Active out-party NPC's?

[Tristan]

Hey all.

 

First and formost - bloody wow, i've been playing bg2 since it came out, played for 4 times already, then i've found this site.

Amazing mods and addons guys. thanks for a great job.

 

Now for my question:

Is there any way to create NPC's you can interact with, only let them be like

"living NPC" ?

 

i was thinking about something, maybe it could happen.

I have to admit i do not know this engine's limits and AI limit. but no harm in asking, right?

 

Let's say the npc's are a bit more alive, we have an orc village next to trademeet or something.

Some NPC's, instead of standing, are moving like they are "busy" (could be set by times: evening at an inn, morning patroling or something), and here and there randomally there are orc attacks on that town, that "it is said to come from orc-village". now you first need to fight them, alongside the NPC's and guards, latter go to the village (can be played number of times., each with random monsters) and kill them all.

same goes for the main city, d'arnise keep and the rest.

what i'm getting at? as long as you can travel to these places, you'll have the same quest, which gives sometimes money, exp or stuff, AND think about it: cities under attack by "forces of dark".

We can always "add" some NPC's party you can fight against, in the end, to make it more interesting game.

 

now,

is that can be done? please think it through before answering.

 

thanks a lot.

[berelinde]

Hello, Tristan! Welcome to G3!

 

Yes, what you are asking is possible.

 

Creating an orc village next to Trademeet would require the creation of a new area and changes to the world map, but it should be possible. This would require a modder who knows more about area modding than I do. That would be just about everyone, really.

 

But the second part of your question, about roving bands of soldiers, revelers, fellow travellers, whatever, are definitely possible. There are a number of different ways to accomplish this.

 

One of these ways is to use a timer to make the encounters happen at specific times. I do this in Fading Promises, to spawn a ghost that comes back to talk to the PC from time to time. The way it's set up, if the PC is awake, available for speech, and not in combat at midnight, the ghost shows up. If the PC is sleeping, stunned, silenced, or in combat, the ghost doesn't show up that night.

 

Another way is to create spawn points, rather like the monsters you come across as you travel (like the orcs in the Windspear Hills or the mountain lion in the Umar Hills).

 

You can also seed the game with people who are just interesting to talk to. They don't really serve any purpose but to entertain the player. Some of the NPCs in Romantic Encounters are like that. Some already have roles in the game, like Lord Logan and Weathermistress Ada, but others were created purely to amuse the player.

 

I hope this explanation helped. If you would like any of it explained in greater detail, please ask.

[Tristan]

Hello, Tristan! Welcome to G3!

 

Yes, what you are asking is possible.

 

Creating an orc village next to Trademeet would require the creation of a new area and changes to the world map, but it should be possible. This would require a modder who knows more about area modding than I do. That would be just about everyone, really.

 

But the second part of your question, about roving bands of soldiers, revelers, fellow travellers, whatever, are definitely possible. There are a number of different ways to accomplish this.

 

One of these ways is to use a timer to make the encounters happen at specific times. I do this in Fading Promises, to spawn a ghost that comes back to talk to the PC from time to time. The way it's set up, if the PC is awake, available for speech, and not in combat at midnight, the ghost shows up. If the PC is sleeping, stunned, silenced, or in combat, the ghost doesn't show up that night.

 

Another way is to create spawn points, rather like the monsters you come across as you travel (like the orcs in the Windspear Hills or the mountain lion in the Umar Hills).

 

You can also seed the game with people who are just interesting to talk to. They don't really serve any purpose but to entertain the player. Some of the NPCs in Romantic Encounters are like that. Some already have roles in the game, like Lord Logan and Weathermistress Ada, but others were created purely to amuse the player.

 

I hope this explanation helped. If you would like any of it explained in greater detail, please ask.

 

Greetings Berelinde,

Thank you kindly

 

i'm trying to learn how to do it, but this definatly a free idea. anyone who wish to go ahead with it will probably do a good job aswell.

 

I;ve been talking to my friends, they had some improved idea to that, is this one can be done aswell?

NPC's robbing stores?

basics goes as followed: you got an old-fasioned party of NPC's who's robbing some stores and sell the items on a different store.The shopkeeper (when it occures) gives you a quest to go and recover these items. Each time you do, you get one of a randomally magical items as a gift (which you choose ahead) and some exp. what's keeping you from keeping all the items to yourself is "check" run by the guards \ some other creative way.

Or, you can just randommaly encounter a group of NPC's which preety much attack you on sight, but they must be at your party's level each encounter, so it may be a balanced and interesting fight. hate to see player summoning tanari without a counterattack. I preety much love this one actually, but can that be done?

and...how does it sounds?

