Changing a character's race

[danscott84]

I have already gone into the creature pallette and changed both his race to an elf and headmorph (for now) to the face of one of the drunk elves from the city elf origin. However, I think I am at the stage to export him to the game, but if he does not work I am wondering what files are exported (without dependent resources of course) and to which folder, the packages override or module override folder. Also, to further this I know I will want to give him a unique look, and I will also have to name the new morph the same as the drunk I used in the race switch. Eventually I will want to package this, but first I need to know what files will go where to gather them together to make the package. (the headmorph I already know where to find it)

[DarkeWolf]

To the best of my knowledge it would be daveth's .chr and .utc files that need to be edited and exported. The two files are both located in each of the Global listings. One in the first Global, and then the other one in the 2nd Global listing, both under followers.

I however, tend to export these PRIOR to editing them, rather than risk screwing up the original file (which exports them to the packages/core/override/toolset export/ folder). So I'm actually not completely sure if it saves it to that same folder if you do it as a module.

Once packaged, they go to the documents/bioware/dragon age/packages/core/override/ folder.

 

Keep in mind tho bro, that for testing purposes, you're going to have to use a savegame from PRIOR to your arrival in Ostagar in order for his body change to show up appropriately from the mod. Due to that glitch about items and characters that have already been spawned in the game.

 

Hope this helps :smile:

[DarkeWolf]

Actually, I correct myself on that (Sorry, I just woke up). If you are just changing their appearance, the only file that you need to edit is the .utc file for them. I BELIEVE located in the 2nd Global Folder.

 

And I will mention that in experimentation I have found that you can name the morph something simple, such as daveth.mor and it will work. Such was the case of the guy wanting to change wynn to male- http://thenexusforums.com/index.php?showtopic=209772&view=findpost&p=1849560

as well as by accident with the testing that I did when I changed that "Sexy Witch of the Wilds" morph's hairstyle to use for my own character and just named it simply morrigan.mor and forgot, and it changed both my character, and Morrigan.

Now.... I havent tried something like "drunk.mor" that didnt involve a character's actual name, but who knows.... it might work. *shrugs*

[danscott84]

Actually, I correct myself on that (Sorry, I just woke up). If you are just changing their appearance, the only file that you need to edit is the .utc file for them. I BELIEVE located in the 2nd Global Folder.

 

And I will mention that in experimentation I have found that you can name the morph something simple, such as daveth.mor and it will work. Such was the case of the guy wanting to change wynn to male- http://thenexusforums.com/index.php?showtopic=209772&view=findpost&p=1849560

as well as by accident with the testing that I did when I changed that "Sexy Witch of the Wilds" morph's hairstyle to use for my own character and just named it simply morrigan.mor and forgot, and it changed both my character, and Morrigan.

Now.... I havent tried something like "drunk.mor" that didnt involve a character's actual name, but who knows.... it might work. *shrugs*

 

That's what I was thinking, but wanted to make sure before I exported just to avoid screwing things up really bad. What I did was open a local copy of Daveth's utc and then did the "save as" option and named it DavethElf. That part is the easy part, but as long as I don't export him he's just a file in the database of the toolset. I knew it was something that could be done having played with the make Leliana an elf mod for a few playthroughs. I know that mod required a lot more for cutscene placements since it involved a major character. Daveth should be much simpler. He's a major character in the beginning, but not enough that would require a lot of wholesale changes. I also always felt that his backstory would better suit a city elf rather than a human. As for the char file, I hadn't gotten that far yet, and I know I want to check that before I proceed too much farther just to make sure that they don't conflict if one is set to human and one set to elf.

 

As for the morph I'll try that. I have a few preset mrh files that I can rename/play with that I can use to test with. I just used the drunk 1 elf morph in the game to see how it would look in the toolset. (you know that floating head bit if I left the human head in place)

[DarkeWolf]

I havent had any issues with just the utc file. My cailan/cauthrien clone plays fine in cutscenes with just the utc file, as it doesnt actually HAVE a .chr file (tho she doesnt have any actual dialogs, other than the recruit dialog, which plays fine and this fiasco with her utc file not having a method to change her name! ) and the wynn transformation did equally well in cutscene interaction (again, no major cutscene work like lovescenes or kissing) where her height/size didnt play an important factor.

So on personal experience I'm going to say that it will be fine with just the .utc file.

 

I dunno, I guess I just never really paid that much attention to Daveth, other than that bold nose of his. In most of the scenes I tend to watch the text more than the characters. Cept for that scene of his where he's hitting on the femme guard. She tends to draw my attention :laugh:

 

LOL yeah, I know what you mean. I've picked a few morphs at random in testing too. Makes me realize that there are some very ugly characters in this game that I'm glad I never took too close a look at! :laugh:

[danscott84]

Ok, I am missing something here because it's not working. Do you have to export with or without dependent resources? Right now without is not working.

[DarkeWolf]

hrm. Interesting.

Without.

Post your file as an attachment and I'll take a look at it when I get home tonight.

[danscott84]

hrm. Interesting.

Without.

Post your file as an attachment and I'll take a look at it when I get home tonight.

 

I have hit my limit for attachements, I guess. I'll post it here listed as davethelf.

 

http://www.dragonagenexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=1256

[DarkeWolf]

I'd have uploaded it to a file host like megaupload.com. rapidshare.com or fileshare.com instead. but file is DL'd and I'll check it out when I get home. You may wanna go ahead and take it off your mods page, since I've seen that its been DL'd by a couple of others too. (Dont want you to have to answer 2500 posts to "this doesnt work!" lol. :wink:

Will post back if I can fig out what's up with it :wink:

[DarkeWolf]

Well. I found 3 things wrong with it that was keeping it from workin'. And then did a bit of experimenting after I fixed it. Changelog info is in quotes, dunno if that will show up in your email notice or not...

 

CHANGELOG-

 

*Changed TemplateResRef from davethelf to pre100cr_daveth (resref is pointing to a non-existant character)

*Changed Appearance Data/HeadMorph from davethelf to davethelf.mor (no filename extension was listed)

 

test. Nope. Relook at file. Hrm. Filename is wrong. Davethelf isnt the same daveth in Ostagar, would be completely different character.

 

*Renamed davethelf.utc to pre100cr_daveth.utc

 

test. Success! (Hmmm... not a bad lookin' elf! Girls are gonna cry when he dies!)

 

*changed Appearance Data/HeadMorph from davethelf.mor to daveth.mor (curiosity)

*Changed filename davethelf.mor to daveth.mor (curiosity)

 

test. Success! Revert files.

 

 

*Changed filename davethelf.mor to daveth.mor

 

test. Fail. (OOPS! No head!) (Morph file doesnt contain pre100cr_deveth in its toolset info, didnt work.)

 

*Reverted filename daveth.mor to davethelf.mor

 

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=K5NW9N54

I wouldnt ever send something nasty, but I always recommend virus scanning anything that somebody sends. They may have something and not know it, or the file server might be infected :wink:

 

 

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v699/DarkeWolf/davethelf.jpg

 

The biggest problem was that you had the file set up to create a new character, ( in the template resref and filename.utc) rather than to alter an existing one. And then the problem with not having the .mor extension on your appearance morph name. :wink:

should be good to go now :smile: