Devlin Opera for the 65742th time

[BathtubPirate]

That would prevent the player from advancing to daytime there. (And no prizes for guessing who "the last man" is. )

Hehe And do you guess on which celebrities the five soldiers are veeery loosely based) Hint: You might not think of the solution because of the number of sailors...

Another solution I thought of would be to "punish" the player should he rach daytime. Balboa would then explain that you took too long blew your chance. This wouldn't even be the harshest "dead end" in the game.

 

[Grey Roger]

Hehe And do you guess on which celebrities the five soldiers are veeery loosely based) Hint: You might not think of the solution because of the number of sailors...

I never even guessed that they were based on anyone. Now you've given the hint, though, it was easy enough to figure out. Pedros is the odd one out, being one of several possible contenders for the title of "Fifth".

Another solution I thought of would be to "punish" the player should he rach daytime. Balboa would then explain that you took too long blew your chance. This wouldn't even be the harshest "dead end" in the game.

If the normal methods of advancing time are blocked then the player is going to have to put more effort into reaching daytime than into doing the job, in which case, go for it. If the player is that determined to break the quest, the quest can retaliate.

 

[BathtubPirate]

I never even guessed that they were based on anyone. Now you've given the hint, though, it was easy enough to figure out. Pedros is the odd one out, being one of several possible contenders for the title of "Fifth".

I figure out that you figured it out! Aaah, sweet memories of my journey to Liverpool this spring...

If the normal methods of advancing time are blocked then the player is going to have to put more effort into reaching daytime than into doing the job, in which case, go for it. If the player is that determined to break the quest, the quest can retaliate.

Sure, why not both? I'll probably upload all my stuff first, then work on the "Pedro Fructoso" (what a name! not as good as José Jalapeño on the Stalk, but still) general folder dialog file, because I like your idea of not letting the player sleep. Then we can still add an easter egg / punishment scene that triggers at 6am, I might already have a fun idea for that...

By the way, this is the fastest way I could figure out to find the five sailors:

Spoiler

Leave the tavern and find Juan
Go to the church and talk to Jorge
Go back to the tavern, grab the bucket on your way there and get the bible
Bring the bible to the church
Go to the port area, talk to Ricardo through the gate, talk to Paolo, fill the bucket
Head for the store, on your way there wake up Juan and get the key from Chorizo
Do business at the store and at the shopkeepers house
Head for the port area, on your way there talk to Pedro at the smithy
In the port area, let Ricardo in and give the paper to Paolo
Go back to the town and return the key to Chorizo

This seems to be an efficient route, always depending on where Chorizo is strolling of course.

 

[BathtubPirate]

The moment has arrived! The quest should now continue from Martinica to Santiago de Cuba via Spanish Greenford and end when your ship is launched again from Cuba with the screen message "To be continued". As usual, you choose a character at the beginning of the Santiago route.
- Beatrice: Scavenger hunt / search quest
- Blaze: Small quest with two possible variations of the ending
- Bonnie: Small quest with three different possible paths

One thing to look out is certainly if things like vcskip, opening or closing specific reload locators and disabling fast travel are all reset again.

The new locator file for Santiago town adds two goto locators at the back and a reload locator, yet only used for some actor stuff and not for actually entering a location. One might have to make it properly and with officer reloads, should it ever be used for a location (it was my first locator ever).

Still to do: Easter egg precautions for players who try to skip nighttime during the scavenger hunt, as discussed with @Grey Roger

Download link expires in a week.

Devlin Opera.zip

1 file sent via WeTransfer, the simplest way to send your files around the world

we.tl

 

[Grey Roger]

1. I know about that, but have never adjusted it. There's some other stuff in the very early parts of the quest I sort of never returned to, to make them better. For example on Salvador Island Bonnie doesn't follow you from pier to town hall and the crewmember approaches you from a distance.

To make Bonnie follow you after her dialog, try adding this to case "crewmember_Turks":

LAi_SetOfficerType(characterFromID("Bonnie Devlin"));

Locator "P_goto4", where the crewmember spawns, isn't that far away, it's just along the pier. However:

        case "crewmember_Turks":
            LAi_SetActorType(characterFromID("Crewmember Devlin"));
            LAi_ActorWaitDialog(pchar, characterFromID("Crewmember Devlin"));
            Lai_ActorFollow(characterFromID("Crewmember Devlin"), pchar, "crewmember_Turks2", 0.0);
        break;

        case "crewmember_Turks2":
            LAi_ActorDialog(characterFromID("Crewmember Devlin"), Pchar, "", 2.0, 0);
        break;

... he has exactly 0 seconds in which to start to move towards you, then another 0 seconds in which to move before talking.
So for one thing, you'll want to change that to:

LAi_ActorDialog(characterFromID("Crewmember Devlin"), Pchar, "", 10.0, 10.0);

You could probably remove the 'Lai_ActorFollow' line from case "crewmember_Turks" - it's not doing anything useful with a 0 second time delay, and if you move the 'LAi_ActorDialog' line (with 10 second timers) into "crewmember_Turks" then you can probably remove "crewmember_Turks2" entirely.

