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[Mod] Faiths of Faerûn Kitpack v0.5c (Ready for testing)

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  • CahirCahir Member, Moderator, Translator (NDA) Posts: 2,819
    @Mordeus my man!:)

    I was really worried You and Requiem have abandoned this project or worse something rally bad happened to you (which partially did so I see). But I'm REALLY looking forward for this mod and I'm REALLY happy You're back.
    Actually the absence of this mod was one of a few things that successfully stopped me from replaying BGEE (the others are lack of: new patch, GUI from @Archaic and BG NPC Project from @LiamEsler). If all four conditions will be fulfilled I'll plunge myself again into the wilds of Sword Coast:)
  • lordvonhintenlordvonhinten Member Posts: 1
    I've been following this thread in hopes of any news, thank you for coming back :)
  • JoeyJoey Member Posts: 201
    Any documentation on this? Or just a list of the kits and what effects they have?
  • DarkersunDarkersun Member Posts: 398
    Welcome back. Thanks for doing this. Don't overwork youself.
  • gesellegeselle Member Posts: 325
    Mordeus said:

    Ok, I need to catch up on the new developments coming with the game. I see Baldur's Gate 2:EE will be using a new interface, so I'm going to have to redo the spell .BAMs with the new grey backdrop. It also looks from glancing over the screenshots that the resolution of at least the item .BAMs is bigger than they were in Baldurs Gate:EE. So maybe I can increase the resolution of the spell .BAMs. I was going to finish off the spell .BAMs as the first thing on my do to list but maybe it's best to wait til BG2:EE is released first or else I might be wasting some time.

    I just recently caught on that you can now edit the projectiles in BG:EE because they had externalized the projectil.ids file, for some reason that escaped me the first time round. So instead of using largely opcodes within .EFF and .SPL files to do spell animations, I'll be creating .PRO files. So that means the .SPL files will contain the effects of the spell but an accompanying .PRO file will be responsible for the visual effect of the spell. This means that I can bring over some IWD2 and PST spell effects while increasing the variety of effects overall.

    So my list of priorities is the following:

    1. Finish typing up every single spell description string (that means up to level 10)
    2. Categorize the spells into groups so I can plan out the .BAM animations (more on this below)
    3. Create 'dummy' .SPL and .PRO files, then assign them into the relevant .IDS files.
    4. Then create the .BAM files for each spell, add them to a .PRO file
    5. Finish off the .SPL files
    6. Map out all the kits
    7. Create .SPL and .PRO files for kit abilities

    Then that will be the end of the mod. If I have some life in me after this, I'll create new weapon .BAMs.

    We also have to change the name of the mod and I need to create a new dropbox account that I can share the password to those working on the mod.

    ---

    Ok, what I'm going to work on now is typing up the spell descriptions which will finalize the selection of spells. Then I'm going to need some help deciding on the spell animations. I've ripped animated gifs of spell animations from all the Infinity Engine games to help with deciding, so it's a matter of simplifying the selection (There is at least 500 .BAMs to pick from!). For example the spells that have "Armor" in their name (Spirit Armor, Ghost Armor, Lich Armor, etc...) will use the same animation but with different colouring. And spells that are variants of Magic Missile will use the same animation but with different speeds and colouring. The idea is to make all the different .BAMs cohesive.

    This is going to be a bit of a planning nightmare since there is so much to 'curate'. I'm going to do a rough categorizing, then I'll submit it to the forum to get feedback. Then it will be set in stone.

    Ok, I'm going to bed now. But will start on getting this posted tomorrow.

    Good to see you are back.
  • comebackhomecomebackhome Member Posts: 254
    Welcome back! :)
  • KamigoroshiKamigoroshi Member Posts: 5,870
    @Mordeus Out of curiousity, will the Blackguard kit have access new spheres/spells as well? Or will these mortal fiends have the same holy/good divine spells which all paladins get?
  • MordeusMordeus Member Posts: 460
    @Kamigoroshi The only pre-3ed Blackguard I could find was a very early edition of Dragon Magazine (#8) and it was for 1ed. There's not much of a jump when it comes to stats and abilities between 1ed and 2ed. But since spheres is a 2ed concept, there is no information to go from.

    However Paladins get access to Combat, Divination, Healing and Protection. So it would be easy enough to restrict positive Healing and Protection spells from the Blackguard, or at least the alignment restrictions of certain spells will kick in. Unfortunately the 2ed Paladin's Handbook has nothing on evil Paladins, so it's up to our discretion.
  • XivirielXiviriel Member Posts: 166
    Mordeus said:

    Just typed 55,000 words worth of spell description strings today.

