Undercover monsters...

[Legacy_Rolo Kipp]

                <turning around and around...>

The set up: I love soft limits to systems, and I love, positively *love*, to turn the tables on players... So, I have some very powerful creatures who, like Theseus with Procrustes, *may* appear in any given module I make. These creatures (most of them) are not humanoid. But they travel in guise of the 9 common races of Amethyst. ( Blood & Silver , The Silver Bard, etc)

The effect:   Can you imagine the look of surprise on a player's face when he casts Disjunction on a skinny elven bard... only to turn him into a very old silver dragon? Very old and very ticked...? =) OTOH, if the PC was cautious enough to examine the creature first, I *do* want that old "Impossible" tag to show up, but not the dragon portrait, or description.

The 1st question: Is there a way to change portraits & description (without my current scheme, er, plan of swapping between humanoid & monster version creatures)?

The 2nd question: How would *you* use such undercover defenders (*and* offenders!) in your own modules? What kind of nasty dualities would you be interested in?

Edit: p.s. (to make this post a bit more on topic) I *will* be re-doing the metallic dragons... I *must*!

<...chasing his tail>
               
               

               

                     Modifié par Rolo Kipp, 27 août 2011 - 06:58 .
                     
                  

            

[Legacy_Failed.Bard]

               You could set up some custom polymorph forms, that handles both appearance and portrait all at once.
 If you're just using an appearance change for it, these are the standard portrait changing scripts.  I've never tried either of them though.
SetPortraitId(object oTarget, int nPortraitId)
SetPortraitResRef(object oTarget, string sPortraitResRef)
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_Rolo Kipp]

               <squinting at his glass...>

That's half the battle, anyway. TY :-)
Now, how to change the description?

<...to see how full it is>
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_Failed.Bard]

               Description is just:
SetDescription(object oObject, string sNewDescription="", int bIdentifiedDescription=TRUE)

You'll want to get the current description first, storing it as a local string perhaps, or have both descriptions stored as strings on the creature, and then have it select the one to set.
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_Rolo Kipp]

               <Pulls his frazzled hair out...>

SetDescription? I looked for just such a function in the Lexicon, and it's complement "Get". After your post I looked again, both by search and the alphabetical list... How am I missing it?!

<...in tufts>
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_Lightfoot8]

               

Rolo Kipp wrote...

<Pulls his frazzled hair out...>

SetDescription? I looked for just such a function in the Lexicon, and it's complement "Get". After your post I looked again, both by search and the alphabetical list... How am I missing it?!

<...in tufts>

Are you searching the 1.68 lexicon or the 1.69 lexicon?   If you are useing the 1.68 lexicon, It is not in there. SetDescription was added in the 1.69 update.  

The person who controled the nwnlexicon domain has vanished so the 1.69 lexicon has never been placed online.  You would have to look in the downloadable version.

NWN Lexicon
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_Failed.Bard]

               It looks as though it's not in the lexicon. I think it was added in one of the last few patches, I guess it never made it into the Lexicon afterwards. (Edit:  Lightfoot8 beat me to this part, with an explanation as to why to boot.)

string GetDescription(object oObject, int bOriginalDescription=FALSE, int bIdentifiedDescription=TRUE)
SetDescription(object oObject, string sNewDescription="", int bIdentifiedDescription=TRUE)

plus:
void SetName(object oObject, string sNewName="")

Both are default functions however. Since an NPCs name can also be changed, between appearance, portrait, description, and name changes, there shouldn't be any reason to go with multiple creatures for a single NPC.
               
               

               

                     Modifié par Failed.Bard, 27 août 2011 - 08:30 .
                     
                  

            

[Legacy_Rolo Kipp]

               <would have swallowed a fly...>

Lightfoot8 wrote...

Are you searching the 1.68 lexicon or the 1.69 lexicon?   If you are useing the 1.68 lexicon, It is not in there. SetDescription was added in the 1.69 update.  

The person who controled the nwnlexicon domain has vanished so the 1.69 lexicon has never been placed online.  You would have to look in the downloadable version.

NWN Lexicon

Well, that's just... I just... < ... >

I have the downloaded version (and omnibus, etc) in my docs directory... but for convenience I've had the online version pegged... surprised it took this long to trip me up :-(

Any other big changes between 1.68 & 1.69 I might not be aware of? (Edit: besides those mentioned in the above post...)

(Never had anything but 1.69 Diamond ed.... bought it only *after* buying & installing NwN2. Only to find my G-card doesn't *quite* run NwN2 :-(

(Edit: Now have ElgarL's 1.69 version pegged... :-/)

<...if his mouth hadn't been hanging open so long it grew bored and flew away>
               
               

               

                     Modifié par Rolo Kipp, 27 août 2011 - 09:02 .
                     
                  

            

[Legacy_Lightfoot8]

               It is more compleate whith extra features in places.  an example would be the pictures they added with the vfx* constants

I also find myself being lazy and useing the 1.68 lexicon on the web. so I  have not dug around that much in it.  

Normally when I go into the lexcion it is either because I am not at home, or Im looking for a link to post on the boards here.
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_Rolo Kipp]

               <shakes his head slowly...>

Thanks Lf8. I'm off-grid most of the time, so I use the Dl'd version when I'm actually *working*, er, working @ playing...  :-P

But it's still damn embarrassing to be caught out like that :-)

<...and smiles ruefully>