[Corylea]

Kalkstein promises to pay you 1000 orens to open the tower in the swamp, which sounds like riches until you realize that it cost YOU 1150 orens in expenses. Unfair!

Geralt doesn't strike me as the kind of guy who'd keep his mouth shut about his legitimate expenses, nor does Kalkstein seem like the kind of man who'd intentionally take advantage of an employee. But CDPR didn't give Geralt any way to claim his expenses, and every time I've played Chapters 2 and 3, I've thought that was unfair.

So I did something about it.

When you talk to Kalkstein about having opened the tower in the swamp, after he tells you that you've earned your reward, Geralt will say that this "reward" doesn't even cover his expenses:




Kalkstein is rather unworldly, so it's not surprising that he didn't realize that there were expenses involved. But he's not a bad man:




So Geralt lays it all out for him:




Kalkstein protests his innocence, and I believe him:




Then he pays up:




When the quest updates, you'll get a notification on your screen that you got 1000 orens reward. After you've given Kalkstein back his teleportation stone and the Tower tarot card and his notes and all that jazz, you'll get another notification that you've recieved 1150 orens for your expenses:




Since you got 1150 for your expenses and 1000 for the reward, that adds up. Before:




And after payment:




There are two possible places where you can have this conversation with Kalkstein, depending on your choices in Chapter 2.

If Kalkstein is NOT present at the tower at the end of Chapter 2, then you have this conversation with him at the beginning of Chapter 3. I had a saved game from then, and I tested this mod, and everything worked great.

If Kalkstein IS present at the tower at the time that you open the tower, you have this conversation at the end of Chapter 2. I wasn't able to test that version, because I don't have a saved game from then (I usually take "Raymond" to the tower). But it's the same conversational lines, and they call the same script, so it should work in the same way as the version I tested.


INSTALLATION
Put all of these files in your The Witcher Enhanced Edition\Data folder. The only files I've altered are two of Kalkstein's conversation files -- cn_kalkstein10.dlg and cn_kalkstein11.dlg. As far as I know, no other mod alters those files, so this mod shouldn't conflict with any others.


Files below or at The Witcher Nexus. Remember to unzip them before installing.

Have fun!

Attached File(s)

•  Fair Kalkstein Mod.zip (140.58K)
  Number of downloads: 123

[Schmooples]

Very nice. I also felt it to be very uncharasteristic that Geralt had to spent all this money and didn't say a thing. Even more so when some players play to the tower suspecting the "lost in thought" alchemist himself of devilry

[Dearg Ruadhri]

Thank you Cory, it's a really nice modification, since it makes no sense that Geralt has more expenses than he recieves payment.

[Zanderat]

Downloaded. A logical tweak.

[guipit]

yeah this bothered me since I wanted to get the expensive better leather jacket which I was saving up for, for like 2 chapters. good call.

[Guy N'wah]

Does your mod account for the possibility that Geralt did not pay the Druid to cause the thunderstorm? (If you wait until it is raining, you can save yourself the 500 orens.)

[Corylea]

Guy N said:

Does your mod account for the possibility that Geralt did not pay the Druid to cause the thunderstorm? (If you wait until it is raining, you can save yourself the 500 orens.) ›››

Nope. I don't know how many players are patient enough to just wait for natural rain, but I never am.

Keeping track of whether the player found Ain Soph Aur in Gramps' hut or paid Vivaldi 300 orens for it, whether they paid 50 orens to the Dwarven smith or 70 orens to the Order smith, whether they waited for rain or paid the druids -- all of that would force me to make a larger, more intrusive mod, and I wanted something small and simple that wouldn't conflict with anything else.

So I assumed that the player DID find the book in Gramps' hut, that they paid the cheaper smith and that they bought a rainstorm. I hoped making two assumptions on the side of lower expenses and one on the side of higher expenses would cancel each other out. And this way I don't have to alter as many conversations or alter the globaldlgflags.2da or have Geralt list each expense on a separate conversational line or do all kinds of other things that I thought would make the mod bigger and more intrusive.

If I were making a new adventure, I'd keep track and have things different depending on the player's choices, but when working around the existing game -- and working around all those other mods out there -- I have to pick my battles.

