In classical Greek mythology, the hydra was a large, venomous water serpent that lived in the swamps of Lerna. When Heracles was sent to kill the hydra, he found that not only did the creature have nine heads to start with, it grew two new heads for each one he crushed with his club. Eventually, he eliminated the monstrous serpent, but not without help from his nephew Iolaus.
The hydra presented here is a poor cousin to the one that Heracles fought. Because of limitations in the NWN2 engine, this creature sports only five heads and does not have the ability to grow new ones. Nevertheless, it is definitely inspired by Greek mythology and bears little resemblance to the D&D version.
Which File to Download?
If you have never downloaded version 1.01 of the Lernean Hydra, the file to download is Hydra_v_1_2.zip. It contains all the creature's models, skeletons, animations, textures, and sample 2DA files, as well as a custom portrait.
If you have already downloaded version 1.01 of the hydra, you may download HydraPatch_v1_01_to_v1_2.zip instead. The contents of this file are intended to replace the old skeleton and animations of the previous version. The patch file will not work with version 1.0 of the hydra.
Instructions for Use
Unpack the contents of the zip file to your override folder. Sample appearance.2da and wingmodel.2da files are provided for your convenience.
In the toolset, drop any creature in an area and change its Appearance to _Hydra or _HydraTintable. The former is non-tintable, and the latter is tintable. The non-tintable version has better colors because some of the subtlety of coloration is lost in making tintable textures.
Under the creature's properties, set Wings to HydraTongue. This will give the creature a forked tongue that will flicker in and out.
It is highly recommended that you change the creature's Custom Portrait to po_hydra because the default game-generated portrait is not very good.
Please note that the number of heads that this hydra has is fixed at five. Because of the game engine's limitations, the hydra cannot grow new heads.
Recommended Files If you want to add breath weapons to the hydra, look no further than Dan Pigdon's Hydra Breath Effects. He did an awesome job creating the scripts and vfx to go with the hydra model.
Version History 30 May 2012, v. 1.2: Corrected the orientation of the attachment points at the hydra's mouths to allow proper use of spell cone effects. Corrected the tongue flicking animation, which got messed up in version 1.01. Cloned the general spellcasting animations to create the attack spellcasting animations.
29 May 2012, v 1.01: Added attachment points to the four other mouths of the hydra (ap_hand_left, ap_hand_right, ap_foot_left, and ap_foot_right) to allow custom breath weapon effects to be attached. Improved some of the original animations and added a new breath attack animation. In appearance.2da, changed the size of the selection capsule to 6. (Thanks to DannJ for that improvement.)
For those who have previously downloaded version 1.01 of the hydra, you may download this smaller file, the contents of which should replace the hydra skeleton and animations of the older version. This patch will not work on version 1.0 of the hydra. Those who only have the very first version will have to download Hydra_v_1_2.zip.
For those who want to see how Dann Pigdon's Hydra Breath Effects can be used with my hydra model, I have attached a sample no-frills module. You will still need to download my complete hydra model along with the override version of Dann's Hydra Breath Effects and extract their contents to your override folder. See the description above for a link to Dann's mod. Thanks to MokahTGS for providing the original module, to which I added the hydra breath effects.
Yes, that is correct. The Expotron made the addition of that one tongue more challenging than it should have been. _________________________ Yay, I have a blog. Faithless: The Making of an NWN2 Module
Posted by Lance Botelle at 2012-06-04 06:43:26 Voted 9.50 on 06/04/12
Question: I only have one tongue appear (central head) ... is that correct?
It's not a problem, I just wanted to make sure that was what to expect.