 

many thanks!

[Miloch]

Or, you can just randommaly encounter a group of NPC's which preety much attack you on sight, but they must be at your party's level each encounter, so it may be a balanced and interesting fight. hate to see player summoning tanari without a counterattack. I preety much love this one actually, but can that be done?

You'd probably do it by area script which checks the PC's level and then spawns alternate creatures as relevant.

and...how does it sounds?

[Tristan]

Or, you can just randommaly encounter a group of NPC's which preety much attack you on sight, but they must be at your party's level each encounter, so it may be a balanced and interesting fight. hate to see player summoning tanari without a counterattack. I preety much love this one actually, but can that be done?

You'd probably do it by area script which checks the PC's level and then spawns alternate creatures as relevant.

and...how does it sounds?

 

Glad ti hear it. i think it adds another "added value" to that masterpiece.

Question is, how do I make a "hostile character bank"?

 

My party suppose to have my PC as a fighter\mage, Nalia(till i get imoen), Viconia, Anomen, Minsc (cant play without him) and korgan.

 

Should be Preety interesting to see some Npc's at the same level and similar qualities VS them

[Miloch]

Question is, how do I make a "hostile character bank"?

I don't know exactly what you mean, but you could start by just creating characters in the game, then exporting them. Then you can use ShadowKeeper, or preferably, a more advanced editor like Near Infinity or DLTCEP to modify their statistics, etc. and turn them into CREs (creatures). Then it's fairly simple to write the scripts and code to get them into the game. The only tricky thing is if you want them to talk, then you'll have to write dialogue files. But there are plenty of tutorials for all that stuff.

 

Just as an example, here's an area script that would create a random creature at a particular spot, based on the PC's level:

IF
 Global("MyCre1","AR1234",0) //Variable to see if CRE has spawned already
 LevelLT([PC],6) //PC's level less than 6
THEN
 RESPONSE #34
SetGlobal("MyCre1","AR1234",0) //Sets "spawned" variable
CreateCreature("MyCre4a",[1200.1500],0) //Creates NPC at given location
 RESPONSE #33
SetGlobal("MyCre1,"AR1234",0)
CreateCreature("MyCre4b",[1200.1500],0) //Creates alternate NPC
 RESPONSE #33
SetGlobal("MyCre1,"AR1234",0) //Spawns nothing roughly 1/3 of the time
END

And then you would repeat this block for each level of CREs you have, and each location on the map where you wanted them to spawn. You might want to put in some kind of timer to reset the variable, so creatures can respawn after a while.

[Tristan]

Question is, how do I make a "hostile character bank"?

I don't know exactly what you mean, but you could start by just creating characters in the game, then exporting them. Then you can use ShadowKeeper, or preferably, a more advanced editor like Near Infinity or DLTCEP to modify their statistics, etc. and turn them into CREs (creatures). Then it's fairly simple to write the scripts and code to get them into the game. The only tricky thing is if you want them to talk, then you'll have to write dialogue files. But there are plenty of tutorials for all that stuff.

 

Just as an example, here's an area script that would create a random creature at a particular spot, based on the PC's level:

IF
 Global("MyCre1","AR1234",0) //Variable to see if CRE has spawned already
 LevelLT([PC],6) //PC's level less than 6
THEN
 RESPONSE #34
SetGlobal("MyCre1","AR1234",0) //Sets "spawned" variable
CreateCreature("MyCre4a",[1200.1500],0) //Creates NPC at given location
 RESPONSE #33
SetGlobal("MyCre1,"AR1234",0)
CreateCreature("MyCre4b",[1200.1500],0) //Creates alternate NPC
 RESPONSE #33
SetGlobal("MyCre1,"AR1234",0) //Spawns nothing roughly 1/3 of the time
END

And then you would repeat this block for each level of CREs you have, and each location on the map where you wanted them to spawn. You might want to put in some kind of timer to reset the variable, so creatures can respawn after a while.

 

That's a killer answer buddy. thanks a lot.

 

I assume someone already thought about it, but do you know if this idea is already implemented someplace?

 

If not, all free to use that idea. only an idea

[Miloch]

I assume someone already thought about it, but do you know if this idea is already implemented someplace?

I think there are some random encounter components in Tactics - I don't know much about it though. Still, there can never be too many mods... decent ones, anyway. Maybe it's crossed igi's mind, since he has a "random items" mod - why not a "random creatures" mod.