Is there a way to nerf summoned monsters?

[anthon]

I made my first custom summons spell for a custom spellbook, you can see Aloth using it in the linked image. Problem is there's two base monster prefabs, a big one and a little one. The big one is OP as all get-out and the little one is way too weak, so I'd like to be able to nerf/over write one of the big one's attacks preferably. (this one is for a 9th level spell so my target balance is between the Cipher disintegrate and Chanter Dragon.)

 

ideas on general nerfing of summons? Or is that only possible through prefab editing?

[TKDancer]

easiest way would prolly be to create a custom progression table instead of copying one over/using an existing one, or copying one over, giving it a different ID and then editing it, if those resistances/immunities are tied to a single skill you'd likely also have to either remove said skill from the progression table, create a copy of the skill and edit it to have a different id and less immunities

i'd suggest more that you create a new progression table, even if you just copy the contents of another one and just change the id, to avoid conflicts with NPCs getting nerfed/buffed by your changes to this summon

for example i recently made a mod that gives the Furyshaper's wards a passive skill that gives said summoned wards a scaling boost to defenses and armor by editing its progression table to include a passive skill that gives those bonuses

out of curiosity, what prefab did u use for that ball?

Edited December 18, 2020 by TKDancer

[anthon]

11 hours ago, TKDancer said:

easiest way would prolly be to create a custom progression table instead of copying one over/using an existing one, or copying one over, giving it a different ID and then editing it...i'd suggest more that you create a new progression table, even if you just copy the contents of another one and just change the id, to avoid conflicts with NPCs getting nerfed/buffed by your changes to this summon...
 

what progression table?
The summons attack file just clip a prefab in a mysterious one liner:

"$type": "Game.GameData.AttackSummonComponent, Assembly-CSharp",
					"SummonType": "Summoned",
					"SummonFileList": [{
							"Filename": "prefabs/characters/.../..._mycreature.prefab"
						}
					],
					"SummonDisplayStrings": [{
							"String": //my # reference for /en/characters that labels this thing, i.e. "dragon", "spot", "meowmoew", etc.
						}
					],

here's two examples
1. "SummonFileList": [{"Filename": "prefabs/characters/poe2_creatures/cre_drake_fire.prefab"}],

2. "SummonFileList": [{"Filename": "prefabs/characters/poe2_creatures/cre_blight_storm_greater.prefab"}],

as you can see, there's not much to go on. like, no hit points listed, or stats.
and there's no UUID being referenced either.

I really like your idea, but where would I find the PT_ of monsters, and how would i even point to them when summons only point to a prefab?

11 hours ago, TKDancer said:

out of curiosity, what prefab did u use for that ball?

those are called "_of_decay.prefab" there's one in Seeker/Slayer, and one in Winter.

It just occurred to me I should mention when I went to confirm the claim that Beckoners summon weakened versions of their respective chanter summons in higher numbers, while the duration of the summons was numerically lower, I found no evidence that the attributes, attacks, hit points, or sprite sizes had been changed in the attack file.

so if there's a truth to the beckoner summoning lower HP versions of the regular summons, I haven't found it, but if it does exist, it might be exactly the kind of code we need to nerf/modify summoned stat tables outside the prefab.

 

P.S. Found the Progression Table for the creature but I'm not sure how to get the summoning spell to point to that file instead of the default.

Edited December 19, 2020 by anthon
found progression table

[anthon]

Quote

i'd suggest more that you create a new progression table, even if you just copy the contents of another one and just change the id, to avoid conflicts with NPCs getting nerfed/buffed by your changes to this summon

I've been wracking my brain over this one, like, if i copy the prefab into my folder, then access that folder for the graphics, the code inside that prefab is still going to point to the same GUID abilities.

So even if I created new abilities or copy abilities with different GUIDs, I could never get the summoned monster's prefab codes to point to them. I had attempted creating a single over ride file that made its broken power (destroy) have an attack penalty of -144, and changed it to target Reflex, but it was still auto hitting even against a defense of 120+, because the status effect ignores whether or not you hit. So unless I change the core monster's ability set, it's not changing at all.

One idea came to me, that if I could lock out the player access to the summoned monster - so that they were essentially berserk or otherwise in inaccessible AI mode - this would work, since for whatever reason, through countless turns, the AI never triggers its game breaking attack.

 

But I've only found JoinParty as an option and that leads straight to the problem of a player having access to super attacks. How bad was it? This thing one-rounded Dorudugan the Hellfire Colossus. And it's a pure stock NPC, which I did absolutely nothing to.

Edited December 19, 2020 by anthon

[anthon]

to solve my problem I ended up replaying the single encounter where my sprite source occurs, using its highest HP target for destruction as the minimum damage, then creating a modified version of the Disintegration statuseffect as my base to secure the "destruction" aspect of the encounter.

spoiler-ish:

Turns out the max hp of the targets it was destroying had lower hp (most had nearly half) than the base damage of cipher disintegration, so the custom 9th level wizard spell actually does slightly less damage than the 6th level cipher spell, and no longer gibs megabosses.