Best way to have a different form in combat?

[Foodstamp]

I'm trying to figure out the optimal way to have a different form in combat than in the overland map.

Here is the best way I can come up:

Give the commander two forms.

Create a #onebattlespell that kills the commander at the start of combat, thus shape changing him to the second form.

After combat, the unit should revert to the first form again on the overland map.


Two questions:

Is there an easier way to do this?

Will the spell that kills the first form unit cause afflictions?


Thanks!

[BewareTheBarnacleGoose]

Why not just copystat a unit with a #secondshape#, if you want to make a new shapchanging commander. You can then just give it the "change shape" command as their first battle order. If you dont want to loose a turn, just make it so that it doesnt lose magic paths when it changes shape, and change shape [eg, copystat a nahualli] on the overland map. Would this be what you want?

[Foodstamp]

Naw, not exactly.

I want it to be a forced action.

When viewing the commander on the map, I want the user to see one graphic. When the commander engages in combat, I want it to have a different graphic. Stats would be identical.

The #secondshape is part of the solution I am going to try, but I hate losing the option of using #onebattlespell for something useful. And I am concerned about the affliction thing, but it will be easy enough to test when I get home.

[Koral]

One of the exiles wanted to let you know: "You can use polymorph, but it has to point to a monster with an id between 1 and 999. The polymorph effect is #effect 54. See the warhammer dwarf mod for an example of how this works. If you want more detailed info, come to irc or ask in dom3mods."

[llamabeast]

Ah yes, exactly what Koral said.

It's a bit annoying cos you have to either find unused slots between 1 and 999 (I think Dwarfs found most of them), or else do something like:

- Copy vanilla unit to new unit number
- Change spell for that unit to point to new unit number
- Steal original unit number for yourself.

[Foodstamp]

That will work perfect! It's part of an overhaul mod so any unit between 1 and 999 that doesn't have a special effect attached to it is fair game.

Basically, I am wanting to replace the commanders sprites with portraits on the world map, and then revert to their normal sprites in combat, for an rpg-ish mod I am working on.

Thanks again for all the help, and tell the exile I said thanks as well!

[Foodstamp]

Ok, Polymorph solved half the issue, and it was very simple to solve the other half of the issue.

To get it to work exactly how I wanted, I needed to select the target unit and give him a #firstshape to the original unit.

So now I have a unit that looks like a portrait on the map, and an actual unit when fighting. Exactly what I wanted Thanks again!

[Foodstamp]

Ta Da! Here is what it looks like in game. I need to do a bit of resizing, but you get the idea...

[Calahan]

That looks pretty funky actually

How does it look on the strategic/overland map if you have a big load of them in a province? Is it just going to be a lot of potrait pictures in a line? (which might look a bit odd IMO)

[Foodstamp]

Originally Posted by Calahan

That looks pretty funky actually

How does it look on the strategic/overland map if you have a big load of them in a province? Is it just going to be a lot of potrait pictures in a line? (which might look a bit odd IMO)

That one kinda looks funky because I threw it together for a test real quick. The actual images I plan to use would be a little smaller. I think the only time the portrait would show up on the overland is when the hero would be by itself in the province. Provinces normally show the most abundant troop in the province, so it shouldn't be an issue because this method only works with commanders.

So every once in a while, you would see 1 portrait on the world map in a province denoting a commander holding the province by himself because I intend to use this only for #unique heroes, but it should only be as intrusive as the largest creature graphics because I intend to use size 6 creatures dimensions for the graphic.

I will recreate that situation this evening with a graphic I actually intend to use to see what it looks like and I will post it here for you to see as well.