BG2AI

Customization of Baldur's Gate 2 EE Script BDDEFAI.BCS

This contains the text behind BDDEFAI.TXT. As I change it for my own needs it will provide a history of the changes.

Comments

• The script does a lot of good things, with conditions for casting a great variety of spells.

• No offense, but scripts aren't that good at figuring out the "right" time to cast spells. The default does silly things like burn a Mirror Image even though there's only one enemy with 3 HP left. This is not an indictment of the script writer: the engine itself doesn't lend itself easily to figuring out when to hold back, etc.

• Also, I like choosing the spells (for the most part). What I don't care for is micromanaging the melee actions (and ranged), since they are usually pretty mundane. However, the original script doesn't spend hardly any time on weapon selection or usage... which is what I would rather not mess with.

• And lastly, I'd rather modify what they have here because the script does deal with one thing (which spell is used to counter which defense) that I'd rather not take the time to memorize and learn with all then weird combinations.

Behavior

Hotkeys

• F - Selects a leader for the selected character. Pressing F will cycle through visible targets looking for the next leader (person to follow). Selecting yourself as leader effectively disables following.

• D - Disable or Enable following for the selected character.

• V - Enable healing mode. While in healing mode, the character will bring back party members from the dead, look for the player with the lowest HP percentage, and see if an appropriate spell can be found for their wounds. If so, they will cast the healing spell on the target. If not, they will exit healing mode. Spells used in healing mode include the following:

  • SPPR712.SPL (Resurrection)
  • SPPR504.SPL (Raise Dead)
  • SPPR550.SPL (Recall Spirit)
  • SPPR607.SPL (Heal)
  • SPPR502.SPL (Cure Critical Wounds)
  • SPPR401.SPL (Cure Serious Wounds)
  • SPPR315.SPL (Cure Medium Wounds)
  • SPPR103.SPL (Cure Light Wounds)

Changes

• Moved ActionListEmpty to the top of blocks and made it required. This allows the user to "be in control" : if an action is in progress it will not be interrupted by the script.

• Moved HaveSpell() to the top of the control block underneath ActionListEmpty(). This should (I think) largely improve AI CPU usage since in many cases a character won't have the spell required for the block without any kind of string check.

HELPFUL NOTES:

BDAI_RESET_TIMERS

It doesn't seem to be driven by the GUI in any meaningful way. I believe that it is only used by the script itself as a "have I ever been initialized" timer.

BDAI_SKILL_MODE (settable in GUI):

• 0 == Not Set

• 1 == Find Traps

• 2 == Hide in Shadows

• 3 == Bard Song

• 4 == Turn Undead

BDAI_ATTACK_MODE (settable in GUI):

• 0 == Not Set

• 1 == Prefer Melee

• 2 == Prefer Ranged

AI Script Slots

Looks like CLASS is used for player-picked scripts, and RACE is available for use. The others will (possibly) conflict with other things that can happen in-game.

• CLASS -- Player1 set to BDDEFAI by area at start of game
• DEFAULT -- Set by AI scripts. Used on party members
• GENERAL -- Set by AI scripts. Used on party members
• SPECIFICS -- Set by AI scripts. Used on party members
• OVERRIDE -- Set by AI scripts. Used on party members
• RACE -- Set by AI scripts.