Ek' nam-tor tevik

Neverwinter Nights 1 Custom Content
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This what I have done for the cults ccc.

This is a scripted system that is for the purpose of representing cultists praying. The priest/leader says something and the cultists respond, repeat ad nauseum. Here is what it looks like in game -

Cult Chanting_0000a
Cult Chanting_0000a781×539 251 KB

The priest hasn’t detected the PC

Cult Chanting_0000
Cult Chanting_0000397×558 134 KB

The priests OnPerceive detects the PC and the system starts up

Cult Chanting_0003
Cult Chanting_0003453×554 150 KB

The cultists go to knees in order to pray.

Cult Chanting_0004
Cult Chanting_0004460×528 148 KB

Even black shows up

What’s different about this? It is entirely data driven. Say what? None (zero, zilch) of the data is stored in the script system itself. In other words you don’t need any programming/scripting knowledge/experience in order to use or re-purpose it. How’s that work? There are just 4 local variables stored on the leader/priest and a custom 2da. This is the current 2da -

2DA V2.0

       Who              What            How		Colour
0000    1    "Ek' masu-kov Mortus"		10		700
0001    1    "S'hai1e t' wuh tevik"		10		070
0002    1    "Ik nam-tor wuh tevik?"	10		007
0003    0    "Etek nam-tor wuh tevik"	4		770
0004    1    "Ik nam-tor wuh tevik?"	10		707
0005    0    "Ek' nam-tor tevik"		4		077
0006    1    "Du nam-tor wuh dying"		10		777
0007    0    "Ek' nam-tor tevik"		4		000
0008    1    "Vi' wuh brag"				10		730
0009    0    "Ek' nam-tor tevik"		4		444
0010    1    "Vi' wuh so1ektra"			10		572
0011    0    "Ek' nam-tor tevik"		4		674
0012    1    "Yem-tukh na' worms"		10		333
0013    0    "Ek' nam-tor tevik"		4		375
0014    1    "Du nam-tor grazhiv"		10		637
0015    0    "Ek' nam-tor tevik"		4		174
0016    1    "Du nam-tor rai weht"		10		714
0017    0    "Ek' nam-tor tevik"		4		346
0018    1    "Ek' masu-kov Mortus"		10		740
0019    0    "Ek' masu-kov Mortus"		4		551
0020    1    "S'haile t' wuh tevik"		10		147

Here is an explanation of what the columns actually mean/do.

  • Who - Determines who actually speaks (1 is the leader and 0 for the mob)
  • What - This is the string that will be spoken
  • How - This is the number of the animation (only use those that have LOOPING in their name) to play while they are speaking (found in the lexicon under Reference/Constants/Animation)
  • Colour - Determines the colour of the spoken text. Must only contain the digits 0 to 7 and there must be exactly 3 of them. These represent (from left to right) the colour channels for red, green and blue. This gives a total of 512 (if you include black) different colours available to use.

Doing it this way means that you can have as many or few lines of text spoken as you want without having to alter the script at all.

A little explanation on setting this up. Note this already done in the demo. For the purposes of the demonstration I have used the leader’s OnPerceive event so that when they perceive the PC the code sequence starts. You can of course change this if you want. However, the code as written expects to be attached to the leader through one of its events. Changing that would involve quite a bit of re-writing. You can call the cultist what ever you want but they must all have the same tag. For the leader the name and tag are unimportant. Use whatever npcs you want (but alter their faction so that they are all neutral to each other and the PC (hint on the first build of this I didn’t - first the mob killed the leader and then went after the PC…)).

So that brings us to those 4 local variables on the leader. What are they called and what are they there for.

  • iDoTurn - (int) At the start of the sequence the mob all turn and face the leader. If necessary this behaviour can be turned off. This variable is used to do that. 0 = off, 1 = on.
  • fInterval01 - (float) This determines how long to play each animation and the gap between each line of text being spoken. In the demo it is set to 6.0f for six seconds e.g. a round.
  • sTagToLookFor01 - (string) This is the tag that all the cultists are expected to have. This allows for you to change the tag that the script looks for.
  • s2daFile01 - (string) The name of the 2da file (without the “.2da” bit) to use.

sTagToLookFor01 and s2daFile01 means that it is possible to have 2 or more competing cults in the same area saying different things to one another as long as you have 2 different leaders.

One thing I forgot to mention. While there must always be a leader for this to function, you can have as many or as few cultists who worship around the leader. The only restriction is that they must be within 10 metres of the leader. This 10 metres doesn’t pass through walls however.

Last words (for now). This system is expandable with a bit of extra coding and it doesn’t have to be used for its original purpose. Just set up the 2da for your own purpose (Essential that you use the same column names though). Could be used for a strike with a strike leader (What do we want?", “Gruel!”, “When do we want it?” “Now!”) or a continuing conversation between just 2 people (“And he said [whisper]”, “No, Really?”), or even two people exchanging jokes. I’m sure you’ve got your own ideas.

Anyway, what do you think.

TR

3 Likes
2

Little extra information. The cultists in the demo are part of a death cult. I wrote a chant in English and then translated it into a fictitious language. Anyone guess what that language is? Also because it is a fictional language they are hopefully not saying anything rude in a real world language, are they?

TR

3

Ooops, Forgot to mention. The animations are optional. If there is no animation you enter a -1 in the How column against the text to be spoken without an animation.

TR

4

Will that work with an invisible/hidden pc? You’d want the cultists praying whenever the pc got close enough, whether or not the priest detects them, otherwise the invisible pc can stand right next to them and they do nothing.

5

Probably not. It was not designed with that in mind. Mind you it wouldn’t surprise me if the leader had devices set up to prevent the approach of invisible enemies.

In such a scenario you would probably need to change the trigger event or even use a user-defined event. But for the demo of the technique used I went the KISS route and chose the OnPercieved event of the leader. For most cases this will be fine.

TR

6

Ah good. I was thinking I missed something with onPerceived. I have been using triggers and onEnter/onExit.

7

I am not Commander Shepard, but this is my favourite chanting-cultists script on the Vaut.

I’m gonna be grabbing and editing that for my own purposes. More ideas for possible uses: Orchestras, rave parties (chant leader: the DJ), a would-be murderer and his victims/a boss mob and a terrified crowd, or otherwise somebody mind-controlling or brainwashing people.

My favourite part is how setting the chanting text to a somewhat different colour sets it apart from normal speech. :smiley: It’s unobtrusive; not so easy to miss something the PC or other NPCs are saying, when moving through the talking crowd.

1 Like
8

I play in a setting in which call-and-answer is a common cultural component (desperately tries to think of more words that start with C…) in… ccccccccccccHalfling …chronologies … ahem That is, little chants and somewhat ritualized question>answer between storyteller and audience. (And non-Halflings depending on place, just not so widespread.) Great for classic cult scenes, but I can definitely think of lots of other potential uses :slight_smile: