@Ulb I recalled I translated your mod some time ago, but totally forgot about it. Here's a .tra of Polish translation. If you could squeeze it for next version, it would be splendid
'edit' Hey, looks like you missed two lines.
line 16 and line 56 are missing from your tra file, causing any polish installation to fail right now.
Damn, sorry, my translation was for previous version, I didn't notice these two lines. Attached corrected file.
There seems to be a problem in versions, I downloaded version 1.2 from somewhere, but your download page in spellholdstudios lists only version 0.5 ? Forgot where I got it from, probably while spellholdstudios was down.
Anyway I just wanted to say the idea is great but they are too easily killed in bgee, their main drawback is they don't heal themselves, apparently even while the group is resting the animal doesn't recover. Healing spells are expensive at the beginning of bg1 so it quickly becomes a problem, you can tell it to go away but when you call it back it returns wounded and you can't give any healing potions, so you have to reserve some spells for him... So I finally lost mine, and at the beginning of bg1 don't even think about a resurrect spell, so it's gone for good since you can't take another one... I don't see any reason why you can't take another one by the way, it makes sense in reality rangers often have more than 1 animal companion during their lives !
Hey, this is really good feedback, thanks for that.
As for the versions, I think SHS lost the last few months of content during their recent down time, that must be why the version there isn't up-to-date. I'll fix that.
What you've said about healing makes a lot of sense. I can't promise when but I'll definitely add some passive healing in the next version.
It sounds like you didn't have your companion stick around for too long, but I'd still be interested in what you think about their general combat viability (assuming they enter the fight at full health).
Well I didn't test a lot of animals, only 1, I chose the wolf first, his defensive howl giving some ac bonus to the party seemed like a good idea at low level. I could have him through a few fights by telling him to go away when fights started, at this point it was annoying to have him selected when I selected the whole group to target something specific, but anyway, I managed... At the end he was lost because there was a group with 2 archers. I could block the melee fighters from him, but the archers do not prioritize the most dangerous targets for them, they take 1st the weakest targets and the wolf was the perfect candidate at this point, bad ac and low hp, he hadn't got a chance at this point.
So I don't know if it's possible, just an idea, but it would be very good if he had his own AI during the fights, choosing his targets and when to flee, eventually going away in case of big problem, he can't take potions so he should know when to hide. It could be excellent with the panther, it could go in hiding repeatedly during the fights to make stealth attacks on selected targets... anyway just an idea but it would be awesome !
Thanks for the feedback, sounds like the wolf was more of a liability than any help at all, that was definitely not my intention.
My aim was to prevent the animal companions from becoming unkillable meat-shields that ruin the game balance, seems like I might have been a bit over zealous with that goal.
-Added passive life regeneration to all animal companions (2hp/round) This should increase their viability in the early game and ensure that they are at full health after resting.
-Buffed all animal companions' base health by 20 HP (except for the bear who gets 40 HP)
-Increased the base stealth of all stealth animals to 60 (except for the leopard who starts at 40 base stealth)
@Ulb Ciao! Attached the Italian translation of this nice mod. It is in ANSI format; just let me know if you need the UTF-8 (without BOM) format and I will code it right away. Credits go to: Alessandro Nosenzo for the translation Aedan for the proofreading
I've been playing bg since i was a kid and this mod is definitely in the top must have mods...great job. I'm currently working on an npc mod and i'd love to give her an animal companion. Any chance I could "borrow" your code for this please, giving you credit for it in the readme? I've tried various different methods and yours look to be a very stable nicely laid out approach. If you're feeling very generous, I could set my mod up as a bit of a tutorial to show anyone how to add an animal companion to their npc mod. Anyway, keep up the good work, loving it.
@fluke13 No problem m8t, take whatever you need. @Luke93 The spider already has a web attack as its special ability and I think one "special" ability is enough per pet.
@Ulb Do you think that having the spider being immune to other spiders webs and web traps like other spiders would be to OP for the mod? My lil spider cannot keep up with the little spiders already about. Would be nice if he could come in and help me out if I get stuck in a web.
