[MOD] SummonsFoW - Minions clear fog of war, travel between areas and set off traps
Allbrother
Member Posts: 261
So I saw a tip on reddit about using select all to avoid losing your summons offscreen and thought "wouldn't it be nice if they could just clear fow?". Then I checked if anyone's done a mod like that (not very thoroughly tho, so if it exists please let me know) and since the answer appeared to be 'no', I figured i'd do it myself. So here it is. You can see it in action below
Components:
Component 1: Summons and charmed creatures clear fog of war:
Component 2: Summons (but NOT charmed creatures) travel between areas
Component 3: Everyone (including summons and enemies) triggers traps.
Installation:
Compatibility:
Update history:
Download mirror
Components:
Component 1: Summons and charmed creatures clear fog of war:
Does just what it says on the tin.
couple of things to keep in mind.
1.The game has a hard cap on how many things can clear fow at the same time which is 8. So if you're a solo sorcerer, you can have your familiar, 5 summons and a charmed creature all scouting for you. But if you're running a full party + familiar, you only get 1 more creature capable of clearing FoW, everything after that will behave like vanilla.
It is possible that this might interfere with some cutscenes, though I haven't been able to make that happen myself. Please let me know if you run into such issue. And if you do, the solution would be to kill off your summons prior to the affected cutscene.
b)As can be seen in the demo videos, the effect can take a second or 2 to kick in after summon/charm.
Works on Korax too:
couple of things to keep in mind.
1.The game has a hard cap on how many things can clear fow at the same time which is 8. So if you're a solo sorcerer, you can have your familiar, 5 summons and a charmed creature all scouting for you. But if you're running a full party + familiar, you only get 1 more creature capable of clearing FoW, everything after that will behave like vanilla.
It is possible that this might interfere with some cutscenes, though I haven't been able to make that happen myself. Please let me know if you run into such issue. And if you do, the solution would be to kill off your summons prior to the affected cutscene.
b)As can be seen in the demo videos, the effect can take a second or 2 to kick in after summon/charm.
https://youtu.be/O2A8mVKzuEEWorks on Korax too:
https://youtu.be/Y9xJaQ16igkComponent 2: Summons (but NOT charmed creatures) travel between areas
Again, just as it says on the tin.
When you summon something with this component installed, within the few seconds the critter should tell you that it's ready to travel. After that, it will follow you anywhere, though it will still time out and unsummon if you travel over the world map for longer than its duration.
Also, with this component installed your summons are considered as party members, so if you leave them behind, you will not be able to travel (through areas that you gather your party before venturing forth) or rest until you collect them, they die or their duration expires and they unsummon.
When you summon something with this component installed, within the few seconds the critter should tell you that it's ready to travel. After that, it will follow you anywhere, though it will still time out and unsummon if you travel over the world map for longer than its duration.
Also, with this component installed your summons are considered as party members, so if you leave them behind, you will not be able to travel (through areas that you gather your party before venturing forth) or rest until you collect them, they die or their duration expires and they unsummon.
Component 3: Everyone (including summons and enemies) triggers traps.
Again, pretty self-explanatory. Have your summons facetank traps for you. It's possible they might trigger cutscenes and reputation traps as well as your standard traps.
https://youtu.be/NAZkXIlmwXgInstallation:
Install is the same as everything else, extract in the gamedir, run setup-wl_SummonsFoW.exe, select language if prompted, press i, press enter.
It goes last or as late as possible in the install order.
IMPORTANT!
If you have a previous version (older than 1.4) installed:
1.Uninstall it (all components) from setup-SummonsFoW.exe
2.Delete setup-SummonsFoW.exe, SETUP-SUMMONSFOW.DEBUG and the folder SummonsFoW
3.Extract the 1.4 archive into your game folder.
4.Run setup-wl_SummonsFoW.exe
5.Install desired components
This proccess is not entirely save-game friendly as far as the first component (clearing FoW) is concerned. Summons will be unaffected, but if you charm anything in an area you've visited before, chances are it will not clear FoW. Sorry.
It goes last or as late as possible in the install order.
IMPORTANT!
If you have a previous version (older than 1.4) installed:
1.Uninstall it (all components) from setup-SummonsFoW.exe
2.Delete setup-SummonsFoW.exe, SETUP-SUMMONSFOW.DEBUG and the folder SummonsFoW
3.Extract the 1.4 archive into your game folder.
4.Run setup-wl_SummonsFoW.exe
5.Install desired components
This proccess is not entirely save-game friendly as far as the first component (clearing FoW) is concerned. Summons will be unaffected, but if you charm anything in an area you've visited before, chances are it will not clear FoW. Sorry.
Compatibility:
Tested on BGEE, BG2EE and IWDEE, but should work fine on all IE games. Should be compatible with everything and can affect summon/charm spells added by mods, as long as it's installed after them. Let me know in case of questions or issues
Update history:
Update 1.1 includes Planetars/Devas, excludes enemy summons (oops) and simplifies the script.
Update 1.2 reduces the mod's footprint
Update 1.3 adds a new component that makes it so that everyone (including summons) can trigger traps as opposed to only party members. Main component is unchanged.
Update 1.4 adds a new component to allow summons (but NOT charmed creatures) to travel between areas with the player. Also changes some things under the hood on the whole.
When you summon something with this component installed, within the few seconds the critter should tell you that it's ready to travel. After that, it will follow you anywhere, though it will still time out and unsummon if you travel over the world map for longer than its duration.
Also, with this component installed your summons are considered as party members, so if you leave them behind, you will not be able to travel (through areas that you gather your party before venturing forth) or rest until you collect them, they die or their duration expires and they unsummon.
IMPORTANT!
