Starting a new mod. Looking for persons wanting to help. (DND)

i think you will find that there are several people around here that have similar interests to you. i wish you luck as i love D&D as well.

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Some aspects may be a little tricky currently. Like acquiring feats as you level up. Well in fact the whole leveling process. But that just depends on how close to DnD you want to get. Personally I'd be interested to see if it is possible to have the NPC factions treat you as an individual rather than a country, i.e. not going to war with you as if you were a country to over throw.

Are you wanting it to be where you are a ruler in a D&D setting, or where you are just an adventurer doing quests etc? The latter I think will be alot harder to get right. Though I think it could make for a very interesting mod. NPC countries vying for power between them with no pesky player country outwitting them! So the world evolves naturally around you as you do quests etc.

I'd be a willing subject to bounce ideas off and maybe provide a little coding/effects help. But I don't really have the time available to me to be fully involved in a large mod.

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Thanks for the kind words. As to more details, I haven't decided on a specific setting/area. I have made a few design decisions already.

Class Specific Details: Which is since Elemental doesn't do different caster types, I'm not going to worry about bard/druid/paladin/ranger spells. I have thought about implementing Cleric spells. Question is when/where. As it stands I've added 3 to Cleric Spell Level - which makes a Cure Light Wounds a Level 4 spell. Inputs/Feedback welcome. My thought was I'd allow them but make it harder. Default Elemental does have healing type spells. I'm not sure I can add when levelling up, but I can give champions a few from the start. I can make what I need to. Like a "Smite Evil" or "Piercing Shot". I don't want godly adventurers as champions. Nor was I thinking of making Elminster or Khelben Faction heads. Maybe Piergeron, the open lord, of Waterdeep since he's the visible head of power. The one tricky thing about making spells right now is not being able to use caster's level. I have mathematically found an equation to take a Intelligence value and determine the Int modifier. Us humans can look at a player's handbook, but give the computer an equation and it's 100% accurate too. (y=1/2 x - 5 , where x = Intelligence and y=Int. modifier ). So I'm looking at using the Int Modifier as basis for damage multiplier, thus rewarding the player for levelling up and making every 2 points of intelligence matter.

Oh and sovereigns would rule their faction. Whether the player wants to risk them in adventures is entirely up to the individual. I think it behooves one to get xp and level it up. Or you can find a nice champion and imbue them I suppose too. I'd like to see quests flavored with FR, but thats one of the last things to work on?

Setting Details: TBD. Not sure. I'm not opposed to anywhere, I'd like to replace the Elemental factions with ones from FR. I threw out some places for factions already. Probably need feedback here the most. Maybe have the "good" factions be Kingdoms and "bad" be Empires. I think this is problem I have, are there 8 to 12 factions in an area or should I not worry about it, per se? Use Menzo/Waterdeep and Phlan/ZK and NW/Luskan. Boom! That's 6 already. Any preferences? Any favorites? Also not sure who'd be best to counter them but a RWoT (Red Wizards of Thay) thrown in there too.

Also taking requests to turn your favorite adventurers into Champions.

(I've got Jaheira and Minsc on a to-do list)

I've done a tad of coding work already. I'm near releasing a first version, just need to polish a bit and add a few more spells.. and that's where I'm at with it.

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What kind of help do you need, and how will all this be organized?

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It would actually be fairly easy to do different caster types. You'd still have to research all spells together however you can easily prevent spells or abilities being cast based on attributes. So you make a few new attributes, IsDruid, IsCleric etc etc then make the spell only cast able if the e.g. IsDruid attribute is 1 or greater, could even use it as druid levels as you level up and manually increase it unlocking more spells. So the choices at level up would be either attributes or class levels.

You could do non caster types in a similar way and grant a batch of abilities to the unit based on class type that "unlock" as you level. However unlike with spells these will all show up for the unit as unavailable rather than just not being in the spell book.

It should also be possible to read books / drink potions to grant abilities as well, which is another option that could be considered. i.e. have a quest which is to learn the ability. The reward is the book... unless quests can grant abilities? Not played around with them.

I've give opinions about which background fluff to go for but I don't really know enough about it. We've always done very home brewed stuff.

