Also, a question: the larger golems' maneuverability is obviously limited in tight spaces like dungeons and interior areas. Will there be a way to get them past these obstacles and get them "unstuck" without having to use Ctrl+J?
Honestly, I haven't given it any serious thoughts yet. But I could add a "Call golem" ability to the caster which transports a selected golem in visual range to the caster. I have to test it first before I can say more (but opcode 124 (Teleport) looks promising in this regard).
I have also decided to add the Maggot Golem to the list of exotic golems. It's a rather weak golem type similar to flesh golems, and consists primarily of maggots and insects which makes it difficult to damage with physical weapons. It may also be the only golem type in the list that has a limited life cycle.
This is just a quick preview. I'll probably fine-tune the coloration a bit.
That will probably be the last golem I'm planning to add to the mod.
It will disintegrate 1d4+6 days after construction. There is a 50% chance that the golem turns on you for 1d4 rounds before it disintegrates.
The golem's attack is special. In addition to 2d6 crushing damage the target is held for one round and suffers 1 HP/sec piercing damage on a failed save vs. spell. After each round the target must make a save vs. spell with a +4 bonus again or is held and damaged for another round. The effect can be removed with dispel magic or blocked by magic resistance.
I have updated the first post with more details about what I plan to add to the mod.
The golems with all their skills and abilities have been coded. Now comes the time-consuming part of creating and coding tomes and ingredients, and scattering them all over Faerun.
Does anyone know how to trigger spells from a target creature so that projectiles of the triggered spells originate from the target as well?
In all my attempts the projectile originated from the caster, and not from the target creature, even though the spell effect itself is properly applied to the target.
Does anyone know how to trigger spells from a target creature so that projectiles of the triggered spells originate from the target as well?
In all my attempts the projectile originated from the caster, and not from the target creature, even though the spell effect itself is properly applied to the target.
Do you mean how something like Hold Person will hit the target, then shoot multiple projectiles from the target to other creatures?
Not quite. I'd like to add something like this with effect opcodes:
ActionOverride("target", ReallyForceSpellRES("myspell", Myself))
The target can be selected by the user, so I can't hardcode the target name. Even the spell to trigger is predefined and can only be altered in a very limited manner (i.e. I can't change the spell's projectile).
Whatever I do I can't force the projectile to use the target creature as starting point.
Not quite. I'd like to add something like this with effect opcodes:
ActionOverride("target", ReallyForceSpellRES("myspell", Myself))
The target can be selected by the user, so I can't hardcode the target name. Even the spell to trigger is predefined and can only be altered in a very limited manner (i.e. I can't change the spell's projectile).
Whatever I do I can't force the projectile to use the target creature as starting point.
The Caster will always be the origin of a projectile, so you can make the targeted creature be the caster, if your not worried about casting-level or kill-rights.
Ability_Target = Living Actor Opcode = 148 (Cast Spell at Point) Target = 2 (Preset target)
This will force the target to cast the spell at its location, so the spell being cast has to either be an AoE spell or a "Self-only" spell. It cannot be a single target spell targeting "Preset Target".
I feared it would be something like that. I'll try it out, but most spells are likely not compatible with this method.
My second option would be to duplicate all the spells I intend to use, so I can update targets and/or projectiles. It would affect over 50 different spells though (which may get ugly).
Edit: I found a way by adding a proxy spell between the casting spell and the triggered list of spells which uses an AoE projectile, so I don't have to duplicate dozens of spells. It introduces a slight trigger delay, but it's still acceptable.
I thought about making one golem manual a price you can win in Aesgareth's game (Cambion on WK level 3). However, I'm a bit hesitant to do it as I would have to destructively replace two lines from his dialog to make it work.
Do you know if there are other mods expanding Aesgareth's dialog (which may cause compatibility issues)?
Yeah, that mod is currently unavailable. I'll keep the dialog modification for Aesgareth though. It's only slightly expanding two lines without changing their actual meaning.
I've just finished adding designated locations where you can safely construct golems. At present I have implemented the following places:
SoD: The upper floor of Sorcerous Sundries can be used for a small fee after helping out the proprietor of the shop.
