Normally there is no way to execute cutscene scripts directly by spell effect. You are either forced to summon an invisible helper creature or have to use variables in conjunction with a global script to initiate a cutscene. In both cases there is a small chance that scripting can be interrupted or delayed by external events.

However, opcode 298 allows you to execute the hardcoded cutscene script CUT250A.BCS. This effect is normally used to trigger the "Teleport to the Pocket Plane" cutscene in BG2-ToB, but it basically functions in all EE games (even in PST:EE). It is possible to hook into CUT250A.BCS and extend it to allow execution of arbitrary cutscene content. It only works in EE games however, since it makes use of the StartCutSceneEx() script action.

The actual scripting would look like this:

// Calls another cutscene script with activated trigger evaluation
IF
  True()
THEN
  RESPONSE #100
    CutSceneId(Player1)
    StartCutSceneEx("CUT250B",TRUE)
END

// Ensures that the cutscene script is left in a valid state
IF
  True()
THEN
  RESPONSE #100
    CutSceneId(Player1)
    SetGlobal("CUT250","GLOBAL",0)
END

// Execution of the original "teleport to pocket plane" script
IF
  Global("CUT250","GLOBAL",0)
THEN
  RESPONSE #100
    CutSceneId(Player1)
    // ...
    EndCutSceneMode()
END

// Append custom scripting here:
// Each new cutscene should use a unique Global("CUT250","GLOBAL") value.
IF
  Global("CUT250","GLOBAL",1)
THEN
  RESPONSE #100
    CutSceneId(Player1)
    // ...custom cutscene content...
    EndCutSceneMode()
END

To make your own custom cutscene work you have to retrieve a free Global("CUT250","GLOBAL") value and use it in the cutscene, as shown above. Additionally you have to set the variable (e.g. via opcode 365) in the SPL, ITM or EFF resource along with opcode 298 to trigger the desired cutscene.

The attached zip archive contains a WeiDU library with a function that largely automates the process. All you need is to provide the cutscene script and a way to execute the spell effect.

This WeiDU example script for BGEE/BG2EE/EET adds a new ring ("myring.itm") to the game that can be used to trigger a cutscene without the use of helper creatures or global scripting:

BACKUP "weidu_external/backup/Cutscene-Example"
AUTHOR "Argent77"

BEGIN "Example: Cutscene triggered by spell effect"
REQUIRE_PREDICATE (GAME_IS "bgee bg2ee eet") "BGEE, BG2EE or EET required."

INCLUDE "%MOD_FOLDER%/lib/a7-cutscene_customization.tph"

// Our cutscene script.
// Trigger section can be empty if "CUT250" guard variable is the only condition.
<<<<<<<< .../inlined/cutscene.baf
IF
THEN
  RESPONSE #100
    CutSceneId(Player1)
    MoveViewObject(Myself,INSTANT)
    DisplayStringHead(Myself,~Cutscene triggered by a spell effect.~)
    Wait(4)
    EndCutSceneMode()
END
>>>>>>>>

// Installs the cutscene for use with opcode 298
LAF EXTEND_CUT250
  STR_VAR baf_file = ".../inlined/cutscene.baf"
  RET value  // can be used later to set the required global variable
END

// Cutscene is triggered by an item ability (reusing Sandthief's Ring)
COPY_EXISTING "ring05.itm" "override/myring.itm"
  SAY NAME2 "Cutscene Ring"
  SAY IDENTIFIED_DESC "Executes a cutscene when used."
  WRITE_SHORT 0x42 0 // remove Lore requirement

  // Discarding old effects
  LPF DELETE_SPELL_EFFECT INT_VAR opcode_to_delete = "-1" END

  // Setting required variable Global("CUT250","GLOBAL",%value%)
  LPF ADD_ITEM_EFFECT
    INT_VAR
      opcode = 265        // Modify global variable
      target = 1          // Self
      parameter1 = value  // Variable is set to the result of the EXTEND_CUT250 function
      timing = 9          // Instant/Permanent
    STR_VAR
      resource = "CUT250" // Variable name
  END

  // Adding cutscene trigger
  LPF ADD_ITEM_EFFECT
    INT_VAR
      opcode = 298        // Pocket Plane
      target = 1          // Self
      timing = 1          // Instant/Permanent until death
  END

Note: This feature can potentially interfere with the return location from the Pocket Plane if it is used while the party is present in the Pocket Plane. That's why I recommend to use it only for events where the party is not currently present in the Pocket Plane. Otherwise, this issue can be worked around using script actions StorePartyLocations() and RestorePartyLocations() in place of the ExitPocketPlane() action.

a7-cutscene_customization-v1.zip

That would certainly conflict with other mods like Iwdification or SCS's spell components. I think the current method of skipping existing resources with exceptions is still the lesser evil.

