New Add-on Pack: Bucket o' Spells 1.1

I was wondering why no one has put {pc.follower_remove( npc )} into Fruella's dlg file. You can recruit her and get the xp and then loot the cleaver, then dismiss her. No need to feed her to the frogs. Just put the remove script in the last set of brackets in line 131 and be done with it.
Here's a modified dlg zip for anyone who wants it.

 

Great stuff Ted Avasculate was a very cool choice awesome spell :yes:

Is there a thread floating around that has a list of possibilities/limitations of toee spell-modding in it?

I did some searching but couldnt find precisely what im after (though, thats probably a case of me and forum-search tools not working well together) could anyone point me in the direction of such related-info (if it exists)?

Oh and is this an on-going work? Are you taking suggestions on spells that might be easier to implement? :evilgrin:

I assume that spells with similar effects (both mechanically, and graphically) to those already implemented are far more doable

 

mmmmmmmmmm... theres a lot of info floating around these boards, and yes, we all know that the amount of stickies is already obscene, but when it comes to someone rocking up on these boards and thinking 'i want to know if i can do XXXXXX' it takes a bit of digging some of the time.

Anyhoo, i'll just fire off a bunch of questions of the top of my head,

PLEASE dont take this as some kind of OMG MAKE THIS SPELL PLZ type request, im just hoping to spark ideas with regards to your (very cool) mod

1. Is the process of creating a new spell fiendishly complicated, does it require funky/difficult tricks, DLL hacks etc to achieve? or is it something more simple like editing protos?

2. Darmagon had new effects? how were these implemented/animated? are there in-game particle systems that can be utilised by adding in static graphics that are then substituted into existing/new particle layouts?

3. If a prospective new spell is fundamentally similar (graphically/mechanically) to an existing one, would that mean that it is easier to implement? for instance, can you copy the existing spell's data, then modify it with a few differences?

for example:~

Shadow Evocation
Illusion (Shadow)
Level: Brd 5, Sor/Wiz 5
Components: V, S
Casting Time: 1 standard action
Range: See text
Effect: See text
Duration: See text
Saving Throw: Will disbelief (if interacted with)
Spell Resistance: Yes

You tap energy from the Plane of Shadow to cast a quasi-real, illusory version of a sorcerer or wizard evocation spell of 4th level or lower. (For a spell with more than one level, use the best one applicable to you.)

Spells that deal damage have normal effects unless an affected creature succeeds on a Will save. Each disbelieving creature takes only one-fifth damage from the attack. If the disbelieved attack has a special effect other than damage, that effect is one-fifth as strong (if applicable) or only 20% likely to occur. If recognized as a shadow evocation, a damaging spell deals only one-fifth (20%) damage. Regardless of the result of the save to disbelieve, an affected creature is also allowed any save (or spell resistance) that the spell being simulated allows, but the save DC is set according to shadow evocation’s level (5th) rather than the spell’s normal level.

Nondamaging effects have normal effects except against those who disbelieve them. Against disbelievers, they have no effect.

Objects automatically succeed on their Will saves against this spell.

This spell is capable of replicating evocation effects lvl 1-4: a quasi-real fireball, for instance.

in short, a lvl 5 illusion spell that casts a lvl 1-4 evocation spell with reduced effect.

Following the fireball example, the only difference between regular fireball and the shadow evocation fireball is that it gets an additional will-save, which, if passed, reduces the damage by 80%. So, fundamentally, all that needs to be changed is to add an additional saving throw, and damage modifier if the save is made.

Summon Monster spells and similar already have 'sub menus' within them, which let you select which effect (or which monster to summon), Would it be possible to create a similar setup with regards to Shadow Evocation, Shadow Conjuration and their greater equivalents?

(Shadow Conjuration brings up a little more mechanic questions with regards to summons and 'belief rolls' but thats not really my question)

For those who havent caught on yet - the idea i am trying to discuss is having a shadow evocaton spell that has a small selection of commonly used (and easy to implement) evocation spells that you could choose from: Spells such as shield, or (in the case of shadow conjuration) mage armor, would obviously have some difficult mechanics to sort out, but a direct attack spell, for example, would be far more simple, as the additional belief mechanic would only be a one-off roll.

Anyways, ill shut up now

EDIT: just spotted the new modding limitations post ted great stuff!

 

Read up a bit on the subject - from your new thread, as well as some long standing ones that were sort of relevant:

Is any suggestion involving something to do with the radial menu (as my above post suggests) a complete no no?

You've said combat wise that radial menu new stuff either wont happen ever, or wont happen without some ridiculous amount of fiddling in the nether regions of the game engine by some kind of programming genius - would the 'do things like summon monster does' point fall under this same shadow?

I know theres generally a very good reason why some ideas havent been done before

Edit: Was also looking at some of the spell effects in game, desecrate in particular seems to use one simple line-icon-run-picture thingy at a low transparency as a particle that is then emitted within the area of effect - fireballs, fire elementals, air elementals and the like all could feasibly be using similar 1-particle image effects, anyone know if thats the case?

