Familiars in Multiplayer

Naharok

Hello everyone

I have a crying girl here and need help.

I have started BG:EE with the female above mentioned. I let her being Gorions child and made a char for my own.
But this was not playable - we lost the connection every time we saved because her notebook is just so bad. (15 seconds for a BG:EE save...). So I took the last save game and continued as host. But the game doesn't let me give her the control over the main char. Oh dear...
So I exported both our chars, deleted both our chars and imported them back in. She isn't Gorions child any longer but we decided to RP just as she was.
Until she finally finds the summon familiar spell (she picked the alignment to get a cat) and summons it.
But only the main char is allowed to summon familiars. I start thinking the game hates me.
She definitely does now.
Is there any way you can think of, to get her that familiar?
(Yes I know, it is not that useful but it is a cat and she is a girl, so...)

Thanks in advance!

JuliusBorisov

While I certainly hear you, only the main character can summon a familiar. Find Familiar is deeply hard-coded, which means Familiars are very hard to mod.

leeux

There's this mod More Style for Mages from Pecca that has several components (scroll to the "Group 3: Familiars" part) that affect Familiars, one of them includes the possibility of having NPC mages have familiars themselves.

I haven't used it myself, so not sure of any quirks or issues it may have (but I intend to give it a try at some point!), or if it even would work in a multiplayer installation! In any case, it seems it could possibly solve your issue, if you manage to make BOTH installs identical in terms of having the exact same mods installed.

Naharok

Thank you for your answers!

I have already tried the "More Style for Mages" solution and installed once the full mod and once the familiar part only. It definitely does something because I don't get the "Only the main char can summon a familiar" message any longer, however, there is just no familiar appearing.
That such a mod exists (and at some point in time most probably worked) makes me wonder if JuliusBorisov is correct, when he states, find familiar is hardcoded.

JuliusBorisov

The lack of dialogue and familiar appearing might be due to MP. Move the save from the MP folder to the SP folder, load it in Singleplayer, cast the spell with the mod, see what happens. Save the game, move the save from the SP folder to the MP folder.

Also, for mods to work in MP all the participants should have the same mod setup.

Naharok

I have tried it in SP, but unfortunately, it didn't work. I have also started a new game with 2 Mages - the normal mage preset and the char she created - no success for anyone of them.

Grond0

Is there any reason not to make her be the main character (use the same process of exporting and importing characters as before to your saved game, but select her character first next time)? In that case she would be able to summon a familiar.

JuliusBorisov

@Naharok Are you sure the mod is installed correctly? Did you use ModMerge if you have BG:EE+SoD from Steam or GOG?

Naharok

@Grond0 Yes, only the host can play the main character. By the way - if there is a way to make the main char be played by another player besides the host, this would solve our problem too.
I now tried what happens, if I make her main character, then summon, then make me the main char again. -> After my char is the main again, the cat becomes my familiar - it will only talk to me, be carried by and handled by me.

@JuliusBorisov I don't own SoD, so I did it without ModMerge.

Grond0

Sometimes speeds are affected radically by other programs running on computers at the same time - windows downloads are a common example of that. I expect you've tried hosting on the notebook a few times, but if by any chance you haven't it would be worth giving that another go when you're sure the computer is doing nothing else.

JuliusBorisov

Also, this can solve the issue with long saving times - https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/72294/bgee-bg2ee-eet-iwdee-long-or-slow-save-and-transitioning-areas-work-around/p1

Gusinda

Hi @Naharok, this might do as a work around to the Familiar spell.

One of my PCs ('The Magnificant Mr Ray', a Gnome Fighter/Illusionist) is modelled on our dog who has an alter ego known as 'The Black Panter' (a very energetic alter ego). Twice a day, he has the opportunity to call upon his alter ego (a weakened Panther) to help in game or to polymorph into a casting version of the Panther (he has some charm spells because that is what he does at home, charms us...) . Anyway, I played around with the summoning spell and the Familiar dialogue to provide a possible solution for your daughter.

Instead of a 'Find Familiar' selection, it will use a summons to call only a cat companion. She can still talk and pet it etc as though it was a Familiar, as well as put it into her pack to carry it around. There are some 'problems?' with using a summons though:

- it will not be able to transition into new areas or buildings (it will wait outside the building for it's masters return)
- if the cat is placed into a pack, when it is released it will run away (wont actually show) but putting some milk out and calling for the cat again (recast the spell) will bring it back.
- it will not provide the extra HP that a familiar would provide (although that could be consoled in if you want it).
- if the cat dies in battle, it wont penalise by removing con points or removing HPs (this might be a good thing)
- I have given the summons a duration of 8 hours so that there aren't a whole lot of abandoned cats sitting waiting for there owner to come back.
- I have also modified the spell so that it wont 'run out' so for the problems above, all she would need to do is to 'Call for Kitty' again (recast the spell).
- the script is specific to Player 2 so it wont work with the main protaganist. You could give the spell to the main prot and cast it, but the cat will try and find Player 2 for comfort when spoken to. It would however work with any second player. If for instance, you normally pick up Little Sis as a companion, then the spell could be given to her and she would be able to call the cat when she needs a company.
- Player 2 doesn't have to be a mage for this to work. It is an innate spell so should work with any of the character classes.

