Customizing follower leveling schemes?

How is that accomplished? I'd really like to play with fewer followers but have them pick skills with a bit more sense (=no lockpicking for Virgil). It also seems that they are not using their CP's after level 50 (I'm using the 127-levels patch) and I'd like to fix that too.

Also a good tutorial on creating custom backgrounds would be nice. I found one with Google and the background creation went fine (the background itself worked) but it somehow screwed up my game (different race statistics had no effect, items or blessings affecting my stats didn't work etc.) and I had to remove the custom files.

 

They don't use their cps after lvl 50 because their isn't supposed to be anything after level 50. If you feel like writing all of the crap that would be required for that go ahead, if you undat the arcanum files, probably in your main arcanum directory, you'll probably find the level schemes somewhere in there.

You would need to specify goal after goal. Like if you pick 5 melee as a goal it would put points into dx and melee until it had 5. I know what you would need to do, but I've never had a good look at those files, so I don't know anything about abbreviations, or value, or comma use or any of that crap.

BTW, why do you even want 127 levels? Not only does the cap bug the game, It's easy enough to beat at level 30.

I have noticed a use for Virgil's lock pick skill. It keeps him relatively neutral, so people playing techie aren't starting with a major liability while people who play magic only start with a normal sized liability.

 

First off, Blinky, the level 127 cap hack does NOT bug the game if you use the one that is made for the latest patch. I've used it for quite some time now and it works fine with no bugs other than the ones that are in the game without it.

As for how to change the level schemes, here is an example of how I changed Virgil because I hate the stupid pick locks because I consider it a royal pain in the rear for him to be always getting in my way when I try to pick a lock and jamming the darn thing 90% of the time if I let him do it.

First is the original leveling scheme for Virgil:

• {91}Virgil {necro_good 1, Heal 4, MaxHPS 36, Dodge 4, Melee 4, Picklock 4, Dodge 4, Melee 8, necro_good 2, Heal 8, Dodge 8, MaxHPS 62, Melee 12, necro_good 3, Heal 12, Picklock 8, Dodge 12, MaxHPS 90, Melee 16, necro_good 4, Heal 16, Dodge 16, MaxHPS 106, Melee 20, necro_good 5, Heal 20, Picklock 12, Dodge 20, MaxHPS 200}

If you will notice, it also has an error in it because it has Virgil completing Dodge 4 twice. Next is my version where I corrected this error, allowing Virgil to have one more level completion task in a normal 50 level scheme so I added necro_good 5 (Resurrect Spell), and replacing the Picklock skills with ST increases which would normally be expected in any character who uses a sword or mace. Since Virgil always seems to like to run in and bash or slash things, that seemed reasonable.

• {91}Virgil {necro_good 1, Heal 4, MaxHPS 36, Dodge 4, Melee 4, ST 12, Dodge 8, Melee 8, necro_good 2, Heal 8, Dodge 12, MaxHPS 62, Melee 12, necro_good 3, Heal 12, ST 13, Dodge 16, MaxHPS 90, Melee 16, necro_good 4, Heal 16, Dodge 20, MaxHPS 106, Melee 20, Heal 20, ST 14, necro_good 5, MaxHPS 200}

I didn't bother to add any new levels past the normal, but I guess you can do it if you want to do so. Lookind at the other leveling schemes will make most of the abbreviations clear, and if not, let me know and I'll try to compile a list of them for you and anyone else who is interested, if there's not one already available. Maybe I can even get it made available in the downloads or modding section. :roll:

 

I should've written down all the changes I noticed upon uninstalling the level cap cheat. The two that stick in my mind (because they pissed me off so much) are the one involving damage xp for Molotovs and the one which changes the way Magnus reacts when you steal his dwarven possessions. It does NOT simply raise the level cap.

I don't even know if that Dodge 4 thing is an error. It shouldn't have any effect on his leveling since he should just ignore it the second time around, if I understand leveling schemes correctly. Your version makes him more powerful and messes with his personality. If the dodge thing bothers you so much just raise his max hitpoints or something which doesn't unbalance him. It's all fine for your own use of course, have as much fun with it as you will.

Besides, as I mentioned some time ago in another thread, Vergil was a tinkerer as well as a poet. Why wouldn't our Virgil be similarly interested in small mechanical devices?

 

The dodge thing has to be an error because it deprives him of a level that he should otherwise have. And Virgil doesn't really benefit from having the extra level in necro_good nearly as much as YOU do because he obviously can't use Resurrect on himself. Besides, if you check EVERY other level scheme you will see that there is nothing like that in ANY of them. That's what makes me think that someone made the proverbial programmer's typo and it's a simple error. If you like having the picklock skill in there and having Virgil get in your way all the time, that's fine. Or if you just want to keep him as close to the original Virgil as possible, that's fine, too, but the dodge 4 twice should be corrected.

