Magic NPCs

[0.7.0] — Easy NPC Integration & Spellcasting Overhaul

A major update to Magic NPCs, focused on better spellcasting, smarter NPC behavior, improved datapack support, diagnostics, and full Easy NPC compatibility.

✨ Easy NPC Support

• Full Easy NPC integration: Easy NPCs can now become proper Magic NPC spellcasters.
• Easy NPCs understand their owners and factions, preventing friendly fire against owners, fellow owned NPCs, and faction allies.
• Mana now scales with an Easy NPC's experience level.
• Paused or immovable Easy NPCs are properly respected.
• Added the ability for Easy NPCs to cast spells through dialogue, triggers, and custom actions.
• Added Easy NPC-specific spellcasting objectives and configuration options.
• Improved diagnostics now show Easy NPC ownership, faction, level, movement, pause state, and spellcasting status.
• Easy NPC integration is disabled by default and has no effect unless Easy NPC is installed and enabled.

🪄 Spellcasting Improvements

• Casters now fight from an appropriate distance. NPCs using pure-caster loadouts will maintain the spell's configured minimum and maximum range instead of charging directly into melee.
• Casters now respect their owner's follow, hold-position, and formation orders.
• NPCs remain stationary while channeling spells to prevent interrupted or inaccurate casts.
• NPC rank can increase spell levels, allowing progression-based casters to become stronger over time.
• Scripted spells now properly complete their casting process instead of becoming stuck.
• Spell mana and cooldowns are handled consistently and are only spent when a spell actually begins casting.
• Friendly-fire protection now correctly accounts for different spell shapes and where their effects actually land.
• Unsupported spells are now identified instead of being incorrectly treated as supported.

🔄 Reload & State Improvements

• Reloading datapacks now updates existing NPCs. You no longer need to kill and respawn mobs after adding or changing a spellcaster loadout.
• Reloading no longer unexpectedly restores mana, resets cooldowns, or changes an NPC's caster status.
• Spellcasting can now be disabled immediately through configuration.
• Native mob attacks can be suppressed and restored, making it safe to switch between normal combat and pure spellcasting.
• Changed loadouts can properly update NPC equipment.
• Reload results now accurately report what was changed and why.

📦 Better Datapack Support

• /magicnpcs validate now checks all discovered loadout files, including invalid, rejected, shadowed, and disabled files.
• Validation now provides clearer errors, JSON locations, and suggestions for common mistakes.
• Unknown or misspelled loadout options are now reported instead of silently ignored.
• Invalid restrictions and impossible configuration combinations are detected before they cause confusing behavior.
• The documented { "enabled": false } method for disabling built-in loadouts now works correctly.
• Added more flexible spell requirements, including required items and hands.
• Added per-loadout caster chances and controls for built-in loadouts.
• School assignment is now predictable: a manually assigned school will no longer silently fall back to an unrelated datapack loadout.
• Added /magicnpcs school auto to return an NPC to automatic school assignment.

🧠 Smarter NPC Behavior

• Multiple NPC compatibility adapters can now work together instead of overriding one another.
• Owner, faction, pet, raid, and other safety rules are combined more reliably.
• Sitting pets can be prevented from casting independently of other owner-protection settings.
• Raid allies can be protected from friendly fire.
• School selection now considers what a spell actually targets rather than relying primarily on its name.

🛠️ Diagnostics & Commands

• Improved /magicnpcs why to explain why an NPC can or cannot cast, including cooldowns, targets, friendly fire, movement restrictions, adapters, and other blockers.
• Added detailed loadout diagnostics showing the desired and currently installed configuration.
• Added /magicnpcs reconcile to manually re-evaluate NPCs.
• Added focused validation commands for individual loadouts and entity types.
• Restored and expanded /magicnpcs config.
• Startup information now reports detected dependency versions and build information.

⚙️ Configuration & Compatibility

• Added dedicated Easy NPC configuration and school-assignment settings.
• Existing worlds are unaffected unless Easy NPC integration is explicitly enabled.
• The deprecated compatibility configuration remains supported for now and will be removed in a future release.
• Easy NPC Core support targets the verified 7.11.x range.
• Iron's Spells 'n Spellbooks support is limited to the versions and spells that have been specifically verified.

🐛 Fixed

• Existing mobs failing to become casters after /reload.
• Validation incorrectly reporting broken or undiscovered loadouts as valid.
• Advertised Magic NPCs commands being unavailable or incomplete.
• Spells charging mana but failing to actually execute.
• Reloads resetting caster mana and cooldowns.
• Pure casters getting stuck in melee range.
• NPCs losing their original attack behavior after spellcasting was disabled.
• Manual school assignments being overridden by datapack loadouts.
• Friendly-fire checks incorrectly blocking or allowing certain spells.
• Invalid datapack values being silently ignored.
• Numerous missing or broken features that had been advertised in previous releases.

📌 Notes

• Existing worlds and normal Recruits behavior remain unchanged unless the new features are explicitly enabled or configured.
• Some Iron's spells that require player-specific or mob-specific abilities remain unsupported rather than being partially implemented.
• Loadout conditions are evaluated when an NPC is reconciled; changing environments does not automatically select a new loadout until reconciliation occurs.