Volunteers needed - Reactive Temple Mod

Some of you may remember that a while back, we were talking about how easy the Temple is and how it should react intelligently to your party wantonly butchering everything that crosses your path by regrouping in one place, placing sentries, etc. Well, I've just started working on just that. But there's a lot of 'dirty work' involved. It would really save me a lot of time if I had someone who could help me place the critters on the maps (i.e. find suitable locations for them and record the x,y coordinates). Preferably someone with an eye for tactics.

There's very little technical knowhow involved in this, so don't be worried if you don't know much about modding. I'll provide thorough instructions as needed.

So, is anyone up to the task? Full credit will be given, of course.

 

"What equipment and software are required?" the (former) engineer asked with a sense of impending doom. "It sounds like fun!" he quipped foolishly.

 

Splendid!

You don't need any extra software for this, besides ToEE and the Co8 mod. It's quite simple, really.

First off, bring up the console (shift+~).
Then type:

Code:

from ed import loc

This will import the loc() function, which returns the x,y coordinates of the party leader (leftmost portrait). All that's left to do is position him where you think a critter should be spawned, and type

Code:

loc()

in the console. Write down the coordinates, and proceed to the next location.
If you feel like it, you can also suggest a rotation - i.e. the direction which the critter faces. The rotation is measured in Radians from the north. In laymans terms, this means that rotation 0 makes the character face north, rotation 3.14 makes the character face south, rotation 1.57 is for facing to the east, etc. You can see the result for yourself by typing in the console:

Code:

game.leader.rotation = #

So head on over to the Earth Altar and see where you think the critters should be placed. If you want to test the layout, you can spawn critters in the console as well:

Code:

create 14004

This will spawn a Burne right on top of the party leader. The number 14004 is Burne's proto ID - you can of course replace this with any other proto ID (see the protos.tab file or ToEEWB for the complete list).
Useful entries include:
14338 - Earth Temple Fighter
14339 - Earth Temple Lieutenant
14156 - Earth Temple Troop Commander
14153 - Romag
14162 - Earth Temple Bugbear

There are more, but only the above are spawned with the proper factions.

 

A few quick questions: (Think newbie)

1. Will these guys be standing around or pop into being during fight?

2. Is there some sort of activation range, outside of which they will not engage?

3. In the bugbear fight in the moathouse, there are some wierd activation issues. If the lookout leaves, he activates the other room, though they may not actually engage at first. What should I keep in mind here? It's kind of cool if your guys manuevering sets off more enemies.

4. Are activations sort of chain: farther ones activate, even though they are out of range, because a nearer one activates?

5. What level of party should I be destroying / how many bugbears do you want?

6. What are the implications or "faction"? The way way they are dressed?

7. Will these guys be running some place else? (Propably not too important.)

100. Am I basically going to be providing you with coordinates for individual bugbears? If more, what else?

 

1. Will these guys be standing around or pop into being during fight?
Standing around, except for monsters that are already hidden like harpies, gargoyles and the earth elementals.

2. Is there some sort of activation range, outside of which they will not engage?
3. In the bugbear fight in the moathouse, there are some wierd activation issues. If the lookout leaves, he activates the other room, though they may not actually engage at first. What should I keep in mind here? It's kind of cool if your guys manuevering sets off more enemies.
4. Are activations sort of chain: farther ones activate, even though they are out of range, because a nearer one activates?
Activation can be somewhat wonky in ToEE. Usually you can't guarantee that anything beyond line of sight actually gets involved in combat, even if it's added to the initiative bar. People could use this to game the system, but it's their loss if they do so.
At any rate, try not to spread things around too much. The idea is to concentrate Temple forces so that there are fewer but tougher encounters. The toughest fight should be in the faction altar.

5. What level of party should I be destroying / how many bugbears do you want?
Don't add any critter that doesn't already exist (I mean actual ingame critter, not just type of critter). The idea is that the Temple regroups and consolidates its forces to face the threat your party poses.

6. What are the implications or "faction"? The way way they are dressed?
Factions are an internal game mechanic used by the AI to identify friends and foes. AI NPCs of different factions will attack each other if they are near one another and combat is active, even if they are not hostile to one another per se. So all critters need to have faction IDs in common, otherwise they'll do the work for you.

7. Will these guys be running some place else? (Propably not too important.)
No.

100. Am I basically going to be providing you with coordinates for individual bugbears? If more, what else?
Yes, but not just bugbears. There's also Temple Troops, Ogres, Gnolls, and others. And like I said, the critters' facing could also come in handy, but that's mostly cosmetic (except for a few critters that will be defined as Sentries for the high priest and will have some scripting associated with them to prevent you from setting up your guys in flanking positions).

