Modding the party size

[Guest markmid]

Hey, I have done a manual search through the forum and cannot find this question, apologies if it has been asked before.

 

In your opinion, will the engine ever be modable to include a larger party size, even if an unconventional method is used; Such as a follow or warp script linked to the main character or some such.

 

I remember a great bit of coding in morrowind for instance, which had NPC's warping to the players side when they separated. Alternatively do you think it might be possible to trigger an NPC to be summonable to the PC's side, say every time the player left an area, this way you could tag along other NPC's either automatically or at least manually.

 

Anyway thanks for reading and best of luck with your efforts on the project.

[jcompton]

I think this has been discussed elsewhere. Avenger or others can give you the official lowdown, but it's my impression that it's relatively trivial for them to raise or eliminate the mechanical cap. However, I haven't yet seen anybody put forth a solution that would actually make this matter for an _existing_ IE game running under GemRB--which certainly would require a hack similar to what you describe in some way.

[Avenger]

This is FAQ #1. Increasing the party size basically means you have to edit the .chu files.

You will also have to edit a few python gui scripts.

 

The gemrb engine supports party size 10 for scripting objects like PlayerN

[Guest markmid]

Thank you both for the quick answer, I am looking forward to experimenting.

[Horred the Plague]

We've already managed to make warp scripts for the IE engine. The Tortured Souls Veter and Boo are two examples of this. Their pictures won't appear in the list, but they follow the party around from region to region, fight for them, etc.

 

The important thing is to MakeGlobal(), and then to MoveGlobal() from a sponsoring PC/NPC script (in TS' case, Minsc.bcs and sime.bcs).

[Dog Cavalry]

Hi Avenger. If that's FAQ#1, where's the FAQ? Probably be a good thing to Pin one, just so as to avoid dufus mistakes like the one I made the other day. Asked this same question in the 'Features Implimented So Far' thread.

 

OF course that'd be more work, and GemRB is enough work in itself.

[Avenger]

Yeah, we had a FAQ on the gemrb site, but it was destroyed.

And i'm admittedly ignorant of website maintenance.

[Nugrud]

Yeah, we had a FAQ on the gemrb site, but it was destroyed.

And i'm admittedly ignorant of website maintenance.

 

Was the content backuped?

 

And if party size >6 enlargement is possible then I guess sub-kits >10 as well?

[Avenger]

Yes, of course. You just need to edit the .chu file and the associated scripts.

It is even possible to improve the scripts so they autodetect the .chu from the original game version and a modified one. So only one script is needed (and it would be included in the gemrb source).

 

If someone wants to do something like this i'll help creating the guiscript which will work for the mod (which is obviously gemrb only) and the original game simultaneously.

[Chev]

Yes, of course. You just need to edit the .chu file and the associated scripts.

It is even possible to improve the scripts so they autodetect the .chu from the original game version and a modified one. So only one script is needed (and it would be included in the gemrb source).

 

I waited sometime to see if someone with more modding experiance would take you up on your offer. I will to do whatever I can! I have some small ability with NI. Tell me where and how to start. I am sorry, I will need directions. What file should I start with? Some have names that I understand, like guiload.chu (the loading screen) and guisave.chu (the save game screen). I can maintain a clean unmodded install to work on. The main screen looks like it would be the easiest to add 2 portraits to. From reading the iespd I see that the window can have a slider, can/should one be added to the gui screens portrait area?

 

I have read the iespd page on CHUI file format. I think I understand what they are getting at.

 

I would hope this would be a mod that others would be able to install. More NPC would mean better role playing options with NPC mods. Some might think that with more NPCs would unbalance the game too much. This would likely be with an unmodded game but with mods like Tactics, BP, IA, and some hard mods like RoT where after each battle you would need to rest, a larger party would make the battles less draining on the party and with more NPCs less exp.

 

Please let me know how I can help and what should be done.

 

Chev

[Mayro]

Yes please! I need that mod! I always wanted a mod or anything to be able to have more than six party members. There are so many good npcs out there that having to decide which four to take (I say four because I always take Imoen with me) is a real pain.

 

So Chev if you are able to make such mod and make it as much compatible as possible it will be a very downloaded one. Of course there will be people complaining about game balance, but in the other hand there will be a lot more cheering and thanking you for that mod. If you have more people in your party you can win easily, but you have to give xp to more people, so you will level up slower and that doesn't unbalance the game.

 

Well, no more pointless talking. Go for it! And thanks for trying.

[jcompton]

Keep in mind that in order to play an existing game with a larger party size, you're going to have to do some rescripting as well. There's a lot of hacky scripting in Infinity games along the lines of

 

DoSomething(Player1)

DoSomething(Player2)

DoSomething(Player3)

DoSomething(Player4)

DoSomething(Player5)

DoSomething(Player6)

 

like zapping between areas or applying certain in-game effects, etc. Those will need to either be extended in kind (Player7, Player8, etc.), or replaced with some new functions GemRB may or may not offer at this point (suggestion to Avenger et al: commands which can be iterated over a party of arbitrary size are proving very useful in WeiNGINE) Failing that, the game will not play correctly.

[Avenger]

Yep, right.

GemRB supports individual PC objects up to 10. (like Player10).

 

MoveParty and such stuff will also be supported as the need arises.