From the depths of the .dll

While trawling for stuff about Improved Shield Bash in the help.tab (it currently says nothing when you select it in the feat list: I wanted it to say "TESTING PURPOSES ONLY, DO NOT USE" but there was no actual entry for it) I found a bunch of stuff that at some point was expected to be craftable and was added to the help.tab accordingly.

Some examples:

Animated

An animated shield floats within 2 feet of the wielder, protecting him as if she were using it herself but freeing up both her hands. Only one shield can protect a character at a time.
Prerequisites:
CL 12th; Craft Magic Arms and Armor, Price +2 bonus.

Arrow Deflection

This shield protects the wielder as if he had the Deflect Arrows feat. Once per round when he would normally be struck by a ranged weapon, he can made a DC 20 Reflex save. If the ranged weapon has an enhancement bonus, the DC increases by that amount. If he succeeds, the shield deflects the weapon. He must be aware of the attack and not flat-footed. Attempting to deflect a ranged weapon doesn't count as an action. Exceptional ranged weapons, such as boulders hurled by giants or Melf's acid arrows, can't be deflected.
Prerequisites:
CL 5th; Craft Magic Arms and Armor; Shield; Price +2 bonus.

Bashing (this one, of course, made me sit up and take notice!)

A shield with this special ability is designed to perform a shield bash. A bashing shield deals damage as if it were a weapon of two size categories larger (a Medium light shield thus deals 1d6 points of damage and a Medium heavy shield deals 1d8 points of damage). The shield acts as a +1 weapon when used to bash. (Only light and heavy shields can have this ability).
Prerequisites:
CL 8th; Craft Magic Arms and Armor; Searing Light; Price +1 bonus.

Fortification, Light

This suit of armor or shield produces a magical force that protects vital areas of the wearer more effectively. When a critical hit or sneak attack is scored on the wearer, there is a chance that the critical hit or sneak attack is negated and damage is instead rolled normally.

Fortification Type___Chance for Normal Damage___Base Price Modifier
Light __________________ 25% ________________ +1 bonus

Prerequisites:
CL 13th; Craft Magic Arms and Armor; Price +1 bonus.

Shadow

This armor is jet black and blurs the wearer whenever he tries to hide, granting a +5 competence bonus on Hide checks. (The armor's AC penalty still applies normally).
Prerequisites:
CL 5th; Craft Magic Arms and Armor; Invisibility; Price +15,000 gp.

Slick

Slick armor seems coated at all times with a slightly greasy oil. It provides a +5 competence bonus on its wearer's Escape Artist check. (The armor's AC penalty still applies normally.)
Prerequisites:
CL 4th; Craft Magic Arms and Armor; Grease; Price +3, 750 gp.

Silent Moves

This armor is well oiled and magically constructed so that it not only makes little sound, but it dampens sound around it. It provides a +5 competence bonus on its wearer's Move Silently checks. (The armor's AC penalty still applies normally.)
Prerequisites:
CL 5th; Craft Magic Arms and Armor; Silence; Price +15,000 gp.

Funny thing about this lot: all of them, OTHER than the bashing shield, could be added right away; even an animated shield could be done, since we had something similar by mistake with the Egyptian longsword: that is, a sword model that floated near the player rather than right in his hand (people who remember that bug from the DH finale will know what I mean). I am not saying they could be craftable, but just as items lying around, they could definintely be made. (Actually I am not sure about the Fortification one, I got ahead of myself).

This sent me off to the .dll string dump to see what might be lurking in there. I found the following:

102ABF9C: 'pell Resistance',0
102ABFAC: 'Shield Animated',0
102ABFBC: 'Shield Arrow Deflection',0
102ABFD4: 'Shield Light Fortification',0
102ABFF0: 'Shield Blinding',0
102AC000: 'Shield Bashing',0
102AC010: 'Armor Slick',0
102AC01C: 'Armor Glamered',0
102AC02C: 'Armor Light Fortification',0
102AC048: 'Weapon Choatic',0
102AC058: 'Weapon Wounding',0
102AC068: 'Weapon Thundering',0
102AC07C: 'Weapon Throwing',0
102AC08C: 'Weapon Spell Storing',0
102AC0A4: 'Weapon Ghost Touch',0
102AC0B8: 'Weapon Defending',0

I wonder if 'pell Resistance' had anything to do with that being a crafting bug? Maybe, but Spellslinger fixed it anyway so it hardly matters 8^D 'Weapon Choatic' is a bit of a worry too ;-) In the help.tab they are referred to as 'anarchic' weapons, but having added one to the game myself (Blade of Fury anyone?) I can assure you the protos.tab recognises them as chaotic.

Well, what about the others? Note the shadow and silent moves armour have gone missing, they occur elsewhere:

102A47A4: 'Armor Spell Resistance',0
102A47BC: 'Armor Shadow',0
102A47CC: 'Armor Silent Moves',0

in a list of stuff that is pretty much all in the game. Are they in there? I know spell resistance is and I do have a vague recollection of seeing some other options for what you can craft but never took any notice - o well, next time I am crafting I will have to look at my options more closely.