I have wanted to try this mod for a long time now and have just recently had the opportunity to do so. This mod is wonderful! It adds such flavor and role-play possibilities for my little druid. I am enjoying it’s addition to my own game so much.
The only problem that I am having with this mod is a result of my own play style. I almost always set my party up with the weapons that I want them to use, then use the “select all party members” button to tell the party to attack a single target, usually with ranged attacks.
Many enemy encounters in the game consist of several enemies at once. I often try to sneak up on an encounter like this. Using the game’s “fog of war” (Or in my role-playing mind, the bushes, rocks or whatever other cover the land might provide. ) to pick off enemies one or two at a time. I try not to alert the entire encounter to my presence at one time.
I can give all the other NPCs in my party ranged weapon options. Then I can just click the “select all party members” button and then click on the enemy that I want them to attack. This way they all stay back and snipe one enemy at a time, at distance.
With the animals, I can tell the animal to do nothing until I specifically tell them to do something, but as they are included in the selection when I click the “select all party members” button, the animal’s only option is to use his close combat attack. When he does this, it of course alerts the whole encounter to our presence as he goes in for the attack.
I can at this point, click on him separately and send him back each time. But needing to do this each time I tell the rest of the party to attack an enemy results in a lot of extra clicking.
An option to tell the animal to use a “ranged” behavior while in combat would be neat. Basically, while in “ranged” mode during combat, the animal would do nothing until personally given other orders.
What I’m thinking is something like this. When I select my entire party to attack a single enemy, the animal would remain “passive” unless I clicked on it and told it to “go in for the attack”. Otherwise he would just remain back with the rest of the party while in “ranged” mode, doing nothing, and thus not alerting the rest of the encounter to our presence. This way I could choose to send him in only when I’m ready to have the entire encounter triggered.
This is of course just my personal “wish”, in the way of feedback.
Again, this is a wonderful mod and a welcome addition to my own game setup. Even if I find that I end up not using the animals in combat situations as much as I would like, I do love the option to call them to my side while in town, or in certain combat encounters.
Thank you so much for all your work on this mod. I really appreciate your making it available for others to enjoy in their own games.
I am currently using this mod on the EE version 1.3 patch of the game.
Sounds like it would be difficult to code a “ranged” option in for them then. Oh well, I will just have to work around it. Thank you for your input @subtledoctor
I love the way they heal over time.
I wasn’t sure what would happen if they died and you had to go to a different area to find a resurrection spell. I was concerned that the body might disappear, but I tested this and they are still there, waiting for your return. Just thought I would mention this in case anyone else was wondering.
@Ravenslight Yep, this a got mod for druid n shaman runs for me. Just the spider so far, but he's got that nice -2 ST vs his webs. I am always tempted to go for the panther and his backstabbin, or the bunny for confusion. So many left to try. I usually send the critter away in some bigger or ambush fights, then 'whistle'(cool that) them back when close up. But buffs can give all manner of help to them, or my avenger chucked improved invis and barkskin on them first.
Anyway, adds a very nice special like familiar for druids and shamans. I often think it would be cool to get Mr Tanner or ol Ms Spider for spiders, to make something for them. I image that would be one heck of a collaborative job though. Between this and your Critter Parts, they really add flavor for the tree hugger types. Naw mean?
***Oh, one thing to watch out for, basilisks in random encounters, a stoning there meant no chance of recovery the time I experienced it. I tried stone to flesh right quick but before I did the basilisk hit him again, chunked, and although reappeared, would not raise, IIRC. Even then, I'm not sure if we could get back to the location if no scrolls on hand. I was a little sad at that I must say, esp. as we get to name them. I beat the pure d TAR outa that basi after.
So far I have tried the bear, wolf and bunny. Bunny is adorable. I did have a problem once when she seemed to run away so far that I could not find her in order to have her throw confusion during a fight. Or maybe she was just hidden. I’m not sure as I’ve only just started working with the mod.
