Familiars can not target items

[Legacy_henesua]

               It is impossible - as far as I can tell - to get a familiar to target an item object. Appears to be a hardcoded limitation.

Anybody else know different?

Since possessed familiars can not take items, I created a feat and spell that enables a creature to take and carry one item targetted by the "caster". Yet no matter how I set up the targetting bits, the familiar is unable to target an item. The game gives prescripted feedback to the effect of "Invalid Target".

I would be happy to hear if others have created a solution to this problem or have ideas for ways around this. The best I can come up with is for the familiar to target the ground next to the item. Or create a conversation that asks the familiar which item they wish to pick up.

Before I go that route I'd like to hear other ideas.
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_Rolo Kipp]

               <reading a scroll...>

If the familiar can't target, but the item is targeted by the master, you could give the familiar an action to move to location of target, destroy target, recreate target in familiar inventory. Or am I not understanding?

My take on this is that the item has been targeted, giving you an object handle to script with. With that you can get the location, you can destroy it and you can recreate it (in effect, moving it into your familiar's inventory). If you can not move the object into the familiar's inventory, you could put it in a special FamiliarIsHoldingThis chest hidden away somewhere.

I'm doing carpentry at the mo, and just sneaking a peek at the laptop, so I can't play around with it... And if I had the time, I'd be spending it trying to straighten out the Rogue's Gallery :-/ But I can still offer ideas :-)

<...on dog training>
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_henesua]

               It isn't a useful ability if the master has to target the item.

Also I've got everything working but item targeting. The goal was to create new opportunities for game play with familiars that can get into and out of places that a wizard can not due to their small size, innocuous appearance, and different modes of movement. An example being the ability to slip out of a jail cell (in which the wizard is imprisoned and gagged), find the key, and bring it back to the wizard. Perhaps a knife as well so that they can cut the gag.

So... how do you achieve this if familiars can't target items? I have a couple ideas for solutions:

• A feat given to the familiar called "Command Familiar" so that when you possess it, you can call up a dialog which will have a number of options available. The "take item" option would generate a list of items that the familiar can see in the immediate vicinity. You could select one and attempt to take it.
• Enrich AID so that a familiar can use emotes to do special actions, actions like taking items etc.... The problem with relying on this is that the amount of work required to implement it properly would push back my release too far. AND then there would still not necessarily be a GUI solution implemented.
• The take item ability enables the familiar to click near an item, and then it searches for the nearest item(s) and then if there is more than one in the area creates a dialog list of choices. I like this the least because it is not intuitive... click on the ground near an item in order to take an item? I don't like it. But maybe I should try it and see how it feels before discounting it.

Any other ideas? I'd be happy to hear them.

Anyway... the OTHER option is to NOT implement the take item feature. I do have other ideas to make innocuous familiars useful:

• enabling touch base spells to be carried and discharged by the familiar.
• enable the wizard to teleport or scry at locations marked by a familiar

I've already got two versions of dimension door that I could add a hook into to make use of a "mark" left by a familiar. One is a short range teleport for the wizard only. The other creates two portals which anyone can use as long as the wizard maintains concentration - concentration is broken when the wizard steps through the portal.
Scry is not yet implemented, but will be soon.

I am somewhat tempted to just stop on explanding familiar abilities... and leave this for later development. Perhaps create a foundation to build from so that I don't need a subsequent release of custom content in order to roll the feature out.
               
               

               

                     Modifié par henesua, 07 février 2012 - 11:08 .
                     
                  

            

[Legacy_Rolo Kipp]

               <thinking...>

I know more than one henchman script gives them the ability to scout around and pick up loot. Perhaps a modification that would let the familiar compile a list of item names and present them to the caster for choosing (going back to the dynamic convo idea) or just bring back a category of item (key) or the richest one... And keep sending them back until they get the right one :-)

Of the three branches of research above, I'd personally like to see the the teleport/scry ability developed :-) I've always wanted to do a cutscene scrying feature...

<...with his fingers>
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_henesua]

               

Rolo Kipp wrote...
I know more than one henchman script gives them the ability to scout around and pick up loot.

Tony K's? I haven't looked into the alternate AIs for these critters yet. On my agenda though.

Rolo Kipp wrote...
I'd personally like to see the the teleport/scry ability developed

Thats easy. All you need is a location to bind to those abilities. The familiar can target the ground.
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_henesua]

               So uh.... Familiars can't launch conversations? What gives? Is there a workaround that will enable you to start a conversation when possessing your familiar?

[edit-- nevermind this is a scripting problem. I'll more the conversation over there]
               
               

               

                     Modifié par henesua, 16 février 2012 - 04:00 .