I digress. The thing is, I tried adding "shield bashing" in the protos.tab to a spiked shield in the same way you add "weapon lawful" or whatever. There are actually no precedents for this: you can have Shield Bonuses and Shield Enhancements but no straight out "Shield Bashing" or "Armor Shadow" or whatever is found anywhere in protos.tab (well nowhere in the 6000s anyways). To be thorough, here are your 4 options:

102A49A8: 'Shield Enhancement Bonus',0
102A49C4: 'Shield Bonus',0
102A49D4: 'Armor Masterwork',0
102A49E8: 'Armor Bonus',0

otherwise there are attribute bonuses etc, which would make it ridiculously easy to create silent move and shadow armour (arrow-deflecting, too) in the same way you get skill bonuses for wearing Cujo's tattoos. This is a fair way from the weapons, where "Weapon Holy" or "Waepon Defending" etc turn up quite a bit.

BUT... "shield bashing" with or without numbers after it did nothing. Alas. I tried it both with a 2nd lvl ranger who had twf (and Improved Shield Bash for good measure), and a normal character with a shield and mace, and even a character with no weapon in the main hand: nothing. (And I couldn't equip the shield that way in the main hand).

Bugger.

So we have the enhancement, the feat, and even the damn animation, but we can't put them all together! Do'h!

I still plan to have a bit of a look one of these days to see if we can get any of the others working. What the hell is glamered armour anyway?

Unrelated Blog

A quick slice of Ted's life now. Long-time readers will remember me saying stuff like, "I am so tired of being sick all the time, I want to quit my job". Well now I have quit, and I was saying to Yvy the other day, my health is so much better :-) My aches and pains (and strains, and injuries) are better and my immune system is certainly heaps better, and while my 6am wake-up call from the lorikeets means I still don't get as much sleep as I would like, I am much happier: I don't wander around moaning and whining like I did just before quitting ;-) Yvy, I'm sure, is happier too.

Have I mentioned the lorikeets before? Readers of Yvy's blog will know we have a bunch of the colourful little noise machines, anywhere between 2-15, come by regularly for a feed (usually first thing in the morning and then some drop by later in the day). They call for me and I run out and feed them; they have me well trained.

Well, today I did my first wash with our brand new washing machine (we were using my folks' place up until now) and hung the wet stuff on a clothes horse on the balcony. All good, but when the birds came by about 4pm today I insisted they come eat out of my hand and stay away from the clothes - I don't normally do such things, but I wanted to control the situation in case the inevitable swarm of pigeons showed up and the clothes got crapped on.

About 1/2 dozen of the regular birds are happy enough to eat out of my hand and I poured some out on the balcony top right next to me to accomodate a few of the others (there were only a couple at first then more kept arriving). Well, last time I fed them by hand one of them actually sat on my arm, which was very cute but not something I actively encourage (though I loved it when it happened).

So today while I am feeding a couple of the more dominant ones, one of the smaller regulars (who is not afraid of me but well down the pecking order among the birds) turned up. He couldn't challenge the dominant ones to eat, but another reason I hand-feed is to ensure the smaller ones get something, so knowing he was in for a feed he just sat and waited.

On my head.

As you all know I am somewhat folically challenged, and he was digging his little claws in - not that I minded, I loved having him there though I also felt a bit of a goose. Then he jumped down onto my shoulder, so I lifted the food up to him (bugger the dominant ones, they can always get something to eat) and he happily ate there on my shoulder. I could hear a noise above me (sometimes the birds sit on the guttering right above your head to watch what is going on, another very cute behaviour) and I figured it was his mate, so I raised my free arm so there was more shoulder to sit on and sure enough, another one dropped down and the two of them sat there munching away, chirping and crunching their seeds right in my ear. Gorgeous!

Except it went for about 15 minutes, when I didn't dare move a muscle for fear of panicking them...

It was funny watching the others strut up and down and watch all this, but not have the courage to join in. They'd walk back and forth, look, get down on their haunches like they were going to spring up onto me, then have second thoughts. Finally one of the other birds got up the courage to fly up and drive thse smaller ones off and have a go himself. I took the opportunity to lower my arms, and birds took it in turns (in pairs) to sit on my forearms and have a munch from the little measuring cup thing full of seeds I feed them with. others would then come and knock them off, and so it went. By the time they had finished the seeds I had had several all over me, and at one point 3 sitting on my head at once. I got covered in seed shells but, thankfully, not crapped on (though I still went in and had a shower right after of course). Its not something I would have the time or the inclination to do every day, but I can't wait for next time.

They hung around for a while after, just fighting and chasing each other and squawking. I gave them an apple too: they love them, and the damn pigeons won't touch them.

I love my birds! 8^D