Creating a new ability

[Salk]

Hello!

I'd like to create a new ability for one of my familiar (rabbit): Burrow.

 

What I want to accomplish is this:

 

- outside only

- the enemy will completely ignore the creature (would op 153 do?)

- the creature will be stuck in place to simulate being underground

- if possible find a nice animation that would replace the rabbit avatar for the duration of the spell

- Immunity to damage

 

Suggestions about how to do all this?

Thanks.

[Miloch]

Sounds like you want a sort of custom invisibility, set "not indoors" in the .spl, improved invis (#20), non-detection (#69), movement rate=0 (#176) and other stuff. If you want the creature totally immune to stuff while burrowed, you can copy effects from Otiluke's Resilient Sphere.

 

I'm not sure what kind of animation you would want for a burrowing rabbit. Ankhegs have burrowing animations, but that's specific to them. You can try different visual and coloring effects if you want. I would just make it invisible probably (it's underground after all).

[kreso]

- the enemy will completely ignore the creature (would op 153 do?)

 

It will play Sanctuary animation afaik, and creatures with ID via script are pretty likely to ignore it alltogether. Your best bet is using opcode 100 (Protection from Creature type)- EA.ids - enemy.

Immunity to damage is Immunity to effect opcode 12 iirc, as for the animation - no idea. There is an animation with "pile of dust" which is triggered once something gets disintegrated. Is this familiar a mole?!

Speaking of which, it would be awesome if this familiar you're making turns into a dragon once in a while...

[Salk]

Thank you very much for all the suggestions.

 

I will ask more as I go...

 

And kreso... I am trying to make things plausible enough. The initial idea is nice, I think albeit not so realistic (it'd take a long time for a rabbit to make the hole) but turn it into a dragon...

 

Miloch, when I spoke about animation I was exactly thinking of the Ankheg... I know nothing but I was wondering whether or not it was possible to adjust it in some way so that only some specific frames are used... It is complicated but perhaps with your help I can make it...

[Miloch]

Miloch, when I spoke about animation I was exactly thinking of the Ankheg... I know nothing but I was wondering whether or not it was possible to adjust it in some way so that only some specific frames are used... It is complicated but perhaps with your help I can make it...

The burrowing ankheg animation is what I would call "wonky" (I think Erephine actually called it "broken"), but in theory it could be resized to rabbit dimensions. The relevant files are makhd*.bam. You could run BAM Resizer on it, but you would end up with literally just a few pixels for a rabbit-sized animation. So I dunno if it'd be worth it. You could just play a smaller animation over it, maybe even the "chunking" animation for when it burrows (spchunks.bam). If you look at opcode #215 in the IESDP, it describes some of the existing effects you can use.

[Salk]

Miloch,

 

Movement Rate set to 0 doesn't look good because it shows the moving animation whereas I want it to be immobile. I used opcode 76 (Feeblemindness) to accomplish this. Does it seem right to you?

 

I'd also like to make the avatar's color change in a way that Stoneskin does but brown instead of grey. So far I didn't manage to accomplish that. Do you have any advice?

 

One more thing, about the animation... is there a way to slow it down and use only some specific frames?

 

Thanks!

[Jarno Mikkola]

Also, about the animation... is there a way to slow it down and use only some specific frames?

Erhm, the creature animation can be set so that it only shows one frame at every second if you like... it takes a quite bit of doing, but it can be done. As you in fact just copy the same frame's divergence over and over to the different spots. So you are actually compiling a frame and a bunch of empty frames(as in 1x1 frame that's transparent) to a whole set of animations.

[Salk]

I have done something similar, copying the same frame 3 times so that the same image stays on the screen longer and I am pretty satisfied with the result. Using Bam Workshop I could rebuild the burrowing animation and with Bam Resizer I shrank it 60%.

 

I still can't figure out how to change the creature color though...

[kreso]

Miloch,

 

Movement Rate set to 0 doesn't look good because it shows the moving animation whereas I want it to be immobile. I used opcode 76

You might want to use 165 "pause target".

[Jarno Mikkola]

I still can't figure out how to change the creature color though...

Download the aTweaks mod, open the .tp2 file and find out what opcode and placement the Distinctive creature coloring -component uses. Or you could use the horror option, edit the .bam palette/the source files palettes, and you do that with the two BAM Workshop -programs.. erhm, more up to date v1.

[Salk]

 

You might want to use 165 "pause target".

 

 

That was my first choice but I noticed that the creature is still selectable.

 

If I can, I'll follow Miloch's advice and make it fade and gradually disappear during the burrowing animation.

 

Do you know how I might do that? There are many coloring op effects available but I am not sure how they work...

 

 

Jarno,

 

thanks for the tip.

[kreso]

You know you can remove selection circle also?

[Salk]

Yes, thank you kreso. I found the relevant opcode. I only need now to find a way to make the creature fade into disappearing from the screen... Perhaps Miloch has an idea about how to do it...

[kreso]

Perhaps this post will help you. Try reading to the bottom of it.

[Salk]

Very interesting.

 

So far I have been using opcode 271 and the whole animation, albeit far from perfect is good enough. Tomorrow when I am less tired I'll see if it's possible to play the burrowing animation reversed for when the rabbit reappears. Perhaps the Copy from back (7) flag in the .vvc file does just that?

 

As usual, any kind of help is welcome.