Creating spells

[FerretMugger]

(Question: If you add a script effect to one of the existing race abilities, and the script adds a new spell, will all actors of that race be given the new spell?)

 

If you add it to an existing race, then yes i should imagine so. As far as i know, any changes you make to a race will affect all actors that use that race, of course i could be wrong though.

 

Oh wait, were you asking that to Parkillous?

[Abramul]

Oh wait, were you asking that to Parkillous?

No, it was a general question. From what I've heard, adding stuff to an actor's base reference doesn't add it to that actor if the game has already determined what that specific instance has. But, from my experience (fixing a quest-related scripted spell), changes to spells that a specific instance of an actor has DO affect that actor. I have not tried this with abilities, and for that matter I don't know if script effects work properly for abilities, but I expect it would be the same.

[Vagrant0]

Oh wait, were you asking that to Parkillous?

No, it was a general question. From what I've heard, adding stuff to an actor's base reference doesn't add it to that actor if the game has already determined what that specific instance has. But, from my experience (fixing a quest-related scripted spell), changes to spells that a specific instance of an actor has DO affect that actor. I have not tried this with abilities, and for that matter I don't know if script effects work properly for abilities, but I expect it would be the same.

In my experience, scripted abilities work fine, and are the only way to do scripted enchantments on armor. The script still has to work, but there isn't anything wrong with the application as is. As for applying it to an already existing race, I believe you are correct, you would have to make a new game to see the effect on anything. However I havn't done any real work on races, so don't quote me on this.

 

If you're just trying to give the player some sort of super ability, it's usually easier to just add an "addspell" function to an easily (and readily obtainable) item (first thing I did), or make a quest which adds that spell on startup. Creating a new race (or birthsign) just usually isn't worth the trouble. You can add racial qualifiers within the quest script if you "must" have a specific look to the race should you want to do so later. However unless you know that the ability works as intended, it doesn't help you any.

[Parkillous]

Aight thanks guys... ill try that stuff out in a week or so... i got too much school stuff on atm so yeah.

[FerretMugger]

i got too much school stuff on atm so yeah.

Well, thats understandable. I did have a look last night but didn't really come up with anything. I played around with a copied version of my own little custom race and then created and added random spells to it. But all of them seemed to work ok. All i can think of for you to try, i think it has already been mentioned here i cant remember, is to add an existing spell to your race, start a new game and see if that spell works. Then you could try renaming and editing that spell, of course you would have to add it to your race again when a new form (AND ID) is created.

 

The only other thing i can think if is pretty obvious, what is the skill level and cost of the spell set to? If the skill and cost is higher that your starting character has, e.g.: if it is a master skill and they are only apprentice, then it probable won't work. You could try changing these in the bottom of the edit spell window.

[Parkillous]

Yeh I made is cost 0 and novice... I wanted it to be a once a day power one.

 

Initially it was:

- fortify luck 100 for 120

- shield 50 for 120

- spell absorbtion 50 for 120

 

then i tried:

- fortify luck 100 for 120.

 

both didnt work.

 

I might get a chance to try again tonight, ill see how i go.

[Parkillous]

I tested putting in adreniline rush into the custom race and it worked fine... then after trying many times to get the custom spell to work i have up... so ive decided to use one or two of the 3 spriggan heal powers... im quite sure people will get over the fact that spriggans will no longer get as many chances to heal themselves for 500 points lol...

 

Anyways i edited the spriggan heal to my custom power and it worked fine.

 

If anyone can find a way that i dont have to use spriggan heals that would be appreciated otherwise i can just put it as a little side note when i release this. Hopefully big mods like OOO dont muck around with the spriggan spell list or the spriggan spells themselves (yes i removed it from their list so they dont get and uber fotify luck, etc spell... they already have 100 luck lol)...

 

etc.

[FerretMugger]

Well all i did to create a custom spell was edit an existing spell to what i wanted, then renamed it and gave it a different editor ID. I changed the spell effects to what i wanted and changed the spell level to novice and the cost to something like 35. then i clicked ok, and yes when it asked me to create a new form. Once i had done that i dragged it into the special - spells table in the general data tab of my custom race and it worked fine. This worked for a lesser power and an ability that i made. I can't think what might be wrong on your end.

 

But congrats on finding a temp way around ur problem though.

[Parkillous]

hmmm well what I did was right click on an existing spell and selecting 'new', maybe thats the problem... btw with the power you edited, did that remain once you changed the id of yours or can you no longer use it?

[FerretMugger]

The spell i edited hasn't been changed and it still works the same way it used to, because i changed the editor ID and changed the name of the spell. If you do this, the CS tells you that the ID has changed and asks if you want to create a new form. If you click yes, it just creates a new one and leaves what you edited alone.

 

If you click 'new' spell it shouldn't cause any problems, all it should do is just make a new one when you click ok, as long as you have filled in the boxes. :)