help request Creating new creatures help [BGSoa/ToB]

[PureSpirit]

Hey folks, 

I am making an item for BG2 SoA/Tob (old school) that is supposed to summon a group of random creatures. But I do need assistance. I am using the program called DLTCEP.

1.) I am making the new creatures, but don't know how to determine what equippement they will have, the spells they will use, how they will look like, and what they will sound like. I also need to know how I can make it that, even if a friendly player would by misstake attack these summoned creatures, they would not attack back.

2.) I would like to be able to summon as many as possible. No summon limit. In one way or the other. Is that possible? 

3.) I will also need to set the behaviour of these summoned creatures. Clerics to be healing, Sorcerers to be casting magic, Paladins to be guarding, and Fighters to be attacking. Any way to do this?

Thank you everyone for your help in advance.

Cheers!

[ABlake]

1)

- Equipment is under "Items & spells" tab. Select the item slot from the drop down list then assign the item to that slot by selecting from the "Itemname" drop down list.

- Appearance is under "General properties". The general appearance is under "Creature animation" (gnoll, ogre, male human fighter, etc.). The most important properties have rather self-explanatory names: class, gender, alignment, race, etc. "Short name" and "Long name" are where you put the the string reference numbers that contain the name of the creature - for example, string numbers 22092 and 22093 are both "Bodhi" and are used by Bodhi. If your custom creature has a unique name that does not exist in vanilla game, you'll have to edit the dialog.tlk file (the file that contains all texts that appear in the game) to add new string(s) that contain the name of your creature. For this purpose, you may want to look into editing dialog.tlk.

- Sound is under "Soundset". You assign the string numbers that contain the sounds for your creature to the appropriate sound slots. To understand how this work more easily, I suggest you open an NPC (Viconia, for example) then study their soundset. For example, for Viconia, her "HAPPY" sound "I find this a most satisfactory arrangement" has string reference number 3615. This string is associated with the sound file "VICONI03.WAV". She says this when your reputation is low.

- The "no hostile behavior" thing is something else entirely. It has to do with creature script. You may want to look into scripting for this.

2) For vanilla games, to bypass the summon limit, the easiest way is to NOT give your creature the "SUMMONED" or "SUMMONED_DEMON" gender. The game keeps track of all creatures with these genders that are summoned by party members.

3) Creature behavior is a scripting problem. Again, you will want to look into scripting for this. The game has a number of basic scripts - WTASIGHT, MAGE1, CLERIC1, etc.  - some of these are used by creatures in the game. You can use these if they are good enough for your purpose. For more specific behavior, you will have to make your own script.

For example, if you open the creature file NISHRUSU.CRE, you will see that it has one script, NISHRU01.BCS. If you open this script you will see that the behavior for the nishru is fairly simple: it will be hostile if its summoner is hostile, kills itself when hit by dispel magic, applies Cure Light Wounds on self when hit by other spells, and it will prioritize mage, bard, cleric, and druid before anyone else.

==========

What I would suggest is that you open some existing creature files and scripts, then study them to understand how to customize creatures and scripts.

[Guest PureSpirit]

On 3/8/2020 at 2:55 AM, ABlake said:

1)

- Equipment is under "Items & spells" tab. Select the item slot from the drop down list then assign the item to that slot by selecting from the "Itemname" drop down list.

- Appearance is under "General properties". The general appearance is under "Creature animation" (gnoll, ogre, male human fighter, etc.). The most important properties have rather self-explanatory names: class, gender, alignment, race, etc. "Short name" and "Long name" are where you put the the string reference numbers that contain the name of the creature - for example, string numbers 22092 and 22093 are both "Bodhi" and are used by Bodhi. If your custom creature has a unique name that does not exist in vanilla game, you'll have to edit the dialog.tlk file (the file that contains all texts that appear in the game) to add new string(s) that contain the name of your creature. For this purpose, you may want to look into editing dialog.tlk.

