Workaround for Battle Standard, Triump, Ravages of Time

[Ganelon]

EDIT: This mod has changed extensively since I first made this post. I have completely rewritten the first post to reflection these changes.

The Problem

It is generally known that Triumph doesn't work. The effects of Triumph are applied to the Battle Standard pet, and not to the monsters. There's a persistent rumor that the -Stun Resistance portion works, but this is false.

The French community has apparently known for a while that Ravages of Time is also broken. This was news to me, and I couldn't find any previous discussion about it on these forums. I tested it, and RoT definitely doesn't do anything. If you ever though that the Deathchill Aura tree affected incoming damage less than it seemed that it should, you were right.

The Causes

1) The class Skill_BuffAttackRadiusToggled applies Defensive modifiers to friendly units (even negative defensives). It can only use Offensive modifiers on enemies.

2) Specific damage reduction doesn't work, period. You can't specifically reduce a creature's physical, piercing, elemental, etc attack damage. This is why Ravages of Time doesn't work, and why the physical damage reduction portion of Triumph doesn't work. There IS an Offensive modifier that can be used to reduce damage, but it reduces ALL damage.

3) The Battle Standard is as dumb as a post (this makes sense, because it actually IS a post). It rarely casts the Triumph spell, and would randomly shut it off in the middle of combat. Even if issues 1 and 2 weren't extant, Triumph would still be borderline useless.

A Solution

1) ShadowLich has written a custom template that can carry -damage effects to monsters. He used this to fix Ravages of Time, and I repurposed it to also fix Triumph.

2) The casting rules of Triumph have been changed. It now works as a one-shot lingering area of effect spell (like Rally). It used to be a togglable spell (like Ring of Flame). This was bad, because the stupid AI would "recast" Triumph every four seconds, which would cause Triumph to turn on and off every fourth second. With these changes, the AI CAN'T turn Triumph off (and there is no reason why it ever should).

3) I extended the range profile of Triumph to "maximum." This makes the Battle Standard much more aggressive about casting Triumph. As long as there is an enemy on the screen, it will always cast Triumph at the soonest opportunity.

4) I added a long delay period to the AI's casting behavior. Even with a Rally-like spell, the AI would still try to renew Triumph every four seconds, which would cause Triumph to briefly flicker out. The AI now has to wait 1000 seconds before it is allowed to recast the spell, which is longer than the Battle Standard's duration.

5) The effects of Triumph sink in the moment a monster enters the area of Effect and wear off the moment it leaves. The effects also vanish if the Battle Standard goes away.

6) I added a passive debuff to the Battle Standard's attack values. Triumph would occasionally (and incorrectly) do damage to monsters that got very close to the Battle Standard. The debuff prevents that. It does NOT affect the bonuses given to the player.

7) I used to have a Ravages of Time fix in this post, but ShadowLich made a far better version. Check further down in this thread.

Outstanding Issues

None, really. I think that that last remaining bugs in this fix are gone.

The Battle Standard always waits four seconds before casting Triumph. This seems to be a hardcoded behavior. As far as I can tell, all pets wait four seconds before using their secondary skills.

Other Points

This fix also applies to the monsters. Hostile Battle Standards are now very dangerous. Don't get mobbed while being Triumphed. You will die.

Monsters HATE being Triumphed. The Battle Standard will draw a fair amount of aggro. Be prepared to protect it.

Triumph + Concussive Blow + Warhorn = AMAZING combo

I posted the raw dbrs, which you can either merge with your database, wit your favorite mod, or package into a standalone mod.

I wanted to make this a stand alone mod so that it could reach a broader audience, but my Art Manager crashes every time I try. If someone could package it up for me, that'd be great!

I'd like to have several people play this mod for a while so that I can be confident that the issues have all been worked out.

Credits

The initial version of this mod was very crude. ShadowLich and Guardian Warrior both helped out a lot. This mod incorporates ideas from them both.

[GuardianWarrior]

Originally Posted by Ganelon

Outstanding Issues

2) The Battle Standard occasionally attacks monsters that get very close to it. The BS has no base damage, but when amped by its own powers, it can kill weak monsters. This effect will occasionally throw fights in your favor during the first few acts of Normal. Beyond that, the damage is too weak to really influence things. I've tried hard to fix this, but nothing seems to work.

This issue was also discovered from I_Raps here:
http://www.titanquest.net/forums/ski...tml#post220697
The combo with ArtOf Hunt is interessting.


