robobob91,
Then it might be from another mod I included in my personal class pack mod. It took some work to find out which mod broke the transmuters ability to transmute spells and tomes. I haven't figured out how to remove a mod from my modpack, so I'll eventually rebuild the mod, I guess.

I'm playing the class separately, for now. It's the Wraith Lord mod, by the way. When he gets to Cacklespit, I'll know for sure if this is another problem coming from that mod.

The main quest givers in the Ossean Wastes do give 5 choices. It's just the prisoners/slaves in all of the encampments around the area, and also the prisoners/slaves in the Slaver's Stockade and other camps in the Frosted Hills that offer only two.

Getting a choice between only 2 doesn't really bother me, except for Cacklespit. It's rare for a character to get completely stuck in the game, but that potion of hers is a good way out of the situation.

@HiFive
yes, you are right that the vanilla game offers 3 choices across all quests.

based on the changes i've made, every mainline quest should be offering 5 reward choices.

the exceptions (that i know of) are the random bandit quests in Ossean Wastes, which offer 2, and Cacklespit, which should still offer her 3 standard choices.

i'm not sure why the random Ossean Wastes quests are offering only 2 choices on my mod, as i've only ever increased the number of choices

but in all my playtesting, Cacklespit has always offered me 3 of her usual rewards.

I have now confirmed that all of the slaves in every slave encampment in the Ossean Wastes (the desert area you spoke of) always offer 3 items to choose from.

I think you have changed something in your mod that causes most of these offerings to be reduced to 2 items, and that is probably why Cacklespit did not offer her poison potion.

You had me doubting my memory about how many items the side givers offer. I'm leveling a new character in vanilla to make sure. So far, the slaves in the Slaver's Stockade (Frosted Hills) have all offered 3 items. I'm fairly sure the NPC's in the Ossean Wastes also offer 3 items, but I might not know for certain until tomorrow. I'll keep you posted.

@HiFive
thank you for your feedback as always!

i couldn't recreate the Shock Bolt bug you faced, nor the quest reward bug.

Shock Bolt:
i did recently make adjustments to Shock Bolt, and i wonder if the game is "confused" about whether to use the "old" Shock Bolt vs the "new" one?

seems unlikely though.. will keep it mind

Quest rewards:
you should be seeing 5 choices in terms of rewards for MOST quests. there are a few random events, specifically in the Salt Barrens, which i know offer only 2.

Nice mod! Deathknight is my favorite character on this mod.

Just to be clear, this character is going to be using Shotgonnes, so I did equip him with that.

I made a new character to see what was going on. The new Mechanist did not have the option to equip Shock Bolt. When I got him to town I removed the starting skill (Mortar Shot) at the regular NPC for doing that. No available Shock Bolt yet. However, when I put a point into Shock Bolt, and then removed it, the Shock Bolt remained available for my right mouse button skill. The point had been removed from the skill, but I can still use the skill. It's fully functional.

I just started a new Mechanist. I did not assign any points to the Shock Bolt skill, and yet I can equip it as a right-button skill. I think a different character actually started with one point each in 2 different skills, but this character still show zero points in the Shock Bolt skill.

@ Awkward

thank you so much!
about half of these are just reverting changes to stuff i didn't test properly XD

gratz with jubilee version!

This one is an Embermage from the vanilla game. In general, I've noticed on all of my characters on this mod, most of the quest reward givers offer fewer reward choices.

@ HiFive

Good to know Notch's Mine still exists in my mod XD

i haven't changed any boss' loot table or quest reward.

what character were you using may i ask?

Update: My character found Notch's Mine in NG+.
Next issue: For the first time ever, Cacklespit did not offer me a potion. She's only offering two different bad boots. This potion is recommended for people to carry on their characters in case there is a glitch in the game where they are stuck somewhere and can't get out. It kills your character, giving you a resurrect in town so you can escape. Did you, by any chance, change her offerings?

robobob91,
Okay, I'll keep hoping I can find it on a character. It didn't spawn for the character that has already finished the storyline. I asked because another modder thought the swords were all useless so they removed the dungeon from their mod.

@ HiFive
i did nothing with regards spawn chance of Notch's Mine.
though admittedly in my play testing, i haven't seen it myself

I want to make sure: Is Notch's Mine still in the game? It's located in a mining area of the Sundered Battlefield map. I like to get two or three of the swords from there. The dps swords can be equipped sooner and deal a lot of damage for the level of the character that can equip them. The most important sword gives 80% decreased pet town travel time.