SoD: The Repository of Undeath after removing the undead mob and dealing with the Coldhearth lich (in one way or another).
SoA: Planar Sphere - Main area (where you activate the golem) and control room after dealing with Lavok.
WK: The library on the second floor of WK can be used after disabling all defenses and dealing with the Chromatic Demon.
ToB: Your Pocket Plane. You have to purchase the right equipment from Lazarus Librarus before you can build golems though.
That should provide you with at least one available location for each stage of the game (except maybe for SoD - Dragonspear Castle and SoA - Spellhold/Underdark).
I'm also making sure that you don't lose the ability to build specific types of golems when you import a BG1 save into BG2.
PS:T has some creature animations such as constructs that can be brought over for some of the types of golems. Some examples of creature .bams: CAT1ARMB.bam (skeleton golem?), CAT1HKMB.bam, CAT1IGYB.bam (Ignus as burning man so as not to confuse with fire elementals?), DAT1HKMB.bam, CAT1GSTB.bam (flesh golem if recolored?). Also, the Ice Elemental animation can be recolored/resized for different variations.
There are some interesting animations in PST. I could use improved animations for flesh golems, brain golems and lightning golems. Ignus floating around is probably more suitable for elementals than for golems however.
The PST animation schemes are pretty weird though. I have to figure out how to convert them first.
Maybe Convenience Tweaks and Glaicas Fix but it's unavailable at the moment.
Update (now that SHS is back online): The dialog modification for the cambion Aesgareth in WK seems to be compatible with "Convenience Tweaks and Glaicas Fix", so I will keep it without further modifcations.
I'm planning to make the golems follow simple commands. I thought of the following orders:
Follow me! (Makes the golem controllable. Golem does not act on its own. This is the default action after activation.)
Follow and protect me! (Makes the golem controllable. Activates a simple script that attacks the nearest enemy, or enemies that are attacking party members.)
Stand guard! (Changes the golem to neutral. The golem will not budge until given a new order.)
Stand guard and defend the area! (Changes the golem to neutral. The golem will attack any hostile creatures within sight. Always returns to the guarded position.)
Destroy yourself! (Causes the golem to disintegrate. This command does the same as the golem's "Dismiss" ability, but can also be issued when the golem is on guard duty.)
Do these options suffice or can you think of more useful actions that your golems should do on their own?
Is it possible to increase the golem encounters minding the difficulty balance ? Arcane caster could be quite powerful with adamantine golem at his side.
I plan to add a separate component eventually that adds more variety to the golem encounters throughout the game (maybe even enemy mages with their own golems).
The really powerful golems can only be constructed by high-level spellcasters, and both tomes and materials for them are very hard to come by (doubly so for adamantite golems).
It supports BG:EE - Siege of Dragonspear and BG2:EE patched to v2.0 or higher. Pretty much everything I planned has already been implemented. There may still be a few balancing issues left.
Feel free to test it and post your thoughts, suggestions or bug reports.
I'm planning to add a 50% chance that golems may exhibit severe penalties of one kind or another if badly damaged (i.e. health is down to 25% or less). A number of effects will be permanent while others may only last a couple of rounds. They can all be removed with the "Repair Golem" ability though.
Are you putting anything in the game that tells characters the recipes? Maybe buy some of the lesser ones from Ribald Barterman or some better ones from Lazarus, find some exotic recipes as special treasures?
The recipes are explained in the golem manuals. They turn into normal books after spending their charge. The ingredients have to be found by yourself though. However, common sense and the will to search every nook and cranny should be enough to find most materials. The tomes themselves are scattered all over the games. Some can be purchased while others can be found in certain locations. You will probably come across one or more tomes eventually even if you don't look for them.
Adding hints about the locations where you can safely build your golems is not so easy though. For now they are only mentioned in the mod's Readme. I have to think of a good way to add information about them to the games.
When a location has been made ready for golem building you will see a new journal entry and a short console message about it, however.
I will add Jermien's Home in Imnesville to the list of suitable golem building locations. He will allow you to use it if you're a mage of above-average intelligence and ask him nicely about it. He will also leave his own golem building tome in your care. You have to help him out with his own project first though.
