Extra party members concept

[agb1]

Macholy's relationships mod has a feature that allows friendly NPCs to follow the player without being in the party.

 

I am thinking about creating a mod that similarly allows for extra joinable NPCs (followers) to be "with the party" without being directly controllable (so not changing the user interface). The extras should follow the party automatically and assist them in combat.

 

Next I want to add a hotkey to cycle the fifth party slot (or maybe all of the slots except the player) - swapping active party members with the "extra" party followers. This allows for direct control.

 

Finally, I want to adjust dialogue checks for "NPC is in party" to also accept the extra followers. This is to allow for their interjections and quests to work even when they are not in an active slot.

 

Is all of this possible? Is there a way to change the meaning of the InParty check globally, or will I have to patch all dialogue to do this?

[Jarno Mikkola]

I would try to set the extra party members first via a pick and kick out procedure how ever you design it to be..., then when you have that solid, you should make another action that kicks (out) a party member as one of those extra members, and then when you have that, you just use the JoinParty action to get them (back) as a regular party member. And then you don't need to even bother with the dialog checks ... as they player can always switch if need be. As it's way too bother some to even try to adjust the checks.

[agb1]

I could do it that way but I would rather have the extras always be eligible for interjections and npc-to-npc banter triggers so that players don't miss content due to not having the right combination of active party members. The purpose of this larger party concept is to allow access to more NPC content in a single playthrough.

[Jarno Mikkola]

One could try to replace all the InParty(npc-variable) -triggers with InMyArea(npc-variable) -triggers ... and while keeping the !InMyParty(...) -triggers not patched... somehow.

[agb1]

I think [^!]?InParty will match only InParty without !

[Roxanne]

I am thinking about creating a mod that similarly allows for extra joinable NPCs (followers) to be "with the party" without being directly controllable (so not changing the user interface). The extras should follow the party automatically and assist them in combat.

 

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[agb1]

Thanks for the advice, Roxanne! I want to do this for all NPCs, not just one. I do expect there will be some special cases.

[Roxanne]

Thanks for the advice, Roxanne! I want to do this for all NPCs, not just one. I do expect there will be some special cases.

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[lynx]

https://github.com/lynxlynxlynx/gemrb-mods/blob/master/10pp/screenshots/10pp4.jpg

 

you could maybe reuse parts of the script/dialog patcher, unless you want to do the interjection hacking manually. Ugly stuff either way.

[argent77]

The idea of NPCs tagging along as followers sounds intriguing.

You could apply the familiar status to NPCs that are tagging along (and remove again, when needed). That way they will automatically follow you across maps, are automatically handled in cutscenes, and you have a lot of control over their actions. I've been using it successfully in my Djinni Companion mod and the Golem Construction for Spellcasters I'm currently working on.

Toggling the party member/follower state can possibly be done via helper creatures. That way you don't have to add or modify individual NPC scripts. The main problem I see is the NPC targetting though. Maybe a spell in conjunction with one of the more obscure object specifiers (like LastSummonerOf, LastTrigger or LastTargetedBy) can do the job.

[agb1]

One simplifying idea I had is to designate a 'leader' party member for the extra NPCs (follow another member of the party instead of following CHARNAME directly). In this case, if a cutscene or mod script intentionally separates CHARNAME from his/her party, any extra NPCs would automatically be separated from CHARNAME also. It still would be a bit strange in cases where the 'leader' party NPC is placed in a cage (the followers would all be stuffed into or surrounding the same cage), but that's a rare enough situation (do any mods do this?) that we could add special compatibility code for it.

 

Edit: using familiar status sounds like a much better solution. Thanks!

 

I am not sure there is any universal way to detect the 'paired' NPCs case like Jaheira and Khalid, but if I avoid triggering the 'leave party' logic when switching NPCs between 'active party' and 'party extra' roles, it might not be an issue.

 

Any tips on how to keep the normal in-party dialogue for the NPCs when I switch them out of the active party slots? It looks like LeaveParty() always changes the NPC to use their 'leave dialogue' (e.g. KivanJ). The dumping of inventory when leaving party is also something I'd like to avoid (although that might be necessary to avoid breaking triggers that rely on inventory checks, in case a non-active NPC is carrying a necessary quest-progression item). TobEx doesn't seem to touch LeaveParty or add any new script actions for removing party members. I suppose I could switch back their dialogue reference immediately after I use LeaveParty() on them, but wouldn't LeaveParty() still trigger their 'you-kicked-me-out' conversations?

[Jarno Mikkola]

...there seems to be no real (technical) limit for the number of such companions...

Except the fact that at some point the 1000 NPCs can't let you walk pass them as you can't push them all .. and each of their scripts run autonomously and take the tics away.

 

...how can Irenicus ever dream of winning?

Modified Death spells, disintegration, Basilisks, Beholders, Dragons to name a few. ... And the Bandit camp's (SCS) fight seems to be a bit better this way, don't you agree ?

 

The dumping of inventory when leaving party is also something I'd like to avoid ...

Restricting and removing "critical" items is easy... just get rid of them all ... by removing the items flag.

[argent77]

 

...there seems to be no real (technical) limit for the number of such companions...

Except the fact that at some point the 1000 NPCs can't let you walk pass them as you can't push them all .. and each of their scripts run autonomously and take the tics away.

Actually, the main problem with having too many followers are the map transitions. Each party member, familiar and follower must be within a certain radius or you'll continuously hear the dreaded "You must gather your party before venturing forth" message.

[agb1]

Balancing extra NPCs-as-familiars from a combat perspective is an interesting question, but mods already give plenty of ways to make the game as difficult as you want.

 

I don't want to limit the number of followers because the goal is to let an entire menagerie of compatible NPCs tag along instead of sitting around in an inn, but there could be some penalties applied to followers' combat stats as the extra NPCs count increases (a 'getting in their way' modifier, if you will). There should still be NPC-NPC party conflicts (I won't following you if you keep him/her around...!) for incompatible alignment or extreme dislike (unless the player also disables these via some other mod).

 

The 'horde of bunnies blocking the door' or 'you must gather your horde of followers to get off the map' issues are more of a concern. An idea: I could provide a hotkey to temporarily teleport an NPC-familiar to an inaccessible storage map (hit the hotkey again to move all NPC-familiars from storage back to its previous position or to the player if not on the same map). When you're blocked, select the NPCs that are in the way, press the hotkey for each one to zap them away, and then when you're ready, press it again with CHARNAME selected to bring them back. Maybe also bring them back automatically when CHARNAME moves to a new map, to avoid accidentally leaving them in storage for too long...

 

Or maybe bring them back automatically after a few seconds always, so it's only a very temporary banishment. Could still be exploited to do things an NPC dislikes while it is banished, but you can always kick them from party for the same purpose.

[Jarno Mikkola]

..ctually, the main problem with having too many followers are the map transitions. Each party member..

's own script can handle that ... They won't be even counted as party members, similarly like summons, you can teleport. Yes. It's going to take a bit of computing power, to notice that party member 232 is on 3 maps behind, but the red shirts !InMyArea("player1") should trigger and Star Trek warp should put them next to Captain James T. Kirk.