does seem to be related to the horn. How come mine seems to have dropped though?

[cdd]

could a moderator or dev acknowledge that this bug has been noted and will be resolved in the upcoming patch (or not)

 

in contrast to the minor effects of the double-click-equip bug this one is an actual gamestopper, since any affected cipher character becomes essentially unplayable...

[Tigranes]

We mods aren't Obsidian employees, so we usually don't have inside info as to what they're doing. But as mentioned earlier in this thread, the devs do know this issue and are working on it. 

 

I suppose there is a certain irony that we now have to moderate a thread about bugs on a moderating horn of our invention...

[qndel]

How to Hex Edit on Windows - Guide for Beginners =)
 

1. Download hex editor

http://www.handshake.de/user/chmaas/delphi/download/xvi32.zip

 

2. Download 7zip if you don't have it

http://www.7-zip.org/

 

3. Make a copy of the save you want to edit

 

4a. Choose XVI hex editor as the default program to open .save files (double click the save file, it should ask you what program you choose to open it)

OR

4b. Open windows search (<windows key> + S), search "Default programs", click "Associate a file type or protocol with a program"

Find .save extension and associate it with the hex editor.

 

5. Right click on your save file -> 7zip -> Open archive

 

6. Find MobileObjects.save

 

7. Open it (it should be opened by hex editor automatically)

 

8. Find the Grieving Mother's name - I think you have to search for the translated name if your language in game isn't english - it was translated to polish for me.

The 4th occurence of the name was the thing I was looking for - but it might be different for you - For me her name occured 3 times in Stronghold's adventures logs.

You are looking for something like this

OverrideName- <some characters> Grieving Mother* <some stuff> -Gender- ...

* - the name might be different depending on your language settings

If you've reached this point, click ctrl + F in hex editor, check "Text string", check Direction "down" and search for "FocusGainMult"

9.

The first occurence of "FocusGainMult" is our FocusGainMult that we'd like to change. We should insert "00 00 80 3F", but where exactly?

In Hex editor on the left side you can see hex values, where each field corresponds to a similar field on the right side, but on the right side there are characters instead of the hex values.

You insert the "00 00 80 3F" in 4 fields on the left side, which should show you the changes on the right side."

To see how to fill the "00 00 80 3F" correctly just check the "NegMoveTickMult-" just a line above.

After you've filled the value correctly, it should look like this:

FocusGainMult-

<empty field>

<field with "arrow" pointed left">

<empty field>

<field with a square>

<3 empty fields>

<euro mark>

<question mark>

<dash>

 

if that's how it looks like for you, it's good! Time to save and exit hex editor.

Now back to 7zip - it should tell us that 'File "MobileObjects.save" was modified. Do you want to update it in the archive?'

Hell yeah! That's exactly what we'd like to do! Click ok. 

Enjoy your cipher with repaired focus!

 

Just did it and I can go back to the game

[sugsug]

good job qndl

 

just want to add an aternate explanation to step 8,9

 

 search for "FocusGainMult", then click on the t of Mult on the right side. A field with a 74 on the left side will be highlighted. Now move a few fields to the right until you see a 07 01. Now on click on the field next to the 01 an start editing the following fields to " 00 00 08 3F".  So  there will be something like this:  ..... 07 01 00 00 08 3F 06 01 ... ....

[dam]

Great work Xenocrash and qndel.

 

I can confirm, from a much earlier save, that the FocusGainMult is still 803F even with Draining Whip.

 

Edit:

Also,Brishalgwin Mindmarker -which uses a different type of bonus for 1.1x focus gain- works correctly.

- without the amulet: 24 damage hit, 7 focus

- with the amulet: 23 damage hit, 8 focus

 

IDK if the damage done is factored into the focus gain ? No main Cipher here, only the Grieving Mother.

Edited April 1, 2015 by dam

[SirBridford]

Yeah, got the same problem from amulet of unconquerable.  My INT is sky high, but no focus regain.

 

Surprised someone from Obsidian hasn't chimed in yet on this thread.  Just a quick "we know and are working on it" would be nice.

 

Should I just leave the thing on now, or take it off and sell it?

I'm suffering from this problem as well. I've also yet to find the Drinking Horn, and it seems like my problem started right after equipping the Amulet of the Unconquerable.

[Markaleth]

Hello there!

 

+1 same issues. 

 

Stats stacking from the amulet, no focus being generated anymore. 

[Primislas]

The only comfort is that Mother's Mind Blades are ridiculously powerful, so much by the time she's done dispensing all 4 of them everything usually lies dead. Inb4 nerfhammer.

 

But by Rymrgand's hide the time I spent banging my head against the monitor trying to figure out what am I doing wrong and what happened to focus gain...   #Gief1.03

[Sundere]

So this is why my cipher's running around with 70 int and can't gain focus on hit anymore...
My mental bindings are basically map wide 24s stuns and 32s roots, no wonder the game's so easy... anyway to fix my int as well?

[qndel]

Uhm yes, just search for the int thing instead of FocusGainMult, check older posts

[Vizera]

Have this bug aswell on my cipher after equipping amulet of the unconquerable. Thats my 2nd character "killed" by a major bug so far

[kujii]

Created an account just for this. On Path of the Damned + Expert Mode, need my Cipher working for some of the final tasks. Please get this fixed, pretty frustrating.

[qndel]

Before they patch it, we've described how to fix it...

[dam]

Have this bug aswell on my cipher after equipping amulet of the unconquerable. Thats my 2nd character "killed" by a major bug so far

 

Which was the first and how, please ?

I would like to not repeat the mistake

[dam]

Created an account just for this. On Path of the Damned + Expert Mode, need my Cipher working for some of the final tasks. Please get this fixed, pretty frustrating.

 

Use an hex editor to fix your FocusGainMult as explained on page 2 of this thread.

 

I understand that's hardly an acceptable or easy solution but at least it'll fix your character.

 

Edit: spelling

Edited April 2, 2015 by dam

[gkathellar]

It gets worse. If you have multiple ciphers in the party, and one of them equips the horn, none of them can gain focus.

[Llamageddon]

Is there a danger that hex editing the fix might cause further problems after the patch is released? I am a bit nervous about using it because of this.