 

From my experiments at creating giant elementals for high level summoning, the fire elemental has a skeletal model (think stick-man) that generates a firey particle effect (probably defined in the model file). The 'radius' of the particle effect is fixed, so the bigger the fire elemental was scaled, the more like a firey stick-man it became.

There was a similar situation in reverse with the balor - I made a fire mephit by shrinking a balor (a lot), the result is a ball of flame with the occasional wing or head sticking out!

...and I never did figure out why I couldn't get a Kyton working properly.

 

mmmm i'd noticed the stick man thing before

begin musing:

i wonder, if new effects are possible, if the radius could be tweaked? or a new/larger particle doodad created that could apply to an existing elemental model? or, perhaps, could existing models have particle effects added to them, so that instead of referencing a texture, they reference the particle effect?

Of course, that would depend on whether the elemental models use some kind of structure within their model to act as a particle emitter? if so, scrap that idea.

Though, there are other elemental-ish creatures that could be created if the particle effects can be replaced/recoloured, voidwraiths (from libris mortis i think) come to mind

Make an air elemental's particles black instead of white and voila

end musing.

Anyone know which spells darmagon worked on (are they in the co8 mod? or floating around as another mod?)

 

Who sssumonsss me?

1-New effects are possible, yes. I don't remember right now, but i think that radius can be changed, indeed.
2-Sort of. Something like that. Could be.
3-Models can have particle effects attached. But you'll still need a texture for the model, or te effect would cover it. In any case, particle effects have "textures" that can be moded easily.

Hum, i don't understand well...
An Elemental has a model, a skin/texture, and a particle effect. With the exception on the model, you can modify everything else easily. And the model can be modified too, tho you'll be very limited

Easy thing. If you really want to do that, just tell me, and i'll explain.

Basically:

The .partsys files store the information to build the effects.

They have the info on shape, duration, frecuency, radius, coordinates, texture and colour (these work separately but can be modded at the same time), and some other internal stuff.

Every effect is broken in various lines:
for example the magic missile has a line for the moment it is launched (a little explosion in your hands), a line when they fly (the random variables to move always different on the air), a line for when they hit (another little explosion), and another line for an extra effect when the target of the missile shakes.
(actually there's more lines, but this is a quick example)

Changing the colour of the missiles is really really simple (just setting some numbers)
Changing the shape of the misiles is very simple too, it would imply to change the little graphic file for it.
Changing the random variables for movement could be complicated, but doable. It would imply a lot of testing (and probably crashes).

So, if you want to change the magic missiles because you don't like them, it's easy, just replace a little graphic file.
If you want to do a whole new effect of it, it can be complicated depending of what you want.

Each line has a call for a little graphical file (a .tga, no less).
You can do a whole new bunch of these tgas, and put them in the right folder (iirc, it's called "particle"...no less ). You can add as much tgas as you want, because it seems that there isn't a .mes file for it that limits or set a number. Then all you'll have to do is to copy all the lines of a spell (that resembles what you want to do), change their name, and change the call for the new little tgas.

Example:

Bards music effect uses four musical notes.
If you go to the "particle" folder, and change them for, let's say, four letters (musical note 1 for L, musical note 2 for A, musical note 3 for L, and musical note 4 for A) your bard will look like lalaying when you activate the musical bard abilty.
But there may be other musical effects in the game, and they will also display the LALA. So the best way is to add the LALA tga files, and go to the partsys and change the call of the bardic music for the musical notes, for your new re-named tga files.

And, basically, that's how you can change (at some point at least) many effects. ^_^

 

Thanks for the replies guys i'll be delving the forums (and files) regarding the stuff you've mentioned wheeeeee

 

Just a few ideas:

-Avasculate:

You could use the Enervation effect. It is divided in a ray effect for the "shoot", and three or for "electric" ring for when it hits the target. Search for the .tgas, copy and rename them and set them to black, and copy/rename the last four or five lines on the partsys file for when it hits for the "blood splash" effect of when you hit whit a weapon.

-Acid attack:

I did one for the bombardier beetles!. Look for the .tga file of the burning hands efects (i think is "burn") and copy/rename but in green. Copy/rename teh partsys lines too.



Yes Ted, you understand well

Also, some spells use meshes, like weapons.
For example the acid arrow. If you need some magical looking arrow, you can recolour it.

Something to mention is the lightning bolt effect.
Troika was very proud of it, and they take a lot work. I think it is hardcoded on the dll, cos i couldn't find any relevant file except the skin. The only thing you could do with it is recoloring, but nothing else.

Also, there's a good number of unused spell effects (such like darkness) that seem to work but the spell wasn't implemented. Another bunch of special effects unused in the game (like rain and fog), and some other interesting effects that seem to be for testing purposes but work without problems.
So, while we are limited at some point by the weird codes, we have more than enough available spell effects to adapt, and enough knowledge to modify.