LDoA player submission Q&A

[Loudent2]

1) How do I make a creature Heroic 1? 2? 3? 4?

It's handled via a NESS Spawn Script. I don't have it in front of me but I believe the standard +1 heroic is SS10 . I'll document the rest when I get home.

2) How do I make a creature a Minion?
3) How do I make a creature Tough?
4) How do I link creatures?

Same deal. Don't have the info on me right now. Will document it when I get home.

Can I link creatures spawned from different waypoints or do they all have to be from the same waypoint?

They can be from different waypoints.

5) What exactly does Heroic status do? I know it makes creatures tougher, but if I'm going to be cranking out creatures, it'd probably be best if I know what exactly (the numbers) the Heroic 'templates' do.

Let's see. +2 to each stat, AC, AB and saves for each version of heroic. HP total is added to itself for each level of heroic as well. Special bonuses are given to the creatures that are above a certain level. Regeneration, haste etc etc.

6) How do I set a creature to autobuff? How do I tell the script which spells to autobuff?

I have a heartbeat event script for this. Right now the list is static and is generally a short list of spells I'd have active on a similar PC character. The list does need a bit of expanding.

7) How do you balance creatures?

Level ~= level of PC expected to fight the mob.
Natural Armor Bonus = Level of mob
HP ~= Half Max
Saves `= 1/5 levels

Tough mobs get PC levels and equipment to match on top of that. (hence the reason skellies and vamps are so hard).

Creature weapons/Hide ~= +1 enhancemnet/4 levels and an additional element or special bonus / 5 levels or so.

Creature Weapons are always sufficient to damage itself. So if adamantine is needed to deliver full damage the material is set to adamantine. Even if not necessary I tend to set material types where it make sense.

Tougher mobs such as the spider queen vs the regular spiders. Will have better weapons, the HPs will be increase above half and will likely have higher set saves/natural armor.

I'm still dialing in Epic Creatures but they generally follow the same criteria except they all get special hides with extra bonuses.

8) Which NESS loot system is used?

DanieleB’s loot system for standard stuff. The sparkly chest is a custom system driven by local variables on the creature (either on the blueprint or set via a spawnsscript.

9) Is it possible to have a random item drop once all the creatures in a linked encounter have been defeated instead of for each creature?

Interesting concept. Yes it can be done.

[dordon]

From what you're described for the random dungeon generator, it sounds like that might be a good place for novice toolset users to contribute. If so, could you document the requirements for an area piece that would plug into the script framework? One entranced named X, one exit named Y, size must be 4x4, etc...

[shoujo]

Think I drove Lou nuts with my endless questions @_@ To save some time, here's some other questions I've asked followed by Lou's responses...

General guidelines for item design?

For items, I generally ask that you make the resource name, tag, and resref identical. Include identified and unidentified descriptions and classify them with your name or identifying text. Other than that, I recommend not doing bonus feats, but you can pretty much make what you want.

Variable for attune on equip?

Name: Attune
Type: Integer
Value: 1

No transfer items

Shoujo: Lou's mentioned a system for transferring properties of one item to another so I asked him how to mark some items as no transfer.

I haven't worked it out exactly. For now just set an integer value "NoCopy" to 1.