Updating and adding summoning spells

Ill send you the complete set of files 'as is', as an e-mail.

Charles

 

OK, just a quick notice - I'm heading off to visit my parents tomorrow, and I won't be back until wednesday, so I'm going to be out of contact until then (and I'm away the following weekend as well). I've got all of the creatures in the protos.tab with new protraits and meshes, except for the leonal, eagles, owls and the chain devil which for some reason doesn't work right (doesn't CTD, it just lacks a head for some reason!). I have not yet done new spells for creatures that need them (mostly mephit breath weapons and shadow mastiff/yeth hound bay), and a few creatures will eventually need special scripts writing for them, mostly the Invisible Stalker.

A friend has suggested that I might be able to fake vulerability to cold (for example) with energy resistance, cold, with a negative value, if I get time I'll try and see if this works.

A question, the same friend suggested that creatures with buffing spells or spell-like effects could be scripted to arrive 'pre-buffed' does anyone like this idea, or not?

See you all (figuratively typing) next week,

Charles

 

If you give a creature the fire subtype, I believe they should be vulnerable to cold (and immune to fire). I'm not sure if you're monkeying with creatures that are vulnerable to cold that aren't fire creatures.

 

Hmmm, prebuffed eh...I think I like it. I mean, it's better than them not using them atall, right?

 

Livonya did this with her mod. That's why all the NPC spellcasters power up whenever you enter the map they are on. If you understand how the scripting works (sadly, I don't) it wouldn't be hard to apply the same to monsters.

 

I believe he is referring to having them show up pre-buffed when summoned, which is a different kettle of fish entirely than what Liv did with the NPCs. Liv's method does not work if combat is already active (I've tried it).

I could be possible to add the effects of the buff in the spell script, and even the eye candy to go with it (I think), or even add it to the san_start_combat script, which I think would be a better choice. The only other option is to have them cast the spell (and take a round doing so) in strategy.tab.

 

Hmmm, yes, the start combat script would work. You could test for each monster, if they are a certain type of monster, and if so, apply some buff/eye candy routine to them.

Good idea .

 

Though, IMHO, we should restrict such "pre-buffing" to monsters that have spell effects running constantly (like the aforementioned lantern archon and its magic circle against evil). Otherwise, we are unbalancing the summons by making the creatures too powerful too quickly after they appear... the whole point of monster spellcasting or spell-like abilities is to give extra punch but require time to do it, in the form of one or more actions spent to power up.

That said, if you can manage it, I'll be first in line to help test it.

--Blair
"Don't worry, Bob's got the insecticide bombs. *chomp* Bob? Bob?... oh, crap."

 

All the Summon Monster Spells are working fine for me Nerik. I cannot replicate your problem with Summon Monster III. By the way, good job on all this!

 

Firstly, just let me clarify - the actual spells are the work of Darmagon and Allyx, what I did was to put the creatures that the spells summonned into the protos.tab and, where necessary, do in game graphics (except for the boars and the dire bear, which were done by Virstual SpACEman), inventories, and stratergy.tab entries. I've got a reasonable package available for release that I could send you, I haven't got the Kyton graphics working right yet (and I still haven't figured out why!), and I haven't yet done a texture for the leonal, or the owls, eagles and rocs, but they do all work in game.

So this could be included in the next release, I'll be away again tomorrow evening, returning Sunday, so if you want, I cand send you the files tomorrow.

Charles

 

I know you had help. Still, it was your idea and you did a lot of work on it, so good job!

Has Kalshane gotten back to you yet on your added creatures? If not, I think we should wait on that before we stick it in the game. If he has, then I would say let's go for it, though I would leave out the radial menu options for creatures you don't have decent textures or graphics for yet. Those can always be added in later with a patch. Definitely leave them in the protos.

When you send me the files, I would greatly appreciate it if you could add you stuff to the files I posted in the Co8 4.1.0 Reservation thread. Those are the latest versions. I noticed that you were still working off of files that are at least a few months old. It makes it much easier for me to incorporate you work if you are working with the latest files.

 

Ok, I'll see what I can do - I've just found protoED's combiner tools which should make it easier. I'll give it a try tomorrow.

Yours,

Charles

 

No. I haven't. Sorry, I need to find some free moments when I'm not at work to look the changes over. I will try to get that done ASAP.

 

Um, Nerik, ProtoEd combiner tools are notorious for corruption protos. I would suggest using Beyond Compare, and only copying over the lines of the proto that you have added or changed. I use Beyond Compare extensively, and I have yet to corrupt a protos with it. I think you can find a link to Beyond Compare in the Downloads section of the forum.

If you do use Beyond Compare, you will see how out of date your protos is.

 

BlueCrayola says use Beyond Compare. hmm - opens google.. *smirk* yay - new tool