Creature

From Dragon Age Toolset Wiki
Revision as of 14:10, 4 July 2010 by DerGreif (Talk | contribs) (Properties)

(diff) ← Older revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff)
Jump to: navigation, search
Creature topics:

Autobalance

Autobalance dictates the difficulty of the creature by scaling the creature's abilities to the Adventure Level that is required for the creature. The designer chooses a category and the game engine will then balance the creature appropriately. A 10th-level gimp will be more powerful than a 1st-level gimp but will still be relatively interesting for a 10th-level adventurer to fight (whereas fighting the 1st level creature with a 10th-level character would be boring).

Note: If you choose Do_Not_Autobalance, the creature will come into the world exactly as implemented in the creature editor (i.e., without spells and such because the package system does nothing for them, see below). "[Undocumented] where can i choose Do_Not_Autobalance value?? in the air???"

Packages

Package dictates the creature's theme and affects the creature's difficulty by customizing its repertoire of capabilities.

The packages are used to dictate what kind of spell/talent lists you want your creatures to have. You do not explicitly give spells or talents to creatures; the system decides which ones are appropriate for it to have based on difficulty settings (Difficulty) and the Package. While Packages are not intended to influence the difficulty of a creature (that is what Autobalance, above, is responsible for) different spell lists will be more or less powerful depending on the situation. A healing package, while useful in a group, would make for a weaker one-on-one opponent than a bloodmage package. Generally you choose the Package to fit the theme of the creature.

If you do not select a package type, you can set abilities explicitly by using the "Skills", "Spells" and "Talents" fields. These fields are only available when a package has not been set.

Appearance

To add new appearance types to the game you'll need to edit some 2DAs generated from the APR_base.xls file.

See also: Morphs

Codex Description

The creature's description under the Creatures section of the codex is linked to its appearance. The columns CodexPlot and CodexFlag determine the entry update when the creature is killed, the codex plot flag being updated in the creature_core.nss script.

Refer to the plot entries under _Codex/Creatures in the toolset for examples. When creating plots, keep this this bug in mind Bug:_Duplicating_a_plot_duplicates_the_uneditable_GUID. Otherwise your custom entries will inexplicably fail to work.

Inventory

Each item in a creature's inventory can have the following properties set:

  • Slot - Sets whether the creature has equipped the item. "Not equipped" leaves the item in the general inventory, "Main" puts the item into the creature's main hand, and "off-hand" puts the item into the creature's off hand.
  • Set - Items that are part of a set are meant to be given as a group. !!This is handled in the giving/taking script?!!
  • StackSize - how many copies of this item are present in a stack
  • Droppable - a checkbox that indicates whether the item is dropped when the creature is killed
  • Stealable - a checkbox that indicates whether the item can be stolen from the creature

For automatically-generated treasure, see the treasure system.

Perception

Values are:

  • PerceptRngLng
  • PerceptRngMed
  • PerceptRngShrt
  • PerceptRngMonster
  • PerceptRngPlayer
  • PerceptRngCrowd
  • PerceptRngLargeCreature
  • PerceptRngDefault

"Plot" markers

Icons can be shown floating over the heads of certain creatures to draw the player's attention to them and indicate that they've got some sort of plot importance. To toggle the "plot" icon, use the script function

WR_TogglePlotIcon(object oCreature, int nActive);

in the "wrappers_h" include file.

Variables

Variable name Type Default Description
AI_* See AI
AMBIENT_* see Ambient behaviour
BASE_GROUP int 0
CLIMAX_ARMY_ID int 0 used to mark which army this creature belongs to. Used in the climax to limit the level of the army member
COMBAT_LAST_WEAPON int 0 0 is offhand, 1 is main hand
CREATURE_COUNTER_1 to 3 int 0
CREATURE_DAMAGED_THE_HERO int 0 Used for the Tactician achievement. We want to know if the creature ever damaged the Hero.
CREATURE_DO_ONCE_A and B int
CREATURE_HAS_TIMER_ATTACK int 0 A flag for the threat system to know if this is the first time a creature needs to move so the command can be disabled to re-evalute threat if needed
CREATURE_LYRIUM_USE int 0
CREATURE_REWARD_FLAGS int 0 1 if the creature should never receive XP (e.g. a non-party member who fights for the good guys in a battle)
CREATURE_RULES_FLAG0 int 0
CREATURE_SPAWN_COND int 0
CREATURE_SPAWN_DEAD int 0 When set to 1 the creature is spawned in a dead state. If it's set to 2, the creature is spawned feigning death, but can get up and fight the character with the help of UT_CombatStart() or UT_TeamGoesHostile() (set such creatures to be part of a non-hostile group, otherwise the feigning won't be very effective and the player can walk over and kill them while they lie there snarling ineffectually)
CREATURE_SPAWN_HEALTH_MOD float 0 What proportion of the creature's health it starts out with (0 to 1)
CREATURE_SPAWNED int 0 1 if the creature fired the spawn event before. 0 if the creature never fired the spawn event before.
DEBUG_TRACKING_POS float 0
DEBUG_TRACKING_POS_Y float 0
FLAG_STOLEN_FROM int 0 If the creature has already been stolen from. Setting this to 1 will make a creature unable to be stolen from. See Treasure system.
FOLLOWER_SCALED int 0
GO_HOSTILE_ON_PERCEIVE_PC int 0 If the creature perceives the PC group - change from neutral, go hostile and attack
IS_SUMMONED_CREATURE int 0
LOOKAT_DISABLED int 0 Set to 1 to disable lookat when creature is spawned
MIN_LEVEL int 0 min level to scale the creature, regardless of any other scaling rules. 0 means no min.
PHYSICS_DISABLED int 0
ROAM_DISTANCE float 0 This should usually be 0 unless you are having trouble with creatures chasing the PC for long distances.
RUBBER_HOME_ENABLED int 1 When true, the "rubberband home" system will cause the creature to return to its home location in various circumstances.
RUBBER_HOME_LOCATION_FACING float 0
RUBBER_HOME_LOCATION_X, Y and Z float Defaults to the location that the creature is initially placed on the level. The home location is updated after any QuickMove or LocalJump command.
SHOUTS_ACTIVE int 0
SHOUTS_DELAY float 3
SHOUTS_DIALOG_OVERRIDE resource NONE
SOUND_SET_FLAGS_0 to 2 int 0
SPAWN_HOSTILE_LYING_ON_GROUND int 0
STAT_CRIT int 0
STAT_DMG int 0
STAT_HIT int 0
STAT_MISS int 0
SURR_DIALOG_OVERRIDE resource
SURR_INIT_CONVERSATION int 0 If this is true, creature will initiate conversation with the player upon surrendering. Automatically set to false after the conversation initiates.
SURR_PLOT_FLAG int 0 Flag within SURR_PLOT_NAME that is set to true when the creature surrenders.
SURR_PLOT_NAME string none Plot whose flag defined in SURR_PLOT_FLAG. If blank, no flag will be set.
SURR_SURRENDER_ENABLED int 0 Allows the creature to surrender instead of fighting to the death. 0 disables surrendering, 1 enables surrendering. This variable will be set to 2 while the creature is actually in the act of surrendering.
TS_OVERRIDE_* see Treasure system
TS_TREASURE_GENERATED int Set this to -1 if you don't want creatures to drop any loot based on the TS (Treasure System) .2DA tables. At -1, nothing should appear on the corpse unless you put it there. Not sure what other values do.

