increase the occurence of banters in BG/ToSC (EE)?

[Lemernis]

Is there a way to increase the occurence of banters in BG1 (and then in BG:EE as well)? Some sort of variable value that can be increased?

 

The interaction is so sparse in BG1. You're lucky if you get even a peep out of the NPCs.

 

I know about the BG1 NPC Project. But I'm talking about just modding the vanilla game. Well, actually, I only play BG:EE nowadays, and probably will not be going back to the original vanilla game.

 

But if there is some fairly simple protocol, even if tedious, that would apply to both BG1 and BG:EE to create a mod that has NPCs interact at a maximum I will undertake it. I will greatly appreciate any feedback and recommendations you may have.

[Kulyok]

You can take and adjust jcompton's script from the Banter Pack - both BG1 NPC Project and NPC IEP use it, too.

[Lemernis]

Thanks! I figured there must be something.

 

A BG:EE forum member (Mordeus) has compiled an excellent list of banters for BG:ToSC, which is available here. As we know, it's possible to put together parties that can have some interaction in the vanilla game, but it doesn't always trigger. And the NPCs also have some great lines--i.e., environment reactions, insults, compliments--that we rarely hear, and that is really a shame. So I want to amp all that up, and breathe more life into the NPCs.

 

Many fans are eagerly awaiting the BG1 NPC Project for BG:EE. And that is a truly awesome mod. But I'm sure that there are many that would also appreciate simply having the vanilla banters occur much more frequently.

[Kulyok]

Absolutely, best of luck to you. One thing, though: it will make sure banters trigger(as often as you want, depending on the timing you input into the script), but not, I think, insults or forest remarks, because insults/compliments/forest remarks are controlled by a different mechanism.

[Kulyok]

And another thing: if I'm not forgetting, the majority of vanilla BG1 banters lead to a fight, i.e. Montaron and Xzar versus Jaheira and Khalid(as soon as the banter triggers, they fight), Kagain and Yeslick, and so on. It may come as a nasty surprise to the player, since they are bound to lose a party member or two either way; BG2 Tweaks even has a component that prevents fighting between BG2 followers in Baldur's Gate 2. You may want to consider whether to add something like this(banters, but not fights) in your mod, as well.

[Lemernis]

The option to prevent a fight if it is otherwise certain to happen is preferable. There should be a mod component to choose that option.

 

Although I think that a kind of wild and wooly game where fights break out independently (i.e., beyond the PC's control) would actually be kind of fun. There'd be interpersonal fuses lit and burning throughout the game, and you'd just have to deal with tensions erupting into fights as part of the game. (I suppose the player could always resurrect NPCs that get slain in those fights but not chunked.)

 

Now, I'm coming back to all this from a 5 year hiatus from the game, and I'm not a coder (my contribition to Keeping Yoshimo was the concept/plot/story and dialogue). Obviously I can learn, and I'll review the tutorials. But I want to mod this for BG:EE. Any more specific suggections re: where to begin?

[Kulyok]

There're a few BG:EE ready mods around - Kaeloree's Neera's expansion, and some tweak mods, the list is here(since you probably may need the code/mechanism/.bat file):

http://forum.baldursgate.com/discussion/15380/quick-links-for-all-mods-announced-in-the-forum#latest

CamDawg's very useful post for installing(and testing!) mods:

http://forum.baldursgate.com/discussion/6950/player-how-to-getting-mods-to-work-on-bgee#latest

 

I've no idea how to do it, unfortunately: Kaeloree did BG:EE coding for my own Xan's Friendship, which is now in testing.

To my knowledge, there're no specific BG:EE dialogue/scripting-related tutorials as of today, but BG1 basic scripting/dialogue language works.

[Lemernis]

Question on this general subject that perhaps someone can answer:

 

What determines whether a fight will break out between NPCs? I have read that it will happen if the party's morale is low, and that that is affected by the Charisma of the party leader. But it has never been clear to me whether "leader" in this situation refers to the PC or the character filling the top slot on the righthand column of portraits in the UI. This also makes me wonder if other things might factor in as well such as each character's reaction to the party's reputation.

 

But in all events, what conditions must be present in order for a NPC fight to break out?