PS:T:EE modding related feature requests

BROJ

There are a couple impediments to properly porting over some legacy mods, as well as hindering future ones. At the risk of sounding ignorant, I'll just dump the requests:
1) Refactor Area Checks to 2DA(s)
Right now, it is impractical to implement mods like unrestricted use of DUSTROBE.itm, being restricted in-code to AR0201/2/3. Moreover, these needlessly hardcoded checks limit the flexibility of the advertised moddability.
2) Refactor list of Bestiary Entry References/Triggers to moddable file.
Not really sure how this would be accomplished, but exposing this would allow modders to add new characters and content with corresponding bestiary entries.

If either of these are infeasible, that's fine - but please let me know.

NicolBluetooth

If this is a post to try to request cosmetic changes in the engine to allow greater modding flexibility, I have a suggestion. I've always felt restricted by the party system of video games, particularly when you have more playable characters than slots to use them in your party, but as I understand it, the Infinity Engine only supports up to 6 player objects.
I'd like to request that the Enhanced version of the Infinity Engine used in PST:EE be updated to support at least 8 player objects, so it is possible for a mod to be made that extends the scripts and dialogues to refer to that many players.

Aquadrizzt

@NickBluetooth , while it may be possible using some modding workaroudns to have all 8 characters available, it would not be feasible to increase the number of party member slots to 8 in any of the Infinity Engine games. To quote Camdawg: "the number of times the engine references the limit of 6 party members is staggering."

NicolBluetooth

Even the availability would be better than what we have now. However, to say larger party mods are impossible for all Infinity Engine games simply isn't true. The 10pp mod for GemRB allows extended parties in Baldur's Gate games. Here is an example of the mod in action: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0W0w_i6vNjs

Doubledimas

NickBluetooth said:

Even the availability would be better than what we have now. However, to say larger party mods are impossible for all Infinity Engine games simply isn't true. The 10pp mod for GemRB allows extended parties in Baldur's Gate games. Here is an example of the mod in action: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0W0w_i6vNjs

From the previous discussion on this subject see the full thread here.
A relevant quote from CrevsDaak why this will not work on EE games.

CrevsDaak said:

The mod is for GemRB (which is another implementation of the game's engine), not the Infinity Engine (the engine BG:EE and friends actually run on).

The mod modifies the scripts, yes (and I tell you it very probably might break on mod-added scripts), but the GemRB engine was previously modified to handle up to 10 party members (something that the Infinity Engine currently doesn't do).

With this mod, there wouldn't be a need to update the existing scripts (save for 1 or 2 rare exceptions the mod is unable to handle), but yes, it's going to be a pain in the ass since a rather big part of the game's engine (the Infinity Engine) will have to be re-written to work with 10 party members (because the limit is hardcoded in the IE (meaning you couldn't even change it by hex editing the executable), whereas in GemRB it's softcoded, meaning that you can change it's value from a .INI file).

winterheart

BROJ said:

2) Refactor list of Bestiary Entry References/Triggers to moddable file.
Not really sure how this would be accomplished, but exposing this would allow modders to add new characters and content with corresponding bestiary entries.

This can be done by adding entries to bestiary table from BGEE.lua:

table.insert(bestiary,
	{
			 index=0, // Index in bestiary
			 killvar='Kill_Abishai_Black', // Var to count kills
			 desc0=3602, // strref for description
			 class=1, // ???
			 imageUnknown='image', // always 'image' since it never appears in bestiary while unknown
			 imageKnown='jrabskn', // image for known
			 name=3279, // strref for name
	},
)

There some problem to override BGEE.lua (currently I use override via includes.lua), but since this issue meant to be solved in 3.1.1.0, I hope that BGEE.lua's tables can be extended via M_*.lua load mechanism.

NicolBluetooth

Doubledimas said:

NickBluetooth said:

Even the availability would be better than what we have now. However, to say larger party mods are impossible for all Infinity Engine games simply isn't true. The 10pp mod for GemRB allows extended parties in Baldur's Gate games. Here is an example of the mod in action: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0W0w_i6vNjs

From the previous discussion on this subject see the full thread here.
A relevant quote from CrevsDaak why this will not work on EE games.

CrevsDaak said:

The mod is for GemRB (which is another implementation of the game's engine), not the Infinity Engine (the engine BG:EE and friends actually run on).

The mod modifies the scripts, yes (and I tell you it very probably might break on mod-added scripts), but the GemRB engine was previously modified to handle up to 10 party members (something that the Infinity Engine currently doesn't do).

With this mod, there wouldn't be a need to update the existing scripts (save for 1 or 2 rare exceptions the mod is unable to handle), but yes, it's going to be a pain in the ass since a rather big part of the game's engine (the Infinity Engine) will have to be re-written to work with 10 party members (because the limit is hardcoded in the IE (meaning you couldn't even change it by hex editing the executable), whereas in GemRB it's softcoded, meaning that you can change it's value from a .INI file).

Yes, I know it's hard-coded into the engine. I was just saying it's not impossible for the Beamdog developers to increase the hard-coded player limit of the PST:EE Engine like GemRB did. I mainly posted here in the perhaps vain hope that one of the devs would see this topic and do so. I hope I didn't sound ignorant or offend anyone in my replies, because that was not my intent.

Doubledimas

But the point is precisely that due to the hardcoded-ness of this player limit in the EE engine, changing this is only possible if they would completely change that and rebuild from scratch. Which has happened when gemRB was made, but is not feasible for the EE engine. If I correctly interpret @CrevsDaak 's post.

Aquadrizzt

@NickBluetooth , while the engine may not support having 8 party members, there are ways to ensure that all relevant NPCs can be controlled and otherwise accompany the party. It requires a bit of retooling of certain mechanics, but it is doable.

I'm actually working on a mini mod that makes Morte and Nordom behave in this way. Preliminary tests suggest that they are completely controllable in combat and will banter and interject as appropriate. Right now I'm just addressing all the little issues that accumulate when you have NPCs who should behave as party members but aren't technically in the party.

Queegon

I'd like to request a mod that would introduce a bracelet fro Vhailor. He has a slot for one but none of the in-game items are wearable by him.

I usually mod the Xaositect rat charm in nearinfinity to be equippable by him (or copying it and changing its description) but it makes no sense for a chaotic item to be worn by lawful neutral spirit, and leaves me feeling dirty for doing that.