 

[BathtubPirate]

Step 2: if your storyline is at this point, Pedro Fructoso can be made to explain that the room is occupied right now, and a soldier has just told him to stop letting people sit for hours swigging rum because the last man who did that could barely stagger out of the door and has probably passed out on the street somewhere. That would prevent the player from advancing to daytime there. (And no prizes for guessing who "the last man" is. )

... he has exactly 0 seconds in which to start to move towards you, then another 0 seconds in which to move before talking.

I implemented those suggestions, even using my newly learned words "swig" and "stagger". It seems to work as far as I've seen. You can put the Pedro Fructoso files in the general dialog folder and delete the ones in the storyline folder. But maybe compare first in case other things have been merged into the general file.

 

[Grey Roger]

Try these versions.

"Pedro Fructoso_dialog.c": 'link.l3 = pcharrepphrase(DLG_TEXT[10], DLG_TEXT[11]);' can be left outside the check for "DEVLINTAVERN", it works either way. All it does is choose two different ways for you ask for a room depending on your reputation. Only the 'link.l3.go' needs to be conditional. Also, if you ask for crew and it's night time, you're then given a chance to ask for a room, so I've put a similar check there.

"Pedro Fructoso_dialog.h": Lady Suarez is now Lady Carranza, nothing to do with "Devlin Opera" but needs to be up to date for "A Family Story".

"quests_reaction.c": now includes the check for player as Blaze stunning his opponents during the boxing match on Martinique, as well as giving the player whatever weapon the real Blaze Devlin was carrying before the player became Blaze if the player defeats both opponents and has to fight the audience. Also:

. Case "ReceivedLetter3" does not need 'pchar.quest.Bonnie_talk = "meeting_her_father" because it's already set at case "ReceivedLetter", and setting it again at "ReceivedLetter3" breaks the quest if you ran to the harbourmaster's office and arrived before Mystery Messenger completed his run to Nicholas Sharp's house.
. At case "to_find_Short_Jack_Gold", 'LAi_ActorWaitDialog(pchar, characterFromID("Bonnie Devlin"))' doesn't work and there's an error message in "compile.log" because PChar isn't in actor mode. So I've added 'LAi_SetActorType(PChar)' right above it.
. At case "crewmember_Turks", I've again added 'LAi_SetActorType' and 'LAi_ActorWaitDialog' to keep the player from doing anything silly before the crewmember shows up, and for good measure also added 'LAi_ActorTurnToCharacter(PChar, CharacterFromID("Crewmember Devlin"))' to make the player turn round to see the approaching crewmember. The player reverts to "Player" mode at "crewmember_Turks2" just in time for the crewmember to talk.
. At case "Beatrice_returns_Santiago", 'DeleteQuestAttribute("DEVLINTAVERN")' clears the attribute entirely - no point in leaving it lying around after it's served its purpose.

I'm now playing the whole story, though at present I've only got as far as Turks Island. That's how I found out that the quest broke if I ran to the harbourmaster's office. It also means I've tested the scene where you arrive at Turks port - talk to Beatrice, turn to watch the crewmember, talk to him, then proceed to the town hall with Bonnie now properly following.

 

[BathtubPirate]

Very nice! I can already spill the beans that on Nuestra Señora Nieves blah blah, another earlier LAi_SetOfficerType(characterFromID("Bonnie Devlin")); will be necessary. At the anchorage, while you ask around for informations about Blaze, she keeps standing at the jetty as an actor. A lot of the early parts are either still part of what's already been there before, which I didn't study that deeply, or are a bit rough around the edges because my knowledge of quest_reaction coding was still in its infancy. That's the reason you're finding that many things to improve before Martinica.