In the same thread, at the bottom of my last post, here:
http://www.titanquest.net/forums/ski...tml#post220826
i have meantioned, that i´m also working on Triumph.
Now i have finished it and can show a different solution to it.
Triumph works then more or less, as it was intended to work.
Some unwanted side effects still remain(but not this outstanding issue, this one is history), but maybe we can live with them.
As my workaround post is in german language, i have to translate it first.
I´ll start right now, but for some unforeseen reallife things, give me time till tomorrow. Thx


@Ravages of Time is also broken.
What´s with Necrosis, does this work at least?

[ShadowLich]

Originally Posted by GuardianWarrior

@Ravages of Time is also broken.
What´s with Necrosis, does this work at least?

I tested it and it works very well on vitality damage, so I considered it works for other lines.

[Ganelon]

Originally Posted by GuardianWarrior

This issue was also discovered from I_Raps here:
http://www.titanquest.net/forums/ski...tml#post220697
The combo with ArtOf Hunt is interessting.

This is a related issue, but not the same. The attacks isn't being carried by Triumph, because Triumph has a 12 meter radius. This strange attack only occurs at point blank range, and only rarely triggers. I don't know what the cause of it is, exactly.

In the same thread, at the bottom of my last post, here:
http://www.titanquest.net/forums/ski...tml#post220826
i have meantioned, that i´m also working on Triumph.
Now i have finished it and can show a different solution to it.
Triumph works then more or less, as it was intended to work.
Some unwanted side effects still remain(but not this outstanding issue, this one is history), but maybe we can live with them.
As my workaround post is in german language, i have to translate it first.
I´ll start right now, but for some unforeseen reallife things, give me time till tomorrow. Thx

If you've found a better solution, I'm interested.

@Ravages of Time is also broken.
What´s with Necrosis, does this work at least?

I found no problems with Necrosis.

ShadowLich mentioned in another thread that the Show All Damage Mod doesn't correct the listed damage for Damage Absorption. I didn't know that. This means that the DA probably works fine. I'll do some tests later. I may have to unfix that part of my fix.

[GuardianWarrior]

I have done the translation and my post is up now:
"Triumph-Bug" : Another solution !
http://www.titanquest.net/forums/mod...tml#post225683

[ShadowLich]

Some news about the workaround-fixes for "Ravages of time".

You'll find the template I used to make it work in attachements.
Personnaly I play with the french mod patch + Nymph + fix, thanks to the awesome work of people here and there.

First things first, this isn't a perfect fix, since RoT is now a passive skill to activate with its own distance profile (copied from the Aura), but I kept the dependancy upon DeathChillAura (so 1 pt is necessary to put 1 in RoT). Also Necrosis is now a synergy of RoT.
On other side at ultimate levels this works as it was meant to (because distance profile is the same).
There's a 2nd solution introducing another bug, but the aura works as the original with its synergy and distance profile.

Technical part:
I made a Skill_Passive2.tpl (in attachments) adding the line debufskill,1, to the original template. This template can carry +/- X% damage and also all bonuses from Necrosis, the line added made it affects the mobs.

Files:
Create a new mod, import DeathChillAura.dbr, DeathChillAurabuff.dbr (used in the second modification) and DeathChillAurabuff_Ravagesoftime.dbr

1st solution:
1) DeathChillAura.dbr => no changes
2) DeathChillAurabuff.dbr => no changes


3) DeathChillAurabuff_Ravagesoftime.dbr => rename it to DeathChillAurabuff_Ravagesoftimebuff.dbr then apply the new template on it
4) Edit DeathChillAurabuff_Ravagesoftimebuff.dbr:
=> in SkillConfig, DistanceProfile = long
=> in CastConfig, skillactiveduration = 1, skilltargetradius = (copied values from deathchillaurabuff adding 4.5m for the last levels)
=> in SkillDependancy, SkillDependancy = create link to "records\skills\spirit\deathchillaura.dbr"

5) Create a copy of DeathChillAura.dbr then rename it to DeathChillAurabuff_Ravagesoftime.dbr
6) Edit this new DeathChillAurabuff_Ravagesoftime.dbr
=> SkillConfig create link to "records\skills\spirit\deathchillaura_ravagesoftim ebuff.dbr"

7)Build


2nd solution:

1) import deathchillaurabuff.dbr
2) erase values from "Offensive percent current Life" in OffensiveParameters/OffensiveAbsolute
3) apply new template to it.
4)Build.

In this last fix RoT works fine as Necrosis does but you loose the offensive % life...

EDIT: The french patch 1.10E by Ctrl-Alt-Supp will include modification on Triumph (his or maybe GW's one) and surely the 2nd modification we've come to, as some other modifications Ctrl-Alt-Supp made on the db since last version. BTW feel free to post there questions in english we'll traduce it and answer it.

