An add-on to show spell size?

OOC General Discussion

Moderators: Forum Moderators, Active DMs

Post Reply
liver and bones
Posts: 281
Joined: Wed Aug 30, 2017 5:08 pm

An add-on to show spell size?

Post by liver and bones » Thu Apr 12, 2018 4:05 am

Is there an add-on that is capable of showing the size of the spell before you cast it? While there's specific numbers in meters for spell size, they're vague for a game that isn't obviously to scale.

Void
Posts: 1600
Joined: Sat Mar 24, 2018 7:03 pm

Re: An add-on to show spell size?

Post by Void » Thu Apr 12, 2018 5:30 am

A human in the game is close to being two meters tall. Meaning to not get blown up by their own fireball, a human would need to cast it 4 heights away.

And, no I don't know of such addon.

Also see:
http://nwn.wikia.com/wiki/Meter
Another forum ban, here we go again.

User avatar
DM Symphony
Contributor
Contributor
Posts: 283
Joined: Mon Jan 25, 2016 6:16 am
Location: CA, US
Contact:

Re: An add-on to show spell size?

Post by DM Symphony » Thu Apr 12, 2018 10:43 am

Measuring scale to character height is pretty safe. Whether or not the game is to scale or not is somewhat of a decision made by the tileset makers and the area makers. In a flat desert, the game could certainly be made to scale. Whether the interior of buildings should match the exterior size is something of a design argument. Some games do this and players don't like either how cramped interiors are, how long it takes to walk around buildings / cross town, or both.

I've toyed with the idea of "helpers" for spells, since I first started working with EE. Zarathustra, one of my partners in crime when it comes to shaders (he's way more talented than I am) (But he's been doing this for years) did this recently, almost as kind of a clever art joke. https://youtu.be/EgAQOR6N4Ow

It's not real, though, and works much the same way that his SSAO works (which is what Beamdog put into the game).

It's doable from the shader/override side of things, but having a different cursor (or a cursor + an extra thing) for different spells would be extremely tricky if not impossible, cursor type (such as door hovers, attack/talk) is hardcoded in the nwmain.exe, and even if you could add more "cursor modes" to the game beyond whatever 30ish exist now, they'd also have to know what spell you just clicked on, which also isn't something currently supported.

I think the best that I could do, with haks, would be to make more "Player Tool 1" type insta-feats that let you click on a place (that moment is when you can customize things, the place-click), and it shows you a sneak peak of a size. You could have a player tool for 5, 10, 15, 25, 30 feet blasts, or maybe make them radial options (like called shot, or shadow conjuration) off of the same feat. I could -probably- do it so that it only shows up for you (so nobody else knows that you're thinking about chucking a fireball somewhere.)

That's with haks, though, and still a good amount of work as well.

This kind of function (probably) wasn't really on the drawing board when NWN was first created, when decisions like "Best way to do changing cursors" and other UI techniques were pursued.

Void
Posts: 1600
Joined: Sat Mar 24, 2018 7:03 pm

Re: An add-on to show spell size?

Post by Void » Thu Apr 12, 2018 12:28 pm

This stuff is implemented in NWN2, fairly precisely. NWN2 has loads other problems though (like having less charm than nwn1 and overall looking worse).

A good idea is to go to a forest and practice aiming on some summoned creature or a prop. It is possible to practice without a prop too, by aiming on the ground and seein if you get blown up, but... for a caster it is risky, becuase they sometimes have just enough hitpoints to die from their own AOE spell.
Another forum ban, here we go again.

User avatar
Karris the Anarchist
Arelith Silver Supporter
Arelith Silver Supporter
Posts: 152
Joined: Thu Nov 24, 2016 11:21 pm

Re: An add-on to show spell size?

Post by Karris the Anarchist » Fri Apr 13, 2018 11:49 pm

Just start practicing. You’ll make a few mistakes along the way, but eventually you’ll start to get the hang of the sizes by eye. Make it part of your characters growth :-)
That which doesn't kill you, simply makes you... stranger.

Post Reply