Spell Additions - 3.5 Summon Creature

bartleby · Post by **bartleby** » Mon Mar 03, 2008 6:58 am

Ive been working on creating custom spells for nwn2 and wanted to get peoples reactions and input about the idea.

Ive started a 3.5 version of Summon Creature I-IX that allows the player to summon from a choice of 4 to 7 options per level (lvls 1,2,5 having 4. lvl 4 having 5 with 2 options for Summon Mephit, and lvls 3,6,7,8 having 7 with 4 elemental options)

I cant get over how great it is to have the GUI fully open. There are so many interesting things that can be done. With the Gui to act as an inbetween many complicated RP type spells could be done very well.

Any way its late as all heck and i have to get up for work tommarow so ill try to post there what ever i forget to ramble about here. Biggest question i have right now is input on summoning limits. The spell allows the player to summon 1 creature off the spell summoning list or 1d3 from the one below or 1d4+1 from any below that but how many is too many and is it best to limit the number based on spells cast or creatures summoned? So far Im leaning towards castings of Summonings and toward a two casting limit for balence sake but would like to know what others think.

Right now the spells GUIs frame work should be 100% in place and working the scripting should be 100% working 50% of the creatures are made but not to the correct stats and 30% of the icons have been made.

I would also like input on the icons and look of the GUI if anyone has any ideas on how to improve on it and i can find the time i would like to do that. I was thinking it might be a good idea to try to incorperate the alfa logo onto as many in game menus and such as possible but dont know what pepole think about that either. Any way Screenshots and video link below.

Thanks
-bart

Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YCEA2O5xW84

Joos · Post by **Joos** » Mon Mar 03, 2008 9:56 am

Dude, these screenshots gives me an embarrassing, nerdy hard-on.

darrenhfx · Post by **darrenhfx** » Mon Mar 03, 2008 12:00 pm

Looks very nice

danielmn · Post by **danielmn** » Mon Mar 03, 2008 1:37 pm

I CHOOSE YOU PIKA.....

oh...ah...nevermind...

Wynna · Post by **Wynna** » Mon Mar 03, 2008 3:42 pm

Nice work Bartleby, and thanks for the initiative. If Cipher and AL like these, I think they'd add to the game. Oh, and I like the idea about adding the ALFA logo to the GUI. The pig dragon or the crossed swords?

ç i p h é r · Post by **ç i p h é r** » Mon Mar 03, 2008 6:18 pm

Looking at the windows you have open in the screen shots above, are these meant to be open all the time or do they pop up when you cast a summon spell? I was thinking the latter, since there are already summon creature I, summon creature II, etc spells that fit into their respective spell slots. It would reduce the number of windows, computation, and clicking to do it this way I think, but I may not fully appreciate what you've done by merely looking at static screen shots.

About the icons, can you use any of the ones that are already in the game? The advantage is two fold: less packaging would be required to use the system, and the ones that exist are really well done. Creating similar icons will, I imagine, require a certain level of artistic ability though.

Thanks. And keep up the good work!

AcadiusLost · Post by **AcadiusLost** » Mon Mar 03, 2008 6:38 pm

I think it sounds like fantastic work- I've been keen to see how it comes out ever since I saw the .avi demonstrating the potential.

With regard to how to limit the spells, I'd look to better minds than mine on the topic of game balance- but in the midst of combat, might be better to keep the number of summonings down somewhat- so maybe just blocking the (1d4+1) option would be a start in terms of keeping combat lag down. The unpredictability of how many will be summoned makes them less exploitable as well, I'd imagine.

Can you envision a way we could enable these for NPCs to use? That level one cleric goblin isn't much trouble currently, with his "inflict minor wounds" attacks- but if he's summoning 1d3 monsters twice, that's significant. If preferences for the summoning settings (configurable by GUI for players) could be cached as local variables on the caster, then perhaps builders could preset NPCs in the toolset for their summoning preferences. (Jake the Fire Genasi antagonist likes to summon fire mephits, for ex)

NWN1 had a maximum number of companions, set via the module (there was a script to adjust the ceiling)- might be something similar in NWN2 to find.

I think I mentioned before as well- I once got a small incremental alignment shift in a PnP game for summoning a Chaotic Evil Hawk to strike terror into the hearts of my enemies with a neutral mage caster- is there a way we could tie the relative alignments into the system to give a certain amount of flavor to the system, without making it a mechanic for player self-adjustment of PC alignment? Maybe avoiding the shifts, as they are a can of worms in a PW environment- but perhaps check alignment at time of casting, and only display options within one step on either axis from the caster's alignment.

All just ideas- but as you've said, the possibilities are really impressive. I've not been able to get my head around GUI scripting yet- if you have time at some point to help me work out how to make a scripted resting / praying / studying progress bar, that'd be fantastic as well.

bartleby · Post by **bartleby** » Mon Mar 03, 2008 6:45 pm

I dont have much time to post but have video up showcaseing how it would be used so far.

Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YCEA2O5xW84

ç i p h é r · Post by **ç i p h é r** » Mon Mar 03, 2008 7:41 pm

From the video, it looks like the GUI drives casting, not the other way around (casting drives the GUI). So how are you dealing with spell slots and spell memorization? Have you tackled that part yet?

