SCS mod for Icewind Dale

[Guest pete_smith1229]

Is the SCS mod available for Icewind Dale EE? If not, can assets such as AI enemy scripts from the SCS mod be transferrable to IWDEE with some tweaking?

Thanks!

[pete_smith1229]

I would assume since IWD:EE uses the same updated engine as BG:EE and a lot of assets has been transferred from IWD:EE to BE:EE, the reverse should be possible. I'm using the NearInfinity tool to mod Icewind and can see a lot of data from BG. I am hoping that certain assets like AI enemy scripts from the SCS mod can be used in Icewind.

Does anyone have any experience or knowledge about this? Apologies for tagging you @DavidW into this but thought it would be polite to ask the author also.

(PS: I'm the OP of this thread).

[Jarinex]

Unfortunately, I don’t think it’s as simple as just transferring everything. I wouldn’t mind being proven wrong though, as I do like SCS.

For IWD, I’m aware of the improved heart of fury mod and a mega mod made by Sarevok57 that make changes to the ai of enemies.

However, improved HOF makes too many fundamental changes for my liking and Sarevoks mod was not made in weidu and no longer works for the latest version. Someone was looking into converting it, but I don’t know if or when it will be finished.

 

Edited August 23, 2022 by Jarinex

[Jarno Mikkola]

9 hours ago, pete_smith1229 said:

and a lot of assets has been transferred from IWD:EE to BE:EE, the reverse should be possible.

Actually, the IWD was ported to BG2EE, and that's how you got the game. ... in simple terms. And it was possible by SCS coder making an IWD to BG2 conversion mod first, and that had SCS type enemy AI, with a tweakpack it had, back in the days of jore-to-yong.
Now, to bring this to the current situation, SCS itself is unlikely to be able to be ported to the IWDEE without DavidW's help, but you could just take the BG2EE, install SCS on it, and copy the script files it has made and retroactively port those with the required needed files and so forth to IWDEE, and there you go. you have custom AI components you need to make a -psuedo SCS in IWDEE.

[StummvonBordwehr]

DavidW has said that he would do a SCS for IWD:EE… when he has time.….

I hope he gets time do to it, but one should not get hopes up for a mod any time soon. 

[CamDawg]

As if Bombardier Beetles and Stone Nuisances weren't obnoxious enough on their own...

[Graion Dilach]

Keep in mind that there's one giant pitfall and one optional pitfall in IWDEE compared against BGEE, which needs to be handled by SCS internally first:

 - the ARE maps setting the AI scripts. BG allowed this already but most of the time this wasn't used and AI scripts were fine being utilized via the CRE script slots. That is not the case in IWD, because the CRE script slot values are overridden by the ARE maps. Those need to be handled systematically. Most of the CRE files in IWDEE lack any script setup, which can easily lead to SCS populating a slot which then ends up overridden in ARE.

 - the area INI files can also override CRE script values but this one is only used in IWD2 IIRC, so handling this one is optional.

[Jarinex]

Interesting, so would that mean you have to delete the old script values in the ARE file for any custom script to take effect?

Edited August 24, 2022 by Jarinex

[Graion Dilach]

That's part of the planning which an SCS style dynamic AI regeneration mod needs to decide early how to handle there. The other option is to keep using the ARE creature slots and only populate the CRE itself as a fallback. Both has pros and cons, afterall (the con with the ARE script-based script initialization that as far as I'm aware, most of the mods don't check against ARE overrides when they look up the free creature script slots,. which can lead to very exotic issues if overlooked).

[Jarinex]

I’ve never messed with coding and mods for infinity games, but might be fun to someday if I ever get time. 

[pete_smith1229]

Thanks all for replying, I'll install BG:EE with the SCS mod and see how I go. If I make any progress, I'll report back. Might be a while since I've only just started modding

[Jarno Mikkola]

On 8/24/2022 at 11:30 AM, Graion Dilach said:

Keep in mind that there's one giant pitfall and one optional pitfall in IWDEE compared against BGEE, which needs to be handled by SCS internally first:

 - the ARE maps setting the AI scripts. BG allowed this already but most of the time this wasn't used and AI scripts were fine being utilized via the CRE script slots. That is not the case in IWD, because the CRE script slot values are overridden by the ARE maps. Those need to be handled systematically. Most of the CRE files in IWDEE lack any script setup, which can easily lead to SCS populating a slot which then ends up overridden in ARE.

 - the area INI files can also override CRE script values but this one is only used in IWD2 IIRC, so handling this one is optional.

Are you actually sure any of this is relevant in the Icewind Dale stories we are talking here about aka the EE stuff ? Cause it might have been so in non-EE IWD, but we are talking about a modified BG2EE engine after all...
And there is no IWD2 that has any compatiblity with any of the other games or the EE engine, so the last part is trash. As in, you would need to import the data from that game to BG2EE engine compatible system, and that conversion should take this into a notion, if it's needed, but leave no bad cases behind. Ouh, there's already such conversions... ones that K4thos was reportedly using and Sarevok57's mod was the other, if memory serves. 

[CamDawg]

27 minutes ago, Jarno Mikkola said:

Are you actually sure any of this is relevant in the Icewind Dale stories we are talking here about aka the EE stuff ?

Yes.

[Jarinex]

2 hours ago, Jarno Mikkola said:

Are you actually sure any of this is relevant in the Icewind Dale stories we are talking here about aka the EE stuff ? Cause it might have been so in non-EE IWD, but we are talking about a modified BG2EE engine after all...
And there is no IWD2 that has any compatiblity with any of the other games or the EE engine, so the last part is trash. As in, you would need to import the data from that game to BG2EE engine compatible system, and that conversion should take this into a notion, if it's needed, but leave no bad cases behind. Ouh, there's already such conversions... ones that K4thos was reportedly using and Sarevok57's mod was the other, if memory serves. 

Right, there are two I’m aware of. Only one works with 2.6 at the moment though (Sarevoks57 mod doesn’t)

[Graion Dilach]

Yeah, and tipun's the one people are most familiar with currently. That one is a static rewrite though, and doesn't do a Tutu/BGT/EET-styled asset import during install though.