Any way to select/unselect a creature?
chimeric
Member Posts: 1,163
The list of effects for the BGEE engine has Make Unselectable - an effect applied with spells like Hold, Horror, Confusion on the off-rounds and so on. But is there a way to make the game switch to a particular creature? This would be endlessly useful, because then the creature could run the scripts we want. The biggest weakness of the Infinity Engine I know is that it has no ExecuteScript action, like Neverwinter Nights' Aurora. Select/Unselect would be very nice for spells like Dominate, Magic Jar etc.
Here is one thing I was thinking of, for when I'm done with what I'm doing now - Call Lightning. It should be only a small change if it were possible at all, but I can't figure out a way to do it. Call Lightning is a middle-range priest spell, and in the pen-and-paper game it only allows the caster to evoke thunderbolts from a storm that is already happening. It doesn't let him Control Weather to summon a storm - that's a greater power. With all the limitations of the CRPG in mind, I still wanted to change Call Lightning so it had at least some connection to the actual weather. Right now the lighting can come down from a bright sundisk. Altering the spell to change the weather to Rain while the casting at Speed 9 goes on would be easy and I can still do that, but I wanted more than cosmetics. I wanted a fork: if the weather is not Rain, then casting speed 9 and change to Rain; and if the weather already is Rain, then casting speed 3.
Well, I can't seem to figure out a way to do this, because, unfortunately, spells in the game, the old ones or custom ones, are limited to a set of specific effects. I can't make a spell to just run a script, which would solve EVERY problem. I only came up with two options: 1) the casting instantly summons an invisible creature, on this I could hang a script to look at the weather and do a faster or slower version of the spell. Call the creature "the forces of nature," and then the combat message would be "X took Y damage from the forces of nature" (rather than Jaheira). No big deal. 2) I could change the AI script for the caster, for Jaheira let's say, to do the same thing.
The PROBLEM with the first one is that the player must get to direct the original lightning bolt must - target whoever he wants. Later bolts are random, but only the first one is really useful. The invisible creature could do this, but I would have to tell the game to switch from Jaheira to that creature - select the creature. And that function just doesn't exist in the effects list I combed through. Unless you have other ideas?
2) There is an effect that changes AI scripts, though. I could make a spell that would replace Jaheira's current script with something blank that just does the weather check and then casts whichever version of the spell is more appropriate, then change it back to default next round. But would it give me the targeting icon? After all, when creatures are under AI control, I don't control them. And the targeting happens before any casting begins, so the switch to an AI wouldn't do me any good.
As you can see, this is hugely theoretical, but it's something to puzzle about for those who know the toolset to greater depth than I do.
Here is one thing I was thinking of, for when I'm done with what I'm doing now - Call Lightning. It should be only a small change if it were possible at all, but I can't figure out a way to do it. Call Lightning is a middle-range priest spell, and in the pen-and-paper game it only allows the caster to evoke thunderbolts from a storm that is already happening. It doesn't let him Control Weather to summon a storm - that's a greater power. With all the limitations of the CRPG in mind, I still wanted to change Call Lightning so it had at least some connection to the actual weather. Right now the lighting can come down from a bright sundisk. Altering the spell to change the weather to Rain while the casting at Speed 9 goes on would be easy and I can still do that, but I wanted more than cosmetics. I wanted a fork: if the weather is not Rain, then casting speed 9 and change to Rain; and if the weather already is Rain, then casting speed 3.
Well, I can't seem to figure out a way to do this, because, unfortunately, spells in the game, the old ones or custom ones, are limited to a set of specific effects. I can't make a spell to just run a script, which would solve EVERY problem. I only came up with two options: 1) the casting instantly summons an invisible creature, on this I could hang a script to look at the weather and do a faster or slower version of the spell. Call the creature "the forces of nature," and then the combat message would be "X took Y damage from the forces of nature" (rather than Jaheira). No big deal. 2) I could change the AI script for the caster, for Jaheira let's say, to do the same thing.
The PROBLEM with the first one is that the player must get to direct the original lightning bolt must - target whoever he wants. Later bolts are random, but only the first one is really useful. The invisible creature could do this, but I would have to tell the game to switch from Jaheira to that creature - select the creature. And that function just doesn't exist in the effects list I combed through. Unless you have other ideas?
2) There is an effect that changes AI scripts, though. I could make a spell that would replace Jaheira's current script with something blank that just does the weather check and then casts whichever version of the spell is more appropriate, then change it back to default next round. But would it give me the targeting icon? After all, when creatures are under AI control, I don't control them. And the targeting happens before any casting begins, so the switch to an AI wouldn't do me any good.
As you can see, this is hugely theoretical, but it's something to puzzle about for those who know the toolset to greater depth than I do.
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