The How-To Thread

Discussion in 'General Modification' started by Gaear, Feb 24, 2008.

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  1. Shiningted

    Shiningted I want my goat back Administrator

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    In-game inventories start from the mobs - both NPC and shops - but they respawn from the Invensource.mes. The exception is NPCs spawned by script, who have no mobs - they get their starting stuff direct from Invensource.mes.

    Sticking to shops: can't say I have touched Jinnerth lately, but if he is suddenly changing cloaks, I would suggest two things have happened:

    1) People have added some of our various new clothes for him to sell to Invensource.mes (which is good :clap: ) but they have put them into his personal NPC inventory line in Invensource.mes, instead of his seperate shop line

    2) He is showing the 'doesn't respawn properly' bug, which as we saw in KotB isn't the shopkeeper not respawning as much as it is the shopkeeper respawning his personal inventory rather than his shop inventory, as he should. In that case, we respawn him manually using Blue's script.

    Invensource.mes is indeed considered a nasty bastard as the slightest typo will stop the game from even loading.
     
  2. Gaear

    Gaear Bastard Maestro Administrator

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    That was the case, yes. I switched the stuff (new cloaks by maggit, I think) to his shop.

    Thanks for the rest. :)

    [edit]

    Drat. I suppose this means that all the NPCs I've been looking at by spawning via console aren't accurate to real in-game conditions then? :smarty:
     
    Last edited: Apr 16, 2008
  3. Shiningted

    Shiningted I want my goat back Administrator

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    Well, a lot of NPCs in KotB and the additional Co8 material are spawned, but almost everything in ToEE are mobs (except random encounters but very little else I can think of). Depends what you are testing: a spawned critter will be exactly as per its protos.tab prototype, complete with inventory from Invensource.mes (if any), while mobs will be based on a prototype but can be changed in any number of ways.
     
  4. Gaear

    Gaear Bastard Maestro Administrator

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    Does anybody know what it is that controls the daytime lighting on some - but not all - outdoor maps? I'm talking about whatever it is that makes high noon look bright, early morning look blue, and late afternoon look burgundy. (...And everything in between. There's actually a shade for every hour from 6A - 5P).

    This effect exists on outdoor maps like Hommlet, Moathouse, Emridy, etc., but not other minor ones.

    Could it simply be sector lighting of some sort?
     
  5. Shiningted

    Shiningted I want my goat back Administrator

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    Probably the 'global.lit' file: but there is also an 'outdoor' flag in maplist.mes that is certainly accessed (look at the 'call lightening' .py file to see it in action). But my money is on 'global.lit'. I only used two in KotB: the outdoor one filched from Emridy Meadows or somewhere, that has that 'light everything like outdoors at certain times of day' effect, and a 'blank' one that puts no lighting on the models (so they are completely black) so the environmental lights - glows from cauldrons, fires, torches, windows etc - have their full effect. In many cases I haven't done the map lighting yet so you may notice indoor maps in KotB where the models are sometimes lit in sunest colours at 6pm.

    I don't know how to mod global.lit but Ag included it in ToEEWB so it can be done.
     
  6. Rodzaju

    Rodzaju Member

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    Is this why some people (The only one I can immediately think of is the tatooist at the builders camp) appear naked until you get close?
    I'm assuming that she spawns as soon as you reach the map (due to no fog) but doesn't activate (call her inventory) until you get her in sight range.
     
  7. Shiningted

    Shiningted I want my goat back Administrator

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    The exact opposite, actually: naked characters are due to mobs not being properly set up. For instance, Yvy, the tattooist, merely has her gear in her invoentory - it should specifically be 'put on' her by having each individual items' mob assigned its correct slot number.

    But I didn't do that, beacuse I am lazy.
     
  8. Rodzaju

    Rodzaju Member

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    I've always enjoyed the benefits of other modders work, but never had the time / inclination to learn how they did it (cos I'm lazy too!)

    This looks like (Famous last words) a relatively simple task to try out.
    I'll pull a few tutorials & see if I can fix this, if you don't mind.
    You never know, perhaps it'll inspire me to poke about a bit more.
    Or scare me off forever :confused:
     
  9. Shiningted

    Shiningted I want my goat back Administrator

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    Hey, go for it! You really only need ToEE World Builder (from the Downloads / Game Modification Tools section).
     
  10. Gaear

    Gaear Bastard Maestro Administrator

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    Actually, sorry to be a naysayer but any fiddling in that area will likely have a major effect on the 'outfits' mod I've got in the wings. It will either be pointless because I'll be changing inventory items and reclothing many NPCs anyway, or it may be even worse and cause proto-disagreements that will crash the game.

    Sorry. :(

    Ted, did you do this for the Outer Bailey? That of course has the lighting stages, but is that because you made it that way or just that it takes Hommlet's spot in the map list?

    Otherwise I can't seem to achieve the effect by simply stealing a global.lit file from Emridy or wherever.
     
    Last edited: Sep 7, 2008
  11. Rodzaju

    Rodzaju Member

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    Fair enough.

    I'm going to try anyway, but purely for my own benefit.
    More for practice & figuring out how the tools work than anything else.
    I just won't do whatever I would need to do to make the changes available here.

    Edit:
    I'm assuming that it is relatively straightforward to undo any changes I make in preparation for updating when Gaer's changes are ready?
     
    Last edited: Sep 7, 2008
  12. Gaear

    Gaear Bastard Maestro Administrator

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    Well, if you simply install my stuff overtop yours, my mobs will overwrite yours and your stuff will be lost.

    The thing to do would be to create a separate module for Co8 that you use as a modding/testing environment. See this post for the how-to: http://www.co8.org/forum/showpost.php?p=72481&postcount=13

    Skip steps 12 and 13 for your purposes. You also don't have to call the test module "---Sitra."

    Do all your modding/testing in the new module, and leave the old one as the 'official' module.

    Special tip: maintain a separate file structure in 'My Documents' or somewhere that contains your mods. You may have to reinstall a CMF overtop of your testing environment sometime to keep it current, so you don't want to be without copies at that point.
     
  13. Shiningted

    Shiningted I want my goat back Administrator

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    Yes I did. Stole the Hommlet one for memory.
     
  14. Gaear

    Gaear Bastard Maestro Administrator

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    Okay, thanks. Was it nothing more than just grabbing it from the Hommlet map subfolder and putting it in yours, or did you tweak it in some way?
     
  15. Shiningted

    Shiningted I want my goat back Administrator

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    No, just grabbed it: they really don't seem big enough to have much in them. The 'black' (no light) version was made by Ag zeroing out a few entries.
     
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