Personally, I haven't seen that adding to his strength the little bit that I have has actually made him that much more powerful in the patched game. I've played him both ways. I played him unmodified for a long time before I got fed up and decided to tinker with his leveling scheme, so I know how he acted before and I've seen almost no change in his behavior. He's still wimpy and still gets killed off quite easily near the beginning of the game. He still whines about everything under the sun and he still gets in the way when he shouldn't during combat. The only major difference is that with my leveling scheme he can actually use a decent weapon later on, but he can still get killed pretty easily even with that advantage. So I don't see that I've made a major change in him and I don't think you should criticize what I've posted unless you've tested it yourself in gameplay.

 

I'm not really convinced that it does. It simply doesn't make him as powerful as you'd like.

See previous comment. Anyway, extra spell = extra MA = more powerful magickal follower.

Point being? No harm no foul, who cares if it's there or not.

I nearly always raise his strength by at least two in the patched game, legitimately. I believe that it makes him much more effective as a fighter. Certainly he's more useful as a mule, though I don't usually play packrats. I have also toyed with removing his lockpick skill but it unbalanced him so much it was disgusting.

Changing a character's scheme to suit your needs is cheating, and it infringes upon the follower's unique personality. Perhaps Virgil had reason to concentrate on healing rather than strength.

I'm tempted to ignore your last sentence out of sympathy, but I'm not feeling that nice today. You made a post describing some changes you made. I raised some objections, but also noted that whatever you end up doing in your own game is your own business. I also included a friendly smiley face. However, what you post in a public forum becomes public business, and people shouldn't be barred from commenting because you don't like their point of view. I have in fact tried many things in my time playing Arcanum, and I don't need to play though again with your little changes to form a reasonable opinion about it.

 

My major point is that I think that the dodge 4 IS an error and that it should be fixed and that fixing it by adding necro_good 5 is not only reasonable, but legitimate for Virgil and in line with his character. As for any other changes, those are tinkering with his character and should only be done if you want to change his character, as I did. If you want to keep his character true to form, but correct an OBVIOUS error, then the dodge 4 should be changed.

If you want to get into a comparison of who's been playing RPG type games longer and who should have a better feel for them we can go that route, too. I'm 48 yrs old and I've been playing these types of games since before computers came out. I was playing the first of them when they were introduced on the old Apple II computers in their very infancy. I've seen the state of RPG games develop a lot over the years. Just because I happen to have come to Arcanum and this particular forum a bit later than you did does not mean that I am new to the world of the RPG. So let's not get into that one.

 

followers really shouldnt have preset level up options. Virgil is a healer, both magic, and "tech" with bandages. Why doesnt virgil level up what you want him to level up. He isnt strong in melee, so why not tell him to develop throwing instead? or develop another spell school? or learn some real techie skills?

I cant think of a good reason why this should not be in the game. The only exception with respect to the followers would be dog, and even then, its a bit strange how you cannot train dog to sneak/backstab

 

That's the way the game is set up. If you want to change the way someone levels, you have to change their leveling scheme.

I didn't think of this when I made my other post, but another major point that I wanted to make was that I was answering the question posed by the person who opened this thread, which was

Virgil was provided merely as an example. I stand by my offer of providing a list, IF the moderators will make it available in the downloads or modding section so that anyone who wants it can have access to it. I'm not going to all that work unless it will be available to the maximum number of people.

 

48? I thought you were a lot younger. Older people, the ones around here anyway, don't usually overreact to slight criticism like you did. Shadygrove, for instance, is the epitome of reservedness. I wasn't flaming you or inviting a pissing contest, and nowhere did I ask to see your credentials. I was merely expressing a point of view contrary to yours, and in a fairly polite way I thought. I never spoke down to you or yelled at you for being a newbie. There was no reason for a post like that.

Now go and get yourself a sports car, you'll feel better.

 

Sorry, Canis. I guess you just came across to me at the time as being pompous and arrogant and it must have hit me wrong at the time. I'm not usually that reactive to things and I'll try not to be in the future.

 

Hey, new guy here.
Call me Snake...

Thanks Sinbad, you've given me a good understanding and after a little bit of moving the files to different folders have got it working.

One question. Virgil still starts with 1 skill in heal (apart from that he seems to be levelling up according to my edited scheme). Is there another file which designates his starting stats (the 5 points given at character generation).

Any help would be apreciated.

P.S: Sorry for grave digging but didn't want to start a new topic for fear of reprisal.

 

Actually, digging up a thread that's nearly four years old is what gets reprisal.
In such cases, you should start a new topic.
As little as my opinion in this case matters, though, welcome to Terra Arcanum, and I hope your stay, as well as your relations with others here, remain amicable.