Something else, I just realised that the Kapitein of Kralendijk sidequest probably doesn't really make much sense in Early Explorers. So I wanted to check and saw that the whole island which spawns the quest can't be accessed in Early Explorers (Barely ever going to St. Martin because there isn't too much going on there and because I don't like towns that are just cobbled together from stock game locations I never noticed). So the sidequest would need to be indicated as non-accessible in Early Explorers on the quest walkthrough wiki.

 

[Grey Roger]

Very nice! I can already spill the beans that on Nuestra Señora Nieves blah blah, another earlier LAi_SetOfficerType(characterFromID("Bonnie Devlin")); will be necessary. At the anchorage, while you ask around for informations about Blaze, she keeps standing at the jetty as an actor.

She shouldn't! I'll need to check that part again, but that command is at case "For_Nevis_new5", which is triggered by talking to Sixto Costa. If Bonnie isn't following you then you probably forgot to talk to him, and as "For_Nevis_new5" also sets attribute "pchar.quest.OPERA" to "ask_Ines_for_Merchant", if you haven't talked to him then Ines Diaz won't say anything useful. Bonnie may simply be reminding you that you still need to do something on the jetty.

Something else, I just realised that the Kapitein of Kralendijk sidequest probably doesn't really make much sense in Early Explorers. So I wanted to check and saw that the whole island which spawns the quest can't be accessed in Early Explorers (Barely ever going to St. Martin because there isn't too much going on there and because I don't like towns that are just cobbled together from stock game locations I never noticed). So the sidequest would need to be indicated as non-accessible in Early Explorers on the quest walkthrough wiki.

Done.

The reason I had "Kapitein of Kralendijk" start at Philipsburg is that there's nothing much else going on there. It needs some more action. Most towns are made from stock game locations; even some towns which have components imported from other sources still have stock game locations for some areas, such as Havana and Cartagena. So if you're going to avoid any town which is just rearranged stock town parts, you're going to be missing other quests, such as the "Peter Blood" pair. You're also missing out on "Angelique Moulin's father" because Port au Prince is mostly a copy of Sao Jorge, and you don't want to miss that one because it ends slightly differently in "Early Explorers".

 

[BathtubPirate]

The reason I had "Kapitein of Kralendijk" start at Philipsburg is that there's nothing much else going on there. It needs some more action. Most towns are made from stock game locations; even some towns which have components imported from other sources still have stock game locations for some areas, such as Havana and Cartagena. So if you're going to avoid any town which is just rearranged stock town parts, you're going to be missing other quests, such as the "Peter Blood" pair. You're also missing out on "Angelique Moulin's father" because Port au Prince is mostly a copy of Sao Jorge, and you don't want to miss that one because it ends slightly differently in "Early Explorers".

Original stock game towns are excluded, so are the AoP and VCO towns (though Havana's problem is that this enormous, sadly quite empty but at least very distinctive and unique town is somewhat tucked away in the corner of a Redmond carbon copy. Santiago de Cuba feels much more coherent with its own port area and no stock game parts). In the case of Cayman, there's a funny thing: In the mod, I'm almost more used to Cayman as the default "Douwesen" and visit Bonaire less often for some reasons. Similar with Hôpital/PoP and "Conceicao", they kinda devaluate each other a bit, but in their case they're more distinctive from each other. It's mostly the two St. Martins I rarely visit, because they have only one sidequest and they are less imaginative in rearranging stock game towns than e.g. Willemstad, which at least tries to use bits and pieces from different stock towns. Marigot is basically "Redmond" without the actual main part, and Philipsburg is just two very narrow and small parts of "Isla Muelle" with the tavern entry in a weirdly narrow corner. Or was it the other way around?

I also noticed lately that in case of stores and taverns, the stock game models are quite overused, especially the big tavern and the small store, while most of the AoP and such locations are sparsely used. There's one special store on Guadeloupe I believe, and Santiago de Cuba is also the only town to use this tavern model. AoP taverns are only found on Guadeloupe, Eleuthera and Tortuga I believe.

 

[Grey Roger]

The plain fact is, the modders who originally created the extra towns didn't have time to customise them all in detail, and didn't have other games to draw on either. Some towns were subsequently updated with town or building interior models from AoP or VCO. Of course, if the AoP tavern interiors were more widely used then the same complaint would apply to them; Santiago, Havana and Cartagena taverns would lose their uniqueness.