Update 1.4.1 - my quest to try to avoid duplication continues, I think this might be as close as I'll get. shouldn't have an impact ingame (maybe the effect of 1st and 2nd component would happen slightly quicker), mostly just trying to make the changes to the game files neater when looked at directly.
Update 1.2 reduces the mod's footprint
Update 1.3 adds a new component that makes it so that everyone (including summons) can trigger traps as opposed to only party members. Main component is unchanged.
Update 1.4 adds a new component to allow summons (but NOT charmed creatures) to travel between areas with the player. Also changes some things under the hood on the whole.
When you summon something with this component installed, within the few seconds the critter should tell you that it's ready to travel. After that, it will follow you anywhere, though it will still time out and unsummon if you travel over the world map for longer than its duration.
Also, with this component installed your summons are considered as party members, so if you leave them behind, you will not be able to travel (through areas that you gather your party before venturing forth) or rest until you collect them, they die or their duration expires and they unsummon.
IMPORTANT!
If you have a previous version installed:
1.Uninstall it (all components) from setup-SummonsFoW.exe
2.Delete setup-SummonsFoW.exe, SETUP-SUMMONSFOW.DEBUG and the folder SummonsFoW
3.Extract the 1.4 archive into your game folder.
4.Run setup-wl_SummonsFoW.exe
5.Install desired components
This proccess is not entirely save-game friendly as far as the first component (clearing FoW) is concerned. Summons will be unaffected, but if you charm anything in an area you've visited before, chances are it will not clear FoW. Sorry.
1.Uninstall it (all components) from setup-SummonsFoW.exe
2.Delete setup-SummonsFoW.exe, SETUP-SUMMONSFOW.DEBUG and the folder SummonsFoW
3.Extract the 1.4 archive into your game folder.
4.Run setup-wl_SummonsFoW.exe
5.Install desired components
This proccess is not entirely save-game friendly as far as the first component (clearing FoW) is concerned. Summons will be unaffected, but if you charm anything in an area you've visited before, chances are it will not clear FoW. Sorry.
Update 1.4.1 - my quest to try to avoid duplication continues, I think this might be as close as I'll get. shouldn't have an impact ingame (maybe the effect of 1st and 2nd component would happen slightly quicker), mostly just trying to make the changes to the game files neater when looked at directly.
Download mirror
Post edited by Allbrother on
3
Comments
Thankee!
May we get this officially tested and ported to EET and released on the G3 news section, and, if EET compatible, also the EET compatibility list?
Myself, I don't keep an EET install so can't do the testing. To my understanding BG2EE mods are installed normally after the conversion. This being a mod that can be installed on any of the EE games, it should work the same way.
On the other question, I'm not affiliated with G3 or any other modding group/site so I'm not allowed to post in their news section or (I assume) release on their site.
"We" includes my family and your fanbase.
If you haven't already, I at least request you also add mod compatibility with summoned golems in BG2 (golem manuals) and with this golem construction mod and with minions from the Seducer kit.
Thankee!
As long as it's installed after them, this should affect creatures from any mod.
Also, uploaded 1.2 which reduces the mod's footprint.
edit:
And 1.3 is ready now. It introduces a new component that makes it so that your summons (as well as enemies) can trigger traps.
Yes, a fanbase. Thankee! Alleluia!
When you summon something with this component installed, within the few seconds the critter should tell you that it's ready to travel. After that, it will follow you anywhere, though it will still time out and unsummon if you travel over the world map for longer than its duration.
Also, with this component installed your summons are considered as party members, so if you leave them behind, you will not be able to travel (through areas that you gather your party before venturing forth) or rest until you collect them, they die or their duration expires and they unsummon.
IMPORTANT!
If you have a previous version installed:
1.Uninstall it (all components) from setup-SummonsFoW.exe
2.Delete setup-SummonsFoW.exe, SETUP-SUMMONSFOW.DEBUG and the folder SummonsFoW
3.Extract the 1.4 archive into your game folder.
4.Run setup-wl_SummonsFoW.exe
5.Install desired components
This proccess is not entirely save-game friendly as far as the first component (clearing FoW) is concerned. Summons will be unaffected, but if you charm anything in an area you've visited before, chances are it will not clear FoW. Sorry.
Like I was playing SOD and finished avernus but still had Caelar as a party member even though I transitioned to SOA , and it's really immersion breaking plus can mess up certain cutscenes.
Maybe if there's a way to only make this affect summons and not controlled NPCs?
I don't know how feasible, is that.
Attached is my current (early) build of the next version. You can try extracting this into your game folder, overwriting when prompted and re-installing the mod. It's not going change anything if the NPC has already joined you and I'm unsure if it will have an impact if the NPC hasn't joined yet but has been met already. But it should hopefully prevent similar issues from ocurring on new games or with other NPC in current game.
If you have a save before the NPC joined, but after having met it and the above didn't fix it for you, you can try the following:
Before the NPC joins you, pause the game, place your cursor above them, open the console and type in C:Eval('ChangeAIScript("bdcaelar",override)') unpause and see if that works
But now I did and it caused me to experience another issue, the fog of war keeps glitching in areas I haven't even walked to.
If I enter a map with monsters, it makes it impossible to save as it causes most of the monsters to be visible at those parts of the map will glitch in and out making the game give the whole you cannot save while monsters are around text.
Edit:This issue is specific to your first component though, uninstalled that and the issue went away.
I was able to sort out my issue.
But somthing I noticed about your mod is that it messes up the Script Ai for NPCs from other mods, if they have dialoug , like NPC Project, Brandock mod, even Black Hearts.
Basically any Mod which allows for added scripted dialog from a party NPC.
Possibly whenever (ifever) you get back and see this, if you could make it possible for maybe your mod to have an exclusion list of cre files not to affect so as not to mess up some scripted dialogs.