The ingredients have to be found by yourself though. However, common sense and the will to search every nook and cranny should be enough to find most materials.
This is the one thing that gives me pause about this idea. This basically means that everyone will always have a perfect adamantite golem, in every playthrough. Because that's how people play the game.
That's what the special artifacts are for. They limit the creation of the Perfect variants.
This basically means that everyone will always have a perfect adamantite golem, in every playthrough. Because that's how people play the game.
You're basically right in theory, but not so much in practice.
I'm trying to balance the number of golems over the availability of required materials. Ingredients are limited, even more so for the powerful golem types. While materials for flesh golems can be found as random loot you'll only find a limited amount of iron or even more expensive ingredients.
In the case of Adamantite Golems you have to turn iron into adamantine (by a Wish spell or may spend an outrageous amount of money later on to purchase pieces of adamantine). Since iron is limited as well you can turn only so many pieces into adamantine (currently, a Greater Adamantite Golem requires eight pieces). That way you have to decide whether to build several Iron Golems or a single Adamantite Golem.
Your suggestion about sacrificing special artifacts of power is great. I have already implemented it in a way for perfect golems. As @Flashburn already mentioned, you'll require certain artifacts of power to construct perfect golem variants. These artifacts are even more scarce than base materials. For example, you will only be able to build a single Perfect Adamantite Golem in the whole game, as there is only a single artifact available. The effort to collect all the required ingredients will be enormous and you must be a very high level spellcaster, so you'll probably think twice about whether to attempt it at all. Realistically you will only be able to construct a Perfect Adamantite Golem near the end of the game after beating some of the more (most?) powerful enemies. Even obtaining the manual for building Adamantite Golems will be a chore and involves Cespenar.
Requirements and availability of materials are not yet set in stone. I'm currently making a run to see what has to be fine-tuned. I've already fixed a number of bugs and added several improvements since the first beta release.
Golems are cheesy as hell against certain enemies. I have just cleaned out the whole beholder lair of the Eyeless Cult with a single clay golem in a straight fist fight, including the Unseeing Eye itself. The golem only took some damage fighting the blind priests because of their summons attacking with magical weapons.
The golems are also immune to the intelligence drain of mindflayers, but they can still be stunned by their psionic powers and damaged by their (weak) melee attacks. I have to test them against liches (and demiliches) next.
Comments
I have also decided to add the Maggot Golem to the list of exotic golems. It's a rather weak golem type similar to flesh golems, and consists primarily of maggots and insects which makes it difficult to damage with physical weapons. It may also be the only golem type in the list that has a limited life cycle.
This is just a quick preview. I'll probably fine-tune the coloration a bit.
That will probably be the last golem I'm planning to add to the mod.
It will disintegrate 1d4+6 days after construction. There is a 50% chance that the golem turns on you for 1d4 rounds before it disintegrates.
The golem's attack is special. In addition to 2d6 crushing damage the target is held for one round and suffers 1 HP/sec piercing damage on a failed save vs. spell. After each round the target must make a save vs. spell with a +4 bonus again or is held and damaged for another round. The effect can be removed with dispel magic or blocked by magic resistance.
The golems with all their skills and abilities have been coded. Now comes the time-consuming part of creating and coding tomes and ingredients, and scattering them all over Faerun.
In all my attempts the projectile originated from the caster, and not from the target creature, even though the spell effect itself is properly applied to the target.
ActionOverride("target", ReallyForceSpellRES("myspell", Myself))The target can be selected by the user, so I can't hardcode the target name. Even the spell to trigger is predefined and can only be altered in a very limited manner (i.e. I can't change the spell's projectile).
Whatever I do I can't force the projectile to use the target creature as starting point.
Ability_Target = Living Actor
Opcode = 148 (Cast Spell at Point)
Target = 2 (Preset target)
This will force the target to cast the spell at its location, so the spell being cast has to either be an AoE spell or a "Self-only" spell. It cannot be a single target spell targeting "Preset Target".
My second option would be to duplicate all the spells I intend to use, so I can update targets and/or projectiles. It would affect over 50 different spells though (which may get ugly).