Changing a town to use a new model involves a lot more than just changing the model. Locators need to be changed so that all previous locators are present, and they probably won't be in the same places. Worse is if one big model replaces smaller port and town models, which is what happened to Grand Turk - initially it was another one with port and town models from stock PoTC. The "Worm in the Apple" sidequest, which is the "Assassin" storyline's custom version of "Hard Labours of an Assassin", needed some extra work done because Pepin Bertillon then needed to spawn in the single town rather than the separate port which wasn't separate any more. Tortuga is another one which was originally made from stock town parts and then changed to one big VCO location, and not everything was changed to fit, as I recently found when playing "Hoist the Colours". Bootstrap Bill Turner is supposed to meet you when you leave the tavern at one point in the story, except that the locator which used to be near the tavern is now somewhere else in town, so he is nowhere near you when his dialog timer runs out and he talks to you. (I've now corrected that - I used visible locators to find a locator near the tavern, changed the code to have him spawn there, and for good measure added a 'LAi_SetOfficerType' command so that he starts walking towards you while you're talking to someone else.)

Feel free to pick a town and make it more distinct. Just be prepared to answer for it if someone then complains that a sidequest or story doesn't work properly as a result.

 

[BathtubPirate]

Feel free to pick a town and make it more distinct. Just be prepared to answer for it if someone then complains that a sidequest or story doesn't work properly as a result.

That's why I wish I was around when some towns and islands were newly added. I would have loved to populate them with locations, citizens, locators and dialogs. But now that it can't be done "from scratch" anymore there are too many eventualities to try to change stuff, plus I have another project already.

 

[BathtubPirate]

@Grey Roger I just tried to play the "Agent" free play quest and turns out I can accept the mission but I'm lacking both the quest book files and the dialog files for the man who then enters the town hall. I don't know if I did anything wrong with the update when I set up my game after my return a few weeks ago. You know how afraid I am of the whole data and update juggling. Should I wait for an update including the newest part of Devlin Opera with all adjustement and unpack this carefully on a new install? Or in other words: I simply haven't figured out yet how to maintain a game that gets updates, updated files in scattered threads and all while I'm modding on it myself.

Then again, after another Free play rage quit because STORMS exist in this game and to my knowledge can't be turned off, I'd like to use the momentum and continue with the next Devlin Opera chapter already. But this doesn't make things easier.

 

[Sebrian]

STORMS exist in this game and to my knowledge can't be turned off

They can, the gameplay way of doing it as asking Vanderdecken to get rid of them for you You can disable all world encounters using cheat mode, which does disable storms as well.

 

[Grey Roger]

@Grey Roger I just tried to play the "Agent" free play quest and turns out I can accept the mission but I'm lacking both the quest book files and the dialog files for the man who then enters the town hall. I don't know if I did anything wrong with the update when I set up my game after my return a few weeks ago. You know how afraid I am of the whole data and update juggling. Should I wait for an update including the newest part of Devlin Opera with all adjustement and unpack this carefully on a new install? Or in other words: I simply haven't figured out yet how to maintain a game that gets updates, updated files in scattered threads and all while I'm modding on it myself.

Those files should be in the January 2022 installer. They haven't changed this year so they aren't in the update. You're probably missing some other files for the quest which are also in the January 2022 installer and not in the current update.

If you have enough disk space, create a whole new installation. Start with the stock game, then the installer, then the update, from here:
Mod Release - Build 14 Gamma Version [Last update: 27th April 2022]
(Depending on disk space, you can have as many installations as you like. I've currently got four versions of "New Horizons" of varying ages so that, if something goes wrong with a new version of a file, I can compare it to older versions. And in addition, a stock installation which I copy as the first step of creating a new "New Horizons" installation because it's a lot quicker than installing from CD.)

With the update, it should be able to read your savegame. Alternatively, start a new game as an agent.

You could then also copy the latest version of "Devlin Opera" from the files you uploaded, then you can try it in what should be a fully up to date version of the game.

 

[BathtubPirate]

I'm on my fifth installation of the Mod so far for various reasons. When my game didn't work after my return a few weeks ago, I first decided to install it from scratch - until I realised I was trying to play "NH4" and already had "NH5" installed. So I didn't install a new game and simply put the latest update in my "NH5" from last year, which should explain the missing Agent files.

So I'll try this:
1. Finding a clean copy of the stock game on my computer (There should be several, including one version I misused to test mixed character models, thus it includes all kinds of models and textures, would that be a problem?)
2. Install the latest version of New Horizons onto it
3. Copy the latest update into it
4. Copy my uploaded "Devlin Opera" folder into it
5. Copy the files we already changed and uploaded in this thread onto it
6. Copy my separate changes I've made since then into it

I find it difficult to maintain an overview, but maybe I'm overhinking things...

