How To: Set up a Necromancer with pets
- tr3lon1st
- 10. Aug. 2016
- 5 Min. Lesezeit
Today we take a look at setting up an NPC that summons two NPC pets that will each respawn until the summoner is dead.
This setup can be very simple or rather complicated, depending on various factors:
- How many pets do I want?
- Do I want this to be a one-time summoning? - Do I want the NPCs to say or act? - Do I add emitter effects to the appearance of pets?
- Should the pets respawn?
- Should the pets die, when the summoner dies?
and many more.
I decided to make it more or less classic, having a Dark Elf Necromancer summon two skeleton pets that will fight with her until she dies (which I refer to as "conditional existence"). If they die first, they will respawn. To make it visually more impressive, I attached an emitter effect to the spawn that will trigger before the NPC appears. I also added Story Nodes to have the NPC utter words while any of these events are happening.
That particular setup requires the following items:
The first link we're going to set up is going to be the reset switch. You will need both reset switches, Timer Filter 1 and the Logic Filter. Make sure you set Timer Filter 1 to 2 seconds.
Links 1-4 (Switch 1) When this switch turns on or off, turn off both lights. (Logic Filter) (Switch 1) When this switch turns on or off, start this timer. (Timer Filter 1)
(Timer Filter 1) When this timer completes, alternate this switch between on and off. (Switch 2)
(Switch 2) When this switch turns on or off, turn on the yellow light. (Logic Filter)
This arrangement will make sure that the Logic Filter is set up exactly the way it's supposed to be in order to start a one-time event.
We now set up the area and Timer Filter 2. This Timer Filter can also be set to 2 seconds. Make sure that Trigger Areas are visible on your claim, so you can interact with them. Making them visible is described in this article.
Links 5-7 (Area) When a Luminary enters this area, turn on the blue light. (Logic Filter) (Logic Filter) When both lights turn on, start this timer. (Timer Filter 2)
(Timer Filter 2) When this timer completes, turn off both lights. (Logic Filter)
When a player resets the scenario and enters the area, both of these actions will have turned on each of the lights on the Logic Filter, triggering the summoning of the pets. If the player re-enters the Trigger Area, it won't retrigger the setup, because the yellow light was not triggered by the reset switch. Voilà : A one-time event.
Now we place down the two emitters as well as Timer Filters 3 and 4. Both Timer Filters should set to a number of seconds that will make the emitter effect believably long. In my case, I chose 2 seconds. It's enough to unfold the emitter effect and make it disappear again without causing too much distraction.
Links 8-13 (Logic Filter) When a Luminary enters this area, turn on this emitter. (Emitter 1) (Emitter 1) When this emitter turns on, start this timer. (Timer Filter 3)
(Timer Filter 3) When this timer completes, turn off this emitter. (Emitter 1)
(Logic Filter) When a Luminary enters this area, turn on this emitter. (Emitter 2) (Emitter 2) When this emitter turns on, start this timer. (Timer Filter 4)
(Timer Filter 4) When this timer completes, turn off this emitter. (Emitter 2)
The next step is adding the NPC pets to the scene. Obviously, they cannot appear with the effect, otherwise they'd pop in before the emitter effect is "in full bloom". So we will have them spawn when the timer ends. Make sure the NPC skeleton pets do not spawn automatically and uncheck the respawn feature in their options as well.
Links 14-15 (Timer Filter 3) When this timer completes, spawn this creature. (Skeleton Pet 1)
(Timer Filter 4) When this timer completes, spawn this creature. (Skeleton Pet 2)
In order to make sure that the skeletons return, we have to link their death to .
Links 16-17 (Skeleton Pet 1) When this creature dies, turn on this emitter. (Emitter 1)
(Skeleton Pet 2) When this creature dies, turn on this emitter. (Emitter 2)
Having the skeleton's death trigger the emitter will start the entire respawn process + its effects all over again. Now we bring the conjuror into the game. We now add the Dark Elf NPC. I personally picked the Ebonguard Nightcaller. In order to make a dramatic entrance, I chose to have the NPC be neutral first, say something magical and then turn into an enemy.
Link 18 (Timer Filter 2) When this timer completes, spawn this creature. (Necromancer)
Now that the NPC is set up, we have to make sure that killing the Necromancer will also end the pets... for good! His death will cause the pets to despawn as well. And since I am not a fan of respawns, I also deactivated the respawn feature on the Necromancer.
We will also connect the Necromancer's death to turning off the emitters, just to make sure that they don't happen to be on, while the NPC dies. This happens very rarely, but why allow it, if we can avoid it completely.
Links 19-22 (Necromancer) When this creature dies, despawn this creature. (Skeleton Pet 1)
(Necromancer) When this creature dies, despawn this creature. (Skeleton Pet 2)
(Necromancer) When this creature dies, turn off this emitter. (Emitter 1)
(Necromancer) When this creature dies, turn off this emitter. (Emitter 2)
Now it's time to add some story to the scene. When the player enters the area and triggers both lights of the Logic Filter to turn on, the NPC will have 2 seconds before the Timer FIlter will turn it into an enemy. Let's have her say something fun during that time. Enter the options of Story Node 1 and have her act out or say whatever you think fits into a short period of time.
Links 23-24 (Timer Filter 2) When this timer completes, activate everything on this node. (Story Node 1)
(Story Node 1) When everything on this node activates, have this creature perform everything. (Necromancer)
Since we're in the process of making things vocal, we will also have the Necromancer say something when one of her pets dies. But since that can happen quite often, we will put a Probability Filter in front of it. This way it will happen every now and again instead. You determine the probability in the options of the Probability Filter. I picked a 50% chance.
For Story Node 2 (the node that might activate when a pet dies) I picked a text that goes something along the lines of "You are not done here!", "Come back to me!", "Damn you, bag of bones!".
Links 25-28 (Skeleton Pet 1) When this creature dies, roll the probability dice. (Probability Filter)
(Skeleton Pet 2) When this creature dies, roll the probability dice. (Probability Filter)
(Probability Filter) When the probability roll wins, activate everything on this node. (Story Node 2)
(Story Node 2) When everything on this node activates, have this creature perform everything. (Necromancer)