Word of warning... your daughter probably has more skills than me in programming and this was my first foray into looking at dialogs, so I am unsure whether there are any bugs with it!

I am also unsure where you are in the game, and it wont matter so no need to restart, but the installation method is a bit crude requiring use of the console. Not sure whether you have used it before so I have added some tips below. If you have any problems with the console, let me know and I will try to help.

To install:
- Install the attached mod
- Open the CLUA Console and select your daughter's character portrait on the right hand panel
- Type in the following command (include any caps etc) and hit enter:
C:AddSpell("SUMCAT")

This should now have added a new innate spell into her Abilities menu with a single instance. All she needs to do is cast the spell for the cat to appear. The single instance will remain so no need to rest to get it back. In fact she could summon a couple of cats and adventure with them all in tow, hereby making herself known throughout Faerun as the 'Cat Lady of Candlekeep'. There is a summon cap in a vanilla game though.


Console tips:
- Make sure the game is not running.
- To have access to the console, add the following line to your baldur.lua (this can be found in your game's documents folder where your saved games are) using a text editor (not Word or Wordpad...)

SetPrivateProfileString('Program Options','Debug Mode','1')

- Start the game, load the saved game and press the following keys together:
CTRL+SPACE
- this will open a command prompt in the bottom of the screen as well as a cheats menu at the top.
- type in the command. If it works, it should display that you have earned 10 XP.


Hopefully this works well for the littlun. If it doesn't, let me know and I will try to help where I can.

'You must gather your cats before venturing forth'
Gus

Edit: reloaded the mod (previous one was just the override folder...)!

Grond0

Gusinda wrote: »

One of my PCs ('The Magnificant Mr Ray', a Gnome Fighter/Illusionist) is modelled on our dog who has an alter ego known as 'The Black Panter' (a very energetic alter ego). Twice a day, he has the opportunity to call upon his alter ego (a weakened Panther) to help in game or to polymorph into a casting version of the Panther (he has some charm spells because that is what he does at home, charms us...)

Seeing all the helpful posts you make on the forum @Gusinda your dog is clearly not the only charming one in the family .

Gusinda

@Grond0, that's a charming way to talk! He does ensourcell us though, 'most' times he is awake and all times when he sleeps.

Gus

Naharok

This is simply fantastic Gusinda! I think, this will work very well for us and if the world of Atlas would be just like the world of Faerun, you surely would have made 3 levels worth of experience and +3 to your group's reputation.
Have no worries of me getting it to run, I have some experience with the infinity engine.
We bow to you, master of the cute cats and the undecipherable aethers of code.

Naharok

Unfortunately, we did encounter a problem - when we tried to install the mod, it gave us an error:
** ERROR ** [SETUP_SUMCAT.TP2] not found.

Gusinda

@Naharok, thank you, oh deliver of XP and rep.

I just read that v2.6 might only be weeks away... This summons uses the text directly from 2.5's dialog.tlk to allow chitchat with the cat(s). The update might break the dialog but if it does, it wouldn't take much for me to modify the spell.

Shall keep an eye on it
Gus

Gusinda

@Naharok, my apologies... I uploaded the override folder, not the mod itself. Here is the right one.

Gus

Edit: Also reloaded the file above

Naharok

Thanks again. We will give it a try soon
Will 2.6 be such a big update, that it comes with new lines?

Gusinda

Hi @Naharok, no probs.

Although I don't think the update will touch the familiars, it will hit dialog.tlk which the familiar dialogue references. So all the current reference points that are currently used 'might' change and therefore talking to the cat 'could' just give you rubbish feedback.

If there is a prob, then it is not a biggy as this can just quickly be updated for 2.6. It is just a case of grabbing the new famil3.dlg and editing it so that it works for Player2 instead. If I were to do it right, I should rewrite the 'talking to the cat' component but I am not 'familiar' with how dialogue code works as yet, it's a gradual thing and I am still playing with WeiDU.

Gus

Naharok

Tears... Tears again.
Of joy and excitement!

The console command somehow didn't work although debug mode was active. So I added the spell to the save game via EEKeeper.

Thank you again!
A happy girl makes a happy me.

PS: "I am the cat now!" - "You can play all of your chars and the cat as well ..." - "No, I am the cat, only the cat." - "ughhh..."

Zaxares

That's adorable. I hope she has an amazing time adventuring through the Sword Coast with you!