IEEP Spell Making Help

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First of all I need some "serious" answers. Do not suggest me to mail Gustav Montessi or any other program developer because their mail accounts are down

Hello I am a Baldurs Gate 2 with ToB player and I have a considerable experiance with the game. The thing is I have been using the IEEP Spell and Item Maker but I have little but meerly maddening troubles using the spell maker and I hoped that you could be of help.

First of all I think that for a Child of Bhaal (even though the game can be handled with a single sorcerer or mage) the main character is very WEAK. Certain creatures have tons of immunities and magnificient saving throws that becomes especially boring when as a 30th Level mage even though you unleash all your power nothing happens to a fighter or something like that. (I hope you understand what I mean)

Thats why I want to modify and create some spells
(especially as innate abilities) for our precious
Child of Bhaal. (You remember the dream with Irenicus that the main character gives some serious pain to a Tanaari and how he explains that you wil become that powerful but you technically never achieve such power through the game)

When I am modifying existing spells I add some serious (-)saving throw bonuses and I allow resistance but I implement a spell effect to lower resistance too. And they really work fine. There is no trouble with that.

There is only one question about this. Is it important how spell effects are enumerated. (for example the first spell effect is Fixed/random damage, second effect is magic resistance (-10). Their duration settings are permanent/duration (I dont want a permanent lower resistance on target). Now does the spell first inflict damage than lower resistance or do they occur simultaneously.

Now to the serious part, when I am creating new
spells.

1. If I use two extension headers each include same icon, level, casting time, spell type... but only the target changes. Do both extension headers apply. (you may ask why I would want such thing it is because i created a spell called Unleash Power that the mage does some serious damage with an area effect and I added 3d and lighting effects. The effects when in the spell effect menu chosen to effect self works fine.
But I want some effects on only the damage taking
creatures. I added the prot from evil, call lightning effects to play on the creatures and not to my surprise they play on me too because I am in the area designated.

I want an area effect spell which doesnt
hit me (i added protection from spell (unleash) on
self parameter and i am not affected thats good but I want some 3d animations to play on dmage taking creatures only how will I make it.


2. I wanted a knock back spell, which pushes enemies(like wing buffet) I added wing buffet,
unconsiousness, fixed random damage and protection
from spell (knockback) parameters and to my surprise the wing buffet doesnt work no matter how I changed necessary parameters. the unconsiousness and damage works fine but no one is pushed away or pulled towards me.

3. Now this is troubling and it is all about 3d
effects

a. when I set duration to permanent the effect never stops.

b. when i choose duration i can manage to see fully, halfly completed effects or even fully completed and then a half or 1/3rd of effect (according to seconds setting)

c. when i choose delayed weird things happen sometimes the effect goes on forever sometimes it plays accondingly (2 seconds after spell cast for example)

d. O.K now I want to do this I want each effect to
play once. first some effects wil play on caster, then prot from evil will play upon target, and just with the call lightning effect the damage willl be inflicted. I know this should be possible because irenicus spells work like this but only a few portion of the irenicus cutscene spells are identified in Shadow Keeper so i cannot learn from them. so it willbe like this

0 second effect 1 on caster
0 second effect 2 on caster
0 + effect1 effect2 seconds effect3 on caster and
effect4 on creatures
0 + e1 e2 e3 e4 seconds effect 5 on creatures and
damage.

Only the delayed damage works absolutely perfectly
when I create my spell the effects just become weird.Even sometimes after many castings one effect will not play??? (this may be because of my low end machine but i assume that the timing of effects has nothing to do with my machine the timing and 2 times 10 and a half times playing of effects has nothing to do with my machine)


Thank You very much for reading my complains, and
please if you can spare some time write me an answer to end my torment.

P.S A meerly unimportant thing is a question about
unknown parameters. Are they crucial in spell making or just some in-game calculation parameters.

 

You shouldn't be using IEEP. No one uses it anymoer because it's outdated and buggy. Use Near Infinity or DLTCEP instead. I reccomend using Near Infinity. It has a more intuitive interface. You can download Near Infinity at Sorcerer's place, but if they aren't offering the beta version I'd track it down and download it instead. The beta version is actually the most stable version. The beta's been around for 3 years or so, and I think the only reason it's still labeled "beta" is that NI isn't actively supported anymore.

 

Drew is right in that if you are learning to mod now other tools are more suitable. You would also be better off asking questions at a modding forum, such as PPG, G3, BWL or SHS.

Some quick answers:

1. You can put multiple effects under the same extension header. If you have multiple extension headers with the same level requirement I am not entirely sure which will fire, but you should only need one.

2. You perhaps have something wrong somewhere, or maybe that opcode is a bit funny. I'd look at the dragons ingame and copy their effects.

3. I am not sure. Check out the VVCs being referenced and see if they are set to repeat or whatnot.

4. Regarding 'unknown' effects, it is possible that they have been researched and documented since the IEEP build you have (which will be old) was released. If you download NearInfinity or DLTCEP they will have more recent descriptions. You will also want to make a lot of use of the IESDP, which tells you about engine file types and effects. http://iesdp.gibberlings3.net

 

I think I see what you're trying to do, but I don't believe it's possible. When Jon casts spells in cutscenes, they're often accompanied by additional visual effects which take place during the casting, such as the chaotic commands and entangle effects he uses when he's hitting you with minor damage spells at the beginning of the game. This isn't part of his spells, though; it's part of the cutscene script, and he does it using a CreateVisualEffectObject() string. I don't think it can be duplicated in a spell alone. As far as I'm aware, spells can't create effects like these without having actually been cast.

At best you might be able to give your spell a 0 cast time and non-school-specific casting animation, and have it play the desired effects over your character whilst at the same time causing him to cast some other spell? I haven't tried it, and I don't use IEEP so I can't tell you how to do it with that, though.