GG

[Ganelon]

I combined my ideas with yours and GW's, and it resulted in a much stronger solution for Triumph.

It turns out that your custom template was exactly what I needed! There is no one template that can carry all three Triumph effects! I borrowed some of GW's ideas, intergrated it with my AI tinkering, and used your template.

The result: Triumph works as originally written. It is a synergy of Battle Standard, and occupies its own slot on the skill tree. The -resistances and -damage work exactly as written. It is no longer necessary to extend them to general reduction effects to get them to work. The AI is much more consistent with casting Triumph. It always does it four seconds after being summoned, and cannot turn it off. It was not necessary to add a lingering duration to the effects of Triumph. When a monster enters the AoE, it gets the debuff. When it leaves, the effect stops. It works like Rally, except that it affects foes instead of friends.

I did all of this by stacking three different skills together. There is the Battlestandard_Petmodifier_triumph file, which defines Triumph as a secondary skill to Battle Standard. There is a new file called battlestandard_petskill_triumphBuffRadius, which sets the rules by which the AI can trigger the Triumph spell, but does not contain the actual Triumph effects. The effects are contained in battlestandard_petmodifier_triumph, which has been changed to use your new template.

The only bug left is that the banner still sometimes does damage to monsters that get very close. I call this the "flesh eating banner bug," and still don't know how to fix it. All the same, this is real progress.

I attached the raw dbrs. It would be good if you and GW and anyone who is interested could do some field testing and offer suggestions.

I don't know anything about Control-Alt-Support's Triumph mod. How does it work?

If a understand you correctly, you split RoT into a separate skill from Deathchill Aura. I think that this is a fine solution, especially since it looks like RoT and DCA need to have separate templates to work properly.

I'm glad that you like the Nymph tweak

[ShadowLich]

Good job,
I'll integrate it in my database and do some testing on a Spellbreaker .

In attachments the files for the 2 RoT solutions to build.

EDIT: btw the path to the template must be edited to work properly.
Or the template file has to be copied in the Template folder.

EDIT AGAIN:
It works fine! Great.

2 remarks:
- I had to open all the pet dbr files so Artmanager ask to save them with my "own" pet.tpl (I guess), or it won't work => don't ask me why, I have no ideas. (my pet.tpl is coming from the templates the Devs gave here on a thread)
- the path for the new template is not the one you put it in => must have been CustomMaps\Triumph2\database\Templates\SkillBuff_P assive2.tpl I guess, I did the same mistake on my files => I made the 1st EDIT!

[JudgeMan]

If it's not too much to ask, could you explain how to install that latest triumph fix and the RoT ones in clear steps (especially the template, i'm totally lost with that).

Thanks and great job guys.

[GuardianWarrior]

Good job "Ganelon", i have tried out your new version and it works as you described it. I just tested it on my test map, cause i have no time to make extensive field tests, which would show, how it works on low-, mid- and highlevels. Any volunteers ?


If i understood your version of Triumph correctly, you let it cast just once with the "specialAttackDelay" in the battlestandard_XX.dbr´s and hold Triumph up with "skillActiveDuration" in your "battlestandard_petskill_triumph.dbr" ?!
Right now, these are the only two differences our versions have, according database entries.
Only that my version works the other way round and does cast constantly over the BS duration.
Though i have not this "flesh eating banner bug".
On the other hand, i have the small "lingering duration", which could be seen as compensation for the even lasting "4 sec. start delay" of Triumph.


3 remarks:
"battlestandard_10.dbr"
DBR Link missing:
".../Skill Tree/skillName3/" empty entry, should be "Records\Skills\Monster Skills\Defense\Trap_Resists.dbr".
".../Skill Tree/skillLevel3/" entry value is 0, should be 1.

"battlestandard_petskill_triumph.dbr"
Distance profile is set to "Maximum".
So Triumph gets triggert before the enemy is in the range of the BS, but the debuffs do only apply within range.
So that doesn´t matter much.

Filenames
One file editing could have been spared.
If you would rename "battlestandard_petskill_triumph.dbr" and "battlestandard_petskill_triumphBuffRadius.dbr " vice versa, you would not need to edit "battlestandard_petmodifier_triumph.dbr".

2 remarks:
- I had to open all the pet dbr files so Artmanager ask to save them with my "own" pet.tpl (I guess), or it won't work => don't ask me why, I have no ideas. (my pet.tpl is coming from the templates the Devs gave here on a thread)

This problem i didn´t have.