moog

@DavidW, I look forward to the externalized favored enemy mechanic! Until then, I'd like to play with other options. @subtledoctor, you mentioned above that you had some code available for this. Where can I find it? Remember that I'm a baby coder.

@jmerry, thanks for the line for the LUA file and for the correction on Dread Wolves. I've been fighting them all of these years and had no idea that they were Undead! @subtledoctor, I'll take whatever help you can offer. Thanks! My hope for now is for something that is very simple on the user end: just a choice of a favored enemy from a more general list. If we could somehow make the choice via the GUI and the rest go on in the background, great. But I'm nowhere near the coder that either of you are and I don't fully grasp the limitations of the engine. To flesh it out a tiny bit more, I'd like to appropriate many of the categories from the 3.5 Monster Manual as candidates for favored enemies: Aberrations, Constructs, Dragons, Elementals, Fey, Giants, Magical Beasts, Shapechangers, Undead, and Vermin. I'd like to go forward with the BGEE category of Demonic/Fell as a stand-in for Outsider (Evil). Perhaps some clusters of Humanoids as well. Dragons, Demonic/Fell, and Elementals are already implemented in BGEE. Constructs/Golems and Faerie/Fey are implementable right now with the current engine, they just need to be added to the list. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe all of the Giants in BGEE are Ogres or Ogre-adjacent, while all the Vermin are Spiders, so we're good to go there too. That leaves Aberrations, Magical Beasts, Shapechangers, and Undead, the four of which might be the most exciting to implement. Although my focus for now is BGEE, I can imagine expanding and tweaking this for SoD and BG2EE.

@jmerry Thanks for the heads up. The vampiric wolves were on my radar, but I missed the Ashirukuru. I think the dread wolf is a mistake in the game; I don't think they're undead in BG2EE. I'm still thinking of aggregating creatures by race, but I'm seriously considering @subtledoctor's suggestions. As you have shown, I could miss some creatures doing it my way. While I have your attention, what's the best way to edit the relevant line of L_en_US.LUA? I've taken care of the strings in dialog.tlk.

You know a lot more than I do about modding. Still, I think I got this to work. Instead of Doppelgangers and Shapechangers, I tried something with Ghouls and Undead. First, I created a string entry "Undead." Then I used SET_2DA_ENTRY to have the first column of Ghoul in HATERACE.2DA use this string. I also created corresponding text for the third column. Here's the result: Then I called up a Ghoul and it looks like the to-hit and damage benefits still apply. I think that modifying a CLAB so that the ranger bonuses apply to Zombies and Skeletons (really the only other relevant Undead in BGEE) should be fairly straightforward. I'm sure I must've missed something. What is it?

Thanks for your replies, they are very helpful. How about this--instead of editing the CRE files, I do the following: 1. Edit HATERACE.2DA to add a favored enemy, e.g., Shapechanger. Have the target be Doppelganger. 2. Run a script that assigns a new CLAB if the favored enemy is Shapechanger. The CLAB will have a special ability that assigns the favored enemy to hit and damage bonuses to Werewolves (and to whatever other shapechangers there might be). 3. If I wanted to go the extra mile, this script and CLAB could be the seed of a kit. This could be done in the same way for Abominations, Undead, etc.

I'm going to start a new run on BGEE and was thinking of playing a ranger. And then I remembered how underwhelming the "racial enemy" choices are for the class. I have a series of ideas (and questions) below. I have some basic modding skills, but I don't have the depth of experience that a lot of you have, so please forgive me if I ask obvious questions. Snippets of code that I can steal are always welcome. And, of course, if anyone has already done any or all of what I'm planning, please let me know and I'll download their mod. My questions: 1. What is the most graceful and least harmful way to mod dialog.tlk to change all instances of "racial enemy" to "favored enemy"? (I mean, are Giant Spiders really a race?) 2. I was thinking of completely reorganizing racial/favored enemies along the lines of 3.5e. So, for instance, instead of separate choices for Carrion Crawlers, Ettercaps, and Gibberlings in BGEE, there would be a more generic group, Aberrations. Similarly, Ghouls and Skeletons could be combined under Undead. Other categories could be introduced, for example Shapechangers (Doppelgangers and Werewolves) and Constructs (Golems, Doom Guards, Battle Horrors). This would make choices other than Giant Spiders viable and fun. The question is, how best to do this? For instance, can HATERACE.2DA (such an awful name) be pointed to the "General" field in the CRE file, or must it refer to the "Race" field? Either way, I assume that I'd have to make some additions to RACE.IDS. What are the dangers here? If I create a General category or Race called "Aberration" and then change the appropriate field for Ettercaps, etc., is there a down side? Are there weapons, spells, or abilities that I need to have on my radar? Is there anything else that I am missing? If it works, it shouldn't be too overpowered for BGEE. What thoughts to people have about extending this to BG2EE? Beholders and Mindflayers are both Aberrations; Liches and Vampires are both Undead. Too much? 3. I would love to build a kit around the choice of enemy, but I can't think of a way to do it. Any ideas? How awesome would it be to have a Crypt Ranger, Dragonslayer, or Giant Killer kit! Even if it were simply an option to change the name of a true class Ranger, it would add flavor. Thanks!

Solved my own problem. There are two cone of cold projectiles and I was modding the wrong one.

I'm back to BGEE after about three years. I'm trying to mod a cone projectile. In particular, I'm trying to mod the Cone of Cold projectile to have a different arc and length. This used to be very easy with Near Infinity, but whatever I do doesn't seem to work anymore. Have things changed that I need to know about?