I've never much been happy with how HiPS has been balanced in the past. Assorted worlds have tried all manner of restrictions ranging from forced removal of stealth to the honor system and only using it X many rounds.
Obviously only so much can be done to fix the standard bioware version, and if your leery of hak packs, I urge you to look into either The Krit's HiPS restriction or its forefather Scarface's HIPS Restriction for your needs.
That said, if your willing to use a hak pack, I've solved the HiPS issue by removing the bioware feat(yes, this will break any monsters you have with HiPS) and implementing a custom feat instead.
The technical gist of it is that the player has a 1 use per day feat. Said feat will take the player out of combat mode, effect said player similar to greater sanctuary, and force said player into stealth mode.
It will take(by default) 2 rounds(12 seconds) before the feat can be used again. You CAN change this by setting a variable on the module. If the float "HIPS_TIMER" exists on the module, it will use that value of seconds. Otherwise it will default to 12.
This hak will give the new feat out to Shadowdancers(Level 1), Assassin(Level 11), and Rangers(Level 17).
As Per PnP, Assassins get it at 8, and Rangers at 17. I veered from PnP in the instance of the assassin, for the simple fact that NWN assassins gain invisibility at 7th level, and improved invisibility at 9th level.
For those user's that may wish to use this with the PRC, I've taken the liberty of using the same line in spells.2da, feats.2da and even named my script the same, as the Ultimate Rangers ability of the same name. However, It does refer to the standard information in dialog.tlk. Thus a custom tlk file is not needed.
I, D.B.Hart, contactable at Vault Mail or Website, release this hak(with included scripts) to the NWN community with the knowledge it will get used by the community with the following restrictions:
[Y][N][A][O] Yes / No / Ask / Other
[X][ ][ ][ ] Available for use in a module?
[X][ ][ ][ ] Available for use in a persistent world?
[X][ ][ ][ ] Added in the module/server's download package?
[X][ ][ ][ ] Extracted and repackaged into the module/server's HAK pak?
[X][ ][ ][ ] Renamed in case of 2DA conflicts?
[ ][X][ ][ ] Redistributed as part of another compilation HAK?
[X][ ][ ][ ] Allow others to use it as a basis for modifications?
[X][ ][ ][ ] Can the derivative work be redistributed? (>50% changed)
[ ][X][ ][ ] As part of another compilation HAK?
[X][ ][ ][ ] Credit the original author?
[ ][ ][ ][X] Provide a link to the original NWVault page? Such is welcome, but not required.
I also understand that due to personal commitments (or the 'bus factor'), there is the chance that I will not be around forever.
Thus I declare that this contents rights
[X] Be considered AbandonWare after 01 JAN 12
[ ] Defer to [email protected] [ ] Retain the same usage restrictions I've outlined above no matter what.
[X] I am the King of France
Update: 15JAN09 (RemoveOriginal.7z LeaveOriginal.7z) Slight modification to keep players from loosing action query when not-in combat.
if(GetIsInCombat(oPC)) {AssignCommand(oPC, ClearAllActions(FALSE));}
This is a version of the hak that Removes the original .2da line, thus forcing any present SD's to require a rebuild. Ranger's(16+) and Assassins(11+) could also benefit from a rebuild.
Posted by tybae at 2008-07-21 16:49:59 Voted 9.25 on 07/21/08
Nice idea Mask, even if it did come from you ;) . HiPS is very broken and doesn't apply to the appropriate classes. If an Assassin could get HiPS, I might actually play one. Now we need to work on Bard and Ranger getting 6SP per level instead of 4....... _________________________ Academy of Modding ExcellenceVice-Chairman
Default HiPS does not always break combat lock. If you have a high enough spot skill when your opponent invokes HiPS, you continue to attack. Or at least that's the report I had back in December. (Note I am talking about the combat lock of the opponent of the hider, not the combat lock of the hider.)
Posted by DM Heatstroke at 2008-07-20 07:37:37 Voted 9.00 on 07/20/08
Works as advertised, only one issue that I could see while testing, you can't move & HIPS at the same time, but that's to be expected with a system like this. Good work. _________________________ Heatstroke
In truth, I'd say it works about as well as the passive HiPS mode, which also always breaks combat lock.
The difference is I set mine to force break the hider's combat first, while with the passive method, I send to use Shift+F1 as stealth mode, and Shift+F2 as the engage/disengage button.
With the timer in this being what it is, once your stealthed, you can't simply attack and Re-HiPS. There is at default, 2 rounds required before you can use the feat again.
Time enough for an attentive enemy to do something about it. _________________________ Itinerant Admin: RPGModding.com - Where Modders Muster.
Yes, etherealness works well, but perhaps a bit too well. Even at its best, HiPS is a skill contest. A character with relatively low stealth skills who tries to hide in the plain sight of an opponent with high detect skills will not be successful. However, if you throw etherealness into the mix, the hider will succeed for at least a moment, which is enough to break a combat lock.
This situation is not common, but when it happens, this gives a boost to the PC with HiPS. Off the top of my head, I don't know of other situations where etherealness might be a problem, which is why I asked. ;)
Does the etherealness effect work well? There's another approach that could be taken, but I was never motivated enough to try it out. The idea for the other approach would be that the once-per-day "fake" HiPS you give players would give the real HiPS to players for a second then, during that second, cause the PC to break combat and enter stealth. Should be a similar end result, but like I said, I never tried it out. It might be something for someone to look into some day.
BTW, about your statement "As Per PnP, Assassins get it at 8, and Rangers at 17", is that per 3.0 or 3.5 PnP? (It's relevant since NWN is based on 3.0.) I thought HiPS was one of the upgrades Rangers got in the move to 3.5.
Quite! I did it this way with the assumption that users would likely implement it on a PW, as such its designed to.. well.. mandate a rebuild of any existing PC's by stripping out the HiPS feat.
LeaveOriginal.7z was just uploaded, and will do what you want Heatstroke.
RemoveOriginal.7z will Remove the original feat for above specified reasons. _________________________ Itinerant Admin: RPGModding.com - Where Modders Muster.
If you need to, Contact Me
Its more effective than leaving a post on a vault entry you will probably never return to look at a second time
Posted by DM Heatstroke at 2008-07-15 11:24:53 Voted 9.00 on 07/20/08
Would it be possible to keep HIPS working for creatures & use this at the same time for PCs? I'm thinking move the PC HIPS to another Feat.2da line & change the refences to the SD feat list to point to the new version of HIPS. Will this work? Any known bugs with this? _________________________ Heatstroke
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