I put some notes in the Bugs and Issues thread about the Deathknight's "Army of the Dead" skill.

@ HiFive
thanks for giving my mod another chance!
noted on the Ice Wisp.. will look into it.. i hope it's as simple as me not turning on the "invincible" controller.

i agree that Mortar Shot needs a little extra something that's not just a ranged autoattack. will give it more thought!

I can now confirm that the Ice Wisp just dies from too much damage and that's why he disappears. It seems that his collar and tags may also be lost when this happens. Torchlight pets are not supposed to die, so there is something wrong with the Ice Wisp.

Also the Ice Angel fish turns the pet into an Ice Wisp. I've tried some other fish now and they are not making my pet disappear. I'll try some more Ice Wisps.

I forgot to mention this character is on Elite difficulty.

I'm trying your mod again. The right way this time. I started with a mechanist. There is no incentive for me to use the mortar shot, since it seems to only do the same thing as a regular cannon basic attack, except it's much weaker.

Also, I fed my pet one of the new fish (Ice Angel) you've provided. When the fish transformation expired, he disappeared, and his pet panel at the top left of my screen also disappeared. Luckily, both of them came back when I went back to town. I'll try more fish and see if the same thing happens with them.

@ Awkward
yes, if i've made any changes to skills i try to change the descriptions for them as well. not all changes like these are documented unfortunately

not sure how long it'll be before i'm done. but there seems to be alot to do due to all the bugs i introduced as a result of my improper testing

alot of changes are and will be aimed at making the game slightly easier; reducing enemy damage, increasing enemy cooldowns, buffing player power etc

Looks like you changes not mechanic only but lot of text (descriptions and titles), right? and looks like it will be long time yet?

@ robobob91 : As I've been aware of the TL2 mod community since 2015 - I understand the uphill challenges that modders face on a daily basis. You're welcome. ^_^

Indeed and yes, you aren't the first to notice as the bygone Runic Forums had many discussions between the early players regarding what could have been, how much content was scrapped or left around, plus the potential game patches had Publishers taken a different path in history.

Truth is, TL2 is only really beginning to finally reveal it's untapped potential later in life now that the new generation of modders begin to caringly piece it's puzzle back together.

And for that - it's us from the past who thank you for bringing new life to this game.
Players enjoy variety - there's only so much a single mod like Ace and Synergies can do.
Filling the Workshop with many other mods (especially ones with content and ideas) is what keeps players returning to this classic example of Arpgs from the previous era.

@steffire3
gosh! thank you!
it really feels like Runic had at least one and a half major expansions cooking. really makes me wonder what could have been

@ robobob91 : Congrats on introducing the Mechanist class! Thanks for exploring and expounding the unused aspects within this game.

@Borderlands
Thank you!

Good

@ robobob91 : Lol, glad to be here!
I used to test many mods back in the years of 2015 till 2018 hence my respect for your work!
And my awareness is only because of the players and other modders who helped me get here hence my huge credit to them and this community.
All good. As you continue with mod updates - you'll see the direction your mod naturally needs to aim for. You're welcome and my best wishes for your journey!

@steffire3
well noted! will definitely change up the mod save file name on my next update
thanks for the knowledge, advice and encouragement!


and hot damn steffire3 is in my comment section woopwoop! XD

Awkward,
Yes, you did not read the entire conversation.

btw, mod launcher must work with mod guids primary, not file names

lol, guys, i read (partially) about your mod compatibility problem and sure (for me, again and again) what better not to mix classes and rebalances. and again: don't forget to make backups when you trying something global. don't forget, game have console to make something. don't forget, we HAVE savegame editors to change at least something.

@ robobob91 : All good and huge thanks for your tech support!
My Ace team did change the file name of our mod file from TL2-E over to TL2-Ace and we haven't had any issues with our subscriber save files.
Overall - the extra effort giving unique names to files will ultimately benefit everyone who needs to manage their mod files and solve any matters such as this.
Thanks again for your support! It's a learning experience.

@ robobob91
I'm not completely sure, but I think that the update function in the mod launcher will automatically change the name of the mod file for already existing subscribers. I'll ask steffire3 about it and see what he says. It would really be helpful if the file was called Bob's Mod, instead of "test".

@HiFive
i, too, am super relieved that you've recovered your items and characters!
thank you for your patience and understanding, and super helpful tips!
i've bumped up the compatibility warning section in the description. Hopefully giving more warning to those like yourself who play multiple different mods.
moving forward, should i publish future changes with Mod Save File as "Bob's Mod", rather than "test"? will this affect those who've already subscribed?

