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mod request: reducing the amount of npcs in certain sections of sige of dragon spear.

megamike15megamike15 Member Posts: 2,666
edited May 2020 in General Modding
so whenever i play sod i have a terrible fps drop in 2 sections of the game. the first is when your leaving for the march due to the number of stationary npcs in the back ground.

the other is during the trial for the same reason.

now i know the reason for this is my graphics card being old but besides those two parts sod runs fine on my 7 year old laptop. i just wonder if it is possible to make a mod that reduces the amount of stationary back ground npcs in those two sections of the game to get rid of the frame rate drops?

edit: this is no longer needed as i got a better laptop so the lag should no longer be an issue.
Post edited by megamike15 on

Comments

  • GoidaGoida Member Posts: 118
    In principle, yes. It should be possible to augment the area scripts for those two areas so as to apply an area-wide removal spell, targeting only unimportant creatures. The question is, who is unimportant? Who do you want to remove? Most townfolk and such in all of the games are of the INNOCENT class, and probably no important NPC are, but then, for example, Taerom Fuiruim the shopkeeper is also INNOCENT, so you might lose some miscellaneous NPC with that application. And perhaps those NPC you mean are not INNOCENT at all. I think your best bet is to EXTEND_BOTTOM of the area script with an ApplySpellRES action using a spell targeted at Everyone except party -> allegiance: NEUTRAL -> and then at people with low hit points. Those NPC, whether they are INNOCENT or not, usually have 1 or 3 or 5 hp. Ask one of the super-experts here, like kjeron, for a custom filter to use.
  • megamike15megamike15 Member Posts: 2,666
    well like i said they are mostly in the back ground. i gather this because they are in areas outside of the normal area you can walk in.

    like i said i don't have issues with any other section of sod besides those two as because they have so many npcs gathered together in one spot it messes up the frame rate.

    i never get frame rate drops in either of the two war battles for example so it's not because of to many npcs in general.
  • bob_vengbob_veng Member Posts: 2,308
    i'd like this too. i think they overdid it with the cosmetic townsfolk.
  • megamike15megamike15 Member Posts: 2,666
    bob_veng wrote: »
    i'd like this too. i think they overdid it with the cosmetic townsfolk.

    i get why beamdog did it but i think they may have over did it as well. it also causes issues when you play the games back to back. here is sod with all these npcs that sticks out like a sore thumb compared to the rest of the series. the ie in general was not meant to have this many things on screen.
  • GoidaGoida Member Posts: 118
    If standard townsfolk still have all stats at 9 and neutral alignment without exception, I can make a mod that will clear away most of innocents without touching significant NPC.
  • jasteyjastey Member Posts: 2,671
    I'd appreciate this too. The march out of the city and back to the trial looks like a stop-motion film that's being played too slowly.
    I was thinking about this for my SoD Tweakpack but not with a high priority, so if anyone ( @Goida ) makes this first the better.
  • GoidaGoida Member Posts: 118
    I'll give it a go in a day or two. Overabundance of street NPC is one of the more obvious unfortunate aesthetic decisions Beamdog made.
  • GoidaGoida Member Posts: 118
    I had a different idea. The reason for the slowdown is probably not the number of bystander NPC but that they are running scripts. I don't have SoD installed and can't look. If you, the reader, want this mod made, send me a couple of Commoner CRE files from one of those areas.
  • jasteyjastey Member Posts: 2,671
    It's not as easy as it might sound. First the appropriate areas need to be identified, which I just did: it's bd0021.are for the "leaving the city through the crowd" area and bd0112.are for the "returning to the city through the crowd" area, and bd0035.are for the trial area.
    Then the according area scripts and cutscenes have to be skimmed for which commoners are important to the situation (because they shout something or interject into Belt's dialogue). Then the many actors of the areas have to be skimmed through to see their script names (death variables) to distinguish the important ones and note down the "fillers" and to make sure the important ones and the fillers do not share the same death variables for some reason.
    If I'd do all that, I could easily make the tweak myself, which I'll probably will, but I'm busy with writing my SoD NPC tutorial atm, so it will take a while.
  • megamike15megamike15 Member Posts: 2,666
    does bd0021 include the part where you leave the palace and meet corwin's daughter and can get vicky? as thats when the lag starts.
  • jasteyjastey Member Posts: 2,671
    No, that is bd0101.are.
  • GoidaGoida Member Posts: 118
    @jastey How about patching all commoners without a script name or with the "None" script name with a spell state, then patching those two areas' scripts with an ApplySpellRES action, a removal spell, targeting neutrals in that spell state?
  • jasteyjastey Member Posts: 2,671
    That is surely doable, as well as adding an area-triggered DestroySelf() to a common script, but I don't think doing any of the sort is a wise idea if done blindly.
  • GoidaGoida Member Posts: 118
    Not blindly. You said there are some NPC with script names who participate in conversations. Those would be excluded from the fatal spell state. All the others could be eliminated at, say, 100-90 probability. You found out the area names, so this only needs to be cast in those areas. The scope is small enough, I don't see much of a risk. And megamike will get to discover if anything breaks. After all, it's his request.

    bd0021.are
    bd0112.are
    bd0035.are
    bd0101.are

    Just these? I think I'll give it a go.
  • megamike15megamike15 Member Posts: 2,666
    i can easily see if the first area breaks anything as that's not that far. but i'd need a save for the trial to check that as i delete my saves when i redo my mod installations as they are broken anyways.
  • megamike15megamike15 Member Posts: 2,666
    so how is this going? it's been 2 months and no update. and scratch that needing a save thing i found out about console teleporting so i'm good to go for testing.
  • jasteyjastey Member Posts: 2,671
    I'm not working on this and I see now that Goida is banned. :|
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