So if they are hit with basilisks gaze, stone to flesh won’t reverse the stone state? Or did you mean that it could be a problem if they die during a random encounter? I hadn’t thought of that but I can see it might be a problem if you don’t have a raise dead scroll on hand.
@Ravenslight I think the problem was that something in the coding gets a little 'squirrely' with stoning. I got worried, hit the stoned critter immediately with flesh to stone BUT right after he got hit again, seemed to chunk, but reappeared anyway, then would not raise. It was hard to tell it all happened so fast. Just a warnin to watch out for, til we figure it out.
I just send them away quick, back them out fast, or run ahead to take the blast(with a potion or such) in future encounters. But yeah, don't get caught without a scroll in a random encounter, I was not been able to get back in my one misfortune with that. So both in a way, still not sure on the stoning, as it was fast and only one time.
I'm getting ready to call another for this shaman now. Bunny sounds crazy, bout like a bunny would I spect, cotton-tailin all over the place, hehheh. Not sure for this plague doc necrotic shaman yet. Needs a skunk or something to tell the truth, or a carrion vulture.
Comments
Thanks a lot for your translation and the quick fix!
Anyway I just wanted to say the idea is great but they are too easily killed in bgee, their main drawback is they don't heal themselves, apparently even while the group is resting the animal doesn't recover. Healing spells are expensive at the beginning of bg1 so it quickly becomes a problem, you can tell it to go away but when you call it back it returns wounded and you can't give any healing potions, so you have to reserve some spells for him... So I finally lost mine, and at the beginning of bg1 don't even think about a resurrect spell, so it's gone for good since you can't take another one...
I don't see any reason why you can't take another one by the way, it makes sense in reality rangers often have more than 1 animal companion during their lives !
Anyway the idea is very interesting !
As for the versions, I think SHS lost the last few months of content during their recent down time, that must be why the version there isn't up-to-date. I'll fix that.
What you've said about healing makes a lot of sense. I can't promise when but I'll definitely add some passive healing in the next version.
It sounds like you didn't have your companion stick around for too long, but I'd still be interested in what you think about their general combat viability (assuming they enter the fight at full health).
Anyway, thanks again for the feedback.
I could have him through a few fights by telling him to go away when fights started, at this point it was annoying to have him selected when I selected the whole group to target something specific, but anyway, I managed...
At the end he was lost because there was a group with 2 archers. I could block the melee fighters from him, but the archers do not prioritize the most dangerous targets for them, they take 1st the weakest targets and the wolf was the perfect candidate at this point, bad ac and low hp, he hadn't got a chance at this point.
So I don't know if it's possible, just an idea, but it would be very good if he had his own AI during the fights, choosing his targets and when to flee, eventually going away in case of big problem, he can't take potions so he should know when to hide. It could be excellent with the panther, it could go in hiding repeatedly during the fights to make stealth attacks on selected targets... anyway just an idea but it would be awesome !
My aim was to prevent the animal companions from becoming unkillable meat-shields that ruin the game balance, seems like I might have been a bit over zealous with that goal.
-Added passive life regeneration to all animal companions (2hp/round)
This should increase their viability in the early game and ensure that they are at full health after resting.
-Buffed all animal companions' base health by 20 HP (except for the bear who gets 40 HP)
-Increased the base stealth of all stealth animals to 60 (except for the leopard who starts at 40 base stealth)
Ciao!
Attached the Italian translation of this nice mod. It is in ANSI format; just let me know if you need the UTF-8 (without BOM) format and I will code it right away.
Credits go to:
Alessandro Nosenzo for the translation
Aedan for the proofreading
Thanks for your work!
ANSI should be fine since I use handle_charsets. I'll put up a new version once I got time.
@DannyVonSnott Lafein is right, the ability becomes "active" at level 3 though you'll have it in your special bar from level 1 onward.
-Added Italian translation
Thanks a lot!
