Updating and adding summoning spells

Yes, I did that (doesn't mean that I did it right though :errf: ).

OTOH, I've just successfully added a Huge Air Elemental to the game (summoned by console rather than spell though) - so at least I can get on with doing more monsters.

Ok, 18 hours later (not all modding though)

I've got Summon Monsters VI working to summon large elementals using Allyx's spell script (Thanks again Allys), I don't know what was wrong with mine - but I had based mine on the one in Temple of Elemental Evil/data/scr, rather than the one in the .dat file. It has additional code, that, as far as I can tell, causes the spell to summon a random monster if it doesn't get the protos.tab ID it was expecting, there is a comment that this is for when NPCs and wands cast the spell.

I've tried adding several creatures to the Protos.tab (mostly huge, greater & elder elementals), unfortunately, the resulting Protos.Tab caused the game to CTD, and it kept CTDing until I had removed all of the creatures I had added. I don't yet know what caused this - further experimention is needed .

So, I've made some progress - just not as much as I hoped.

Charles

 

Hey Nerik, hope you haven't given up. As far as the actual spells, I can do those. I just need to know what protos ids you are using for each spell. I think we should keep the npc stuff in these spells in order to make it easier for other modders to create NPCs that can cast them.

If we are going to actually be able to get spell casters to levels high enough to use these spells we need to be able to add chalenges tough enough to give them the XP. I have been working pretty much independantly in developing new spells. In and of themselves they do not require that anything new be added to the game beyond thier own scripts and whatnot. But to actually be usable in the game there has to be some way to get the spell casters to a high enough level. As it stands right now, it is really pushing it to get a party all over 10th level. My last attempt only got me to 11th level and that was with a lot of travelling back and forth and sleeping in dangerous areas to get random encounters.

Hmmm, going to stop the rant here. That all can come later.

Anyway, don't think that you are alone. If you need help post. I can help you with protos stuff as well as with spell/script stuff.

Darmagon

 

Hey Nerik,

Might not be any help but whenever something I added to the protos caused a CTD, it was related to either the model or colour entry. If you don't have a matching entry in the referenced file, or if your entry in the file points to a non existant mdf skm etc, you get CTD when bring the item/creature into the game. I've had quite a few issues that way that just turned out to be typo in one of the .mes files.

It's something to check anyway,

Good luck.

Cuchulainn

 

Thanks, no I haven't given up yet (but there were times :twisted: ) . In answer to your question, are you after the protos.tab id of the creatures each spell summons? in which case, I've attached a version of the spells_radial_menu_options.mes file with the protos.tab numbers, this includes expanding the lower level spells, some of which now have rather lonmg lists of things they can summon.

If you can do the spells that would be a help, so far, I've managed to get Summon Monster VI working (using Allyx's .py file) and ATM it summons a celestial polar bear (added mu me, yay! or any large elemental (already existed in game), although ealier today it was summoning phantom doors rather than large air elementals :google: .

A valid point, there spell .py files in Temple of Elemental Evil\data\src that appear to include extra code that AFAIK generates a random creature if the spell doesn't get a valid protos.tab ID from the radial - there are comments that state that this is for NPC/wand use, although we don't need the latter for the higher level spells. OTOH, I have very little knowledge of python (yet) and my attempts to adapt the summon monster V .py to summon monster VI didn't work for some reason.

Its worth a look, thanks. I've narrowed the problem down to Earth and Fire elementals, as I copied the existing large elementals they should be using the same models, but I might well have inadvertantly changed somerthing.

If anyone is interested, I could upload my current Protos.tab, ATM it has some celestial, dire, and fiendish creatures, plus very big air & water elementals.

Charles

 

Further question - what sort of sizes should I make the new creatures?

For example, the existing elementals in the game have the following scales:

Small: 50%
Medium: 75%
Large: 100% (90% for Earth elementals)

But in the Monster Manual, the listed heights are:
Small: 4' (25% of large)
Medium: 8' (50% of large)
Large: 16'
Huge: 32' (200% of large)
Greater: 36' (225% of large)
Elder: 40' (250% of large)

I've put in some huge elementals with a 200% scaling, but they look, well, huge! (especially the Earth ones, and they are using a smaller scalling factor). Should I use a reduced scaling in line with the rest of the game, or stick with the PnP measurements (applies to other large/huge creatures as well, such as Dire Bear & Dire Boar)?

