Creatures

Creatures are things that can participate in the combat system. Each Creature has Health, stats determining combat effectiveness, and a set of flags that may override combat behavior. While Creatures are generally AI-controlled NPCs, note that the Player is also a Creature.

note

Creatures are only relevant for the combat system. Dialogue trees with NPCs are built with Scenes instead.

Properties

The following properties are available when editing a Creature:

Property	Description
Name	The canonical name of the object, as it appears in the combat sidepanel, e.g. "Bob".
Alias	Alternate name of the object, as it is used in dialogue and combat, e.g. "the dingo".
Gender	Determines which pronouns are used. Cosmetic only.
Level	Base level. Determines the XP value of the Creature when defeated.
Size Class	Creatures can only grapple or swallow Creatures of equal or smaller size. In vore checks, if the pred is larger than the prey, they need to win fewer rounds. Player is Medium-sized.
Strength	Determines number of Attack Dice and Grapple Dice.
Agility	Determines number of Defense Dice and Struggle Dice.
Body	Determines number of Health Points and Swallow Dice.
Wits	Determines turn order. Highest Wits goes first.
Behavior Overrides	Change the Creature's behavior in combat. See below for details.
Vore Settings	Determine which vore-related actions this Creature may take. See below for details.
Script Tags	Default set of tags, one per line. For advanced users - to be used with the HasTag() function.
Equipment	Sets a number of items the Creature has equipped in combat. The alias of the item in Slot 1 is used to describe the NPC's weapon in combat text; the order does not matter otherwise.
String Mappings	Rules for replacing string table keys with different ones. This is what you use to implement creature-specific combat text, like for hitting, missing, vore, etc. More on this below.
Asset GUID	Unique ID number of the asset. For advanced users.

Behavior overrides

The following options are available to change a participant's general behavior in combat:

Option	Description
Skip All Turns	Never take any actions in combat.
Cannot be Attacked	Forbids other Creatures from directly attacking this Creature.
Cannot be Grappled	Forbids other Creatures from initiating a Grapple with this Creature.
Cannot be Vored	Forbids other Creatures from swallowing this Creature.
Does Not Give XP	When defeated, does not award XP.

Predator settings

The following options are available to customize a predator's behavior in combat.

caution

If you turn off 'Digests Prey', swallowed prey will be stuck forever, because in the standard combat system prey cannot escape once swallowed. Therefore, you must manually script a different method for combat to end.

Option	Description
Is Predator	Whether this Creature will attempt to swallow enemies.
Digests Prey	Whether swallowed prey will take digestion damage.
Has Disposal Scene	If the player is digested by this Creature, and the player has disposal enabled in the game settings, prints the VORE_DISPOSAL string. (Use String Mappings to customize the text.)
Swallow Defeated Player	If player dies and is not swallowed, this Creature immediately swallows the player.
Swallowed When Defeated	If killed while not swallowed, the player immediately swallows this Creature.

String Mappings

You can configure rules for certain types of combat text to be replaced, when the action involves this Creature. These are called string mappings: when the game intends to use one string, it is instead mapped onto another of your choice. This is, for instance, used to give characters unique vore scenes, or to give their attacks a little more personality.

When you add a string mapping, you can choose when the game should and should not use the rule. The possible options are:

Rule	Applies when...
Always	If this creature is involved in the action somehow, this rule always applies.
NPC targets Player	The Creature performs the action on the player character, e.g. when the Creature attacks the player.
Player targets Creature	The Creature is targeted by an action of the player character, e.g. when the player attacks the Creature.
This NPC targets another NPC	This Creature performs the action on another NPC Creature.
This NPC is targeted by another NPC	Another NPC Creature performs the action on this Creature.

Built-in string keys

The following string sets are used by Finmer's combat system, so these are the strings you would usually want to customize. They each come with grammar contexts, too, so you can have the game engine change your text on the fly depending on who it's referring to.

Key	Available contexts	Used when
ATTACK_HIT	attacker, defender	A regular attack deals damage.
ATTACK_MISS	attacker, defender	A regular attack was blocked.
ATTACK_CRIT	attacker, defender	A regular attack dealt 5 or more damage.
GRAPPLE_HIT	attacker, defender	A new grapple was successfully started.
GRAPPLE_MISS	attacker, defender	A grapple attempt was blocked.
GRAPPLE_ESCAPE_HIT	attacker, defender	attacker broke free from defender's grapple.
GRAPPLE_ESCAPE_MISS	attacker, defender	attacker failed to break free from defender's grapple.
KILL_GENERIC	attacker, defender	defender lost all HP. attacker is the last Creature to deal damage. Note: this may be the defender themselves, if they died to poison damage.
KILL_DIGESTED	predator, prey	prey lost all HP while swallowed by predator.
VORE_DISPOSAL	predator, prey	Post-vore disposal scene. Only shown if player has explicit disposal scenes enabled.
TURN_WAIT	instigator	Creature skips their turn.
TURN_WAIT_GRAPPLED	instigator	Creature skips their turn, while being grappled.
TURN_STUNNED	instigator	Creature is forced to skip their turn due to an item effect.
VORE_WIN	predator, prey	A swallow attempt was successful.
VORE_LOSE	predator, prey	A swallow attempt was blocked.
VORE_EXT_STRUGGLE	predator, prey	Struggle action is used, and prey is not the player.
VORE_POV_STRUGGLE	predator, prey	Struggle action is used, and prey is the player character.
VORE_POV_DIGEST	predator, prey	Player character ends turn while swallowed, and predator will digest.
VORE_POV_ENDO	predator, prey	Player character ends turn while swallowed, and predator is safe.