Generally, for most of the factions other than Earth, what needs to be done is to relocate all the critters near the faction's altar. I'm already working on the Earth altar placement, actually, so you might want to work on the other factions.

 

Forgot to ask, how do I get to the map? Walk in-game?

Should I do Air?

 

Walking is the preferred method of transportation, yes
But actually, I wrote a script file with shortcuts to many locations of interest. See the attachment t.rar. I've already whipped up something useful for testing Earth - the function te() gives you robes of Earth, magical items, hacks your stats, and teleports you to the Earth Altar.

I've adjusted the file for you, so typing ta() gives you Air robes and teleports you in the Air Altar room.

As usual, you need to import the file first, by typing:
from t import *

(this imports all functions from the file)
The t.py file needs to be placed in the "scr" folder, of course.

The other two files are backups for the work I've already done (my harddrive was acting suspiciously a while ago), and a teaser for anyone willing to install it. If anyone's curious to see it, you need to put jumppoints.tab in the rules folder and itt.py in the scr folder, load up itt.py the same way as above, and type in the console sdf() while standing in the first Temple level (the Earth Temple).

 

If I'm in the room with some air temple troops, how do I find out their 5-digit ID codes? I don't know how to open the protos file. Otherwise, I could linger the cursor over something, get the description, then the code from the file. Is there a list hooking the desriptions with the codes somewhere?


The locations are on the second level in the altar room with the air elemantals. The other loctions are too crowded. The names of the troops are sort of generic task assignmants or descriptions.

I went to Air because you seem to be doing Earth.

 

The best method to find out is to use the ToEE World Builder (found in the downloads section). It has exactly that kind of list.

I've also added in some more functions to the t.py file that allow you to get a list of the npcs' name and x,y coordinates within a certain range from your party leader (leftmost selected character). See attachments. The function is called nxy(range).

BTW, I've been working on improving the search functionality in ToEEWB. Until Agetian integrates it properly when he has the time, you can download it as a use-at-your-own-risk version. I haven't encountered any problems so far using it, but it's only compatible with version 2.04 and not 2.04d. So here's the modified toeewb.exe file + altered source code. (note that you still need to install toeewb to use it)

 

I've added some search critera for the proto-searching addin (the ctrl+T thing), and also a simple filter for the Open Mob dialogue box, so you can more easily find the object you want to change/edit in a sea of other mobs.

Oh, and in case it wasn't clear, this was done with Agetian's blessing and assistance, and will probably be officially incorporated into ToEEWB when he has the time.

 

Here it is. I put Kelno with the 12 bugbears from the room sw of him in the north part of Air Temple altar room. The 14 bugbears, gnolls and goblins from the room to the nw in the sw part of the altar room. The 5 Water Temple bugbears are in the se part of the altar room.

I noticed a given code does not always spawn the same thing. So I did what I could.

What else do we need?

Format is:
#####(xxx,yyy)rot in rad's All coordinates are 2nd (below ground) level

Kelno
14194(480,494)2.5

12 Bugbears
14159(477,496)1.5
14158(479,501)2
14160(482,500)2
14160(484,498)3
14161(475,497)2
14158(471,493)1.5
14213(474,489)3
14216(476,493)2
14161(488,496)4
14158(488,491)4
14158(484,493)3
14170(487,488)4

14 Assorted
14161(506,505)1
14216(501,501)4
14159(495,511)2
14184(496,509)3
14184(497,507)3
14213(501,516)2
14161(497,504)4
14078(500,511)5
14078(502,513)4
14079(497,511)1
14079(499,514)3
14080(496,513)1
14080(496,515)1
14080(503,515)4

5 Water Temple Bugbears
14231(472,515)4.5
14171(472,513)4.5
14171(470,511)5
14172(473,517)4
14170(475,514)4

 

Great! I'll test it next weekend.

Meanwhile, you could do the Water Temple as we discussed - 5 water bugbears, 4 water snakes, Oohlgrist, Owlbear and his keeper, and 2 ordinary trolls need spots in the room with the Juggernaut. I think it could give the Fire Temple fight a run for its money with all of those! The Earth Temple fight also isn't the easiest now, with 3 Earth Elementals, the great and terrible Ogre Chief, Earth Commander, Earth Lieutenant (who's strategy has been modified so he doesn't sit around readying vs. approach all the time), Romag, Hartsch, some of the tougher bugbear and Gnoll variants, some bugbear snipers, and the robed Earth Guards which may be given a level of Cleric so they can cast from scrolls.

 

For the Air faction: I simply moved everything from the three rooms into the altar. Should I have changed, added or deleted a little? I tried to do a straight copy.

For the water faction: Should the traitor WT bugbears be added? They might not have been turned.

How do you test it without the fight starting early while halfway through adding non-faction types? Will the Air Temple robes take care of that?