Question about having npcs not encounters fight

talrune · May 2013

So clearly encounters are your mobs etc...but and im still digging I may find it on my own but I am wondering how do we get a npc to attack a player...I know how to set markers etc but the npcs themselves I see nothing in their pop ups that give them the ability to attack like ecounters do. or i am overlooking it.

monjon1 · May 2013

I'm hoping this gets answered as well!

talrune · May 2013

cause as far as I can see you cant...but im sure im overlooking a feature that turns them into combatants.

holocat · May 2013

the way to get an npc to 'attack' is to disguise an encounter with their costume; once the conversation is done (or however you wish to trigger it), you make the npc disappear and make the encounter (dressed as them) appear instead.

To dress an encounter, select and place an appropriate encounter. then use the... um... tree or connexions button on the upper right? foundry isn't up, and I can't remember the name of the button. once there you can select individual units in an encounter, and can change their appearance.

Remember, even if you set an appearance they will still use the weapons and skills of the encounter you set them as, so choose an encounter appropriate to what they're supposed to do.

raphaeldisanto · May 2013

What holocat said - You can't make actual NPCs fight each other. You can only make encounters fight. Neverwinter really only has two factions =it's not as flexible as the old NWN - Friendlies and hostiles.

There's a 'Guards' subsection of the encounters tab that has Guard mob groups. Find one that does what you need it to do, then rename/reskin it so it looks like the NPC you want to fight.

shiinchan01 · May 2013

holocat wrote: »

the way to get an npc to 'attack' is to disguise an encounter with their costume; once the conversation is done (or however you wish to trigger it), you make the npc disappear and make the encounter (dressed as them) appear instead.

To dress an encounter, select and place an appropriate encounter. then use the... um... tree or connexions button on the upper right? foundry isn't up, and I can't remember the name of the button. once there you can select individual units in an encounter, and can change their appearance.

Remember, even if you set an appearance they will still use the weapons and skills of the encounter you set them as, so choose an encounter appropriate to what they're supposed to do.

Oh and how I am using the hell out of this in my quest....

I have it so that it is going to take a good amount of time to finish (because of the story invovlved) I actually have digital notepads with character names, maps and everything and I am utilizing every mechanic I can for this, I am making every map as detailed as I possibly can for this also

boydzinj · May 2013

You need to be a master at fooling the player by manipulating the game into what you want it to do versus what it can do. The art of subterfuge is important in story telling and creating interesting encounters.

You want a NPC to first talk to the player then become an enemy?

That is easy, you first have the NPC spawn - and made as an interactable object or contact to a quest dialogue. Once the player gets the objective to talk to NPC - the player talks to the NPC. Then the quest is completed and then the NPC will disappear at the same time and same location an enemy "Hard" encounter appears. This "Hard" encounter is an encounter that could be what the NPC would do; except it is cosemetically altered to look like your NPC. This will give the illusion that yout NPC was something you can talk to and then be attackable.

In the story tab it would be something like this:

Dialogue "Talk to NPC"

Encounter "Kill Enemy NPC"

The 'NPC' will be will be set to disappear when the objective "Talk to NPC" is completed. Likewise, the enemy encounter that looks like your NPC is set to appear when the objective "Talk to NPC" is completed. This will then make it possible to have the objective in your "Kill Enemy NPC" be set to that cosemetically altered enemy encounter to be killed and be a quest objective if you like. The art of subterfuge. You have tricked the player into thinking your NPC could be attacked after you spoke to it.

shiinchan01 · May 2013

boydzinj wrote: »

You need to be a master at fooling the player by manipulating the game into what you want it to do versus what it can do. The art of subterfuge is important in story telling and creating interesting encounters.

You want a NPC to first talk to the player then become an enemy?

That is easy, you first have the NPC spawn - and made as an interactable object or contact to a quest dialogue. Once the player gets the objective to talk to NPC - the player talks to the NPC. Then the quest is completed and then the NPC will disappear at the same time and same location an enemy "Hard" encounter appears. This "Hard" encounter is an encounter that could be what the NPC would do; except it is cosemetically altered to look like your NPC. This will give the illusion that yout NPC was something you can talk to and then be attackable.

In the story tab it would be something like this:

Dialogue "Talk to NPC"

Encounter "Kill Enemy NPC"

The 'NPC' will be will be set to disappear when the objective "Talk to NPC" is completed. Likewise, the enemy encounter that looks like your NPC is set to appear when the objective "Talk to NPC" is completed. This will then make it possible to have the objective in your "Kill Enemy NPC" be set to that cosemetically altered enemy encounter to be killed and be a quest objective if you like. The art of subterfuge. You have tricked the player into thinking your NPC could be attacked after you spoke to it.

This tactic can also be used to stack encounters properly with out causing the Story to be unbeatable.

Have one encounter "appear" after one is done, how ever with that there is a problem, Encounters which spawn smaller ones when killed do not count the smaller spawns, so you will have those to encounter with, but they are usually just an annoyance more than anything

v0273x · May 2013

shiinchan01 wrote: »

This tactic can also be used to stack encounters properly with out causing the Story to be unbeatable.

Have one encounter "appear" after one is done, how ever with that there is a problem, Encounters which spawn smaller ones when killed do not count the smaller spawns, so you will have those to encounter with, but they are usually just an annoyance more than anything

If you have smaller spawns, a good way to rid of them without having to kill them yourself is creating a "Trap" room. Basicly its a room out in the far end of the said map. you put friendly NPC's that will attack I.E. Guards. Fromt here, the 1 actor NPC that will be what is needed to kill can be the only one you have to fight.

This also is useful for difrent trigger events. STO used a similar event to trigger explosions and things within Foundrys. So on top of say you only have to fight one mob, rather then four. You can also trigger a systematic event by having some spontanious gut renching scream come after it. Perhaps a completly difrent mob group can even a seperate system of things when the guards kill them. Just a little add on for if you really wish to get fancy.

crok2 · May 2013

Huge disclaimer on what V0273x said though: If you use 'timers' in this fashion you have to test them at all levels. For my Harvest Fayre map I have a "horse race". You click an object to start the race, which is easy... but the "jockeys" have to disappear when the horses reach the end. (Otherwise they attack the horses because they are encounters) I used a fancy little timer method like V0273X describes. I put friendly NPC guards (About 20) behind a walled off area. So when you click to start the race, it spawns the jockeys but it ALSO spawns 1 solo easy encounter in the middle of the friendly guards. When that mob encounter dies I have the jockeys disappear. I kept adding guards (And cracks of Doom) to kill faster until the timing was what I wanted. It worked GREAT at level 10. Then in beta I was level 60 and tried it and it was a bloody disaster because the time it takes to kill a level 60 easy encounter at level 10 is fast. At level 60 it is slow. I finally tested it at level 10, 20, 30, 40, 50 and 60 in the foundry. (yeah.. I leveled up my foundry guy) I finally got a timer that was great at level 10 ok at 20,30, sorta silly at 40 and ok mostly.. sort of at level 50 and 60. Not worth the hassle :P

boydzinj · May 2013

yes, I would avoid timers - never know when the system lags - or an encounter gets buffed or nerfed to make the dynamic changes. Make it an obvious objective like "kill x mobs." or "talk to X NPC" or something specific that gives control to the player and not some factor that could or not could not change due to levels, changes to the game, or something silly like that.

Question about having npcs not encounters fight

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