Gnome Mod

Well, I made Nybble joiunable. That was easy enough. But Chanda and Gleem are another story -- their .dlg files are attached to their presence in Verbobonc, and --not-- the Moathouse. Neither is Nybble's, but there's a "gnome1.dlg" that is Nybble's dialogue for the moathouse. I modified that and Nybble will join through that, but I can't figure out how to get Chanda and Gleem to join. Is there a command I can use with Nybble-gnome1 to have Gleem and Chanda join when he does?

Thanks for any help you can give. I do know a bit about Troika's way of coding, especially the dialogues because I worked with them on Arcanum and did about 80% of the dialogues there.

 

Moved the post to Gen Mod.

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The reason you didn't find Chanda and Gleem's dlg files is that they are not modified in Co8. The files you see inside data\dlg are all modified files that override the original files. To get the original DLGs, you have to extract them from the DAT files.

To save you some trouble I've attached them here, but if you intend to continue modding you should extract the DAT files into a "Vanilla ToEE" folder (comes in handy once in a while).

As for making Chanda and Gleem join, you can do the straightforward thing and have them join individually. However, you should note that if you want it to be realistic, you should implement a check to see if they all have room. Two options I can see here:

1. Have them warn you that they will only keep following you around if they are all together. Then give them a san_new_map script to check if all three of them are around - if not, initiating a disband dialogue and make them run off.

2. Implement a direct check.
This is a bit trickier, since Co8 allows to modify the number of NPCs. In the vanilla game, you could simply check:

Code:

game.party_npc_size() == 0

Because it was assumed that you have 3 NPC slots, thus it was equivalent to check that there are no NPCs. Like I said, in Co8 there can be any number of NPC slots from 0-5.

I've run into a similar situation before with Mother Screng. I've attached her modified DLG file - see line 170 for example usage, and look inside the her py file to see the script that I've used.
The trick is to basically add the NPCs, and use the function

Code:

pc.follower_atmax()

to see if there's room for more. The scripting for the gnomes should be similar to Screng's script, except you'd need three checks instead of two.

Hope it helps, let me know how it goes or if you need further assistance.

Lastly, it's pretty cool to have former Troika employees around. Especially ones who worked on Arcanum - that was a great game.

 

Many, many thanks! I figured that, but wasn't sure. I've just found Co8 recently (been away on real-life adventures), and am impressed with their work.

I agree with your suggestions, and that is exactly the way I was going.

 

Well, I fixed Chanda, Nybble & Gleem quick and dirty, and played a bit with them and everything seems to work. I had to edit Chanda in the protos.tab file to give her a diety and domains -- and while there I gave Nybble & Gleem dieties, and upped thestat lines of all three 'cause they were given basic, never-intended-to-be-played stats. I didn't make them super-gnomes, just got them up to your basic above-average adventurer-type. Combat with them otherwise was extremely painful . . . for them.

When I finish modding them I'll post the files & changes.

 

OK. The quick and dirty fix worked well enough. I had lots of fun role-playing a Gnome party -- it was not very easy at all, and I had to learn new tactics like mass scoot & shoot. I had monsters chasing us all over the maps, and every battle was a long and chaotic affair. I got them up to 7th level, and now it's really starting to be difficult for them.

Anyway, wanting to clean up the .dlg files and post them here but I've run into a problem. Trying to be all prim and proper and write clean dialogue while not interfering with the Verbobonc dialogue . . . it seems I've run into a snag where the captives always run off even when they hit the dialogue option that would have them join.

I was wondering if I could re-write the entire dialogues from scratch (keeping the intent of the original, of course) without messing up the Verbobonc stuff. Is there a way I can move the Verbobonc lines to the end of the file, or even into another file?

 

Even better - create a plotline where the Verboboncers are dopplegangers

Also, not sure what you mean by the run off issue... can you post the files?

By the way, did you happen to write the Gnome conspiracy quest in Arcanum? That one was awesome.