SubtleMods: NPC_EE - in-game customization for NPCs

[subtledoctor]

Answer is: yup, any kit from any source. (In fact some of my mods add kits that are supposed to be hidden... I had to specifically exempt them from appearing in the dialogue.)

I hear you about the 4th wall but, my feeling is, this is D&D. If you were sitting around a table with friends throwing dice, and a player rolled up a new party member, the other players would pause things and be privy to some shuffling of stats and spells etc. Suspension of disbelief works on a slightly different level in RPGs, vs. other games; the players are expected to be a bit more involved in constructing the fiction. This reflects that. 

[AL|EN]

13 hours ago, subtledoctor said:

I have uploaded a beta version of v5.0. This completely changes the mod:

FYI @AL|EN - although I have marked it as a pre-release so PI should still be downloading the last v4 commit)

...

Yes, this is how it works. Thanks for poking me. I take look at the whole update process again and decided to add separate PI settings to enable Pre-Release updates for mods and some minor improvements.

[subtledoctor]

1 hour ago, AL|EN said:

Yes, this is how it works. Thanks for poking me. I take look at the whole update process again and decided to add separate PI settings to enable Pre-Release updates for mods and some minor improvements.

To be specific, in case it helps you:

• Components 100, 102, 104
• Components 120, 121, 122
• Components  140, 141, 143
• Components  160, 161
• Components 180, 181
• Components 220, 221, 222, 223
• Components 240, 242
• Components 260, 261
• Components 300, 302
• Components 320, 321
• Components 460, 464
• Components 480, 482, 483, 483
• Components 580, 583
• Components 620, 621
• Components 680, 682
• Components 700, 702, 704
• Components  720, 721, 722, 723, 724, 725
• Components 760, 761, 762
• Components 900, 902
• Components 920, 921

...are all gone. Every component is gone except for the last one, #2000.

New components are fewer and simpler:

• 1010 - remove dual-class flag from Imoen
• 1020 - remove dual-class flag from Nalia
• 1030 - remove dual-class flag from Anomen
• 1200 - remove dual-class flag from any other NPCs

Component #2000 stays the same.

This involves major differences so I think it's best to keep it a pre-release for now. It's fine to have both  available. I'll only make this a full release after 1) you tell me PI is ready for the change, and 2) I'm a bit more comfortable that it has been tested.*  No rush.

* (I'd love to do real playtesting myself; I'm nearing the end of my current BG2 game installed 6 months ago, with BG2EE v2.5, SCS v33, and some older versions of my own mods. I'd love to make a new install, finally jumping to EET... not to mention maybe playing IWDEE again. But for those things to happen Beamdog has to finally release the 2.6 patches on iOS. What's the frackin' holdup, Beamdog??)

Edited February 3, 2022 by subtledoctor

[AL|EN]

@subtledoctor PI is always ready, you don't have to report component numbers changes, I believe that I mention this few times.

[subtledoctor]

39 minutes ago, AL|EN said:

@subtledoctor PI is always ready, you don't have to report component numbers changes, I believe that I mention this few times.

I am not a person with a steel trap memory...

[ahungry]

This sounds really cool, I tried the last v4 update (that shows stats inline before adjusting them) - I notice when using the innate to customize stats, it pauses for a long time (while gathering current stat values) - I'll be interested to see if v5 does this or if it's been streamlined.

Since you mentioned an item vs an innate - one thing I would like to see is this concept (an item to allow re-build of a character) integrated into a shop or repeatable quest in some way (think "respec stones" in some older MMORPGs) - sure, I could use EEKeeper to flip/flop proficiencies at a whim, and it may be anti-PNP, but from a game play POV, _not_ being locked into a build (and forced to re-roll to tweak build/proficiencies) would be a really cool game feature.

 

[subtledoctor]

3 minutes ago, ahungry said:

I notice when using the innate to customize stats, it pauses for a long time (while gathering current stat values) - I'll be interested to see if v5 does this or if it's been streamlined.

iIt's still pretty slow.   On the bright side, there is now a part of the dialogue that comes before it (class changes) and I have added an improved "please be patient" pop-up message, so the player shouldn't worry that something has broken 

I'm sure anyone good at making .BCS scripts would be horrified at what I've done here.   Maybe someone skilled will be able to point me to ways to make it quicker.