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Help needed. hmhm.

Can someone tell me how to implement basic items? Like making a leg of lamb restoring 10hp and costing double salted pork? I need some help there. Also in making potions and getting them into the shop.

Well this would go faster with another coding. Could break into sections with others. Also am looking for content input and some kind of help keeping it within the realms. Like I know we can't implement the whole PHB so which spells are important? Maybe if someone wanted to go over spells I made and update their graphics? I've made the spells functional and use existing game effects and graphics. I've taught myself Elemental modding by looking the xml. A person more experienced (either in xml, elemental or both) may help add functionality and be able to implement more spells than I alone could not.

Also due to coding limitations (either the engine or the coder), I can't have different things summoned in the same spell. I'm talking about Summon Monster I thru IX. Like good caster gets a celestial dire badger and evil summons a fiendish dire rat, etc. Or something random gets summoned. We're going to have to pick one per spell. Also for same reason I wouldn't be able to implement a choice of 'conjuration' at Sov creation. Thereby giving someone who spent points a boost to what gets summoned. A cool idea I thought, but no way to implement. Ideas for Sov creation options welcomed.

Also some honest opinions is what I need. How does the overall project sound so far?

I will definitely need feedback on balancing and most likely need help with that. Sometimes "cool" is overpowered. Sometimes while I meant well in terms of balance they just aren't.

Mod organization: Will take any feedback. I was thinking perhaps two folders, maybe 3. Like one for just spells, 2nd for items and 3rd for FR realm specific.

I don't see why to implement opposing spellbooks (or way to do it). I've just been using existing game made spellbooks... For example "Evocation" is combat and conveniently "Enchantment" is enchantment. Healing type spells are life.

Doing the xml files I've broken them up by level so far. It'd be easy (I think) for someone to get the current version of the mod add in some spells send it back, check one file (CoreSpellbooks.xml) and boom we can update the mod. For spells. Champions we could maybe break up by alphabet. Items I've not gotten too. or Factions.

I'm also open to ideas if you've got some about what works. One last thought is keeping the mod compatible with Updated Weapons mod, ACP, and Artifact. To a lesser extent Expanded Factions (If we're just modding in spells/items at the time ) I realize once we get to our own factions its out the door possibly. I am not sure it's possible entirely, but as a guide to try as a baseline.

Lastly, thanks NimbyJester. I have a feeling I'm a need all the help I can get.

Without further ado, going to do an initial release for starting point.

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Here's the very first inkling of the mod and what I've done so far. I also plan on giving it's own thread with an [eMod] tag.

http://www.4shared.com/file/0jqaeYsA/Forgotten_Realms_Mod_v01.html]Forgotten Realms Mod v01.zip

http://www.4shared.com/file/FaHRsM9D/Spells_and_Items_DND_Mod_v01.html]Spells and Items DND Mod v01.zip

Just unzip the folders to the mods directory to install, and delete if you want uninstall.

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Nimby, about the casters are you referring to different champions being different classes or the Sovereign? Also how far has anyone gotten their Sov/Champion/units along? Seems like it gets slow going around 6. Perhaps if we upped xp gain or added quests for xp. ? I'm also not sure how to just add attributes... can you provide example?

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Adding a stat will (as far as I know) add the use of it to all unit types and goes a little like this:

Create a new XML file called whatever you want.
Add the following to the XML file:
Code: xml
1. <?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1"?>
2. <PlayerAbilityTypes>
3. <DataChecksum NoParse="1">
4. <Ignore>DisplayName,DisplayNameShort,Description,Icon</Ignore>
5. <Translate>DisplayName,DisplayNameShort,Description</Translate>
6. </DataChecksum>
7. </PlayerAbilityTypes>
Add each new stat type in after  :
Code: xml
1. <?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1"?>
2. <PlayerAbilityTypes>
3. <DataChecksum NoParse="1">
4. <Ignore>DisplayName,DisplayNameShort,Description,Icon</Ignore>
5. <Translate>DisplayName,DisplayNameShort,Description</Translate>
6. </DataChecksum>
7. 
8. <UnitStatType InternalName="UnitStat_STATNAME_MODNAME">
9. <DisplayName>STATNAME</DisplayName>
10. <DisplayNameShort>SN</DisplayNameShort>
11. <Description>Something descriptive.</Description>
12. <Icon>STATICON.png</Icon>
13. <Hidden>1</Hidden>
14. <DefaultValue>0.0</DefaultValue>
15. <AffectPerLevelUpPoint>0.0</AffectPerLevelUpPoint>
16. <Upgradeable>0</Upgradeable>
17. </UnitStatType>
18. </PlayerAbilityTypes>