37 minutes ago, Endarire said:

I apparently misunderstood argent's response in a previous reading.

What are the main creatures and other things in conflict between tipun's and argent's implementations?

Thankee!

There are currently several showstoppers when TotLM-in-BG2 is installed together with IWD1_EET, some of which require the use of the cheat console to advance further. They will (mostly) be fixed with the next release of TotLM-in-BG2:

• (critical) The "Tarnished Ring" found after defeating the Luremaster is non-functional.
• (critical) The Knights in the Watchknight Tomb don't respond when you place the scrolls in their tombs and therefore don't allow you to proceed to the castle.
• (serious) No support for starting and return location: Lonelywood
• The "Harald and Dabath" side quest doesn't work.
• Hobart's store and the Bag of Holding from the Banite adventurers misses several items from the mod.
• Many creatures are missing mod-specific ability improvements and scripting, which can result in creatures being completely passive (like the spectral heroes in the final fight, or some of the rakshasas not joining the battle). This aspect cannot be fully addressed by the mod without introducing new conflicts, so you'll still encounter some creatures without mod-specific improvements (mostly creatures that are also used elsewhere in IWD1_EET areas).

This mini mod was originally published as an April Fool's joke and removes the protagonist, so that Imoen can finally take her rightful place in the game. It is available for BG2, BGT, Tutu, BG:EE, BG2:EE and EET.

Version 1.1 adds Russian translation to the mod (thanks yota13).

Download: GitHub
Discussion: G3, SHS, Beamdog
Readme

New version available: Protagonist-Be-Gone! v1.1

Changelog:

• Added Russian translation (thanks yota13)

11 hours ago, subtledoctor said:

It doesn’t AFAIK. IWD encounters play out as they do in IWD. And SCS has no effect on IWD. 

In the long run it might be interesting to try to beef up some IWD enemies. E.g. with SCS, the lone yuan-ti mage on the 2nd floor if D’Arnise Keep can tear up my whole party. (I generally don’t have mage-duel spells like Secret Word or Breach by that point.) By contrast, the yuan-ti casters in Dragon’s Eye are pathetic. 

But that sort of thing is a ways off, if I ever get to it. 

That will certainly be a challenge. IWD-style creature scripting differs greatly from BG-style scripting. It'll probaby require a rewrite of the SCS core implementation to support IWD (and mods using IWD-style scripting.)

On 4/12/2023 at 10:40 PM, argent77 said:

IWD1_EET and TotLM-in-BG2EE share quite a lot of resources, since they both are more or less straight imports from IWD with only slight modifications. TotLM-in-BG2EE prefixes several resource and variable names to avoid potential name collisions while IWD1_EET does not. I would also be interested how well both mods work together.

The only real issue I noticed is when you use IWD1_EET Hobart to teleport to the castle courtyard. Hobart's IWD1_EET dialog initializes a differently named master quest variable (without prefix). Everything else should (theoretically) not interfere with the game outside of the adventure.

Edit: That doesn't appear to be an issue either, since Hobart's dialog file is also replaced by TotLM-in-BG2EE. However, after the quest is completed the party will return to the Umar Hills Inn instead. I'll see if I can fix that by another mod update.

Edit 2: There is at least one more compatibility issue. The ring that can be used to return from Castle Maluradek is not updated by TotLM-in-BG2EE and therefore doesn't work correctly. You'd probably have to return manually via cheat console. There may be more issues, but I have to play through the whole mod to identify them. It may take a while.

After a quick walkthrough I can say that the mods are currently not fully compatible (and will probably never be). You may get stuck at some point without the use of cheats or resource modifications, and scripting of several creatures doesn't work correctly.

I have already fixed (most of) these issues in the devel branch of the mod. Some other (non-critical) issues are probably not fixable without undesired side effects, such as several of the unique creature improvements and some creature scriptings. This is mostly because IWD1_EET uses a different mechanism to control creature behavior which clashes sometimes with the way how TotLM-in-BG2EE handles creatures.

