Hi there,
As I don’t want to have to tackle all the problems related with adding new models and other content in such a way they are working with horses, I wanted to know how I could go about removing the riding system entirely. In searching on this topic, I can find all kinds of things that tell me how to utilise various parts of the horse-riding system, but not something which tells me how I can disable it entirely.
Any help would be appreciated!
Easiest way possible: Remove or replace the OnClientEnter script x3_mod_def_enter entirely.
This will remove the radial menu options for mounts.
Paladins will still be able to summon their mounts, but they won’t be able to ride them (IIRC).
If you want to remove the Ride skill and the associated feats too, you will need to do 2da editing.
I would prefer to. I figure I’d need to edit FEATS.2DA but I can’t really find good resources on how precisely one goes about it.
There is no guide anywhere that I know of for what you’re trying to accomplish, which I know as I had been through this years ago when I was trying to fix non-EE Wyvern Crown of Cormyr as much as I could without being able to open it in the toolset. One of the problems that I ran into was with the paladin mount breaking if a paladin was used in another module then taken into WCOC (or vice versa.)
The good news is that my prior headaches will save you some time.
Firstly, Ride itself is not a feat. It’s a skill that is limited to specific classes. However saying that, there are two ride-related feats for you to disable also: mounted combat and mounted archery.
feat.2da:
edit - see my next post as that will tell you how to completely disable the mounted combat and mounted archery feats in addition to the horse menu.
cls_skill_*.2da
You’re going to want to open the skill file for specific classes and change the ride (line 27) from a 1 to 0 for these classes so that ride is no longer a class skill. If it doesn’t outright stop characters from taking skill points in ride, it should at least discourage it. This applies to: arcane archer, barbarian, blackguard, champion of Torm, fighter, paladin, purple dragon knight, ranger
Okay. It looks like the horse menu icons are in the same neighborhood as mounted combat / mounted archery. You can literally copy / paste these lines into your feat.2da files and overwrite what is currently there.
1087 DELETED **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** ****
1088 DELETED **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** ****
1089 DELETED **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** ****
1090 DELETED **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** ****
1091 DELETED **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** ****
1092 DELETED **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** ****
1093 DELETED **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** ****
1094 DELETED **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** ****
Line 1095 is for the class-specific Paladin mount feat. I’m inclined to leave it, but you can give it the same treatment as above if you want to wipe that out too.
Good advice so far, but unfortunately there’s no quick fix that turns horses off entirely, as explained here.
It probably doesn’t matter much, as most players are savvy enough to ignore skills and feats they don’t need, and can just ignore the dreaded skin if it turns up.
My biggest thing is I’m hopeful to have some content handmade for the module but the person really really really doesn’t want to bother with rigging it for horses. And given that my module isn’t really harmed by taking them out (other than having to rethink what to give paladins instead), I don’t see the harm in it.
This was tremendously helpful, thank you very much! I forgot there was the skill as well, for one.
Quite understand. They really don’t have to worry about it if the Summon Mount spell is disabled and horses are removed OnClientEnter - if no horses can get into the module, no script needs to cater for them.
Can the Ride skill be safely removed in skills.2da? I’d prefer to remove it entirely if its not being used so people can’t end up spending skillpoints in a skill with no use.
It’s also possible you might be overthinking it. What I mean is that a lot of modules don’t cater to horses at all in that there are no horse hitches anywhere, and there’s nobody anywhere that will sell you a horse to ride around on either. These modules won’t stop you from investing into the ride skill or purchasing the mounted combat/archery feats either.
If you look at module comment posts - People get angry with modules over things like
I’ve yet to see the comment post where someone says that they’re angry over not being able to ride around on a horse.
If this is for a big PW project or an ambitious module series or similar, there’s merit to doing the 2da edits required to excise the system entirely - as a courtesy to new players, if nothing else. But veteran players will assume that horse riding is unsupported unless it’s specifically advertised as a feature. (This is true of some other features too.)
Also, on closer inspection, it turns out Proleric is right in that there’s no “quick fix” here. My proposed OnClientEnter change won’t work, because PCs come with the Mount Actions feat by default now.
So the simplest way to remove horse riding is to never provide any horses to begin with, which necessitates changing the Summon Mount script. (If you still want horses around but no way to ride them, you can set local integer X3_HORSE_NOT_RIDEABLE_OWNER to 1 on the creature).
Another option might be to set X3_NO_MOUNTING to 1 on all areas. Then you should be able to have horses around (and paladins can summon their mounts), but you won’t have to deal with anyone ever mounting them.
Yes, this is for a module meant to be run as a persistent world, so I would consider it best to excise it as much as is possible as a courtesy for inexperienced players.
Speaking from my own experiences in other PWs, nothing sucks more (to me anyways) than learning you sunk a bunch of skill points into a skill that sounds like it’ll be neat and have a lot of cool stuff you can do, just to learn out its basically neglected/unsupported.
You could use SetTlkOverride to change the name & description of the Ride skill / Mounted Feats to [Unavailable] or whatever (or edit the 2da strrefs if you have a custom tlk)…
…but modules generally don’t bother, and players seem to live with that.
The only complaint / query I occasionally see from players is about the PC properties item. In the link above I enumerate the reasons that happens, so you could block them and/or change the item description.
I have other skills I wish to implement myself in the module - for instance I want to have Speak Language to represent learning different languages. Would there be harm in “overriding” Ride with one of those skills, instead, do you think?
It really depends on what languages you’re talking about here, but I think that you’re better off giving them new lines in the 2da files.
Thieves Cant would be specific to the rogue class, but a lot of other languages are going to be more specific to races than classes. Elvish would only be spoken by Elves and anyone that comes into a lot of contact with them.
If you look at the .2da files, there are skill 2da files for classes but not races, but it would still doable. (Need to go afk a bit - I’ll explain when I return.)
Using Elvish as an example, here’s what I would do:
1> I’d add a new line in the class 2das for the Elvish language.
2> Edit the file race_feat_elf.2da to gives elves a default bonus to Elvish. Here’s what the 2da file has by default.
2DA V2.0
FeatLabel FeatIndex
0 immunitysleep 235
1 hardinessenchantment 236
2 WeapProfElf 256
3 skillaffinitylisten 237
4 skillaffinitysearch 238
5 skillaffinityspot 239
6 keensense 240
7 LowLightVision 354
Hardiness to Enchantments and the three skill affinities give +2 facial bonuses. You would just add a new line here to add the language proficiency feat, with a similar intention that Elves get a proficiency bonus because it’s their language. The feat.2da file would also need to be edited to add a line with the new feat.
From this point onward, I’m going to suggest looking at something like villealasaari´s custom feat tutorial for information on what to do next.
https://neverwintervault.org/project/nwn1/other/villealasaari´s-custom-feat-tutorial
I guess the thrust of my question is: can I repurpose the Riding skill’s “slot”, or is it better to put them in new spots?
I’ve never attempted it myself. While I need to implement the Feline Language in what I’m developing, I’m planning on approaching it differently - complete a series of quests to make friends with the numerous cats and gain their trust with the end result of being able to communicate with all of them. If I was to actually implement Feline Language as an actual skill that you could put points into while disabling Ride at the same time, I would still just disable Ride and give Feline Language its own line spot. It’s entirely about what I would consider best practices.
Although saying that, I’m not going to be go out of my way to prohibit horses just because cats and horses nearly always get along. Equines are be welcome in the City of Cats.