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Appending to Baldur.BCS


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#1 StrixO

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Posted 15 February 2010 - 02:53 PM

I'm writing a tweak involving summoning a custom creature which scales in strength with the PC, among other things. I've figured out the mechanics of such, but to accomplish I need to add a fair amount of scripting onto Baldur.BCS/Baldur25.BCS. Are there some limits to how long Baldur.BCS/Baldur25.BCS should be for the game to run smoothly, i.e. will excessive scripting cause stuttering in-game?

Thanks!

EDIT: If it is a concern, I'm just going to do a workaround involving summoning a temporary invisible creature with an AI script to apply the changes to my custom CRE, thereby reducing the clutter in Baldur.BCS/Baldur25.BCS. If I did so, would the best (i.e. non-noticeable) temporary creature be something like a custom invisible stalker? Thanks again!

EDIT2: Would said custom invisible stalker executing an AI script consisting of several ActionOverride() components become visible (i.e. show it's shadow?)? Or how about using the hiding Ashikurus from Durlag's Tower? Will the script break hiding?

Edited by StrixO, 15 February 2010 - 03:02 PM.


#2 Jarno Mikkola

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Posted 15 February 2010 - 03:49 PM

EDIT: If it is a concern... thereby reducing the clutter in Baldur.BCS/Baldur25.BCS.

Good... just so you know, it's always best to avoid the whole Baldur.BCS when ever possible, cause a single mistake in the script will ruin a lot of games.

EDIT2: Would said custom invisible stalker executing an AI script consisting of several ActionOverride() components become visible (i.e. show it's shadow?)? Or how about using the hiding Ashikurus from Durlag's Tower? Will the script break hiding?

There are ways to make the creature permanently invisible I think, but mostly people use friendly spells(that are specifically flagged as non_hostile) so the creature will never become visible. You probably know about this tutorial.

Edited by Jarno Mikkola, 15 February 2010 - 03:51 PM.

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#3 Miloch

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Posted 15 February 2010 - 10:37 PM

Probably the best way to make the scripting creature truly invisible is just to give it a doom_guard animation with no visible weapons, shields or helms equipped.

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#4 cmorgan

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Posted 17 February 2010 - 05:03 PM

I know good modders who use baldur.bcs in their mods - but many of them did so before we knew there were so many other scripts and workarounds to be used. Anything you put in baldur.bcs can mess up the game for other mods, or for vanilla content, so it is pretty much the nuclear option (last resort). But even more importantly, anything in baldur.bcs runs continuously. That means loading up the engine. Which means slower performance, or things that do not set correctly (and on a BiG World install, ouch...)

#5 StrixO

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Posted 21 February 2010 - 08:17 PM

Thanks for the replies. I've nerfed much of my idea just because it became clumsy scripting with too many workarounds (to avoid modifying baldur.bcs) for my liking.

And rather than start a new thread, I wonder if someone could answer?:

Are creatures added to the .gam file via MakeGlobal() affected by turning party AI on and off?

Thanks again!