scarycave Posted June 27, 2012 Share Posted June 27, 2012 (edited) I finally managed to get an NPC character working. I still have to tweak some of the dialogue and such, but other than that I think it's fine in that department. The guy has only two packages right now, a sleep and home owner one, which is really unnatural, unless I made him a vampire. I want the guy to eat, go to towns on a certain day, maybe go into a fort or something. The thing is I'm still shaky on it. I want him to blend in with the other Npc's. I also need to voice him somehow, he's really creepy with his mind speak. I could probably make a cheap voice (Not looking for an emmy performance, just something passable), but I don't know where to start with that one. I looked around the internet and I couldn't find any guides on the subject. If anyone has managed this feat before could you please give me some pointers? Edited June 27, 2012 by scarycave Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Striker879 Posted June 27, 2012 Share Posted June 27, 2012 (edited) The way I learned to make my NPCs 'have a life' was by looking at existing vanilla game NPCs and the AI packages and conditions they use. Travel packages to other cities are the trickiest as you need to make sure they have time to complete the journey at the typical slow walking speed NPCs use and use care with switches like 'Must complete' etc. that may put them into endless travel loops (there are plenty of them in the vanilla game ... e.g Countess Alessia Caro). A couple of NPCs with good travel packages to go along with varied AI packages are Samuel Bantien and Rochelle Bantien. Another example of a complex AI schedule is Methredhel. See the Notes and Bugs sections on the Countess and Methredhel for an idea of some of the 'gotchas'. I use a mix of vanilla markers and markers I've added for wander packages, but like to throw in the occasional 'Current position' wander packages to give a bit of unpredictability to where you'll find them. Something else to consider if you have an NPC wandering about between cities and entering forts etc. is how long do you want him to live. If your guy is in the same cell as the player (and maybe even an adjacent cell) he'll get jumped by bandits and wild life. Unless you make him either extremely powerful or essential it will only be a matter of time and chance before he's dead. If he's essential the player will get spammed by the 'So and so is unconscious' message when in a nearby cell and your NPC is being ravaged. I believe the vanilla CS updated to the latest version is broken for making voices and LIP files. There's a complicated method that uses version 1.0 of the CS to generate LIP files or you can use CS Extender (if I'm not mistaken). Have a look at the CS Wiki Dialogue and the links that page leads to (e.g. How to set up a scripted conversation between two or more NPCs). Here's a link to a bit of info on the Lip Synch problem. Edited June 27, 2012 by Striker879 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lanceor Posted June 27, 2012 Share Posted June 27, 2012 I give my NPCs a "base" package which is what they should be doing most of the time. e.g. wandering around the shop. The base package has no time limits or conditions, and is lowest in the priority list. This acts as a failsafe so even if all the other packages are messed up, he'll do something fairly normal. Once that's in place, I can add the other stuff - he sleeps from 11pm for 7 hours, eats lunch at 12 pm for 2 hours, wanders the garden at 5 pm for 1 hour etc. etc. Any time he's not doing something "different", he'll default to wandering the shop (or whatever). One more thing to consider - how many players follow NPC's around all day? Unless the NPC is really important, I wouldn't go into too much detail for his packages - just a sleep and an awake package should be enough for most. Adding voices is much easier with the CS Extender now. Just follow the instructions on installing CSE and CS 1.0. Each item of dialogue will tell you the filename and path to save your voice file as. Just ensure that it's mp3 format, 44100 Hz, 64 kbps constant bit rate, mono channel and CSE will generate the lip file with one click. More detailed tutorial here. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JCP768 Posted June 28, 2012 Share Posted June 28, 2012 (edited) Integration: The Stranded Light is a very nice example you can check out. most of the NPCs added had very well done and polished schedules. With animations, variance, and meaning behind it. As I recall the town added at the end ofthe quest line even had a whole bunch of NPCs that had unique schedules for each day of the week. I remember I had a chart where the author listed them all out, but can't remember where. He also made a resource to help mod authors make more interesting, and diverse schedules for their NPCs as well. You can get it here: Animation Resource for NPCs It basically is meant to help with assigning specific animations to certain actions you want done at certain times. Edited June 28, 2012 by JCP768 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scarycave Posted June 28, 2012 Author Share Posted June 28, 2012 Thanks for the great advice guys. I've added a "Base Package" and it doesn't seem to cause any conflicts. Do you think I should start a new game for testing purposes? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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