Author Topic: Shrouded Dance  (Read 626 times)

Firalyn

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Shrouded Dance
« on: August 30, 2022, 08:20:05 AM »
Hiya,

I was wondering if Shrouded Dance could be looked at.
I've noticed two issues since gaining the feat, and considering the requirements for even gaining it- i was hoping these things could be changed.

Where:
Anywhere
When:
Always
What:
  • When using the feat and having previously given a moment command (I.E. clicked somewhere to move) the feat will trigger, then always fail after only playing the emote part. The feat will then go on cooldown wasting it's only use.
  • When using the feat near creatures and getting an attack of opportunity on one of these creatures, the AOO will trigger and the feat fails, once again going into its cooldown.
Recreate:
  • First issue: Click to move somewhere, use feat.
  • Second issue: Definitely trickier to recreate, but gain an attack of opportunity while using the feat.
Ideas:
Perhaps remove the emote part and trigger the hide straight away.

It would be nice to see these things changed, either way thanks for your time.

Willy

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Re: Shrouded Dance
« Reply #1 on: August 30, 2022, 11:26:43 AM »
I can confirm, had both instances happen to me a few times which also lead to me dying sometimes.

Given how expensive the feat already is, it being this unreliable is not okay and should be looked at.
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Day Old Bread

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Re: Shrouded Dance
« Reply #2 on: August 30, 2022, 03:39:50 PM »
In the past I've had only minor issues with this feat. I've always viewed it as the tradeoff for having a HiPS ability on a character that otherwise wouldn't have one.

I will confirm however that the above mentioned interruptions do exist. The former, moving too soon is 100% player error. The latter, I've always taken as the opponents opportunity to break your rhythm/concentration on the act enough to interrupt your use of the ability.

That said, if the ability fails, should you expend the use of it? Is it possible to retain the use of said ability if it's not fully completed?

zDark Shadowz

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Re: Shrouded Dance
« Reply #3 on: August 30, 2022, 04:21:13 PM »
Quick actions are not swift actions in D&D and represent a greater expenditure of effort, in NWN this means there's a bare minimum of animation tied to it usually because it gives the convenience of the timed delay expected, and this also means it'll be prone to hardcoded quirks of animation locks, character-initiated nterrupts with AoOs, and consumption on a failed activation.

The functions of NWN that cause it are beyond developer control. There are some scripting alternatives that can be applied to the feat that have their own drawbacks, but I think the only reasonable one is using a delayed swift action that reduces movement speed considerably while the "dance" is performed.

Though then you can't cancel the shrouded dance to make a hastier retreat if it was mistimed from a distance due to approaching enemies. Being able to cancel it after casting might be situationally useful, but the situations are extremely limited and subjective. May require a poll between community or within the developer team to decide if that's a route they'd want to take with the feat, if that developer decision hasn't already been evaluated & decided on.

What could be fixed immediately I think is when Shrouded Dance is consumed. By default using abilities get used up when the activation has gone to a certain point, but the counter drain can probably be shifted to a successful completion instead. That particular aspect of NWscript i've not looked at personally though so I could easily be wrong there.

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Re: Shrouded Dance
« Reply #4 on: August 31, 2022, 08:43:10 PM »
Quote
When using the feat and having previously given a moment command (I.E. clicked somewhere to move) the feat will trigger, then always fail after only playing the emote part. The feat will then go on cooldown wasting it's only use.

Are the invisibility and/or VFX applied at all? Do you roll the skill check?

Quote
When using the feat near creatures and getting an attack of opportunity on one of these creatures, the AOO will trigger and the feat fails, once again going into its cooldown.

That's a bug but there's no way around it.

Firalyn

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Re: Shrouded Dance
« Reply #5 on: September 01, 2022, 11:19:42 AM »
Quote
When using the feat and having previously given a moment command (I.E. clicked somewhere to move) the feat will trigger, then always fail after only playing the emote part. The feat will then go on cooldown wasting it's only use.

Are the invisibility and/or VFX applied at all? Do you roll the skill check?

Quote
When using the feat near creatures and getting an attack of opportunity on one of these creatures, the AOO will trigger and the feat fails, once again going into its cooldown.

That's a bug but there's no way around it.

When using the feat while there's a movement command queued it'll play only the emote part (Waving the hands in the air) and then continue to move towards the previously clicked location. There's no skill check nor does the invisibility trigger.

Although admittedly, while testing just now it seems to be working just fine and the movement command gets cancelled. Perhaps there's a factor I'm missing? (You -can- still mess it up by doing any movement during the initial emote however, that will put the feat on CD and not actually go into the hiding state)

Too bad about the second part, luckily that bit doesn't happen that often.