A scaling in line with that existing for smaller elementals would be:
Huge: 140%
Greater: 150%
Elder: 160%
for instance.

Charles

 

Well, I've now got all elementals up to 'Greater' size in and working, I think I'll adjust my sizes to the 'smaller' ones I've listed, as ATM a greater elemental is over half the height of the screen, and the greater earth elemental is beginning to show pixellation. I might tweak the sizes for the smaller elementals, especially the earth elemental, where a 'medium' and 'large' elemental look similar, but I'm not going to go through and re-size every creature in the game :drunk: .

On a related subject, does anyone know if it is possible to make a creature innately invisible?

Charles

 

see my wild boar rampage thread for info on boars and graphics nerik so we can work something out and get em in there

 

On a related subject, is it possible to add new monster portraits, or have we hit the limit (as some of the new creatures do need new portraits if possible).

Charles

 

Glad to hear you haven't given up and yeah I am after the proto ids. Haven't actually looked at the file yet but hope your 'long' lists don't go over 9 entries as this is a hard limit.

Will get back to you in a day or two with the actual spells.

As shiningTed says setting OF_INVISIBLE on a creature has no noticeable effect in game.

You could try using san_first_heartbeat to add the improved invisibility spell condition for a very long time. If you set the duration to 2147483648 (the maximum for a spell duration) it will last for 408+ years of game time, so it might as well be inherently invisible

A few problems: first you have to have a caster cast the spell, you could overcome this (with a new creature) if you included the spell in its spell list in the protos and have it cast the spell on itself in first heartbeat, you would have to also provide a conditional in the actual spell script, in the function OnSpellEffect such that if the spell was cast by a creature with that name (ie. the number assigned in column 22 in the protost) upon itself the duration would be maxed; second, dispel magic could affect the inivisibility so, as above, in the script you would have to set spell.caster_level to a ludicrously high level (say 200);third (but not finally, as there may be more situations that need to be addressed) if I, or someone else, ever implements the spell 'Antimagic Field' this use of the Improved invisibility spell would have to somehow be made exempt.

I know it sound complicated (and it is) but , yeah, we could most probably find a work around to get the effect you need. I say 'most probably' because I have never actually done this, and sometimes the game turns out not to work exactly as I expect.....

Darmagon

 

actually ignore that, apparently there should be lots of room, my bad.

Darmagon

 

Ok, Here is my protos so far, it contains the following creatures:

Creature Protos ID
Celestial Dire Bear 14503
Celestial Owl 14504
Celestial Polar Bear 14505
Dire Bear 14506
Dire Boar 14507
Elemental, Air, Huge 14508
Elemental, Earth, Huge 14509
Elemental, Fire, Huge 14510
Elemental, Water, Huge 14511
Elemental, Air, Greater 14512
Elemental, Earth, Greater 14513
Elemental, Fire, Greater 14514
Elemental, Water, Greater 14515
Elemental, Air, Elder 14516
Elemental, Earth, Elder 14517
Elemental, Fire, Elder 14518
Elemental, Water, Elder 14519
Fiendish Boar 14520
Fiendish Dire Boar 14521

Stats are as close to Monster Manual as I could manage, and I've tweaked the elemental sizes a bit (I think polar bears should be made a bit bigger as well, any thoughts?). I haven't done anything with scripts or stratergy yet, these inherit the scripts & stratergy they are using ATM from the protos I copied (Large elementals for the elementals, existing celestial animals for the new ones, etc.)

Virtual SPACEman, I've included my Boars, but I think you've done a better job, what with textures and, I suspect, a new script.

Darmagon, thanks, on the subject of the radial menu, you state that there should be plenty of room (just as well, IIRC one of the spells in the radial file that I sent you had 14 or 15 entries!), which brings me to a question, how many entries does anyone think a summoning spell should have? Some, even in PnP are woefully short of options (Summon Nature's Ally VIII for instance), even before we remove any purely aquatic creatures! There are some variant summoning tables here, one of which includes Galeb Dhur as an option for Summon Nature's Ally VIII, shall we add them?

My enquiry about invisibility is, of course, for the Invisible Stalker, which show up in both the Summon Monster & Summon Nature's Ally lists (didn't clerics used to get a similar but different creature called an Aerial Servant BTW?).

Charles