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[Utility] Baldur's Gate Hotkey Script Generator

TysnTysn Member Posts: 2
edited August 2024 in General Modding

Baldur's Gate Hotkey Script Generator




Overview

This is a small scripting utility I've been working on to make gameplay a little smoother by allowing easy creation of ability hotkeys. Basically this utility is designed to allow users to easily create AI scripts that contain hotkeys for various spells and abilities. By creating scripts and assigning them to Party Members, you can easily cast common preparation spells with only one keystroke, rather than having to click and scroll through taskbar menus every time.

Compared to hotkeys assigned via the BgConfig.exe tool, or ingame in the Extended Editions of the BG series, AI script hotkeys have the following differences:

- Because AI scripts are assigned per-character, each party member can have their own set of hotkeys.

- AI script hotkeys can be assigned any ability in the game, including special abilities such as setting traps and High-Level abilities in Throne of Bhaal. These also include the missing spells from the Extended Edition's in-game menu.

- Hotkey commands in AI scripts are sent to all selected characters, so one keypress can issue a command to your entire party. For instance, you could set up scripts so pressing 'R' on your keyboard while having the party selected will cause all of your mages to cast stoneskin.

- These commands are provided a target in the scripting, so they don't behave like normal spell hotkeys where upon pressing a targeted spell's hotkey you are prompted with a cursor to select a target. However, this means that some buff and summoning spells that normally require a target can be cast with one keystroke.

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I've been playing with these generated scripts for a while now and it makes the gameplay significantly smoother. Being able to quickly re-buff after resting & easily summon a bunch of creatures helps reduce a lot of the tedious parts of playing. While this program doesn't totally replace the regular in-game hotkeys, you may be interested in it as it allows you to setup shortcuts for abilities you otherwise couldn't.

Let me know if you have any issues using it. I've only been using it myself so I haven't tested to see how well it works on too many different operating systems, but Windows 7 should work fine. Included in the .zip file is a readme containing additional information regarding the utility, including step-by-step getting started usage. There are also some example scripts included as well.

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1.3 Updates - 2024-08-25:

- Combined Save and Compile into same menu options, since in basically every situation you'd want to save a script you'd also want to recompile it as well
- Moved both Saved and Compiled scripts into the same shared /SavedScripts/ folder
- Added BG 1 & 2 installation path support. Now instead of having to put this entire utility in your install directory, you can put it wherever you want on your PC & point it at the appropriate directories. This'll also automatically place updated compiled copies of scripts in both your BG1 and BG2 scripts folders every time you save
- Added automatic installation detection for both GOG Galaxy & Steam versions of BG 1 & 2

Download

See the attached .zip files to this post for downloads. I've included both the latest v1.3 and the older v1.2 as well.
Post edited by Tysn on

Comments

  • ShinShin Member Posts: 2,344
    Welcome to the forums - this looks very nice, just what the game needs in lieu of drag-and-drop abilities and taskbars. I'll definitely try it in my next playthrough.
  • EggHuevoEggHuevo Member Posts: 68
    The link is down, does anybody have it? Please, I could really use this.
  • EndarireEndarire Member Posts: 1,519
    @EggHuevo
    Download the attached ZIP.
  • xiaoleiwenxiaoleiwen Member Posts: 199
    edited February 2021
    This generator is very useful to me. Same hotkey to trigger different spells of 6 members at the same time (select all members first) can make the precast significantly faster.

    This is the video of my actual gameplay after using the scripts generator:

    https://youtu.be/dsNqMOxIwkY

    The only problem is now my Imoen (mage/thief) won't auto find trap.

    ---edit---

    Playing with nearinfinity and now I know how to generate scripts with hotkey for Imoen and keeping the auto find trap script....
    Post edited by xiaoleiwen on
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