Edit: I found a way by adding a proxy spell between the casting spell and the triggered list of spells which uses an AoE projectile, so I don't have to duplicate dozens of spells. It introduces a slight trigger delay, but it's still acceptable.
Do you know if there are other mods expanding Aesgareth's dialog (which may cause compatibility issues)?
- SoD: The upper floor of Sorcerous Sundries can be used for a small fee after helping out the proprietor of the shop.
- SoD: The Repository of Undeath after removing the undead mob and dealing with the Coldhearth lich (in one way or another).
- SoA: Planar Sphere - Main area (where you activate the golem) and control room after dealing with Lavok.
- WK: The library on the second floor of WK can be used after disabling all defenses and dealing with the Chromatic Demon.
- ToB: Your Pocket Plane. You have to purchase the right equipment from Lazarus Librarus before you can build golems though.
That should provide you with at least one available location for each stage of the game (except maybe for SoD - Dragonspear Castle and SoA - Spellhold/Underdark).I'm also making sure that you don't lose the ability to build specific types of golems when you import a BG1 save into BG2.
The mod should install fine, but can't be used properly yet (unless you console in the required items).
The PST animation schemes are pretty weird though. I have to figure out how to convert them first.
- Follow me! (Makes the golem controllable. Golem does not act on its own. This is the default action after activation.)
- Follow and protect me! (Makes the golem controllable. Activates a simple script that attacks the nearest enemy, or enemies that are attacking party members.)
- Stand guard! (Changes the golem to neutral. The golem will not budge until given a new order.)
- Stand guard and defend the area! (Changes the golem to neutral. The golem will attack any hostile creatures within sight. Always returns to the guarded position.)
- Destroy yourself! (Causes the golem to disintegrate. This command does the same as the golem's "Dismiss" ability, but can also be issued when the golem is on guard duty.)
Do these options suffice or can you think of more useful actions that your golems should do on their own?Arcane caster could be quite powerful with adamantine golem at his side.
The really powerful golems can only be constructed by high-level spellcasters, and both tomes and materials for them are very hard to come by (doubly so for adamantite golems).
Golem Construction for Spellcasters v0.1 (beta)
It supports BG:EE - Siege of Dragonspear and BG2:EE patched to v2.0 or higher. Pretty much everything I planned has already been implemented. There may still be a few balancing issues left.
Feel free to test it and post your thoughts, suggestions or bug reports.
Adding hints about the locations where you can safely build your golems is not so easy though. For now they are only mentioned in the mod's Readme. I have to think of a good way to add information about them to the games.
When a location has been made ready for golem building you will see a new journal entry and a short console message about it, however.
I'm trying to balance the number of golems over the availability of required materials. Ingredients are limited, even more so for the powerful golem types. While materials for flesh golems can be found as random loot you'll only find a limited amount of iron or even more expensive ingredients.
In the case of Adamantite Golems you have to turn iron into adamantine (by a Wish spell or may spend an outrageous amount of money later on to purchase pieces of adamantine). Since iron is limited as well you can turn only so many pieces into adamantine (currently, a Greater Adamantite Golem requires eight pieces). That way you have to decide whether to build several Iron Golems or a single Adamantite Golem.
Your suggestion about sacrificing special artifacts of power is great. I have already implemented it in a way for perfect golems. As @Flashburn already mentioned, you'll require certain artifacts of power to construct perfect golem variants. These artifacts are even more scarce than base materials. For example, you will only be able to build a single Perfect Adamantite Golem in the whole game, as there is only a single artifact available. The effort to collect all the required ingredients will be enormous and you must be a very high level spellcaster, so you'll probably think twice about whether to attempt it at all. Realistically you will only be able to construct a Perfect Adamantite Golem near the end of the game after beating some of the more (most?) powerful enemies. Even obtaining the manual for building Adamantite Golems will be a chore and involves Cespenar.
Requirements and availability of materials are not yet set in stone. I'm currently making a run to see what has to be fine-tuned. I've already fixed a number of bugs and added several improvements since the first beta release.
The golems are also immune to the intelligence drain of mindflayers, but they can still be stunned by their psionic powers and damaged by their (weak) melee attacks. I have to test them against liches (and demiliches) next.