(DONE) Minion Control System

[Balkoth]

Glad you like it! Developed a more primitive version a while back that was limited to simply ordering minions to attack a target for a multiplayer dungeon, decided to make it more robust for my single player module Siege of the Heavens since positioning is often an issue...then got annoyed playing without it so decided to pretty it up and release it publicly as a package.

Looking into improving it for spellcasting minions if it's feasible to do that without having to massively overhaul the AI, which may be useful if the cleric "golem" or some summons are supposed to cast a decent chunk of spells.

[tarashon]

Ah it's YOUR script.. Cool, and darn good work on it also. And yes a "caster version" would likely be awesome. But basically if you order a csater npc to stand still wont they start cast away aslong as they are in range ?

My thought is if you could give caster a command to freeze on the spot they would automatically cast. So perhaps a incredible easy workaround is a "SHFT - clicky" option where defined classes would move to, and stay at, target spot; whereas none defined classes would ignore the order.

You could even spice that up with a "CTRL - clicky" option that would let NONE defined classes move or attack target spot/creature. That way you can maneuver casters and nonecasters around strategically - I would put rangers and bards in the caster category on this server btw, since they are excellent marksmen !

Would that not be a very primitive but useable solution, and likely pretty easy to script for one like yourself ?

/tara

PS.

More suggestions of system adds ?

I know the 2 we have Integrated now, minion control from MagicalMaster, and armo/clothing manequins from Icywind1980 ( he found and suggested it anyways ) in my opinion are exellent aditions to the module, and perhaps there are other interesting options/aditions out there. Like fx the "scripted bossfights" you have been talking about MagicalMaster...

Don't be shy with suggestions - we are an openminded server with room and intentions for improvements

/tara

[Balkoth]

But basically if you order a csater npc to stand still wont they start cast away aslong as they are in range ?

In general, yes. But in this case if you tell them to move to a location, it'll also disable their AI (to prevent the AI from saying "So...I've decided to NOT move where you want and instead attack that creature over there because...reasons"). Once the period of AI being disabled is over (12 seconds by default) the caster will resume their normal spellcasting...but not until then. And sometimes (oftentimes) you want the minion to STAY at that location, which is why it doesn't immediately re-enable the AI once it reaches its destination.

Or am I misunderstanding your question?

My thought is if you could give caster a command to freeze on the spot they would automatically cast. So perhaps a incredible easy workaround is a "SHFT - clicky" option where defined classes would move to, and stay at, target spot; whereas none defined classes would ignore the order.

What do you mean by "shift click?" Does that actually do something in NWN (besides making you walk instead of run)?

You could even spice that up with a "CTRL - clicky" option that would let NONE defined classes move or attack target spot/creature. That way you can maneuver casters and nonecasters around strategically - I would put rangers and bards in the caster category on this server btw, since they are excellent marksmen !

At a minimum you could certainly apply this idea to player tools 1-3 -- with 1 being everyone, 2 being melee, 3 being ranged or something, yes.

Would that not be a very primitive but useable solution, and likely pretty easy to script for one like yourself ?

There's two parts to that last question...

1, most of this behavior would be reasonably easy to script, yes (aka, might not be perfect but getting something that's nearly perfect wouldn't be too hard).

2, making this behavior something you can simply import may be much trickier depending on the exact desires. If it involved editing a dozen AI files in minor ways (which you might have already modified for other reasons), getting everything to work properly may take a lot of effort.

Like fx the "scripted bossfights" you have been talking about MagicalMaster...

Don't be shy with suggestions - we are an openminded server with room and intentions for improvements

I'd recommend you play my Siege of the Heavens module (level 40 only, focused on boss combat) and also A Peremptory Summons (level 1 to 6, combat focused with some minor puzzles and searching around for stuff). The former would probably take 2-3 hours and the latter 1.5-2 hours.

You may see some stuff you like, including but not limited to (in no particular order):

1. Health percentages for NPCs
2. Bonus weapon damage scaling with weapon size (which also helps make 2H weapons better at high levels)
3. Shields not becoming relatively (and obscenely) more powerful as you level up
4. Dual-wield improvements (pretty awful by default)
5. Unlimited ammunition once you find the ammo type (you've already tried to make some adjustments, it seems, to address the fact ranged often get kind of screwed in this regard -- give a melee weapon +4237832783 fire damage and it's permanent, get ammunition with +4237832783 fire damage and it's gone in than less 15 minutes of fighting)
6. Druid shifting improvements
7. Animal Companion (and thus Familiar improvements as an easy extension) improvements, though you've already tried to buff these with completely new blueprints already
8. Damage bonus for high dexterity (1 bonus damage per 2 Dexterity modifier starting at modifier 3 (so someone with 44 Dexterity would have a modifier of 17 and thus a damage bonus of 8))

I've done some other work (years ago) as well in regards to that PW that never got rebooted that I'd be willing to share if you're curious. Could send you a ReadMe of the changes if you'd like (or the entire module and hak file if you want to see it, I suppose, but it's meant for multiplayer parties and is more of a testing ground for dungeons/changes -- it was also earlier work and some of the design is simpler) -- many/most of them won't be relevant here (due to existing design or the fact you don't have a hak file) but some might interest you like...

1. Blinding Speed being improved
2. Barbarian Rage improvements
3. Blackguard summon improvements
4. Epic Spell improvements which scale with level (you've already done some stuff along these lines for Mummy Dust -- though apparently your Dragon Knight is static as well as Greater Ruin/Hellball)
5. Spell changes like making Aid AoE for higher level clerics (Bless already is), Ball Lighting fixed to be like Firebrand, Battletide acts more like Prayer instead of using a buggy aura, Darkfire/Flame Weapon are able to apply different elemental types instead of just fire, Harm/Heal/etc line aren't full health things, Power Word spells improved and based on target HP rather than raw values, etc

I'm not mentioning it because I think it's a holy book or anything, just figured you might wind up finding 10-20% of the changes interesting and decided to implement like 25-50% of those.