Yes, it is possible to advance game time in a controlled manner via Time()/DayNight(), but it is somewhat convoluted because you have to cover every hour of a day (maybe less if you reduce accuracy).

I've done something similar in one of the scripts for the Djinni Companion: https://github.com/Argent77/DjinniCompanion/blob/master/DjinniCompanion/scripts/a7q3tath.baf#L107-L322

IWD1_EET and TotLM-in-BG2EE share quite a lot of resources, since they both are more or less straight imports from IWD with only slight modifications. TotLM-in-BG2EE prefixes several resource and variable names to avoid potential name collisions while IWD1_EET does not. I would also be interested how well both mods work together.

The only real issue I noticed is when you use IWD1_EET Hobart to teleport to the castle courtyard. Hobart's IWD1_EET dialog initializes a differently named master quest variable (without prefix). Everything else should (theoretically) not interfere with the game outside of the adventure.

Edit: That doesn't appear to be an issue either, since Hobart's dialog file is also replaced by TotLM-in-BG2EE. However, after the quest is completed the party will return to the Umar Hills Inn instead. I'll see if I can fix that by another mod update.

Edit 2: There is at least one more compatibility issue. The ring that can be used to return from Castle Maluradek is not updated by TotLM-in-BG2EE and therefore doesn't work correctly. You'd probably have to return manually via cheat console. There may be more issues, but I have to play through the whole mod to identify them. It may take a while.

38 minutes ago, zelazko said:

@argent77 are there plans/(is it even feasible) to allow whoever is the leader of the party = npc with the top portrait - to be considered protagonist bhaalspawn? That way frequent switching of the party leader would allow fleshing out banters of the npc and not locking them out from using their default conversations, reactions and banters.

It would work only partially, and even then only after making many adjustments to the game. The game engine distinguishes between internal party order and party slot order (as shown in the UI). It is possible to target the character in the first party slot in scripts, but other features (such as tokens) are hardcoded to use the first position within the internal party order.

To make matters even more complicated, party slots are updated lazily by the engine. If you remove or exchange the protagonist then the vacant or replaced party slot (internal order) is only updated after a save and reload.

34 minutes ago, subtledoctor said:

Sure. In particular these are IWD creatures which have script names in IWDEE, but the field is blank when they are added to BG2EE by tipun’s IWD1_EET mod. I am simply applying the vanilla IWD script names. But I can add them to the list once my mod is settled. 

Script names are handled differently in IWD and can be found in ARE actor structures instead. The "Name" field is used as script name if actor flag "Override script name" (bit 3) is set. That way the same creature file can be used as a template for different characters on the map. Actor structures may also override character scripts and even dialogs.

Another option could be granting level-dependent experience. AddXP2DA() refers to XPLIST.2DA, which allows you to define different amounts of XP based on average party level. In that case you won't have to touch dialog scripting at all (at the price of less control over the granted XP amount).

11 hours ago, Endarire said:

Does this mean that we can have a rotating cast of arcane casters who each casts find familiar?  What happens to these familiars if they're out and their master leaves the party?

Familiars are still hardcoded to the Player1 slot. However, you can switch the character in slot 1, and the familiar will happily accept that character as their new master.

3 minutes ago, suy said:

Quote

The mod is *not* meant to be installed for a serious walkthrough

In what way?

The original intent of the mod (back when it was just a test project) was to prove that the role of the protagonist is not set in stone. However, the whole scripting of the game doesn't make sense if someone else takes over that role, and would require a total makeover. Even the little bit of content in Chateau Irenicus required quite a bit of adjusting, and may still have some awkward dialogs under certain circumstances. From a technical standpoint it is doable, however.

Placing Imoen into the protagonist role is more tricky though, since you can't replace the Player1 slot directly. Removing Player1 results in an instant "Game Over". Matters are complicated if you also want to deal with the situation that the player creates a custom party of 6 characters.

1 hour ago, subtledoctor said:

Wow I LOVE this idea!

EDIT - damn, I read the spoiler after posting that…

It is possible to replace the protagonist by someone else, even in the original games without TobEx. But whoever replaces the protagonist will be treated as the protagonist for the rest of the game (or until replaced by yet another character). It also means that the death of that character will trigger the "game over" sequence.

In my test runs with this mod it was Minsc most of the time, since (for some reason) the more obvious choice, Imoen, keeps her slot 2 status unless you save and reload before adding another character to the party.