For those newest separate changes, I'm making locators in Santo Domingo, including a new reload locator and a few on the street for some quest action and to maneuver actors. Should I name the latter ones simply gotoXY or should I give them different names to keep them separate from the ones where random walkers spawn on? Or doesn't his make any difference at all?

 

[Grey Roger]

So I'll try this:
1. Finding a clean copy of the stock game on my computer (There should be several, including one version I misused to test mixed character models, thus it includes all kinds of models and textures, would that be a problem?)
2. Install the latest version of New Horizons onto it
3. Copy the latest update into it
4. Copy my uploaded "Devlin Opera" folder into it
5. Copy the files we already changed and uploaded in this thread onto it
6. Copy my separate changes I've made since then into it

That should do it, yes.

For those newest separate changes, I'm making locators in Santo Domingo, including a new reload locator and a few on the street for some quest action and to maneuver actors. Should I name the latter ones simply gotoXY or should I give them different names to keep them separate from the ones where random walkers spawn on? Or doesn't his make any difference at all?

It shouldn't make any difference. If they're in group "goto" then it probably doesn't matter whether you call them "gotoXY", "streetXY" or anything else. If you give them a new group name then they probably won't show up when you enable visible locators. Besides, the point about random walkers is that they should walk around, which means that although they might start on your new locators, they probably won't still be there when you go there for quest purposes.

 

[BathtubPirate]

I'll try tonight.

I noticed that sometimes, citizen types just keep standing on their spawn locator for quite some time. But you're right, it shouldn't be much of a problem.

 

[Grey Roger]

Meanwhile, I've been playing the current version of "Devlin Opera". First snag, which may explain why Bonnie got stuck when you got to Nuestra Señora Nieves: Sixto Costa doesn't appear at night. You may want to give him a 24 hour login, and Rico Diaz as well. Either that, or if you arrive at night, have Bonnie tell you to wait until daytime. Giving Sixto and Rico 24 hour logins is probably a lot easier!

Martinica went without any trouble; I chose Blaze to try the fight scene again, clobbered both opponents because as usual they couldn't do me enough damage to knock me down, wiped out the audience and scared Haraldo. Then on to Santiago.

On arriving in Cuba waters, you teleport to the deck for Blaze's history lesson, then the ship appears next to the port. You may want to change Blaze's reason for why you have to go to the port. If Spain is hostile to me and I've just been told that the local garrison is "very vigilant and very humourless", I definitely want to go to the beach rather than the port! Perhaps, instead, the garrison is generally less vigilant because there have been no attacks since the forts were reinforced, therefore it's relatively safe to sail into port. Then Beatrice response can stay as it is, you don't want to waste time hiking overland. Anyway, at case "Cuban_history_over", I've added 'HoistFlag(SPAIN)'. A player who is hostile to Spain and doesn't know what is about to happen may still be under a hostile flag when he enters Cuban waters, intending to change flag and then sail to a beach. Instead he's teleported right next to the fort, and 'iForceDetectionFalseFlag' won't save you if you're not under a false flag!

"Crewmember Devlin" runs towards me, stops short, and talks from a distance. At case "Santiago_crewmember" I changed the time in the 'Lai_ActorFollow' line to 30.0 and now he has enough time to complete his run. (It took me a while to figure out the joke about how big Santiago is, but now I see what you did there. )

Beatrice's path: no problems found.

Bonnie's path: Bonnie doesn't sit down. At case "Switch_to_Beatrice" you set 'PChar.model.animation' to "Beatrice", which will happen at the end of action on Martinica. Then in Santiago, case "Switch_to_Bonnie" uses 'PChar.model.animation' in the 'SetModel' line. Some time ago I found that most female models, including the "Beatrice" variants, work with animation "woman_sit". So I changed "Switch_to_Bonnie" to explicitly use "woman_sit" in the 'SetModel' line, and now she sits down with Rocoso. The next problem is that I can't get Rocoso to change into "AnimistEdmundo" - not because of model problems but because you have to buy the cloak from Dragan van Mourik, and Bonnie has no money! The alternative solution, telling the guard sailors about naked women in the tavern, works. To allow Bonnie to buy the cloak, I added this to case "Bonnie_Santiago_start2":

AddMoneyToCharacter(PChar, 100);
PChar.quest.orig_money = sti(Pchar.quest.orig_money) - 100;

That takes 100 out of the money you'll get back at "Switch_to_Beatrice" and gives it to Bonnie, allowing her to buy the cloak. After that, Rocoso duly puts on the cloak and switches to "AnimistEdmundo".

