111 replies to this topic

[Sillara]

Where can I find a tutorial that assumes NO knowledge of modding? I know absolutely NOTHING of coding, but I am working on my mod anyway. I have completed between 75% and 80% of the writing. I will soon need to begin coding, and I have no idea what to do. Thanks!

Sillara

[Kismet]

There aren't any like that as far as I know. They all assume some sort of basic knowledge. You're going to have to do what the rest of us non-coders did and that's dig around in files to see how BioWare did things and how other modders did them and read the forums and ask lots of questions.

Ghrey's NPC tutorial really is a good place to start. The thread on the tutorial is chock full of good information on pitfalls to avoid so I'd recommend reading that too. http://www.shsforums...ay;threadid=678

WeiDU comes with a readme and some nice tutorials on some of the different functions. It also comes with a folder full of examples. I'd recommend reading them through, even if you don't understand everything (or anything) right off.

[Sillara]

(For those of you who have already read this post on the CoM board, sorry!)

I have three questions.

1) When making a joining dialogue, how do I script in a variable for the party attacking the NPC?

2) How do I script in a variable for the NPC to attack the party/turn hostile?

3) How do I have the NPC refuse to speak to the PC another time (i.e., So-and-so has nothing to say to you)?

Thanks!

Sillara

P.S. We have just begun our first bit of coding, and I have an enormous favor to ask of you experienced coders. Would one of you be willing to read over my joining dialogue to make sure that I am doing it properly? I would rather send it as an attachment than post it up for two reasons: it contains spoilers, and I would like to make sure I have it in the right kind of file. Thank you again!!!

[Seifer]

Send it to me if you wish. I would also ask, are you using Context in your coding?

[Kismet]

(For those of you who have already read this post on the CoM board, sorry!)

I have three questions. 

1) When making a joining dialogue, how do I script in a variable for the party attacking the NPC?

2) How do I script in a variable for the NPC to attack the party/turn hostile?

Do you want the NPC to attack the party as soon as he sees them or in the middle of the dialog? If it's the former I assume you could just flag him as "enemy" rather than "neutral" and then turn him neutral and stop the fight when his health gets to a certain level. If it's the latter then you'd use DO ~Enemy()~

3) How do I have the NPC refuse to speak to the PC another time (i.e., So-and-so has nothing to say to you)?

Give him dialog without any true conditions.

P.S. We have just begun our first bit of coding, and I have an enormous favor to ask of you experienced coders. Would one of you be willing to read over my joining dialogue to make sure that I am doing it properly?    I would rather send it as an attachment than post it up for two reasons: it contains spoilers, and I would like to make sure I have it in the right kind of file. Thank you again!!!

You can always --traify it first so all we would see would be @1 instead of your actual dialog lines. As for the right kind of file, it just has to be a plain text file.

[dorotea]

Hi there!

Don't forget that besides your d-files (the ones with actual dialog), cre-files (the ones that contain basic information on your new npc) and bcs-files (the scripts that actually dictate your npc behavior) you also need a tp2 file - the file that installs all the above components and adds them to your game.


Also, one program that I think you need to have besides Context editor (http://fixedsys.com/...t/download.html) and Weidu (http://weidu.org/Wei...ADME-WeiDU.html) is the Near Infinity - the Infinity Engine Editor and Browser (http://www.idi.ntnu....i/download.html).

Hope it helps. You can send your files to me if you wish - simply PM or email at

ladydorotea@hotmail.com, and yes, as Seifer mentioned the best format is plain text. Just save your d-file as All-files xxx.d and it will be readable in any text editor (Notepad, Wordpad, Context etc) It is not desirable to use Word.

[Sillara]

I have a question regarding interjection coding. Suppose I want my NPC to interrupt something someone says in the game. Something like this.

Salvanas: Blah-blah-blah.
MyNPC: No! Blah-BLAH-blah.
Salvanas: You're right. Blah-BLAH-blah.
MyNPC: Stupid git.
END

I want my NPC's dialogue to interrupt/intercept the other person's speech and prevent it from advancing as well as having the guy respond to my NPC. How do I do that?

Thanks!
Sillara

[Sillara]

I have another general modding question. In my NPC/NPC banters (among others), I have occasionally had cause to use quotation marks around words (as in, "dark, foul magic" when quoting Valygar, or from time to time when expressing sarcasm or what-not). However, I am not sure what putting quotation marks in the coded dialogue would do. Is it all right to put quotes within the coded dialogues? How would that look? Is there anything special I have to do to get the quotes to not be read as commands or whatever? And, on a similar note, how do I get the spoken words to indent? I have occasional poetry quotations, and I would like to have them indented.

Thanks!

Sillara

[the bigg]

1) to get your NPC deviate your path in the dialogue, you should use INTERJECT instead of INTERJECT_COPY_TRANS: the former allows you to choose where to direct your dialogue (see valen for examples), while the latter makes your NPC say his little thing and then the dialogue will continue as usual.
2) Bioware dialogues uses *ironic or emphatised* instead of "ironic or emphatized". it should be safe as long as there aren't /nearby, because in WeiDu /*this is a comment*/.
3) to indent, you can, in your .tra file (or in the hard-coded .d), write
@1 "line 1
line 2
linte 3"
(or SAY "line 1
line 2
line 3"
safely because each @ reference is long from " to the next " (I use ", having an italian keyboard, but WeiDU usually uses the tilde). WeiDU totally ignores indenting in both .d and .tp2 files.

[Sillara]

Thanks! That helps a lot.

Sillara

[Sillara]

I'm ba-ack!