    You sir, are awesome.
  • SnakesonaskyshipSnakesonaskyship Member Posts: 38
    @Mordeus Pleased to see you back in business, and my sympathies for your hardships. I expect such difficulities take their toll on many levels.

    Very much looking forward to seeing this mod evolving, but take it easy.
  • Awesome, your back! Can't wait to see what you have planned. Make sure you take care of your health first.
  • JoeyJoey Member Posts: 201
    @Mordeus is there a list of the kits and their affects? Or a general overview of what your mod actually does?
  • MordeusMordeus Member Posts: 460
    @Joey We have a site but it is incomplete.

    http://danpugh.eu5.org/

    The problem is that the mod is rapidly changing and being altered, that if we were to document it completely at this stage it would eat up alot of development time. There is a kit description upon selecting your kit in game. Unfortunately the way the game is structured at the moment, you can only have 9 priest kits, so we had to apply them via ingame dialog. Looks like this might be changed with the new BG:EE patch.
  • JoeyJoey Member Posts: 201
    edited October 2013
    edit - ignore this post, thanks for the info.
  • velehalvelehal Member Posts: 299
    Does 50% damage reduction from FPM stack with other kinds of resistances? If yes, I think that is hugely exploitable. The problem is Hardiness, which grants 40% physical damage resistance. Generally I find the damage reduction from armors to high. I´ve played once with IR (version 2) where it was possible to get several items that granted some physical resistances and then Mazzy was able to reach about 70% (or maybe even more) physical resistances with Hardiness and then tank Ascension/SCS Melissan. I would be very carefull with physical resistance.
  • LordsDarkKnight185LordsDarkKnight185 Member Posts: 615
    Woo! It's great to see that everything is back on schedule :)
  • MordeusMordeus Member Posts: 460
    Just finished the Arcane strings, there are some powerful level 9 spells in the mix but they will replace the HLA "level 10" spells since they are actually Divine Quest Spells. Now I'm starting on the Divine strings.
  • MordeusMordeus Member Posts: 460
    edited October 2013
    Ok, I'm at the point of working out how I'm going to group the spells into spell animation categories. For example sorting them into Protection type spells, Fire-based spells, etc...

    But there are some spells I'm not sure if they are possible to be done at the moment because they require new opcodes or edits to the existing opcodes. I think I might include them in the mod but disable them until I can make them work.

    ---

    I just realized something about the p&p spells. Some of them have very large ranges, couple that with the ability to zoom out and you could cast some of the spells from the other side of a very big map. It's not much of a problem in dungeons or interior maps though.
    Post edited by Mordeus on
  • SnakesonaskyshipSnakesonaskyship Member Posts: 38
    edited October 2013
    Mordeus said:

    I just realized something about the p&p spells. Some of them have very large ranges, couple that with the ability to zoom out and you could cast some of the spells from the other side of a very big map. It's not much of a problem in dungeons or interior maps though.

    Personally I think that sounds nifty. I am less concerned with balance than with cool stuff and opportunities, and this qualifies for the later category in my book. Keep it up!

    Have you had any luck reaching @Requiem yet?

  • MordeusMordeus Member Posts: 460
    I haven't contacted Requiem yet because the stuff I'm doing is solo work. Wouldn't want him waiting around for me to finish the spell bams, strings, etc... could be a month or so of prep work.
  • dibdib Member Posts: 384
    Any possibility that we could see the current results of the poll? If it's even relevant anymore, that is.
    Awesome work btw!
  • MordeusMordeus Member Posts: 460
    @dib This should send to a page with the results.

    https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1HUcQC-wMWQZ-RJ8FB9p-uLcubS9zYtTcCVYtyphtxR4/viewanalytics#start=publishanalytics

    What I'm going to do with the specialty priests is write strings for every viable spell in the case of things changing course. So all priests would be possible but the priority will be dependent on the poll.

    ---

    I'm doing one last cull of the spells by double checking if they are legit Forgotten Realms spells or if they are from actual TSR handbooks.

    So spells from the worlds of Ravenloft, Dark Sun, Spelljammer and Greyhawk will be ignored. But I'll make exceptions for Planescape, Al Qadim & Kara-Tur since they have links to the main Forgotten Realms setting. This isn't such a big loss however Greyhawk has some interesting spells (some extra Otiluke, Tenser & Otto spells) that I personally would want in the game but on the other hand, I have to draw a line somewhere or there would be too many spells. I could always do a "World of Greyhawk" expansion to the mod at some future date.