And again, it's my fault for not reading the full description of your mod. I had gotten too comfortable with adding mods, and forgot that I need to be very careful, read everything, and read the comments, especially on very old and very new mods. If I had read everything in your description, I would have known to try it as a separate mod and would not have included it in my TL2-ACE mod list.

I might still try your mod sometime in the future, but I'll do it as a solo mod, or paired with just the Toy Collector mod. I'll make sure to make backups first, just in case it messes with my other modded characters somehow when I go back to my other mods.

The art on your slides at the top is really nice. I look forward to how this mod and other mods you create will progress over time.

Best wishes,

I like to encourage modders, so please continue to hone your modding skills. I was worried that something was super wrong with the game, since loading my backup save files wasn't working. However, it was just that your mod file was still in the game's mod folder.

It's odd that, with the mod just existing in the mod folder, the game was still holding onto some of your changes and bugging odd things in even the pre-Bob's Mod backup files. I loaded 6 different backup files in all, and 4 of them were pre-Bob's Mod. They were all bugged until I removed your mod named "test" entirely.

It should be noted that after I removed "test" from the two backups where it was located, and checked to make sure it was not in any other backup folders, I reinstalled the game and then placed my pre-Bob's Mod backup save in the game files. I don't know if it's necessary to reinstall the game, but that's what I had already done, so I can't and won't test that.

Solution:

I removed the modsave file from the game's folder. I made sure all mods named "test" were removed from all of my backup saves. I loaded up my backup saves, starting with the most recent, to see if the weapons were back. Both of the save files from the day I started using your mod were still corrupted. However, when I loaded up the backup save from the previous day (from before I subscribed to your mod), the WEAPONS ARE BACK !!!

I hope this has fixed everything. I checked on a bunch of characters and they all had their weapons, and the storage characters with greathammers, polearms, etc., Hopefully, my pet won't disappear anymore, and my Barbarian won't have anymore bugged inventory slots. I'll just have to make up some time that I spent leveling a new War Bot to 30. It's a new TL2-ACE mod class that I'm helping Corley and steffire3 to test.

2) For some reason, even though I was unsubscribed to your mod, and I removed your mod from my mod list, the mod remained in the mod list on the left side of the mod launcher. It was there because the mod was still in the game's mod folder, under the name "test". This name, by the way is probably used by a lot of mod makers. A lot of players make merge mods, so everyone calling the file for their mod "test" might cause issues. Before the mod is published, it should be renamed, if that's possible, to whatever the published name of the mod will be in the Workshop. Since I think I also used the name "test" when I first started exploring GUTS to make a merge mod of different classes, I can only hope I renamed it already.

Okay. Problem fixed. Phew! I can calm down, lol.

Issues:

1) You did not give your actual mod file the same name as what you named your mod in the Workshop. This makes it difficult for players who want to remove mods from their mods folder in the game files. I thought your mod was removed when I unsubscribed to it. I was wrong. It was still there.

Fish and spells that were in the code but not being used by the game may have been abandoned by the deveopers because they were bugged. Of course, it could also have just been that they were considered overpowered, or they didn't want to have too many different fish clogging up inventories. It's just something to be aware of.

@HiFive
With regards to items, i've:
1) tweaked "soak scale%" numbers for greatweapons, staves and polearms.
2) removed all class requirements for legendary items.
3) added some fish that were already in the code
4) added some spells that were already in the code

@HiFive
you're an experienced mod-enjoyer; i did not mean to suggest you were inexperienced dealing with Torchlight mods. Apologies.
Certainly, keeping several back-ups is much more than i'm willing to do!

I keep separate backups for different groupings of mods. When I change to a different group of mods, I load up the backup for that group.

@HiFive
From my own experience, stuff in the shared stash wigs out when switching across mods.
Say i put a sword from synergies into my stash. if i load up ACE and access the stash, it either crashes the game or the sword straight up disappears or changes into something else.

for that reason i only use my stash for my synergies characters. any other character from any other mod never accesses my shared stash.

robobob91,
My experience with other mods is that when items are removed like this, they are gone forever. That's why I keep backups of the modsave and save file in a separate location. I hold onto at least 4 of the old backup, along with some additional very old backups. However, every time I load a backup, it also comes out having the same bugs in it and the weapons are still missing, which shouldn't be the case. Can you think of any way you could have manipulated the files to cause this?