Blaze's path: Rocoso goes outside for the duel, chickens out and walks to the town gate - he doesn't run. He should be in "Actor" mode after the dialog - that, after all, is why Bonnie didn't move at Turks port until 'LAi_SetOfficerType' was added. Nevertheless, when I put another 'LAi_SetActorType(characterFromID("Rocoso Balboa"))' at case "Balboa_flees_duel", right before the 'LAi_ActorRunToLocation' line, he ran away properly.

There's something odd about either "Rocoso Balboa_dialog.c" or "Rocoso Balboa_dialog.h". The correct spelling for the natives is "Taíno" - note the accent over the "i". This works for Blaze but does something silly in Rocoso Balboa's dialog:

Likewise, the Spanish title is "Señor" with a tilde over the "n", which again works fine in other dialogs but not for Rocoso Balboa. I was able to get round it by changing all references to "Senor" or "Senorita" to "#sSenor#" and "#sSenorita", then use a couple of 'Preprocessor_Add' lines in "Rocoso Balboa_dialog.c" to fill them in, and that works. There's no such easy fix for "Taíno", so Rocoso will just have to call them "Taino". Oh well, he's already been on the vino collapso before Bonnie joins him, so it's not surprising if he mispronounces the occasional word.

 

[BathtubPirate]

Uuh, lots of things to answer (or answer for)

Sixto Costa at night: Good call, I copy-paste all my character entries from somewhere, so this must have been copied from Gilles Roche / Terry Snider, the people usually waking around this area at daylight.

Cuba fort: Good call too. I just wanted to make things a bit simpler this time by somehow forcing the player to go into port instead of making a big beach detour. I feel like if you're hostile to spain in a period when spain occupies 99% of the colonies, it's a specific challenge scenario you want to play and which is better suited for Free Play. But the eventuality of course always exists and your precautions make sense. Also, I didn't deliberately want to spawn the player ship right in front of the Santiago fort as soon as the cutscene is over, it simply is the one sea locator I found at the time.

Crewmember's long run: Strange! For me, he always ran the whole distance for roughly 30 seconds, with the player frozen in actor mode having to wait for him (yes, that's the joke...). And believe me, I tested this part dozens of times! What number of seconds was there before if not 30?

Bonnie: Also played through this countless times and I had the problem of her not sitting down at the table exactly once, but never before or after. Cloak price: I noticed that too, but at the time I thought: We already implemented the character switches, that for various reasons take the player money temporarily away when you're Bonnie or Blaze, so if I give the player exactly the gold he needs for this, then Dragan could give away his clothes for free as well. Myself, I wouldn't have any money because I'm the player type who goes straight for the narrative most of the time. But others may have picked up a randitem (there's a spot close to Dragan that often spawns 100 or 250 gold) or they might have killed one of the random assailants who try to murder you in the streets from time to time. And it might make the two available solutions for the problem a bit more distinctive if one of them may not be available.

Balboa the coward: For me, he ran most of the time but sometimes walked if I went through his "Nope" dialog really quickly. Which can happen when you hit the spacebar in fight mode and then accidentally keep hitting it to quickly skip the dialog. The Blaze Devlin model puts his sword away faster and more discreetly than the stock game models, and thus, this can easily happen. Which brings me to another point: AoP Blaze is a much faster runner than slow-moving stock game Balboa. Which means you can basically run circles around him during what's supposed to be a chase. But it looks somewhat realistic if you run with your sword drawn and try to stab him down. Devlins hit animations are on the other hand quite slow so it looks like you're always just missing him with the blade and it slows you down in chasing him.

I remember doing my first quest writing experiments in the stock game, of which I have the german version (stock game voice clips are still german in my modded version to this day). In some but not all dialog files, Ä-Ö-Ü resulted in really weird symbols as well. This seems to be the same or a similar issue. No idea how to fix it. Like character entries, my dialog files are all copied from somewhere, in this case they're all copied from the "blank"-dialog files. Blaze's dialog file on the other hand was already there when I took over, I think. It would make sense if there was some kind of preset in the dialog.c file that allows special characters, but I've never found one. It is possible that every dialog file copied from "blank" has this problem though.

Are you going to upload the files you've changed so I can put them into my game after I've set everything else up with new install and new update? Maybe I won't change the money given for the cloak, but I'm curious what you think of my reasoning.