Lance. _________________________ World of Althéa Blog: Link
Posted by Lance Botelle at 2012-06-04 06:02:26 Voted 9.50 on 06/04/12
A must have for any monster collection! _________________________ World of Althéa Blog: Link
Posted by EvilShade at 2012-06-01 01:41:35 Voted 9.75 on 05/28/12
The latest version of the hydra has APs in each of its mouths. I recommend that you download it, along with Dann Pigdon's Hydra Breath Effects. See the description above for a link. Dann has a screenshot that shows the breath attack hitting its enemies in a wide arc. _________________________ Yay, I have a blog. Faithless: The Making of an NWN2 Module
Posted by EvilShade at 2012-05-31 10:41:30 Voted 9.75 on 05/28/12
Something I just noticed: the mouth attachment point is perfectly level, its not aligned with the acual mouth of the hydra. So when it does a breath attack the effect appears in front of its nose and goes horizontal instead of going towards the enemy its fighting. _________________________ Level Designer - Ossian Studios NWN2: Mysteries of Westgate - NWN2's only Adventure Pack
Posted by EvilShade at 2012-05-31 06:54:32 Voted 9.75 on 05/28/12
About your offer - if it would not be to much to ask, adding those attachment points to the other heads would be great. Since cryohydra and pyrohydra spew their breath attacks from each head and not only the central one. _________________________ Level Designer - Ossian Studios NWN2: Mysteries of Westgate - NWN2's only Adventure Pack
It's done partly by creating visual effects designed to emanate from particular attachment points. The rest of the work is done by scripting the appropriate special ability. The whole process if kind of arcane to me, to be honest, but that's the gist of it. _________________________ Yay, I have a blog. Faithless: The Making of an NWN2 Module
Posted by alupinu at 2012-05-29 14:02:38 Voted 10.00 on 05/29/12
Just tested out the new beast and it works great. Also love the animation, very realistic, along with the 3 layers of tint. Really nice job!
Do have one question, �(provided that each mouth receives breath weapon effects)�. How do you attach weapon effects to each head? Am I missing something?
_________________________ Murder in Dunlop Fanglewood
My Class is Rogue ... "You look surprised to see me. If you'd been paying attention, you might still be alive."
Thanks for all the feedback both here and in the Bioware Boards. They have guided me in improving my hydra model. I've uploaded a new version of the hydra (version 1.01) to allow custom breath weapon effects to be attached to all the mouths, not just the central one. I've also added a new breath attack animation that puts dragons of an equivalent level to shame (provided that each mouth receives breath weapon effects). _________________________ Yay, I have a blog. Faithless: The Making of an NWN2 Module
Posted by DannJ at 2012-05-28 15:37:58 Voted 9.50 on 05/28/12
It looks magnificent in the game. I've already created some Pyrohydra and Cryohydra blueprints using the tinted version. I tweaked the selection capsule as well (set it to 6 in the 2DA - the default circle around it is huge otherwise).
I have only one gripe though - models of this quality make the models that shipped with the game look crappier than ever in comparison.
Posted by bsb5652 at 2012-05-28 07:09:06 Voted 10.00 on 06/21/12
Great Work and great quality! _________________________ Brian S. Bloom
Realms of Trinity for NWN2 PW Creator Link
Neverwinter Nights Podcast Executive Producer Link
The guy who commissioned this from me said he wanted the mythological version of the hydra, not the D&D version. I think I might have had an easier time doing the D&D version though. Serpents are deceptively hard to model and animate.
Only the central head has attachment points, which are ap_mouth, ap_eye_left, ap_eye_right, ap_ear_left, ap_ear_right, ap_forehead, ap_halo, and ap_camera. I could add ap_hand_left, ap_hand_right, ap_foot_left, and ap_foot_right to each head if there are modders who would want them positioned near the mouths. Suggestions in this regard (and any feedback for that matter) are welcome. _________________________ Yay, I have a blog. Faithless: The Making of an NWN2 Module
Posted by EvilShade at 2012-05-28 01:41:53 Voted 9.75 on 05/28/12
I like it. Although its not true to the artwork. I wonder btw, does each of those 5 heads have an attachment point? For breath effects for instance? _________________________ Level Designer - Ossian Studios NWN2: Mysteries of Westgate - NWN2's only Adventure Pack
Posted by MokahTGS at 2012-05-27 12:39:26 Voted 9.75 on 05/27/12
10 - A Masterpiece, Genuinely Groundbreaking 9 - Outstanding, a Must Have 8 - Excellent, Recommended to Anyone 7 - Very Good, Deserves a Look 6 - Good, Qualified Recommendation 5 - Fair, Solid yet Unremarkable 4 - Some Merit, Requires Improvements 3 - Poor Execution, Potential Unrealized 2 - Very Little Appeal 1 - Not Recommended to Anyone
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