psiclops

Hi there, SConrad and I are about to start on the mod that kill's complaining after you reason with your NPCs.

What do you want it to be called?
I see most of the mods have quite pofessional names.
We want this to be professionally good, but what shall we call it?


So far:


Quit Yer' Complaining!

Please make it stop.

Everybody Be Cool B)

URN Charge (one of my worst efforts)

NPC Agree (stuck here now)

S-T-F-U (please?!)

The psiclops and SConrad Personality Realiser perhaps?


Help us! Protect us! You must take your brainwave to the Windspear Hills...

Quit Yer' Complaining


Problem: NPCs complain +/ leave party the more you favour alignment extremes.


Solution 1: Deal.

Solution 2: Remove complaining.


Proposed Solution:

Neutral NPCs initiate a dialogue with CHARNAME shortly after they hit their threshholds, and together you agree that it'll be much better for everyone if they stop complaining all the time. Switch their complaining off, and replace it with their happy sounds.


Possible extension:

Evil or good NPCs can be reasoned, bargained, coerced, threatened into following the party into an alignment shift - they then stay in your party, and either complain or are happy (choose at install). This would have to initiate at the complaint stage too, to pre-empt the party break-up.


Reason for existence:

- A subtler complaint remover that uses the old sounds, and doesn't alter the mechanics by removing them entirely.
- Daily unanswered complaining makes no sense imho.


Potential problem:

Complaining is all or nothing by necessity

Sorry the ideas weren't in my last post, but it's too late now.

Outside of NPCs I'm considering, there are two ideas I've got that I wouldn't mind some opinions on. Mainly I need to know if these are possible, or should be dropped right away.


First, the Chataeu Customiser (Customizer for you USAites)

I was surpised that this isn't a frequently occurring idea, but what's to stop a program adding NPCs other than Minsc or Jaheira into those cells in the first dungeon? I just played BG1 with Tutu and thought how stink it would be to have Edwin and Viconia in your party and not have them rejoin in a believable way.

In a nutshell. Could Jaheira be replaced with Viconia in her cell? Could Minsc be removed from the dungeon and Edwin be put in the open cell opposite to you?

This would probably mean no burning at the stake (unless the victim became another drow, and trying to save her would expose Viconia's presence too, making the ensuing fight more necessary). Is it possible to remove or alter such sequences?

Edwin would have to be replaced with another non-joinable evil-mage for the Mae'var quests? Is this possible?

Korgan seems easiest to port into the room, but I can't see a reason for Jon to have captured him... (like he needs a reason to be bad

There wouldn't be much dialogue to do. I don't think this is a dumb idea (whereas the next one might be) so I really need feasibility comments. (Eg this will take 2000 hours)


The maybe dumb idea (very involved long-term project, perhaps impossible)

Scary Aerie  (or Evil Aerie maybe)

This idea came from a comment by canman on the Bioware forums discussing resurrecting Aerie if she was the victim of Bodhi's transformation. He said, "It is too bad you have to kill her. Bodhi could teach her to be a good little vampiress. " and I can't stop thinking about changing her into a vampire from this point in the story.

Some ideas and points to consider so far:

- If you intend to play an evil (or netural) PC and install this mod, you discover a ritual to restore Aerie's life but not reverse the vampirism, so you sort of had a Bodhi for yourself...  

- Make her take damage in sunlight of course.

- Some kind of vampiric melee attack to spice her up!

- Romance would ideally continue and be rewritten from this stage.

- Perhaps it's easier to end Aerie as far as the engine is concerned, and have her a 'slightly' altered person and yet totally a new character (this would make install/removal much easier I guess)

- Apparently Viconia and Aerie can be kept together in a party up to this point but I've never tried it.

- canman suggested that you, "might have to give her a little blood now and then to keep her happy." Could this be effected using a Larloch's minor drain effect + 1 round bleeding damage? I think the power of your blood provides a good incentive for the new Aerie to stick with you, as she would be attracted to your power. She'd need a reason because...

- I think it should be a major personality shift like Gandalf in LOTR and that she only vaguely remembers her Aerie-life...

Gandalf the Grey
Gandalf the White

Aerie the Yellow
Aerie the Red

- This would preclude Minsc being in your party from here on (if ever), as I don't think he would kill his second witch, yet she would be his racial enemy etc... However, Minsc could then be added into BG2 as an NPC who pops up with some undead hunters to kill Edwin (in case you took him in BG1).

- I've tried to suss out how it could be made 'Aerie-specific' and only have one real idspellholdstudios.netspellholdstudios.netea so far. This would mean having pure-elves immune to the complete cure available to Jaheira, Viconia (and Anomen?!!?) somehow. I suggest that because elves are resistant to charm, maybe Bodhi's had to employ more powerful and binding magics to convert Aerie. This magic has affected Aeire so deeply that the vampirism can't be removed without killing her permanently. Then the post-death quest would stay the same for everyone. Please hack this idea to death  

- If they can be in the same party it'd add another evil NPC to the standard set, and gives you one pure mage, one cleric, and one mage/cleric, plus korgan, pc and sarevok with only standard NPCs, not that I think this would be everyones party. Which brings up OTHER NPCs - most especially Valen from a topical perspective! Though I don't see a problem with an alternative vampire (as some people probably won't try Valen) having 2 vamps in one party could be cool, but would require lots of work.

- Voicing is a huge issue. Rest of game would have to be revoiced by someone who sounded like a vampiric version of Aerie. Hard, but do-able long term... (She can't say "Oh my!" or "I'm so happy you brought me with you." or even "I won't let my friends be hurt!" (Especially if she drinks a few of your HP each morning!))

That's enough ideas to chew on now. I'd really appreciate anyone's feedback, even if it's just to beg me not to change Aerie because you love her or whatever...

I did a very rough version of her protrait change to see how I'd approach the eyes and teeth, but I say again it's very rough - and the teeth will be hard to get perfect (at the moment they're just drawn on in white... shoddy)

Here's a before and after concept...

    

Looking forward to hearing any ideas!!