    I'm also excluding spells from Dragon and Polyhedron magazine since they are semi-official, although there are some interesting spells.
  • MordeusMordeus Member Posts: 460
    edited October 2013
    I'm going to remove the Metamagic spells, they can't be done with the Infinity Engine. I was going to hold out until something changed with the Infinity Engine, but I doubt it will.

    Also I'm thinking of editing the "Secondary Type" field. Each spell has a School type which links them to one of the 8 main schoools but they also have a "Secondary Type" which is a description of their spell function. So a dispel spell would target only spells with a Secondary Type of Spell Protections. However these are pretty generalized descriptions.

    So for example:

    Instead of just "Offensive Damage" I would make a list of Secondary Types like this:
    "Lightning Damage"
    "Ice Damage"
    "Fire Damage"
    "Acid Damage"
    "Missile Damage"
    etc...

    Instead of just "Disabling" I would make a list of Secondary Types like this:
    "Hold Disabling"
    "Poison Disabling"
    "Petrification Disabling"
    "Charm Disabling"
    etc...

    This means I can develop a series of Protection/Immunity/Dispel/Reflect spells that target specifics rather than being an all or nothing situation. So a Protection of Fire would start off giving saving throw bonuses but gradually give full immunity to fire when the caster is level 15. Or a spell that would reflect only Lightning spells. Or neutralize gases, etc... If I wanted to give protection from all Disabling spells, I would just have to add in the multiple ones instead of just adding in the one big generalized Secondary Type.

    I'm going to spend a couple of hours working out what types I need, then I'm going to ask for feedback just in case I missed some.
  • SnakesonaskyshipSnakesonaskyship Member Posts: 38
    edited October 2013
    Too bad about the metamagic, but I guess there's little to be done.

    As for the various types of protection spells... I'm torn. On one hand I can see the allure in having access to spells which by their specialization can create interesting situations. On the other hand, I'm not sure I would welcome such a vast amount of similar spells in my spellbook...

    Edit: Teh grammers
    Post edited by Snakesonaskyship on
  • DarkersunDarkersun Member Posts: 398
    Is it still planned to use the HLAs for feats ? I would really love to see this feature. Thanks for doing all this.
  • MordeusMordeus Member Posts: 460
    @Snakesonaskyship I can add a series of Metamagic spells called Extension I-III, they pretty much add bonus duration to spells cast, like 5 extra seconds. But yeah that is all the Metamagic that can be done at the moment.

    @Darkersun After the Arcane/Divine spells are mostly done, I'm going to do a quick redo of the HLA system. The p&p HLAs are available much earlier than the ToB ones, around level 10. I might throw in some Non-Weapon Proficiencies. I mapped this out a couple of months ago so I'm going to have to dig up those plans but wouldn't be too hard to do.

    ---

    I'm nearly done with the spell planning stage. The hardest thing has been grouping them into Attack, Protection, Summon, Weapon, etc... categories and then grouping them into subcategories, so I know which ones need certain animations and which ones I can get away with by just giving them colour glows instead. Also I've made sure they can all be made with the current Opcodes. So I'm doing one last review of them all and then it is time to start getting them done into .spl files.

    I'm going to need to find out if the size restrictions on .bams is still in place. PST and IWD2 allowed for big .bams while BG2 was rather restrictive. So a thunderbolt in PST is done together, while in BG2 it is broken up into four segments.

    Also I'm going to ask for feedback everytime I get into doing certain spells since I could ask a thousand questions at once but easier to ask them when they come up.
  • MordeusMordeus Member Posts: 460
    edited October 2013
    I have selected 540 Arcane spells and 200 Divine ones (minus specialty priest spells) to be added into the game. However it is alot to do at once, so I'm using a list of common/uncommon/rare spells from "Forgotten Realms Adventures" to determine which get in first. So I'll get the essential ones done first and then gradually add in the rest. The ones I have yet to be added in will appear in the game as scrolls that cannot be scribed to your spellbook, but the description will be visible so if a certain spell is well recieved, I can then focus on adding that.

    Here is a break down of the spells that the Forgotten Realms Adventures supplement says is Common/Uncommon/Rare:

    Level 1:

    COMMON: Burning Hands, Change Self, Charm Person, Detect Magic, Friends, Magic Missile, Protection from Evil*, Shield, Shocking Grasp & Sleep.

    UNCOMMON: Armor, Cantrip, Color Spray, Detect Undead, Erase, Gaze Reflection, Grease, Identify, Scatterspray & Taunt.

    RARE: Chill Touch, Find Familiar, Snilloc's Snowball & Spook.

    Level 2:

    COMMON: Darkness 15' Radius, Detect Evil*, Detect Invisibility, Flaming Sphere, Invisibility, Knock, Know Alignment, Mirror Image, Pyrotechnics, Scare, Stinking Cloud, Strength & Web.

