Ally Management - Caster and Tank

[digital_V]

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ABOUT ME

 

Hello, new user here nice to meet you all. I am a beginner at modding but I am familiar with most commands and features of NPCs in the editor, but no experience with terrain, maps, dungeons or programming scripts, so please don't hold back any scripting advice.

 

I have basic and C++ experience so I'm sure I can understand the commands and learn the Oblivion programming language eventually. I have been working on this MOD on and off for about a year. My progress was halted by a burned out video card, and I was forced to downgrade for a while, but now I am ready to start again, equipped with my new Geforce series 8 video card.

 

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MOD DESCRIPTION

 

I am trying to make a small team of allies based on MMORPG lines. I am looking to create a tank like class ally to be very aggressive and stay in the front lines and a caster type to stay behind and debuff and use ranged attacks only. I am currently having trouble getting them to fight the way I want them to.

 

I have developed the two allies so far - a caster and a melee fighter- each with their own skills and basic AI. They are both creature allies and I created their own custom AI sets : one for melee combat, and one for ranged.

 

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TERMINOLOGY

 

I play MMORPGs a lot and use these terms without thinking so I will give brief definitions of these terms just in case.

 

Aggro : when someone/something engages in combat and pursues/attacks an enemy target.

 

Kite : to stay out of melee range most of the time and use range attacks only, while taking minimal damage themselves.

 

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THE CASTER

 

The caster I created seems to run away and/or never attacks back (and I have AI on do not flee) and does not pursue correctly, or "aggros" something in a another room and does not move until the monster they aggroed is dead (the caster ally will stand there running in place and never engage if the enemy is through a wall). Is there a way to lower "aggro" range?

 

I am having a difficult time making an ranged class ally because they always seem to prefer to melee even though I have their AI set to "prefer ranged". It seems the indoor dungeons have this problem the most, for some reason ranged AI deteriorates in a closed in area. The AI seems to only let them kite in straight lines and not adjust to twisty areas of a cave.

 

I have tried creating human archers also, and they pull out their fists even though they have a powerful bow! I remember fighting a wood elf scout in a forest and he would kite me and attack well, and I basically could NOT hit him because of my speed, although he could barely hurt me. Now that is an ally I would like on my side. Any advice here is appreciated as well.

 

I am also trying to give the caster ally better self-preservation AI, such as if it's Health is below a certain point, it will kite and heal itself until it's health is back at a safe percentage.

 

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THE TANK

 

The tank class I made has some issues with staying in melee range with it's target. It will walk backwards, and do a "standoff" after it performs a certain number of melee attacks instead of hacking away at the enemy, and then reengage in combat. I lowered the standoff range to 0 and it still backs off for a second. Is there a way to make a melee ally continuously attack and not back away?

 

I would also like it's damage to scale better with level, because right not it seems overpowered at low levels or too weak at high levels. I have tried different combinations of attack multipliers but am still suffering of this problem.

 

I am looking to create a "taunt" skill that gives the tank 100% aggro to all enemies in the area for a duration, and also a melee attack that would slow their targets run speed, is this possible?

 

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LEVELING OPTIONS

 

I would also like to somehow have my allies' spells increase with my level, so they are not so overpowered early on. I was not able to have any success using the LVL?? spell options I am probably doing something wrong. I am looking to do something like this:

 

Level 1 - Fireball - 2-5 damage

Level 2 - Fireball - 3-6 damage

Level 3 - Spell Learned! Your caster has learned Healing - heals 10-20 damage

 

Basically I would like to know if there is a way for an ally to learn a new spell and also have their other skills' damage increase with their level, is this possible? I would think it is, but I must have made a mistake somewhere.

 

As of now their level increases with my own, but I have no way of monitoring their stats because the CS only uses multipliers and I can't see exactly how their are increasing in hp/mp/str etc. If there is a way to calculate the progression per level please let me know.

 

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GENERAL QUESTIONS

 

Another problem I have is that once one of my allies (accidentally) attacks another ally they will kill each other. I have them both set to the same faction but they still "aggro" each other from friendly fire, is there a way to make ranged attacks or melee attacks not hurt same faction allies or ignore the damage altogether?

 

Lastly, I would like to know if it is possible to make enemy monsters stronger (since I will have two allies) and not just more health, the difficultly slider just seems to do the latter: I have long battles and the enemy will live forever but hardly do any damage itself. Is there a way to spawn more enemies, or is it limited because of performance issues?

 

Oh yes, and a general question about the game itself, is it possible to change the keybindings in game? I am an arrow user and not a WASD user so the 1-9 bindings are horrible for me, and makes playing a caster very tedious, if there is a way to change these default bindings? Please let me know thanks (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif) I would rather use the keypad for spell bindings, I hope this is possible.

 

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Thank you ahead of time for any advice anyone is able to give me.

 

Good day to you all.

[Vagrant0]

The main problem with companion mods is that the AI generally sucks for anything that you don't want just running in and dying right away (arena fan, mage's guild apprentices, skinned dog). This is because the AI can't adjust fast enough to conditions in combat (or anything else). While you can technically solve some of the shortcommings with scripting, you really can't actually make them fight with much order, as you've noticed. Sure, when they're attacking you, they may seem challenging, but when they're following you, their IQ drops lower than that of broccoli.

 

As far as strengths go, since you're using creatures, and nor NPCs things get a bit more complicated since you can't adjust their skill sets. The caster may be set to magic skills, but still may not have enough skill or magicka to use the spells they know. Additionally, the fighter won't gain the specific skills they need, so will become weaker at higher levels when equipment alone isn't doing it. You can get around this by either making NPCs, and setting the class to skills which they are using, or are tied to important stats, or you can use scripting to add/remove abilities from your NPCs to adjust their skills/stats properly (very time consuming), and giving your caster spells which have no skill requirements.

 

As for the issues with the combat AI, make sure they have higher skill in the weapon you want them to use. If you want them to use ranged attacks, you need to tell them to maintain a certain distance from the target. For this you might have to use scripting which lowers their confidence if their target gets within a certain distance, then raising it again. If their confidence is low, they will try to run from their target, or other targets. Using scripting to adjust confidence can also let you make your caster start running if he falls below a certain amount of health and the current target is too close to force a heal spell (NPCs won't normally heal on their own, if you force them to cast a heal spell when they fall below half health, they tend to live longer).

 

Getting your tank to attack constantly might not be possible, about the closest you can get would be 100% attack chance, 100% rushing attack chance, and playing with a few other settings. However this may lead your tank to hitting people when they're blocking, and getting killed themselves.

 

Getting faction members to not kill eachother can usually be fixed by having them have a high disposition to their own faction, and having "special combat" checked.