17 replies to this topic

[Bookwyrme]

I could swear there was a mod out there that allowed party mages to have familiars.

Only, I cannot find it. Anyone know where it is or was I dreaming?

[Chevalier]

Dreaming

[Sir BillyBob]

Yeah, I could use this too.

[leahnkain]

Maybe it was just a topic but I think remember seeing it about 2 years ago, just shortly after we bagan making CA. Maybe it was on Pocket Plane?

[Rabain]

I developed a spell for WTP that would allow Player1 to cast a version of FindFamiliar that would allow you to choose from a selection of Familiars rather than just getting one. I restricted the spell so that each Familiar was asigned to an alignment and depending on the alignment of the caster you could select from your own alignment Familiar or the two closest alignments (1 either side of you).

Testers also asked if I could give a version allowing you to choose any Familiar instead of restricted by alignment, this could be done with a small amount of work on my behalf if people are interested.

I'm pretty sure I can open this up to allow other party members to cast the spell and also have a Familiar (using the above restriction or not). The only restriction I'd apply would be to prevent NPC's from using the same familiar (i.e. can't have two Cat Familiars in the party, or two Imps etc), but one of each would be fine.

The only thing I'm not 100% on is how to go about stopping the same NPC from casting the spell twice and just choosing another Familiar. Unless I use Locals to prevent the same NPC from casting the spell...not sure how effective that would be what with Imprisionment, Maze, leaving the party for whatever reason etc... suggestions are welcome.

If there is huge interest I can add this to my list of things to do NOW! The original spell for Player1 is pretty much ready to go, just the other stuff would require work.

[cmorgan]

How do you handle the whole creation/destruction thing with backpack/unbackpack and the move-between-areas-familiar-loss thing?

There was another topic I responded to here at SHS a while ago about making familiars be more of a dialogue partner, but the project is set up for this coming summer, and i have nothing coded - if folks really are working on this, then it might open up a whole range of possibilities. The dialogue dicussion between familairs, or between the PC and familar with Player3 and Player3's familiar... (Edwin and his Imp talking to PC and her PseudoDragon at L12 screams "DragonFight!!!!!") )

This is pretty darned interesting to me, anyways.

[AnnabelleRose]

If there is huge interest I can add this to my list of things to do NOW! The original spell for Player1 is pretty much ready to go, just the other stuff would require work.

My vote would depend on seeing what other projects this would take time away from.

I'd love to see this one, but I want to know what else would be put on the backburner (untill this is done).

[Rabain]

@cmorgan: the creation/destruction is handled exactly the same way as the original Familiar. Clicking Release on the icon in your backpack sets a global and removes that item. The Global creates the Familiar in the game world. Likewise when you ask the Familiar in the game world to jump in your backpack it sets that global back and that gives the item to the Player and removes the Familiar.

The move-between-areas issue is handled by making the Familiar a global using MakeGlobal() and having a block in baldur.bcs that moves the creature to the Player if he is not in the same area and is not in the backpack.

@MTS: Hopefully I will finish the Character Portrait mod in a few days (a bit later than I said). I have upgraded Touchstone, just want to test changes. Other than that it is my usual batch of semi-completed mods that I work on sporadically. No great loss to the modding community!

[cmorgan]

Cool - so you clone original actions and redirect to Player2,3,4,5,6 as needed - so if Imoen (Player2) summons her familiar, the user will need to manipulate Imoen's inventory in order to release, and dialogue is set to stick to Player2? That would mean that the dialogue redirects could actually be just IsGabber(Player2) and so on, instead of other craziness. And it means that both single-player and multiplayer is supported out of the box, and that you really could create banters similar to the lilacore banterpack entries.

I would definitely be interested in this.

Rabain, Bookwyrm, I don't usually work alone; I work better in a team, I think. If you want to play with this idea, I would be in for it in a group-mod-making endeavor. A useful set of familiars that added banter and tracked progress; certainly possible to make them full-story-arc relevant, BG>SoA>ToB, and installable on any platform. If niether of you has the time, any ideas would be cool.

Edited by cmorgan, 09 December 2007 - 08:51 AM.

[Rabain]

Might have to do some craziness with locals/globals etc because Player2, 3 etc can change during the game.

[Chevalier]

You might want to look at BGT-NeJ2 v1.0b, one of the components is '5. Boo - Familiar of Minsc (only in BG2)' to see how Vlad added a familiar to Minsc. It seems to work well.

[Rabain]

It's very easy to add a Familiar to a known NPC...the trick here is adding a Familiar to any mage in the party who can cast the spell.

It would be easy enough (relatively) to trawl the communities for mage npc's and code them into a Familiar mod...it would need updating every time a new mage appeared on the scene.

I'll get around to writing a tutorial on how to add a Familiar to an NPC at some stage...it's pretty straight forward.

[Azkyroth]

It's very easy to add a Familiar to a known NPC...the trick here is adding a Familiar to any mage in the party who can cast the spell.

It would be easy enough (relatively) to trawl the communities for mage npc's and code them into a Familiar mod...it would need updating every time a new mage appeared on the scene.

I'll get around to writing a tutorial on how to add a Familiar to an NPC at some stage...it's pretty straight forward.

Excluding, of course, new NPCs that have their own familiars or pseudo-familiars.

[Rabain]

Well my intention would be not to give a familiar but just cater for the npc to be able to cast the spell...or not as the player prefers.

The biggest thing would actually be the dialogs...you could use one generic dialog but obviously it would be preferable if a cat was different to an imp...etc.

[cmorgan]

Well, that is where I can come in (especially if Bookwyrme were interested) - there is a good bit of work based on in-game globals that can provide some tight response to game situations, and encourage multiplayers to actually talk to and use their familiars. Vlad Taltos/Stephen Brust is not the only way to do it, either; there cna be action text that describes familiar's actions, and when high enough level (a given in BG2, but not in BG1) the conversations can take place.

I would be happy with just default BioWare™ and MultiPlayer access, so if someone is playing with Amber and/or having a multiplayer game with more than one mage/sorceror, everyone can have their own familiars.

[Bookwyrme]

I'm actually getting confused about who is proposing what mod

I know Rabain is working on a more useful + more choices familiar mod.

Is what you're proposing, cmorgan, to add some actual conversation to this? Or were you also wanting to work on a multi-familiars-per-party mod?

[cmorgan]

both Or whatever Rabain wants. Or just dialogue - and I have no problem being sous-chef and following orders/just tagging along to assist.

If Rabain has a full mod idea in place, the simplest thing would be to work together to provide dialogue, if that is wanted. If not, there is still room for an original separate familiars dialogue mod, which we could make compatible with Rabain's stuff - I don't want to horn in on someone else's territory.

[Rabain]

Continued in PM.