Salamanders and Giants and Gnolls (Oh My!)

Yeah, I wrote up her own entry. I've copied and pasted the spell names directly from the protos.tab and no matter what spell I put first or what targeting instructions I give her, she just casts that spell repeatedly. I can only think there's something about the format I'm missing. I mean, everything is lined up like it is in the other entries, but I realize I don't actually know what "target threatened", "target ranged", "clear target" and the rest actually mean. I can make a guess, but I don't know for sure.

 

A role playing comment, if it will help you with her script:

She was part of a demonic faction allied against Iuz. They were defeated, and she avoided death by fleeing to the nodes. She should escape if the party ever takes her away from there; and she should run off from a party trying to kill her in there. I should think her favored melee attack involves her using that vampiric touch of hers more than the dagger; unless she's trying not to give herself away. Once the jig is up, however...

 

Well, that's well above and beyond my abilities, I'm afraid. I'm having trouble with her combat AI, which is set in the strategy.tab and completely unrelated to the python script that controls her actions outside of combat.

My updates to the python script for her involved me cobbling from Liv's work on other NPCs, a whole lot of trial and error and a good bit of dumb luck. I have no clue what any of the python code actually means, I was able to just recognize the spell names in the midst of it and swap them out for the correct ones and then blunder my way through making the other changes needed to make it work.

Also, the only vampiric touch she has is the spell. There's no energy draining powers in the engine, that I'm aware of. I suppose, if I can't get her to stop doing the same spell over and over again, I could have her just cast that. Better than using the dagger, at least.

Speaking of the python script, there was a request to use a global variable other than Spuginoir's. Does anyone want to give me a free number to plug in there?

 

If you use a unique globas variable for her, you will need to add a line for it in random_encounter.py. That is where all the NPC self-buffing variables are reset to zero when the party rests. I can help you out with that when the time comes.

 

I'm going to regret staying up to finish this come tomorrow morning, but I'm done. Final update below:

This isn't a perfectly playable copy yet, as it's based on the assumption we can get the inventory fixes working. If not, I'm going to have to go back and change around the NPCs who had their inventories changed. So if you're testing this out and gnolls and assorted goblinoids are easy to hit, it's because they're setup to be wearing armor they don't have yet. There's also two versions of the protos.tab. Version one has normal salamanders (remember the original salamanders are a weird amalgamation of normal and noble salamanders) and "true" Eyes of the Deep. (As close as I can get without gaze attacks functioning like gaze attacks, anyway.) Version 2 has Noble Salamanders and a rulesified version of the original Eyes of the Deep from the game (cone of colds and all that.) If figure people can try them both out and decide which they like better and we can have the appropriate kind of each in the final version.

Please note, that while I've tested these files by running ToEE and spawing the creatures as I've changed them, I have not done a full run through the game yet. Things might get funky when the monsters are in their native habitats. If so, let me know and I'll try to figure out where I went wrong.

Also, there's no fancy installer here. You're have to manually copy the files into the appropriate folders. Make sure to backup your protos.tab, invensource.mes, description.mes, long_description.mes and strategy.tab before trying this out. If you don't do that and it hoses your ToEE installation, it's so not my fault.

CB, I'll have to get you that list of what inventory stuff I changed and the corresponding protos tomorrow. Sorry, I got caught up in trying to finish this thing. I intend to post and crash.

 

I just wish I knew more programming/modding, but trying to read code just makes my brain shut down. (See above about my "cut, paste and Hail Mary" efforts to get Darley to cast defensive spells outside of combat.) There's so many things that had to be kludged because of limitations in the engine or lack of spells/abilities to use. I also wish I could decipher the strategy.tab better so I could figure out how to get creatures to use their special abilities intelligently rather just be happy I can get them to use them.

ETA: I think I might have found a bug. While I was home on lunch, I started up a fresh game with protos1, was equipping my party and went to give one of my characters a blue cape (#6338) from the console and the game CTDed. Can anyone see if they can "give 6338" from the console in the official Co8 4.0.1 version of the game?

I tried reverting back to the old protos and the game CTDed on startup. My description.mes and long_description.mes apparently don't play nice with it and those were the only two files I didn't make backups of. Duh. I tried changing the long description slightly and resaving the protos and description in ToEEWB, but it didn't fix anything. I'm wondering if this was caused by my creation of the Mithral Plate, which is protos #6339.

 

Okay, cool. I mean, not cool that it's bugged, but glad it's not my fault.

ETA: I'm kind of wondering who downloaded the protos.tabs without the strategy.tab and .mes-es, as they're kind of necessary for the former to work right.

 

ok I must've missed out a file somewhere, I made and can use the blue cape altho I can't see whats missing for the rest of you - will look some more tho.

 

Hey, Cujo, since you're clothing guy, if you have a minute can you take a look at the white and the black monk's robes? Whenever I put them on a female elf, their torso and legs disappear. The other color monk's robes work fine, and the white and black work on male and female humans, halflings and half-orcs. (Not sure about male elves or male or female half-elves, as I haven't tried it.)

ETA: On my test run. Whoops, the new and improved giant frogs fell prey to the whims of the twister (my greatsword-wielding paladin critted each and every one of them) and never got a chance to attack me. They all popped out of the water, hopped over and got gang beat by the party. With their new CR of 2, the XP from them and the brigands in the courtyard was enough to bring my party of 4 up to level 2. I may have to tinker with the frogs a bit to either get their CR down, or pump them up a bit, as getting to level 2 was way too easy. Of course, how often are they never going to act and get critted every time? I'll wait for feedback from others.

ION, I've discovered that the bugbears in random encounters pull their inventories from the invensource.mes just fine. Which makes sense, since they're generated on the fly by the game.

 

Okay. That makes sense. Protos.tab number 1 has an entry for the "Ice Tyrant" (the cone of cold version of the Eye of the Deep) than can be axed. I just needed a place to put it until I could finish my overhaul and then split it off into it's own protos.tab

When I saw someone hadn't downloaded the support files, I was expecting there'd be a post from some random person saying "Yer mod dn't work. U sux0r!!!111!!!1"