This time my question involves the PC's class. My NPC has class-specific dialogues with the PC, but I was wondering how to trigger that. What Global (or Local?) or whatever do I have to code in? Also, is there any way to check for the PC's kit? Or is the fighter class all that can be checked for, not the Wizard Slayer or Kensai or what-have-you?

Thanks again!
Sillara

[Valheru]

I am also a begginer but I would reccomend that you look at other dialogues in the game and see what the conditions are it is a great help or so I found it to be.

[the bigg]

Class(Player1,MONK)
Kit(Player1,KENSAY)
or whatever. Classes are: MAGE FIGHTER CLERIC THIEF BARD PALADIN DRUID RANGER FIGHTER_MAGE FIGHTER_CLERIC FIGHTER_THIEF FIGHTER_MAGE_THIEF MAGE_THIEF CLERIC_MAGE CLERIC_THIEF FIGHTER_DRUID FIGHTER_MAGE_CLERIC CLERIC_RANGER
Kits are:
ABJURER CONJURER DIVINER ENCHANTER ILLUSIONIST INVOKER NECROMANCER TRANSMUTER BERSERKER WIZARD_SLAYER KENSAI CAVALIER INQUISITOR UNDEAD_HUNTER FERALAN STALKER BEASTMASTER ASSASIN BOUNTY_HUNTER SWASHBUCKLER BLADE JESTER SKALD TOTEMIC_DRUID SHAPESHIFTER BEAST_FRIEND TALOS HELM LATHANDER MONK BARBARIAN WILDMAGE (TOB only, so if used you should create 2 separate .d or .baf, using UNLESS/IF, see Wei-DU instructions for .tp2)

[Kismet]

kit.ids is also broken so you'll have to distribute a fixed one with your mod or work around it.

[Sillara]

A the bigg--Thank you for the list! That is exactly what I needed.

@Kismet--does that mean that the game as it stands will not properly identify the kits? Hmm. In that case I may skip kit-specific classes, as repairing anything is WAY out of my league!!

Thanks for the help! I love this thread, too.
Sillara

[Littiz]

I have WeiDU-ed Dyara's fixes to the KIT.IDS files for Refinements.
You can ask me if you need them, though they aren't really tested so far (my version of KIT.IDS file was already fixed so the commands find nothing to patch)

[Sillara]

@Littiz: Please do send them. It would be nice to be sure that the clerics especially get their responses! I ended up not doing other kit-specifics, but the clerics were too different from one another!

I have a slight problem with the NPC/NPC banters. We have no trouble chaining in the usual banters; it is the ones with a conditional response that we have trouble with. For example:

Tsujatha: Blah, blah, blah.
Imoen: You're really dull.
(If NOT in a romance with the PC)
Tsujatha: No, I'm not.

(If in a romance with the PC)
Tsujatha: Charname doesn't think so.

How do I code that? Thanks in advance for the help!

Sillara

P.S. Don't worry. That was not a REAL sample of the talks.

[Jurgenaut]

Now, I'm not very into BG-modaring, but all the bundled romances have the XRomanceActive global variable that's spanning over 1-3, where 1 is "get to know you", 2 is "hot lurve" and 3 is "romance over".

(I'll use pseudo code here, since I dont know the script syntax)
Imoen says "You're really dull.";

IF (getGlobal('XRomanceActive') is '1') then X should say "<charname> doesn't think so...";
IF (getGlobal('XRomanceActive') is '2') then X should say "<charname>? Your sister seems to have something against me.";
IF (getGlobal('XRomanceActive') is '3') then X should say "So I've realized... What should I do to remedy that?" or maybe "Insinuate anything of the sort again and I will hang you using your reckless tongue!".

So the first time you take the NPC into the group, XRomanceActive should be set to 1 (unless any eventual romance restrictions aren't met). At some point in the romance, set it to 2. If charname tells the NPC off during a romance dialogue, set it to 3.
You can initiate all kinds of GLOBALs, if maybe your NPC insulted Aran Linvail during quests in chapter 3, set a variable AranPissed to 1, and you could edit arans dialogue for chapter 6 to deny you help with bodhi if aranpissed is 1.

Edit: To prevent misunderstandings, the pseudo code isn't actual script/dialogue. It is just some form of explanation of the sequence of events. Hopefully you'll be able to reinterpret it to real script/dialogue.

[Sillara]

Is this anywhere near what it should be?? I've read the tutorial(s) for lovetalks, but everyone assumes a certain knowledge already. We need "Modding for Dummies" which takes one by the hand and leads him through. Thanks in advance for all your help out there. You guys are a great help!


IF
~Global("TsujathaRomanceActive","GLOBAL",1)
Global("Lovetalk","LOCALS",0)
Global("TsujathaMatch","GLOBAL",1)
GlobalTimerExpired("TsujathaRomance","GLOBAL")
at night
outdoors
THEN BEGIN TsujathaLoveTalk1
SAY ~blah blah blah~
DO ~SetGlobal("LoveTalk","LOCALS",1)~
IF ~~ THEN REPLY ~blah blah blah~ DO ~RealSetGlobalTimer("TsujathaRomance","GLOBAL",30)~ THEN GOTO TsujathaLoveTalk11a
IF ~~ THEN REPLY ~blah blah blah~ DO ~RealSetGlobalTimer("TsujathaRomance","GLOBAL",30)~ THEN GOTO TsujathaLoveTalk12a
IF ~~ THEN REPLY ~blah blah blah~ DO ~RealSetGlobalTimer("TsujathaRomance","GLOBAL",30)~ THEN GOTO TsujathaLoveTalk13a
END

What does the "30" mean in the RealSetGlobalTimer? I know I can change it, but what does it mean?? Also, are the numbers for "Lovetalks" correct??

SofT