As for limits, I'd offer the full range of options allowed by the spell and deal with balance issues in the summoning lists, if they're not sufficient as is. It gives casters much greater flexibility so they don't have to stock up on the whole range of summoning spells if a higher level one would suffice.

bartleby · Post by **bartleby** » Mon Mar 03, 2008 7:58 pm

The Casting screens are brought up by activating a Class specific item in this case a spell book which brings up an options gui that has summoning spells as an option. The player clicks on summoning spells and that brings up level selection. From here the player can select which level spell GUIs they would like to bring up and can close the selection one after chosing if they wish or keep it open. They can bring up any and all from level 1 - 9 but can only cast the spell if they have the apropriate summoning memorized.

About the icons, can you use any of the ones that are already in the game?

It would have made my life easier I couldnt find any that fit unfortunatly so i took a modest crack at a few.

Can you envision a way we could enable these for NPCs to use?

That actualy shouldnt be too hard i think the main spell is just one script with a string of variables telling it what to do.

NWN1 had a maximum number of companions, set via the module (there was a script to adjust the ceiling)- might be something similar in NWN2 to find.

Right now the summoned creatures are realy considered compainions that have an on heartbeat script that destroys them after the summoning duration has elapsed.

I think I mentioned before as well- I once got a small incremental alignment shift in a PnP game for summoning a Chaotic Evil Hawk to strike terror into the hearts of my enemies with a neutral mage caster- is there a way we could tie the relative alignments into the system to give a certain amount of flavor to the system, without making it a mechanic for player self-adjustment of PC alignment? Maybe avoiding the shifts, as they are a can of worms in a PW environment- but perhaps check alignment at time of casting, and only display options within one step on either axis from the caster's alignment.

This is a very very good idea and should not be hard to implement at all.

From the video, it looks like the GUI drives casting, not the other way around (casting drives the GUI). So how are you dealing with spell slots and spell memorization? Have you tackled that part yet?

Yeap GUI Drives casting it would have been imposible to do meta magic feats like quicken and such with the spell itself triggering the GUI and it was just cumbersome. Right now the script checks the Caster for the memorized spell via its .2da entery and on casting decreses the number of mem spells the caster has.

bartleby · Post by **bartleby** » Fri Mar 14, 2008 6:11 am

New pics

I have all the basic creature templates created but i still need to put in their stats and such. I dont know what ALFA guide lines for that are currently though so Im holding off on that. If some one could point me in the right direction on who to talk to that would be benificial.

Also Im not to great with GIMP so if theres anyone that wants to that can do the art better I would be more than happy to put their icons in instead. If everyone thinks the cruddy ones i threw together are good enough though I can just make the rest myself.

Also wanted to know what people thought of changing the GUI Screens to the book and the parchment paper i figured id make other screens like it for clerics and sorcerers and bards and druids and such figuring that it would be cool to overlay the holy symbol of the clerics god on the book somewhere to customize it.

ç i p h é r · Post by **ç i p h é r** » Fri Mar 14, 2008 9:23 pm

I like the parchment. Neat effect.

I'm curious though if it would be cleaner to integrate what you've done with the existing spell book GUI (what pops up when you hit B). That can popup as well when using the spell book item. It's a spell book after all and that GUI lists all the spells they know.

Just a thought.

bartleby · Post by **bartleby** » Fri Mar 14, 2008 9:40 pm

Thanks I thought the parchment looked a bit more imersive than the standard background.

I realy like the idea of integrating the spell book GUI into the existing spell book mechanics.... hmmm... Im planning on seeing how far i can get with Readable Writeable books next too so i may actualy try to integtrate an actual spell book GUI launched from the book selection screen. Have a "Open Spell Book Button" ... Put spells known on the left and spells memorized the right ... sort of BG1 style with a book background. Have each page be a level of spells and integrate a button in to let you study once youve input them.

I have a feeling that im not going to be happy unless its done right. Id like to add a number of more fun and RP based spells as well something to do with prestidigitation some illusion spells maybe giving access to apropriate vfx effects. Things that couldnt be done with with out a good GUI system. Disguise self would be a lot of fun as you could create your disguise in the GUI with the render 3d option and save presets select the preset you want cast the spell and then boom you look like what you set up. There are a ton of options available with this. Eventualy i would like to add Teleport and others if i can find the time.

darrenhfx · Post by **darrenhfx** » Fri Mar 14, 2008 11:38 pm

That's really impressive stuff that you're doing.

Looking forward to seeing it in-game

bartleby · Post by **bartleby** » Fri Mar 21, 2008 8:23 pm

ç i p h é r You wouldnt happen to know how to modifywhat the hotkey that triggers the spell book to pop does in game would you? Ive been looking all over but GUI manipulation documentation seems rather scarce.

I would realy like to try to make the spell book GUI the hub for casters if possible and add in custom screens for spell memorization and selection and scribing and such but need to be able to launch the GUI when the player presses the Spell Book Hotkey in order to do that.