    UNCOMMON: Blindness, Blur, Deafness, Flying Fist, Irritation, Ray of Enfeeblement, Summon Swarm & Vocalize.

    RARE: Agannazer's Scorcher, Decastave, Glitterdust, Melf's Acid Arrow, Snilloc's Snowball Swarm & Tasha's Uncontrollable Hideous Laughter.

    Level 3:

    COMMON: Blink, Dispel Magic, Dispel Silence, Fireball, Haste, Hold Person, Infravision, Invisibility 10' Radius, Lightning Bolt, Paralyze, Protection from Evil* 10' Radius, Protection from Normal Missiles & Slow.

    UNCOMMON: Clairvoyance, Flame Arrow, Ghost Armor, Icelance, Monster Summoning I, Mummy Touch, Non-Detection, Waves of Weariness & Wraithform.

    RARE: Blacklight, Dire Charm, Hold Undead, Melf's Minute Meteors, Nchaser's Glowing Globe, Proof from Teleportation, Revenance & Vampiric Touch.

    Level 4:

    COMMON: Charm Monster, Confusion, Dimension Door, Enchanted Weapon, Fear, Fire Shield, Ice Storm, Improved Invisibility, Minor Globe of Invulnerability, Polymorph Other, Polymorph Self, Remove Curse*, Shout, Stoneskin, Wall of Fire & Wizard Eye.

    UNCOMMON: Contagion, Emotion, Enervation, Extension I, Fire Trap, Monster Summoning II, Plague, Shadow Monsters & Thunderlance.

    RARE: Beltyn's Burning Blood, Evard's Black Tentacles, Ilyykur's Mantle, Otiluke's Resilient Sphere, Phantasmal Killer & Rary's Mnemonic Enhancer.

    Level 5:

    COMMON: Cloudkill, Cone of Cold, Conjure Elemental, Domination, Feeblemind, Hold Monster & Teleport.

    UNCOMMON: Chaos, Demi-Shadow Monster, Extension II, Ironguard, Monster Summoning III, Shadow Door & Shadow Magic.

    RARE: Dismissal, Mordenkainen's Faithful Hound, Presper's Moonbow, Shroud of Flame & Summon Shadow.

    Level 6:

    COMMON: Anti-Magic Shell, Conjure Animals, Death Spell, Disintegrate, Globe of Invulnerability, Invisible Stalker, Legend Lore, Mislead, Project Image, Repulsion, Stone to Flesh* & True Seeing.

    UNCOMMON: Blade of Doom (aka Shaeroon's Scimitar), Chain Lightning, Contingency, Death Fog, Demi-Shadow Magic, Extension III, Eyebite, Lich Touch, Monster Summoning IV, Power Word: Silence & Shades.

    RARE: Grimwald's Greymantle, Otiluke's Freezing Sphere & Tenser's Transformation.

    Level 7:

    COMMON: Control Undead, Delayed Blast Fireball, Finger of Death, Forcecage, Mass Invisibility, Power Word Stun, Prismatic Spray & Spell Turning.

    UNCOMMON: Banishment, Gemjump, Monster Summoning V & Spelltrap.

    RARE: Khelben's Warding Whip, Limited Wish, Mordenkainen's Sword, Ruby Ray of Reversal & Simulacrum.

    Level 8:

    COMMON: Antipathy-Sympathy, Incendiary Cloud, Mass Charm, Mind Blank, Power Word Blind, Prismatic Wall & Symbol.

    UNCOMMON: Great Shout, Maze, Monster Summoning VI, Screen & Sunburst.

    RARE: Bigby's Clenched Fist, Otiluke's Telekinetic Sphere, Otto's Irresistible Dance, Permanency, Serten's Spell Immunity, Spell Engine & Trap the Soul.

    Level 9:

    COMMON: Energy Drain, Gate, Imprisonment, Meteor Swarm, Power Word Kill, Prismatic Sphere, Shape Change & Time Stop

    UNCOMMON: Crystalbrittle, Foresight, Monster Summoning VII & Master Undead.

    RARE: Bigby's Crushing Hand, Elminster's Effulgent Epuration, Elminster's Evasion, Spellstrike, Spell Invulnerability, Virus Charm, Weird & Wish.


    That's around 200 arcane spells combined with 200 divine spells.
  • IllustairIllustair Member Posts: 878
    It's great to see this mod being worked hard on, thanks!

    On a side note, I'm shocked that Time Stop is categorized as "common" in that resource. Nothing of value to add on mentioning that, I know; but I couldn't help but mention it anyway.
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