Updating and adding summoning spells

Okay, this thread is for the purpose of discussing what we might want to see added as far as monsters for the existing and yet to be existing summoning spells (ie. Summon Monster I to IX and Summon Nature's Ally I to IX) .

Nerik has expressed interest in developing new monsters suitable for summoning for the higher level spells as well as adding new monsters for the already existing spells. Others may want to help in various ways so here is the thread to do it in

As a starter I am attaching my version of the spells_radial_menus_options.mes which already has the necessary entries to make the higher level (ie. VI+) spells work. The file has a bogus .txt extension at the end (so I can post it here). To use it, place it in your data\mes folder (under your main ToEE install directory) and rename it to just 'spells_radial_menus_options.mes' (ie. just erase the trailing .txt extension.)

Hopefully the layout should speak for itself. NB: the protos numbers assigned for the higher level spells are just copies of a lower level spell (V i believe). These are the numbers that will have to be changed when new monsters become available.

Creating the new spells themselves will just be a matter of copy and paste or copying/renaming the .scr and .txt files for the lower level spells (plus optionally fillng in the details for NPCs to cast the spells) once the new creatures have been created and the 'options' file has been made to reference their protos numbers.

To see the originating discussion click HERE
and look around a little.....

Darmagon

 

Make summoning time 1 round instead of a standard action.

-EE

 

Thanks, Darmagon. One question - perusing the 'Salamanders and Giants and Gnolls (Oh My!)' thread, if I'm reading it right, there were two sligtly different Protos.Tab files created by Allyx & Kalshane, one with Flamebrothers & normal Salamanders, and one with Flamebrothers & Noble Salamanders (there are other differenced, but this is the relevant one). The question is, has it been finalised as to which Protos.Tab will become 'standard'? As we need both normal and Noble Salamanders for the summoning spells.

Final question - in the Standard summoning list for Summon Nature's Ally VIII, the options in the 3.5 PHB/SRD are a bit limited - there are 4 creatures, 2 of which are aquatic, the other 2 are the aforementioned Noble Salamander and the Roc. Anyone have any idea what mesh to use for the Roc, AFAIK there is only one bird mesh in the game, and its a chicken! :cool2:

Finally, and a bit OT, looking through the meshes, I found a pig mesh, with two textures (brown & pink) - does anyone recall seeing pigs in the game? Back on topic, this does give us the option of adding things like wild boar.

Charles

 

Ok, I'll add the 'normal' Salamander as a new Protos No.

IIRC the Harpy doesn't have wings - so its a possibility or a re-skinned bat (maybe).

I'll give them a test, unfortunately, I've just found out I have to come into work tomorrow :sadblinky , so I won't get round to testing until tomorrow evening.

Charles

 

Managed to find the time to do a quick test:

Pigs are Protos.tab ID 14368 (pink) and 14369 (brown), they can be consoled into the game, where they don't do much unless attacked, at which point they turn hostile - they can be charmed by charm animal - I'm surprised they arn't used in the game (or maybe they are and I didn't notice them) - it might be worth putting them somewhere in Homlett (assuming they aren't already there, of course). Look a bit chubby for wild boar, but with a suitable re-texture they could pass.

Charles

 

There are pigs in Hommlett already... try looking behind those barns you know so well from town quests. :evilgrin:

--Blair
"I just love the smell of plasma in the morning."

 

Ok, just for reference, the attached file lists the creatures that are summoned in PnP (3.5 PHB & SRD) I've indicted what ones exist in game, and the ones that, ATM I think we can do, possibly (some experiments needed ) This list will probably change, at the moment I'm using a selection criteria of available meshes, it is possible that some of the more complex and powerful beasties may have abilities that cannot easiliy (if at all) be implimented in the engine (for instance, Summon Natures Ally IX has the option to summon a pixie armed with arrows that cause amnesia).

I think I'll concentrate on the higher level summons for the spells that don't exist yet (6th level+) for the time being.

Charles

 

Well, depending on whether there is a limit on how many entries we can add (needs experimentation.

I was considering this as a possibility (I think the giant tick model is actually the same as the umber hulk/vodyanoi one - will investigate) and I don't know why I didn't put it in :blush:.

Worth a try - I'll see what it looks like.

It might be a rather fat-looking weasel but OTOH Baldur's Gate 2 used the same animation for rats, ferrits, weasels and hampsters .

Now thats an idea, thanks.

Maybe, I couldn't remember what a howler was supposed to look like.

I think you might be onto something with these, we're going to need some more textures for some of them though.

Thanks,

Charles

 

Could do, and on this subjects, what are peoples views on going 'off list' for the summoning spells (for instance, summoning giant lizards, which exist in the game, instead of crocodiles)?

I've had a look at the Howler artwork in the 3.5 Monster Manual, its a mutant dog-thing porcupine cross - and I don't think there's a mesh like it in ToEE :suprised:

Charles

 

I don't think folks would mind; but there's a few who are making the effort to alter the creature's appearance to make a whole new beast. Ice Lizard to assorted Dragon(s); Lizardman to Kobold, etc. If you've got the skills, maybe you can add to this list...?

 

I'm working on Ice toad, Kobold and Phase spider atm

 

Ok, progress at this end - I've tried adding a 'Summon Monsters VI' that just summons large elementals - ATM it shows up in the available spells lists, can be learned and memorised, and the radial menu works properly (showing the 4 large elementals) - it just doesn't seem to summon anything yet :-( Oh, well, I'll see if I can figure it out.

Anyway, I've included a file listing my proposed Protos.Tab ID's for the first bacth of new summonable creatures - those using existing mes's.

Charles