Changing NPC Classes

[Viscerus]

I'm changing a bunch of files to make TSL tougher in a complicated way. Part of this involves increasing the AC of opponents by level. I know that acbonus.2da determines the AC for all classes. I just don't know what classes are used for the majority of hostiles. Will the acbonus list adjust the standard enemies throughout the game? Do the Jedi Master's use an independent script?

[stoffe]

I'm changing a bunch of files to make TSL tougher in a complicated way. Part of this involves increasing the AC of opponents by level. I know that acbonus.2da determines the AC for all classes. I just don't know what classes are used for the majority of hostiles. Will the acbonus list adjust the standard enemies throughout the game? Do the Jedi Master's use an independent script?

 

The majority of all hostiles are technically level 1 in their class, so increasing the bonus in acbonus.2da would not really give much of a bonus to opponents, it would rather boost the player and party members.

 

TSL uses an autobalancer function that automatically adjusts the character level (but not class levels), Attack, Defense, Damage bonus and saving throws of all opponents relative to the level of the main player character.

 

Thus their Defense/AC is already increasing with their level due to the autobalancer. If you want to increase the amount of defense they get, tweak the values in the armormult column in the autobalance.2da file.

 

The autobalancer categorizes creatures into 5 levels, determining how powerful the creatures will become, corresponding to the row labels in autobalance.2da. Levels 4 and 5 are usually for bosses, 3 for tough enemies and 1 and 2 for "grunt" type enemies.

 

A field labeled MultiplierSet in the UTC templates for creatures determines what autobalancer category creatures spawned from that template will belong to.

[Viscerus]

Increasing the party AC is actually what I want. I'm just adding a flat value to all existing numbers, so it'll affect enemies and friendlies equally, given that enemies are getting the bonus at L1.

 

If I'm understanding correctly, the games method of generating enemies makes improving the PC in the autobalanced areas nearly redundant, if the ratio is 1-1, except for equipment bonuses. It seems that XP reward is the only purpose for the levels.

 

Using KOTOR Tool, I open a file like c_stormbeast01.utc to see the fields. What tool shows MultiplierSet?

[stoffe]

If I'm understanding correctly, the games method of generating enemies makes improving the PC in the autobalanced areas nearly redundant, if the ratio is 1-1, except for equipment bonuses. It seems that XP reward is the only purpose for the levels.

 

Using KOTOR Tool, I open a file like c_stormbeast01.utc to see the fields. What tool shows MultiplierSet?

 

Pretty much all opponents in the game are affected by the autobalancer, including the big plot bosses.

 

The bonuses granted does not seem to be related to the class that the creature has been set to either, but use some other generic formula. One that usually grants way greater bonuses when it comes to Defense and Saving throws than what the player characters could accomplish by normal levelling. I suppose this is intended to compensate for most opponents not having any extra equipment aside from their weapon and (sometimes) armor.

 

You'll have to use a GFF-Editor to see the MultiplierSet field, k-gff should work fine for this.

 

The field does not exist in all creature templates though, Obsidian probably didn't have time to modify all old templates inherited from KotOR1. If the field is missing in a template, the game defaults to autobalance set 1 I believe.