Base Mod Content Thread: Creatures

indio · Post by **indio** » Fri Mar 03, 2006 5:38 am

From today's Obsidian Update:

2) Will there be better options for controlling the behaviour of individual monsters. Currently you would have to change the onspawn or similair script for each monster as I understand it to get them to behave in unique ways, or use a 3rd party AI. Something like a clickable list of possible behaviours and a "use this spell first" type option would be ideal.

Ferret: We’ll be announcing more specifics about AI improvements later on. There are some real goodies the scripters (and specifically Dan Rubalcaba) have been working on. But we’re going to hammer on them more in QA before announcing the specifics.

ç i p h é r · Post by **ç i p h é r** » Fri Mar 03, 2006 7:00 am

I feel like banging my head on my keyboard. If they're at QA on something truly worth announcing, you'd think they could do more than say "but we'll tell you later". From the way the question was asked, I get the sense that they're talking about AI interface changes...making it easier to set desired custom behaviors. Perhaps this ties in with the GUI overhaul they've been fairly open about...? It would be extremely nice for builders if they could enable/disable behaviors through a graphical interface rather than the cryptic OnSpawn/OnUserDefined method NWN1 relies on. Imagine being able to design a graphical front end (simple XML based GUI object?) to all the local variables which manipulate the AI....how sweet would THAT be?

Overfilled Cup · Post by **Overfilled Cup** » Fri Mar 03, 2006 7:46 am

1) The biggest thing I can think of is are they base creatures that you can equip armor on? For example Orcs, Hobgoblins, etc. In NWN1 they had specific models. Do we have that or a nude Orc that we dress?

Ferret: Creatures work differently from the PC in NWN2. You don’t start with an orc in loincloth and put any piece of equipment on top of him and he looks just like the PC. Creatures have a variety of their own base armor types which look more appropriate to their nature – more orcish in this case. It’s not just the base armor variations for the creature you can play with, you can also mix and match creature specific attachments to provide a lot of variation in your orcish armies and they don’t look like PC clones with different skin – they look like a vicious, wicked, and barbaric (and smelly) orcish army.

Lets not forget

Overfilled Cup · Post by **Overfilled Cup** » Mon Mar 06, 2006 11:06 pm

Since AI is such an unknown except it will itleast be what we have currently. It may need to wait till we see the game to truly add the details we want to add. Putting it as a first priority once the game is released seems prudent.We have plenty of things to keep us busy ATM. Am I corect we are either going to use the Box AI, Ajai improved by us, Or is there another system in the running?

Creature blueprints and abilities has been decided upon with the details going way of canon whenever possible. A couple volunteers have stepped forward to help on that when the time comes. Blueprints will be made as quickly as possible to expand on the qwhats shipped out of the box.

Last word in the NwN2 forums says 70-80 base creatures.

Currently we will be able to alter size, color and gear equiped on models of monsters. There is no supporrt for new modeling (3dMax) at this time.

I would suggest holding all blueprints of monsters in a library format that can be browsed by module builders and added to the module as they see fit. Adding the 70-80 out of the box creatures as well as the animal summons (required) is what I see as essential. Anything else essential to get into the basemod creature wise?

OC

Wynna · Post by **Wynna** » Tue Mar 28, 2006 5:58 pm

I started a thread in Admin/DM last week about making major NPCs a base mod pallette. I quote:

I've got an inclination for having a canon NPC pallette in the base mod and having those NPCs (Fzoul, Manshoon etc.) built by either a dedicated NPC builder or contributed by builders local to the NPC's region or faction (not fussed about which) and including an undroppable RP Notes item that includes background and playing notes on it. These NPCs would be 'owned' by certain server teams OR faction team if we have a faction leader for that faction, based on geography or history or straw poll or whatever means we have of determining most sensibly who should be most responsible for the NPC. Anytime any DM team wanted to use this NPC, they would need to check with the 'owning' server/faction team to make sure Manshoon wasn't appearing simultaneously half a world apart. (Not that that would be a problem for clones but still, you get the idea of avoiding conflicting story lines.)

It seemed to meet with acceptance, so I'm adding it here for development and/or comment by the Tech Admin and the Base Mod Team. We would need to start a thread for builders to suggest canon NPCs and their ownership. Builders volunteering to build or input to their build wouldn't go amiss, either.

Thanks!

Overfilled Cup · Post by **Overfilled Cup** » Tue Mar 28, 2006 7:05 pm

I imagine the creatures team will be willing to build any NPCs that need done. You provide the list and well set out the details. If theres objections well adress it on a case by case situation..

Meaning if someone wants to submit the NPC to us well look at it and add to basemod if appropriate.

ç i p h é r · Post by **ç i p h é r** » Tue Mar 28, 2006 9:41 pm

Overfilled Cup wrote:Am I corect we are either going to use the Box AI, Ajai improved by us, Or is there another system in the running?

You are correct. I don't believe there are any other AI contenders for our consideration outside of AJAI or stock NWN2.

Anything else essential to get into the basemod creature wise?

I think what is essential is for our starting servers to have the diversity of creatures they need for the landscapes and regions they are building. We have already identified the sourcebooks we want to use for creatures but rather than sequentially building what is detailed therein, let's align our creature building with ALFA's server plans to get the best bang for our time.

ç i p h é r · Post by **ç i p h é r** » Tue Mar 28, 2006 9:44 pm

Added "Notable NPCs" to the palettes sticky.

Overfilled Cup · Post by **Overfilled Cup** » Mon Apr 24, 2006 8:03 pm

How many creatures do we want to fit into the basemod?

The question is still out will we have an erf system for importing creatures to mods? This would be an easy way to add down the road.

Do we run the risk of bloating mods if we continually add cratures to the basemod via hakupdater?

ç i p h é r · Post by **ç i p h é r** » Mon Apr 24, 2006 8:47 pm

I don't think HAK content is loaded at module load time but I'm not sure there is even hak support in NWN2. No word on that as yet.

We're just going to have to be careful with how much content we put into the base mod. For now, I think we should limit creature palettes to the most commonly used creatures. In fact, we may want to just focus on generic monsters by default and then create erf packages for regional content based on server selection that can be imported as needed.

Blackwill · Post by **Blackwill** » Mon Oct 16, 2006 4:45 pm

Who's making these? Oh, and can we have subraces of orcs included into the base mod (Gray Orc, Mountain Orc, and Orog).

Thanks.

ç i p h é r · Post by **ç i p h é r** » Mon Oct 16, 2006 6:03 pm

I believe Ronan volunteered given his knowledge of the new spawn system.

Ronan · Post by **Ronan** » Mon Oct 16, 2006 8:17 pm

Yeah, that was me. I do plan on including all subraces, including things like orcs. I've been going through NWN2's creature appearances and VFXs and trying to figure out what we can and can't visually represent, but the list is huge, and I'm short on time as of late.

If anyone else wants to take this off my hands I won't object. But I think creature balance and design is pretty critical to the success or failure of our static content in NWN2, so expect me to have a lot of opinions on how things should or shouldn't be done.

Blackwill · Post by **Blackwill** » Sat Oct 21, 2006 8:34 am

NWN2 Vault - Creature - Will-o-wisp

AcadiusLost · Post by **AcadiusLost** » Mon Mar 05, 2007 7:20 pm

Any creature spawned by our ACR Spawn System should ideally include a call to our ACR_ReportSpawnDeath() function in it's OnDeath event script. This will be important in controlling respawn behaviour for spawn points.

Do we have plans to make a standard creature/npc OnDeath script, which will be added to all ABR creatures?