In this case we add pretty useless stat called "STATNAME". It has a default value of zero (<DefaultValue>), can't be seen in the unit panel (<Hidden>), can not be increased at level up (<Upgradeable>) and even if it could it would increase by zero (<AffectPerLevelUpPoint>). However an item could increase the stat, or spell etc by referencing the internal name [UnitStat_STATNAME_MODNAME]. Please note I have put the mod name on the end rather than the start as there is a possibility that having UnitStat_ at the front may be used in code.

I'd probably use this as a boolean type deal. So the stat might be called UnitStat_IsCleric_DND, and have the above zero values. Then use a background trait to set it to 1 to denote that they are a cleric etc.

If you were wanting an attribute that could be increased per level then I'd do the following:

Code: xml
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1"?>
<PlayerAbilityTypes>
 <DataChecksum NoParse="1">
  <Ignore>DisplayName,DisplayNameShort,Description,Icon</Ignore>
  <Translate>DisplayName,DisplayNameShort,Description</Translate>
 </DataChecksum>
 <!-- Unit Stats -->
 <UnitStatType InternalName="UnitStat_ClassLevels_DND">
  <DisplayName>Class Levels</DisplayName>
  <DisplayNameShort>CL</DisplayNameShort>
  <Description>Number of levels in your class focus.</Description>
  <Icon>ClassLevels.png</Icon>
  <Hidden>0</Hidden>
  <DefaultValue>0.0</DefaultValue>
  <AffectPerLevelUpPoint>1.0</AffectPerLevelUpPoint>
  <Upgradeable>1</Upgradeable>
 </UnitStatType>
</PlayerAbilityTypes>

Here the Stat Class Levels is not hidden, it's default value is still zero (background choice would set it to one perhaps). The amount it increases per level up point spent in to it is one (<AffectPerLevelUpPoint>) and you can spend level up points in it (<Upgradeable>) and is visible in the unit pannel (<Hidden>). Note that even if Hidden was set to 1 it may still be visible due to it being Upgradeable.

The main issue with adding in upgradeable stats is that the levelup screen does not re-size and has no scroll bar. So you can end up with stats that are not visible when leveling up. Though if I recall you can use the mouse wheel to scroll down despite there being no scroll bar.

I'd then combine the two as requirements for spells using the RequiredStat tag:

Code: xml
<RequiredStat>UnitStat_IsCleric_DND, 1</RequiredStat>
<RequiredStat>UnitStat_ClassLevels_DND, 3</RequiredStat>

Though note I have not checked if you can use multiple required stat tags, I am just assuming that will work in this case. Otherwise having individual class levels would clutter up the GUI.

Also note that by default the Sov will ignore all required stat tags, however it can be modded to the Sov does not ignore them.

Edit: I can't spell. Also as a personal aside;I am assuming that someone new or different coded the new <RequiredStat> tags as they are not in the same format as the others (i.e. comma separated!).

+1

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Sorry, but unfortunately, I have no experience modding, I was looking for somewhere to start. Maybe I'll ask around.

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You're welcome to help out if you want ArcElement.

@NimbyJester: Question, do you think can make certain spells have different requirements? Like a Druid gets healy type spells slower than a Cleric. Cure Light would be level 2 for a Druid and not 1, for example. Think that's going to be too much and I should leave well enough alone? Wow. Thanks for the examples. I am going to implement it. Before you gave me the way for going ahead with different casters, was just thinking of doing some different champions with 1 or 2 feats each. Now there's going to be bards, druids, clerics, wizards, along with the fighters/rangers/paladins/rogues.

I think I may go with the first. Reason being Sovereigns are not limited. If it's researched they have access. From a caster's POV working for a faction. If the faction has access, they have access.