I've been playing bg since i was a kid and this mod is definitely in the top must have mods...great job. I'm currently working on an npc mod and i'd love to give her an animal companion. Any chance I could "borrow" your code for this please, giving you credit for it in the readme? I've tried various different methods and yours look to be a very stable nicely laid out approach. If you're feeling very generous, I could set my mod up as a bit of a tutorial to show anyone how to add an animal companion to their npc mod. Anyway, keep up the good work, loving it.
@Luke93 The spider already has a web attack as its special ability and I think one "special" ability is enough per pet.
Need to be 3rd level to summon companion.
The only problem that I am having with this mod is a result of my own play style. I almost always set my party up with the weapons that I want them to use, then use the “select all party members” button to tell the party to attack a single target, usually with ranged attacks.
Many enemy encounters in the game consist of several enemies at once. I often try to sneak up on an encounter like this. Using the game’s “fog of war” (Or in my role-playing mind, the bushes, rocks or whatever other cover the land might provide.
I can give all the other NPCs in my party ranged weapon options. Then I can just click the “select all party members” button and then click on the enemy that I want them to attack. This way they all stay back and snipe one enemy at a time, at distance.
With the animals, I can tell the animal to do nothing until I specifically tell them to do something, but as they are included in the selection when I click the “select all party members” button, the animal’s only option is to use his close combat attack. When he does this, it of course alerts the whole encounter to our presence as he goes in for the attack.
I can at this point, click on him separately and send him back each time. But needing to do this each time I tell the rest of the party to attack an enemy results in a lot of extra clicking.
An option to tell the animal to use a “ranged” behavior while in combat would be neat. Basically, while in “ranged” mode during combat, the animal would do nothing until personally given other orders.
What I’m thinking is something like this. When I select my entire party to attack a single enemy, the animal would remain “passive” unless I clicked on it and told it to “go in for the attack”. Otherwise he would just remain back with the rest of the party while in “ranged” mode, doing nothing, and thus not alerting the rest of the encounter to our presence. This way I could choose to send him in only when I’m ready to have the entire encounter triggered.
This is of course just my personal “wish”, in the way of feedback.
Again, this is a wonderful mod and a welcome addition to my own game setup. Even if I find that I end up not using the animals in combat situations as much as I would like, I do love the option to call them to my side while in town, or in certain combat encounters.
Thank you so much for all your work on this mod. I really appreciate your making it available for others to enjoy in their own games.
I am currently using this mod on the EE version 1.3 patch of the game.
I love the way they heal over time.
I wasn’t sure what would happen if they died and you had to go to a different area to find a resurrection spell. I was concerned that the body might disappear, but I tested this and they are still there, waiting for your return.
I usually send the critter away in some bigger or ambush fights, then 'whistle'(cool that) them back when close up. But buffs can give all manner of help to them, or my avenger chucked improved invis and barkskin on them first.
Anyway, adds a very nice special like familiar for druids and shamans. I often think it would be cool to get Mr Tanner or ol Ms Spider for spiders, to make something for them. I image that would be one heck of a collaborative job though.
Between this and your Critter Parts, they really add flavor for the tree hugger types. Naw mean?
***Oh, one thing to watch out for, basilisks in random encounters, a stoning there meant no chance of recovery the time I experienced it. I tried stone to flesh right quick but before I did the basilisk hit him again, chunked, and although reappeared, would not raise, IIRC. Even then, I'm not sure if we could get back to the location if no scrolls on hand.
So if they are hit with basilisks gaze, stone to flesh won’t reverse the stone state? Or did you mean that it could be a problem if they die during a random encounter? I hadn’t thought of that but I can see it might be a problem if you don’t have a raise dead scroll on hand.
I just send them away quick, back them out fast, or run ahead to take the blast(with a potion or such) in future encounters. But yeah, don't get caught without a scroll in a random encounter, I was not been able to get back in my one misfortune with that. So both in a way, still not sure on the stoning, as it was fast and only one time.
I'm getting ready to call another for this shaman now. Bunny sounds crazy, bout like a bunny would I spect, cotton-tailin all over the place, hehheh. Not sure for this plague doc necrotic shaman yet. Needs a skunk or something to tell the truth, or a carrion vulture.