Properties

General
Character One or more creatures can be mapped to a single character resource. This resource determines which FaceFX appearance is used when editing the creature's facial performance.
Class
Comments General information about this creature.
Conversation the default conversation resource for this creature.
Copper The amount of money the creature is carrying. The game will display money as "gold", "silver" and "copper" values based on the value entered here.
Description Description of the creature as seen in the game
DescriptionRequiresReTranslation A flag used during game development for keeping track of localization work
Gender can be male, female, or neutral
Group The creature's group as specified in groups.2da. Each group can be either hostile or non-hostile towards each other. See creature groups for more detail.
Interactive if set to true, the creature can be clicked on. If set to false, the creature can not be clicked on.
Inventory Determines what the creature is carrying. Items are taken from the item palette. See the Inventory section for more detail.
Name Name of the creature as seen in the game
NameRequiresReTranslation A flag used during game development for keeping track of localization work
PerceptionRange determines how far the creature can detect things in the world around it.
Plot Giver Puts a glowing exclaimation mark over the creature's head to attract the player's attention.
Race Certain races have bonuses to various attributes, restrictions on classes, and so forth, as defined in various 2das. race/race.2da contains a list of available races.
Resource Name A unique string identifier the toolset and the game both use to refer to this resource.
Tag A non-unique string identifier used mostly by scripts and other resources to refer to this resource.
Team A numeric tag. All creatures with the same team number belong to the same team, which is often used in scripting plot-related events.
Variable 2da Allows selection of a variable table. Only the values in the table can be set and retrieved by scripting.
Variables Displays the table selected in the variable 2da field. Allows initial values to be defined.
Abilities
Skills Selecting this property opens a skill selection list where you can add any number of pre-defined skill levels to the creature.
Spells Similar to the Skills property, but for spells.
Talents Similar to the Skills and Spells properties, but for talents.
AI
Script The script that controls this creature's behavior. Defaults to creature_core.
Appearance
Appearance Base appearance type for the creature. Can be a full body, or a base body in which other parts can be added (hair, head, and eyes)
Art Fidelity This field is primarily used by art leads to determine which characters need additional work.
Beard
Body Tint
Body Tint Mask
Eye Color
Eyes Available for some appearance types, allows selecting different eye models
Hair Available for some appearance types, allows selecting different eye models
Hair Color
Head Available for some appearance tupes, allows selecting different head models
Head Morph Specifies the head morph to use for this creature. See morph.
Head Tint
Head Tint Mask
Skin Color
Package/Scaling
General Package Type
Max Level The maximum level of the creature in the selected Class. NOTE: "The min and max [level] fields are unusable currently. You will need to either make an areas.xls extension for your area (and specify the level range that you want) or set the MIN_LEVEL local variable on the creatures to something appropriate." - Craig Graff, Bioware. link
Min Level The minimum level of the creature in the selected Class.
Package Used for AI and the scaling system. A package will also pick the default stat values for a creature (attributes and resistances)
Package AI The name of the selected AI Package 2DA that contains the tactics table.
Rank A general difficulty level used by the autoscaling system
Treasure Category Determines what kinds of treasure is generated by the treasure generation system when the creature is killed.
Special
Creature type Combatant/Non-Combatant
Immortal if true, the creature can not get below 1hp and die.
No Permanent Death e.g., party members ('dead' party members get up again after combat unless the whole party is wiped out).
Plot If true, the creature cannot be damaged or affected by any hostile effect.