[Bloth]

This has been bothering me for soooooooooo long, thanks Corylea.

[Olloki]

Corylea said:

Nope. I don't know how many players are patient enough to just wait for natural rain, but I never am.

I always wait. No orens for druids

[Guy N'wah]

Corylea said:

Nope. I don't know how many players are patient enough to just wait for natural rain, but I never am.

Keeping track of whether the player found Ain Soph Aur in Gramps' hut or paid Vivaldi 300 orens for it, whether they paid 50 orens to the Dwarven smith or 70 orens to the Order smith, whether they waited for rain or paid the druids -- all of that would force me to make a larger, more intrusive mod, and I wanted something small and simple that wouldn't conflict with anything else.

So I assumed that the player DID find the book in Gramps' hut, that they paid the cheaper smith and that they bought a rainstorm. I hoped making two assumptions on the side of lower expenses and one on the side of higher expenses would cancel each other out. And this way I don't have to alter as many conversations or alter the globaldlgflags.2da or have Geralt list each expense on a separate conversational line or do all kinds of other things that I thought would make the mod bigger and more intrusive.

If I were making a new adventure, I'd keep track and have things different depending on the player's choices, but when working around the existing game -- and working around all those other mods out there -- I have to pick my battles. ›››

You're absolutely right, and your mod shouldn't be any different; I'm just giving you a hard time because that's what I do

[Corylea]

Guy N said:

You're absolutely right, and your mod shouldn't be any different; I'm just giving you a hard time because that's what I do ›››

Funny, I usually experience you as friendly, patient, and helpful. Since when do you usually give people a hard time?

[Guy N'wah]

Corylea said:

Funny, I usually experience you as friendly, patient, and helpful. Since when do you usually give people a hard time? ›››

It's my job to be persnickety about details When I do this at work, it usually gets us to a better answer or we find out that a job is altogether unnecessary. No offense meant, I hope you understand.

[Licaon_Kter]

actually if you have 4899orens by the end of the Tower Quest you don't deserve such a big reward anyway

[Guy N'wah]

Licaon_Kter said:

actually if you have 4899orens by the end of the Tower Quest you don't deserve such a big reward anyway ›››

In my games, my Geralt has made so much money selling drowner and bloedzuiger body parts to Kalkstein that he takes a loss on the Alghoul quest and this one as a matter of good will

Still, a nice thing for those of us to whom fairness is important. And the dialogue is, as always, insightful and finely done, Corylea.

[Corylea]

Licaon_Kter said:

actually if you have 4899orens by the end of the Tower Quest you don't deserve such a big reward anyway ›››

Geralt did the work -- and it was a biiiiig job -- so he deserves the payment he was promised. And Kalkstein always seems as if he has plenty of money to throw around, so I feel no need to give the man charity.

Guy N said:

It's my job to be persnickety about details When I do this at work, it usually gets us to a better answer or we find out that a job is altogether unnecessary. No offense meant, I hope you understand. ›››

My husband is a computer science professor, so I DO understand; I've seen this mindset in action maaaaany times before.

Guy N said:

Still, a nice thing for those of us to whom fairness is important. And the dialogue is, as always, insightful and finely done, Corylea. ›››

Thanks, hon.

[KingIorveth I]

Amazing work mate !

500 orens for a sephirod stone surely seems a lot to me.

Thank you.

[Licaon_Kter]

Guy N said:

In my games, my Geralt has made so much money selling drowner and bloedzuiger body parts to Kalkstein that he takes a loss on the Alghoul quest and this one as a matter of good will ›››

FCR-Normal, can't kill a bloedzuiger most of the time but when I do the poisonous explosion will kill me if i don't roll out of the way on time. Stop playing on Easy lads/lasses

[Gilrond]

For bloedzuigers you need some practice and usage of more complex tactics, than just simply attacking and standing in one place. For example, attack, then evade the explosion jumping away (for example forward, not backward) and run right after the jump to gain some distance. I know most people underrate the evasion moves, but for such kind of monsters they are useful. Alternatively use Igni from the distance, if you really have hard time with jumping away.

[Licaon_Kter]

O RLY?

[Sforza-il-Moro]

No more efforts, but maybe a little more time to consider a proper response
Again, apologies for denseness, will answer again as soon as possible