Re: Wisdom. I don't think you can increase that on level ups. I may have to stick to INT and have everyone pretend it's the universal prime casting stat.

Again, thanks a bunch for your help and input! Happy new year and I'm off to work on the mod again.

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Happy New year!

I think wisdom was removed from the game, no reason why you can't just add it back in again though (ensuring the internal name isn't the same as the old one in case any old code tie ins remain).

I think you would have to split Cure Light into multiple spells. I've found out that you can have multiple required stat tags and they all appear to be ANDed together. Which will effectively limit each spell to one class. However it isn't too great a leap in imagination to think that it may require researching twice as I'd imagine the way a Druid and Cleric cast would be quite different anyway. Just the final effect would be the same.

Although instead of classes you could group the magic into schools then unlock the schools based on the class choice. It wouldn't allow you to unlock the spell at a different time but you could then have some other hidden stats to determine a base spell strength. So druids say only get 50% healing strength. Not quite the same thing I know, but if the spirit of the original idea of DnD was to make Druids weaker healers, then it would serve the same purpose. Likewise Wizards may do less damage than Sorcs but have access to more schools of magic etc. Bizarrely you would be able to do damage based of the correct primary stat with the same spell as well; by multiplying the stat bonus by the class attribute, that would make one huge spell def!

There is also the possibility that you could have an attribute for the circle level of spells you know up to. Then increase this based off reading a book. The ability connected to the book would then be limited to a particular class and level. The only issue with that is I've not messed around with that sort of item before and there would be nothing stopping someone from reading the book and it doing nothing at all (due to not being the right class or level). Which could be quite frustrating depending on how much they cost. Then there is the issue of them cluttering the shop up. Of course you could make a spell with imbues the knowledge, which resolves shop clutter at the cost of spell clutter.

Ooooh I just thought of a nasty spell that can be made if a generic casting level is used. Level drain . I don't think there is a spell currently in Elemental that will have the effect of lowering the level of spells the target caster can use, but all this should make it possible.

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Another nasty thought. Armour could then reduce casting level!

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Also can think about debilitating spells like enfeeble and feeblemind. *evil laugh* .

Hmm I can make a book of druids, book of clerics, book of bards, book of pallys, book of rangers, that player must research in order to have access (unlock). Each spellbook's spells tie directly to proper casting attribute. Can give druids better results on summons. Hmhmhm.

I wouldn't put it too far into tech tree, two branches or so at most. Like Divine branching off into Clerics and Druids, Other Arcanes -> Bard, Sorc, Martial Casters -> Paladin & Ranger.

Much to think about, but you're definitely onto something, thanks for your inputs. I'll definitely be using it.

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Question: have you gotten an enchant spell to work with minvalue and maxvalue? Just wondering if something I did wrong or non-damage spells don't work like that. Most things like Bull's and Mage armor etc. are a fixed amount. False Life I was trying to use our formula of 10hp + intelligence modifier again. Seemed like it didn't work at all.

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Think you might be right that min/max only works for damage spells. 10hp + intelligence modifier should work if you output the result to Value rather than having a min/max.

I'm pritty sure you can't increase your CurHealth above your Full Health value. So False Life would have to increase your full health as well as adding to CurHealth after. I don't think having a duration works for CurHealth either. I'll have a little play with it when I get home, if I remember.

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Quoting Supreme Shogun,

reply 15

Question: have you gotten an enchant spell to work with minvalue and maxvalue? Just wondering if something I did wrong or non-damage spells don't work like that. Most things like Bull's and Mage armor etc. are a fixed amount. False Life I was trying to use our formula of 10hp + intelligence modifier again. Seemed like it didn't work at all.

I haven't been able to get any sort of Calculations to work with enchantment spells. A shame, really.

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Really? That's quite surprising. I mostly play around with tactical spells, but if what you say is correct then.. well..

+1

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Thanks both for your advice. After some testing of my own, tried False Life with the suggestion NimbyJester said and it works! I didn't get anything out of min/max but assigning my final calculation to an internalname="value" worked..

Variable strength enchants here we come!

Edit: For Clarity, Min/Max try was first. Just using "Value" was second try which worked.

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