[guyudennis]

Now if you would enable race/sub-race changes… one can only dream… 

[subtledoctor]

Okay if anyone wants to update to the v5 mechanism and is already playing a game with v4 installed, I have made a hotfix/upgrade mod to do that. Install this in your game, and you should get the v5 behavior. It won't change any NPCs who have already appeared in an area you visited; they will have the old-style innate ability instead of a tome. But 1) the innate ability should work with the new mechanism; and 2) if you want to play it safe you can use the console:

C:CreateItem("d5_ckit")

...to create a copy of the tome. Use it, and it should remove the old innate ability while you go through the dialogue.

As noted, this is intended to be used on NPCs more or less when you meet them. If you use it on Charname or with an NPC who has been traveling with you for a while, it should work, but it will not be able to remove all their proficiencies, which means you will end up with extra. Consider yourself warned.

Also btw I just tested some more and you can choose spells fine when changing to the sorcerer class. So it is only mages and bards who miss out on getting spells. I may have a solution for that, but in the meantime you can just use scrolls.

Edited February 4, 2022 by subtledoctor

[Endarire]

Can you transform spells known into scrolls when changing class?

[Jarno Mikkola]

26 minutes ago, Endarire said:

Can you transform spells known into scrolls when changing class?

Sure. It's likely going to take a LOT of coding, though. And script longer than baldur.bcs... with 5000 spells.

[subtledoctor]

1 hour ago, Jarno Mikkola said:

Sure. It's likely going to take a LOT of coding, though. And script longer than baldur.bcs... with 5000 spells.

Not that hard. Most of the coding has already been done. First you set up a blank script for it. Then you make a list  of all the pertinent spells. Then you go through that list and, among other things, append the required actions to the script. All that needs doing is to set up the scroll->spell conversion (most of which has also already been done).

But, on the other hand, no I'm not going to set up conversion of scrolls to spells. I mean, for one thing it wouldn't even solve the problem. What if you convert Kivan, a ranger, to a mage? He'll have no known spells and will get none.

More likely, I'll set up something that lets you choose a couple spells per level, the same way sorcerers do. That's already mostly done as well, so it shouldn't be hard to add here. Just need to figure out the best way for it to work. 2-20 innate abilities, depending on your level? An item that can be used repeatedly, and then thrown away when you're done? I have to think about it...

Edited February 4, 2022 by subtledoctor

[ahungry]

51 minutes ago, subtledoctor said:

Not that hard. Most of the coding has already been done. First you set up a blank script for it. Then you make a list  of all the pertinent spells. Then you go through that list and, among other things, append the required actions to the script. All that needs doing is to set up the scroll->spell conversion (most of which has also already been done).

But, on the other hand, no I'm not going to set up conversion of scrolls to spells. I mean, for one thing it wouldn't even solve the problem. What if you convert Kivan, a ranger, to a mage? He'll have no known spells and will get none.

More likely, I'll set up something that lets you choose a couple spells per level, the same way sorcerers do. That's already mostly done as well, so it shouldn't be hard to add here. Just need to figure out the best way for it to work. 2-20 innate abilities, depending on your level? An item that can be used repeatedly, and then thrown away when you're done? I have to think about it...

shadow magic mod (shadowadept) uses a dialogue menu to do spell selection for their mage types on level up - its not too bad (although I'm sure it is done that way since none of the spells are available to normal magic users).

[Jarno Mikkola]

2 hours ago, subtledoctor said:

What if you convert Kivan, a ranger, to a mage?

That's not a thing you need to do with his supposed spells, as they are ranger spells, aka auto learned spells at levelups. But I would expect a ex-mage NPCs to be able to give their learned spells back to the player as scrolls so other mage NPCs could use those scrolls if they can learn them. That's all that need to be done. And bards...

The other thing is, the to be Sorcerer NPCs need to be able to learn their spells from level ups... but if you level them up more than a 1 level at a time, they might lose a lot of spells during level ups, cause you cannot gain more than 1 spell per level per level up. Cause that's how the game figures out how many spells they can learn.

Edited February 4, 2022 by Jarno Mikkola

[subtledoctor]

4 hours ago, Jarno Mikkola said:

I would expect a ex-mage NPCs to be able to give their learned spells back to the player as scrolls so other mage NPCs could use those scrolls

Yeah no. Get a job and buy your own scrolls you layabout!

5 hours ago, Jarno Mikkola said:

Sorcerer NPCs need to be able to learn their spells from level ups... but if you level them up more than a 1 level at a time, they might lose a lot of spells during level ups, cause you cannot gain more than 1 spell per level per level up. Cause that's how the game figures out how many spells

Uh, no. This is completely wrong. Did you not read the post just above where I said sorcerers work fine?