Making New Recruitable Characters

[MadCatCO]

Hey everyone.

 

So I'm real new to modding and I really could use some help.

 

I've watched a bunch of tutorials and things and I understand the basics making a morph, writing dialog, making an area, creating characters both with the .chr file and through making a new creature. My issues however all start here, and I'm probably biting off more then I can chew.

 

My goals for the mod are:

-Make two new recruitable characters

-Have one appear in Lothering and can give a quest to find the second character

-Make a new spot appear on the map with a tiny area in it

-In that area have a battle and when the battle concludes auto trigger the conversation that allows the player to say yes or no to the two characters asking to join their party.

 

Which I guess then things I am unclear on are:

-Combining .chr files, creature files, and morphs to all work together

-Knowing the settings to make the character recruitable

-Figuring out how to set dialog so it fires at the right points, and it changes as approval rises.

-Personally customize talents and abilities before getting them in game

-Ensuring that the characters are set to proper coordinates in camp, in Redcliffe, Eamons Denerim estate, and in the Landsmeet room at the end.

-Putting all this together and exporting it into a dazip or core override package

 

 

Oh another thing you should know is I know nothing about scripting. I'm a tough case, I know.

 

So yeah, if any of you can help me or can link tutorials and things that will help me accomplish this, that would be awesome, the wiki is was too confusing me.

Edited May 10, 2011 by MadCatCO

[DarkeWolf]

Heyas Madcat :)

Ohhh yeah, this is a big one. :eek:

I can only really help you out on a couple of things here, cause a lot of this is over my head too.

 

The chr, creature (.utc) and morphs... how those work together... Not really sure what the .chr files are used for, since the .utc files hold all the exact same info. :rolleyes: But... you just need to have your morph file name listed in there for it to reference the appropriate face/skintone to use. Then as long as they are all in the override folder, it's all good.

 

Just from memory... in the utc files there's a slot for recruitable. 0 = no 1 = yes

 

Dialogs and triggers aren't my thing. Really sorry. I hope that somebody here care help out with that one ;)

 

Talents and abilities... same :( I just know that it's controlled by a number. I think the talent/ability/stat tree is a file that is used for reference, with the number being the reference number. The stats/abilities/stats might be listed there. Dunno tho, just a guess. :confused:

 

character placement- means editing those areas of the maps, and placing the characters in them.

On this note.... have you attacked the problem of adding them to the party member screen yet? That one is a real scripting DOOZY!!!

 

I've never bothered with converting to a .dazip, personally. after exporting all my files, and then moving them out of the extraction folder in C:\Users\usernameX\Documents\BioWare\Dragon Age\modules\Single Player\override\toolsetexport

I just throw them all into a folder in the packages/core/override folder. HOWEVER, with this kind of mod... that won't work, because you'll need the manifest.xml to update the addins.xml file. So I'm also afraid that all I can do there, is to give you a tute. :( http://dragonagemodding.wordpress.com/2009/11/24/packaging-your-mod-for-release/

 

You've chosen to take on a really huge undertaking here. I really want to wish you the best in your endeavor! :thumbsup:

[MadCatCO]

Heyas Madcat :)

Ohhh yeah, this is a big one. :eek:

I can only really help you out on a couple of things here, cause a lot of this is over my head too.

 

The chr, creature (.utc) and morphs... how those work together... Not really sure what the .chr files are used for, since the .utc files hold all the exact same info. :rolleyes: But... you just need to have your morph file name listed in there for it to reference the appropriate face/skintone to use. Then as long as they are all in the override folder, it's all good.

 

Just from memory... in the utc files there's a slot for recruitable. 0 = no 1 = yes

 

Dialogs and triggers aren't my thing. Really sorry. I hope that somebody here care help out with that one ;)

 

Talents and abilities... same :( I just know that it's controlled by a number. I think the talent/ability/stat tree is a file that is used for reference, with the number being the reference number. The stats/abilities/stats might be listed there. Dunno tho, just a guess. :confused:

 

character placement- means editing those areas of the maps, and placing the characters in them.

On this note.... have you attacked the problem of adding them to the party member screen yet? That one is a real scripting DOOZY!!!

 

I've never bothered with converting to a .dazip, personally. after exporting all my files, and then moving them out of the extraction folder in C:\Users\usernameX\Documents\BioWare\Dragon Age\modules\Single Player\override\toolsetexport

I just throw them all into a folder in the packages/core/override folder. HOWEVER, with this kind of mod... that won't work, because you'll need the manifest.xml to update the addins.xml file. So I'm also afraid that all I can do there, is to give you a tute. :( http://dragonagemodding.wordpress.com/2009/11/24/packaging-your-mod-for-release/

 

You've chosen to take on a really huge undertaking here. I really want to wish you the best in your endeavor! :thumbsup:

 

Thanks DarkeWolf, I'm still kind of fumbling through the toolset so I missed the thing for being able to recruit a character. I think I have the characters all set now, though I need to check some things.

 

I havent taken a look at placement on the party picker yet either. And to be honest I'm more then a little daunted by the scripting part of it.

 

Thanks for the tutorial also, anything really is a big help.

[DarkeWolf]

No problem, other than I can't be a whole lot of help :(

For the party picker, there's two methods. The old one, used to be to make a new charstage.are (I THINK thats the area that had to be replaced). However, that one is old, and makes the mod incompatible with any other mod that adds party members.

I might recommend looking for companion mods, in the da downloads sections. The newer ones might have some pointers for you, by looking at the files inside them.

Look at the upload dates. Anything added late last year should be ok.

 

What you'll need to do is look inside the .erf files. If it's in a .dazip simply rename the extension from .dazip to .zip... then extract the contents.

you'll find .erf files inside. Right click on the erf while holding down the shift key. choose OPEN WITH.

Then browse to where dragonagetoolset.exe is located, and choose to have it open the file.

From there, you'll be able to see the contents of the .erf files. Pick one, and choose to open it. You may have to set the toolset as the program to open it with.

 

This is a project that is kinda out of my league. I really do wish that I could be more help. And I most definitely wish you good luck :)

[MadCatCO]

Bumping this, since I still need help.

[Thandal]

"Bumping is... bad."

 

I would suggest contacting the author of one of the various mods that has new recruitable NPCs ("Ser Gilmore", for example.) They might be able to point you in the right direction.