Custom Summons

[MadPhase]

So, I asked around and did a quick search for this and didn't come up with anything so I thought I'd ask:

Would it be possible to get the customized summon books that exist(ed) on other servers set up here? 
They don't have to be as crazy as the ones I've seen on other servers, that let you summon from all across the planes. They can be brought down to meet whatever Magic level of the setting we're trying to uphold here. I can even help to put some of it together, even if its just testing and designing the creatures (I'm not really good at scripting, but I'm sure I can at least find the scripts for you).

[Vincent07]

I was wanting to do a system like that at some point.  ie: You find books that let you customize summon chains... what stopped it was the few hundred creature templates that would need to be made/balanced for it to happen.   I don't have anything approaching the time to do that.

[MadPhase]

Understood; I know a few other servers had them, though I can't even begin to understand how I would pull them out of the haks (I still have the hak packs for pretty much every server I've ever played on, and the builder kits for at least 3 [They are now non existent so I'm not sure it would even be an issue]). If it's just a matter of making and balancing different creatures for each book, I could probably come up with it and do it if someone showed me how to do one. I have loads of free time to mess with it.

[Fire Wraith]

They're probably not in the haks, they're likely in the servers' module files.  That said, we could always start by setting up agreed on templates, and then having people volunteer to build the creatures based on those.  It's not terribly hard really, just time consuming.

For instance, we might dictate that a level 3 summons has AC X, HP Y, levels in class A and B, and uses certain weapons.  Maybe we make different templates based on type (DPS, Tank, Caster) or something, and vary those by level.


Incidentally, I should also note that the various planar summons did have more creatures added based on alignment - several of those were rather unbalanced though, since we went off of stats straight from the books, which doesn't always translate well to the NWN engine.

[MadPhase]

If it's not hard and only time consuming, count me in. I'm pretty good at focusing on time consuming repetitive tasks.
I mean, to start there could be a Nature-y Tome, which is just a better version of all the Nature-y Creatures. An Elemental Tome, which offers a Fire, Water, Air, and Earth type elemental for each level, and then a Wizard tome, which offers random Planar type monsters (Upper, Mid, and Lower) for each summon.

Or if thats too hard/much we can cut that down a bit.

[Fire Wraith]

It's no harder than making a creature in the NWN toolset.  The only thing that makes a summon, a summon, is the script set assigned to it (which is the same for all of them), and the script that calls them.  That script simply loads the creature by its tag/resref, and we can have it select which tag/resref to call based on really any criteria.  The Planar ones currently do so based on alignment for instance, but there's nothing that says we can't implement a text/voice command that lets you choose which summoning set you use (and have that set an integer on your character, etc).

[dagesh]

Instead of tons of creatures added to the palate, what about certain scripted templates?  We could make a 2da that looks at a row and gives a creature stats based on that row.  There could be a few templates to choose from when requesting it.  The next thing the script does is re-skin the creature to the desired look.  It could look something like this:

	STR	DEX	CON	WIS	INT	CHA	AB	AC
1 Melee	14	10	12	6	6	4	1	8

There could be columns for feats, special abilities, and maybe specific skills (as adding them all would make a crazy long row).

All the creature making is done via scripting using the built-in NWN spreadsheet style.

[Fire Wraith]

I'm fine with anything as long as it doesn't provoke Vincent into spawning more golems to kill me over my buggy scripting.

*Hides from Nether Archives Golems*

>.>

[dagesh]

I'm working on a template as we speak.

[MadPhase]

But would a template make actual sense? It's better than nothing, but if we're summoning an elemental, for instance, how do we add its particular strengths and weaknesses. Basically, what would be the benefit of summoning x over y in situation abc?

If your template does allow for that [Sorry, my scripting understanding is next to nothing for this game] then awesome!
If any help is required in actually building the creatures, or picking which types of creatures we use, definitely let me know I wouldn't mind taking the next few days to brain storm. I literally have nothing on my plate until Saturday when I move. So, distractions/projects would be a nice escape from the monotony

[dagesh]

Here's a list of templates I'm contemplating:

Melee - Strength
Melee - Dexterity
Ranged Weapon
Sneak Attack

Each template has 30 rows to determine the abilities, hit points, AC, attack Bonus, feats, skills and the like.  The list I have above is not the be all end all of all the templates.  It's a start.  One of the issues with having folks make 30 creatures on their own is they can become imbalanced which is why, I assume, that Fire Wraith mentioned having a template for players to use when making custom summons.  Builders would have to go through each creature to check each and every ability, feat, special abilities, skills, weapons, skins, and more.  So even though a player built the creatures, the folks checking the creatures (which they will) it's almost as if they're building themselves.

So, according to what I am proposing, how do players get something unique?  1) Players can choose the appearance.  2) Players can choose the template.

This allows the builders a way to quickly add in new summons quickly and also let players have something that is unique to his/her preference.

[MadPhase]

Sounds pretty awesome!

[MadPhase]

In addition, a version of the custom summoning system may be in one of these files. SoT basically posted their whole script/mod/hakpack/custom systems when they took down the server, and they're okay with them being used so long as credit is given:

github.com/shadowsoftilverton/SoT

[dagesh]

I got the system up and running.  Next part is to balance out the creature levels.  I may add a hook for familiars/animal companions to be modified if the admins would like that option.

[Vincent07]

SoT did not post the haks with the module, so unless you have them, stat stuff is unusable.  Also, most of their stuff is tied into NWNX engine stuff we do not use.



As to summons.  I'd prefer to avoid anything involving a .2da line lookup, as those tend to cause lag.  If it's kept small I suppose it might not be too much of an issue.