- Sound is under "Soundset". You assign the string numbers that contain the sounds for your creature to the appropriate sound slots. To understand how this work more easily, I suggest you open an NPC (Viconia, for example) then study their soundset. For example, for Viconia, her "HAPPY" sound "I find this a most satisfactory arrangement" has string reference number 3615. This string is associated with the sound file "VICONI03.WAV". She says this when your reputation is low.

- The "no hostile behavior" thing is something else entirely. It has to do with creature script. You may want to look into scripting for this.

2) For vanilla games, to bypass the summon limit, the easiest way is to NOT give your creature the "SUMMONED" or "SUMMONED_DEMON" gender. The game keeps track of all creatures with these genders that are summoned by party members.

3) Creature behavior is a scripting problem. Again, you will want to look into scripting for this. The game has a number of basic scripts - WTASIGHT, MAGE1, CLERIC1, etc.  - some of these are used by creatures in the game. You can use these if they are good enough for your purpose. For more specific behavior, you will have to make your own script.

For example, if you open the creature file NISHRUSU.CRE, you will see that it has one script, NISHRU01.BCS. If you open this script you will see that the behavior for the nishru is fairly simple: it will be hostile if its summoner is hostile, kills itself when hit by dispel magic, applies Cure Light Wounds on self when hit by other spells, and it will prioritize mage, bard, cleric, and druid before anyone else.

==========

What I would suggest is that you open some existing creature files and scripts, then study them to understand how to customize creatures and scripts.

Thanks a lot bud! I did as you said, and it worked flawlessly! I have more questions, but I will ask later when I am near done with the things I do.
For now, I have some questions that are a bit more urgent, like:

1.) How do I make a Fighter kit creature? For example, a Wizard Slayer. Because when I see the "Kit" roll-down box menu in DLTCEP, there's nothing to choose from. I need to know how to make creatures of any kit I wish. 

2.) If I do make a kit creature, say Archer, and I give him level 25... will that creature's stats and abilities reflect to that of a level 25 Archer?

3.) Where do I find creature racial information? I do know that Half-Orcs have 1 extra strength, and Dwarves have extra constitution, and resistance to poison... but I wanna see that numerically, and what opcodes are used. Where do I find that info?

Thank you so much. You're of great help! 

[ABlake]

1) I don't know... you should see the kits in the drop down list

2) No, they won't. You will have to manually set up the creature's stats and abilities as appropriate for its level, class, race, etc. (or as you see fit). For example, a level 20 Fighter will have saving throws 3/5/4/4/6 and THAC0 of 1 - these have to be set up manually. The game does adjust the creature's HP based on its Constitution score as per the game rules. This is the only thing I can recall immediately that is adjusted by the game. Just about everything else has to be manually set up by you: saving throws, to hit, AC, all class-specific abilities including both innates and activates. Another exception is thief's backstab multiplier. A thief creature will automatically receive the appropriate backstab multiplier for the level of its Thief class. However, in the case of Assassin, the bonus multipliers (x6 and x7) have to be added manually.

3) Such details are governed by a bunch of .2DA files. These files are data spreadsheets that govern a lot of the game rules, and can be easily modified by text editors like Notepad. To access them with DLTCEP, go to Edit in the toolbar and select Tables.

To answer your question in a more specific manner, the racial bonuses/penalties to attribute scores are determined by the file ABRACEAD.2DA. The "resistance to poison" thing, I believe, is the saving throw bonuses to Death/Wand/Spells based on CON. This is determined by the file SAVECNDH.2DA. These bonuses apply to both Dwarf and Halfling (as you may be able to guess from the name of the file). Gnome has a similar file - SAVECNG.2DA. IIRC these bonuses are applied by the game during character creation. If you make your own character using an editor, you have to factor these bonuses in yourself.

=============

Here is a great guide to creating a new kit by CamDawg. The guide explains the purpose of a number of .2DA files which you should find useful when you're creating new creatures, not just kits. These details are in PART TWO: GAME FILES INVOLVED.

http://forums.pocketplane.net/index.php?topic=630.0

Have fun modding.

Edited March 13, 2020 by ABlake