Can familiars have contingencies? (And, can rats cast spells?)

[subtledoctor]

I set my familiar to have a permanent 177 effect:
 

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...which involves opcode 232, checking for HP % < 102:
 

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...which casts a spell at Caster, with projectile INAREAPA (party members within ~30 feet), which is blocked for any targets who do not have the 'has_familiar' spellstate:

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...and my mage does have the 'has_familiar' spellstate:
 

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...so why am I not regenerating?

Edited November 19, 2019 by subtledoctor

[Jarno Mikkola]

Because Contingency is a one time thing. Or that the spellstate 309 can't be checked by outside influence. Just like LOCALS can't.

[subtledoctor]

I don’t mean the big-C Contingency spell, I mean the little-c contingency opcode - 232. If you set it to timing = 9 and condition = hp < 102%, it fires every round. Essentially, a bug-free repeating .eff.  Or rather, a repeating .spl, which is even better.  With EE opcode 321, this is how you do auras.

I have zero idea what opcode 309 has to do with anything. EE opcode 328 sets a spellstate (in this case, on the caster of Find Familiar). If the repeating aura spell filters out anyone lacking that spellstate, the end result should be a bonus applied to a mage whenever they are near their familiar. I have each familiar set to give their mage a different bonus.

Except, it’s not working and I can’t figure out why.

Edited November 19, 2019 by subtledoctor

[Luke]

11 hours ago, subtledoctor said:

I set my familiar to have a permanent 177 effect:

Why the need of this effect in the first place? I mean, it doesn't filter anything (EA is set to ANYONE....)

Try removing it and apply opcode #232 directly to your CRE file....

Edited November 19, 2019 by Luke

[kjeron]

The op177 filter is only necessary when applying through spells, directly patching a CRE file can bypass it, since it can also use V2 effects.  It shouldn't make a difference,  yet again it's something wrong with Familiars: for reasons I cannot fathom, they ignore the 'Special' field of the contingency opcode when applied through op177, so none of these work properly: HP<, HP%<, SPLSTATE=, STATE=, Target in 'Special' Range, Time of Day.  Works fine for other creatures, but familiars just have to be special.

 

[subtledoctor]

5 hours ago, Luke said:

Why the need of this effect in the first place?  Try removing it and apply opcode #232 directly to your CRE file....

 

2 hours ago, kjeron said:

The op177 filter is only necessary when applying through spells, directly patching a CRE file can bypass it, since it can also use V2 effects. 

Good to know!

2 hours ago, kjeron said:

 yet again it's something wrong with Familiars: for reasons I cannot fathom, they ignore the 'Special' field of the contingency opcode when applied through op177, so none of these work properly: HP<, HP%<, SPLSTATE=, STATE=, Target in 'Special' Range, Time of Day.  Works fine for other creatures, but familiars just have to be special.

So, what I suspected, but dreaded.  Damn. 

I didn't even know SPLSTATE was a thing you could do with 232!  That could come in very handy!

Hm, I'll see if I can find a way around this.  Could probably code something permanent directly into one side or the other of the Find Familiar process... but I really like the idea of familiar-related bonuses kicking in only when you are near the familiar.  (Meaning, among other things, they go away when the familiar is in the backpack.  So it would be yet another inducement to keep the little guy scampering around the battlefield.)

[kjeron]

3 hours ago, subtledoctor said:

Hm, I'll see if I can find a way around this.  Could probably code something permanent directly into one side or the other of the Find Familiar process... but I really like the idea of familiar-related bonuses kicking in only when you are near the familiar.  (Meaning, among other things, they go away when the familiar is in the backpack.  So it would be yet another inducement to keep the little guy scampering around the battlefield.)

It will work for familiars if you patch the CRE directly with an op232 effect, just not when using the op177 filter.

Or you can still use the op177 filter, but set it's Special Field to '102', rather than op232's (still set it to HP% < though).

[subtledoctor]

Oh!  Niiiiiiiiiiiice.  So close to being finished with this.  Just need apply that, and to fix two tiny little broken spells.

[subtledoctor]

Totally unrelated question, but while you're here:

I'm trying to allow the rat familiar (actually a quasit with its animation changed to rat) to summon some more rats to help.  I copied in a modified copy of the Wish "bunny horde" spell, and set the Gender of the summoned rats to 0.  And I gave it a couple CF Effects to remove the ability and give it back again after 60 seconds, so the rat can use this ability once per turn.

For whatever reason, it utterly fails.  I think the spell doesn't even get cast, because the innate ability doesn't disappear.  (It should disappear for 60 seconds.) It's almost like the rat is silenced or something.  Is it possibly something with the animation?  Are rats just not allowed to cast spells?  This is a real head-scratcher.

[subtledoctor]

To answer my own question, and for everyone's information: apparently familiars cannot use opcode 67 through an .EFF either.  When I put the summoning effects directly into the innate ability, it works.

Thanks for the help.  I'm going to go publish this thing.