Modding Familiar Assignment

[Deleted User]

So, one of the new externalizations in 1.2 is FAMILIAR.2da, which appears to control the assignment of familiars by alignment. However, exporting said 2da via Near Infinity and editing it does not appear to have any effect on the game. Is there a simple way to change familiar assignment that I'm missing, or does this require nitty-gritty modding?

EDIT: Updating with confirmed working and not working.

Works:

Lawful Good: Ferret
Neutral Good: Rabbit, Dust Mephit
True Neutral: Pseudo Dragon
Chaotic Neutral: Fairy Dragon

Doesn't work:

Neutral Good: Fairy Dragon, Cat, Ferret, Imp, Quasit
Chaotic Good: Ferret

Tome

Try DLTCEP. Not sure it will work, but it's worth a go.

Tome

I can now confirm that using DLTCEP to edit the 'FAMxxx' value does indeed work.

[Deleted User]

Hmm, that sort of worked for me. I modded familiar.2da with DLTCEP to have Chaotic Good assign the ferret familiar and started a new sorcerer. Summoning the Ferret worked fine, but when I put it in my pack it turns into a Cat, which then disappears when I try to release it.

Tome

That's odd, I modded my 2da to have Chaotic neutral assign the Fairy Dragon familiar with my Fighter/Mage. Summoned fine, fits in my pack fine and can be released fine.

I'll try and replicate your issue.

[Deleted User]

I also tried modding to have Neutral Good assign the Fairy Dragon. Similar issue: Fairy Dragon summons fine, turns into Pseudo Dragon in pack, disappears when released.

Tome

This is odd. It appears to work perfectly for some and not so well for others. For example, I was able to replicate your 'Ferret turns into a cat then disappears' but as I said before assigning values to Chaotic Neutral works perfectly so far. Sorry to add to your workload @Dee, but perhaps you could shed some light on what's going on?

[Deleted User]

One thing I discovered messing around with EE Keeper is that if I save my game after the familiar changes into a cat and Keeper it back to a Ferret, I can release it normally. The next time I put it in my pack, however, it changes back into a cat and disappears if I try to release it again.

randyroo

havent tested this too much but i changed the true neutral to have pseudo dragon instead of a rabbit and it worked fine.

Lillyhime

Gonna sound super noobish, but I have to ask.. how do I find and edit this file so that I can have a fairy dragon for my bard?

I downloaded near infinity and DLTCEP. With NI I couldn't find the file and with DLTCEP I had no idea how to do the set up right for the EE version? :x Maybe I downloaded the wrong one or.. I have no idea. Is there a thread that someone can point me to? or some easy pointers?

[Deleted User]

@Lillyhime With Near Infinity, there should be a folder on the left hand side of the window labeled "2DA." If you click open that folder and scroll down, you should find "Familiar.2da" which you can export (button at the bottom of the window) and then edit with notepad.

To setup DLTCEP I used this tutorial, telling it I was using BG1/TOTC.

Isaya

@Kaigen If you use the latest version of DLTCEP (7.6d I think), you should definitely tell it that you have BGEE, not BG1.

[Deleted User]

@Isaya I'll have to check the latest version; I have 7.4b.

[Deleted User]

Okay, I tested @randyroo and @Tome's working modifications and found they work for me as well. So some work and some don't. I've updated the initial post with the combinations that have been confirmed as working and not working in case it helps figure out what the problem is.

randyroo

does anyone know how i might be able to get my familiar to level up with my own character, i was looking through the effects in dltcep and came across stat: level change [96] but i have no idea how to make this trigger with me leveling up.

Lillyhime

What doesn't work for me: Neutral Good and Imp and Quas-whatever? Cat and Ferret. And Fairy Dragon. /sob

What does work for me: Neutral Good and Dust Mespit and Rabbit.

[Deleted User]

@Lillyhime Confirmed NG + Imp doesn't work (turns into a dust mephit and disappears), NG + Quasit doesn't work (same), NG + Ferret/Cat don't work (turns into a rabbit and disappears). NG + Dust Mephit works fine, as does NG + Rabbit. I'll add those to the OP.

There's a pattern that seems to be emerging here: Any Familiar combination works on the initial summoning, but when it goes into your pack the familiar flips to match your alignment on the Law/Chaos axis while staying within the same type on the Good/Evil axis, and then the mismatch between your inventory and what you're supposed to have causes a glitch when you try to release. If this is the case, any lawful character should be able to use a Pseudodragon, Ferret, or Imp without problems, and Neutral a PD, Rabbit, or Dust Mephit, and any Chaotic a Fairy Dragon, Cat, or Quasit.

@Dee, with this information, do you think this problem can be tracked down and fixed?

MrNerodia

Using Nearinfinity,I changed the CN familiar to a Quasit--do I need to start a new game for the change to work (I am still in Candlekeep and have not summoned a familiar yet)?

Keneth

Since I've only just stumbled across this thread, I might as well tell you why it doesn't work. Even if you have lost interest in this, or found the answer elsewhere by now, someone else reading the thread might eventually find it useful.

While the summoning of the familiar is indeed controlled by the 2da, their behaviour is mostly controlled by their dialog files. There are only 3 dialog files for all 8 familiars: good casters get dragons (famil1.dlg), neutral casters get furry creatures (famil3.dlg), and evil casters get impish creatures (famil2.dlg).

Since the dialog files are combined for each type, the text and options are all controlled by the caster's alignment. So when you talk to a ferret as a chaotic good character, you're actually getting the dialog for a cat (it only checks if you're chaotic), so you get the cat familiar item.

And the reason why the familiar "disappears" after using the incorrect item is because it sets the wrong global variable. The way "releasing" a familiar works is with the item setting a global variable to 1, and when the game detects it, it "moves" the familiar to your caster. But since the cat familiar never existed (hasn't been added to the GAM file as a global object), nothing happens.

So to truly make a make a working familiar mod, you need to change the 2DA, change the DLG entry in the CRE file, make a custom DLG file (or just split the existing ones into 8 separate ones, removing all alignment checks), and you should be good to go.

If it's an entirely new familiar, you also need custom CRE, DLG, and ITM files, and extend baldur.bcs to include handling for your new familiar.

Sadly, it's not just a matter of editing a 2DA, but it's still a fairly painless procedure overall.

koteko

Even after a long time, I still want to thank @Keneth for this post. It helped much with my own "modify familar" quest. Cheers!