This (not so serious) mini mod removes the protagonist, so that Imoen can finally take her rightful place in the game. It is available for BG2, BGT, Tutu, BG:EE, BG2:EE and EET.

For more information visit the respective topics at G3, SHS and Beamdog forums, or view the mod's Readme.

Download: GitHub

Protagonist Be Gone!

Download: Protagonist Be Gone! (latest)

In the tradition of "XXX-Be-Gone" mods I present to you Protagonist-Be-Gone! This mini mod removes the protagonist, so that Imoen can finally take her rightful place in the game. For that reason the mod provides a "slightly" modified start of the BG1 and BG2 parts of the game series.

The mod is compatible with original BG2, BGT, Tutu, BG:EE, BG2:EE and EET.

BTW: I tried out an AI-based voice changing software and recorded a new line for Jon Irenicus in David Warner's voice that can be heard in the BG2 opening cutscene. Since I'm not a native English speaker and have never done this before I'm curious how it turned out.

Have fun with the mod!

1 hour ago, aigleborgne said:

I assume I have to keep the same name for returned variable between caller and called function. Something like:

  LPF STRING_TO_ARRAY STR_VAR string="1 2 3" RET_ARRAY array1 END

  PATCH_PHP_EACH array1 AS _ => v BEGIN

    PATCH_PRINT ~Loop 1, value = %v%~

  END

  LPF STRING_TO_ARRAY STR_VAR string="" RET_ARRAY array2 END

  PATCH_PHP_EACH array2 AS _ => v BEGIN

    PATCH_PRINT ~Loop 2, value = %v%~

  END

But I can't do that. Returning variable is very special in WEIDU and not very intuitive.

You can assign the return value of a function to another variable:

LPF STRING_TO_ARRAY STR_VAR string="1 2 3" RET_ARRAY array1 = array END
// PATCH_PHP_EACH array1 AS _ => v BEGIN ...

LPF STRING_TO_ARRAY STR_VAR string="" RET_ARRAY array2 = array END
// PATCH_PHP_EACH array2 AS _ => v BEGIN ...

That alone wouldn't be enough since Story Mode effects are checked and reapplied to Player2 to Player6 in BDBALDUR.BCS on a regular basis. You would have to add an area check there as well.

Btw, the issue is already fixed in EET.

1 hour ago, subtledoctor said:

There was a new-to-me random encounter while travelling between districts in the city: six strangers demand to know who I am, then they polymorph into forms that match those of my party members.

That's actually vanilla game content. These "travellers" are supposed to be rakshasas in disguise (hence the magic resistance), and can appear after chapter 4 in random encounter areas.

If you just want to evaluate the elements inside the string, then this code may suffice:

INNER_PATCH ~%icons%~ BEGIN
  REPLACE_EVALUATE ~[^ %TAB%]+~ BEGIN
    PATCH_PRINT ~Processing string value: "%MATCH0%"~
  END ~%MATCH0%~
END

You could simplify the code like this:

ACTION_DEFINE_ASSOCIATIVE_ARRAY my_files BEGIN
  ~a~ => 1
  ~b~ => 1
  ~c~ => 1
  ~d~ => ~%sometest%~
  ~e~ => ~%sometest%~
  ~f~ => ~%sometest%~
END

ACTION_PHP_EACH my_files AS file => condition BEGIN
  ACTION_IF (condition) BEGIN
    COPY_EXISTING ~%file%.cre~ ~override~
      // Do your stuff...
    BUT_ONLY IF_EXISTS
  END
END

If "sometest" is only defined after the array definition, then this code might be more suitable:

ACTION_DEFINE_ASSOCIATIVE_ARRAY my_files BEGIN
  ~a~ => 0
  ~b~ => 0
  ~c~ => 0
  ~d~ => 1
  ~e~ => 1
  ~f~ => 1
END

ACTION_PHP_EACH my_files AS file => condition BEGIN
  ACTION_IF (NOT condition || sometest && condition) BEGIN
    COPY_EXISTING ~%file%.cre~ ~override~
      // Do your stuff...
    BUT_ONLY IF_EXISTS
  END
END

Quote

Installing [Maximum party size extender for IEScript (usable with GemRB only)] [10 player parties 0.8]

@10ppiscool According to the attached log file you were using an outdated version of 10pp. Could you try again with the latest version? (Latest)