Adding NPC to existing area

[Meddling Wizard]

Hi everyone!

 

I' am new to this forum, and, as you can possible guess from my noob question, to IE modding too!

What I 'am trying to achieve (without apparent success) - is to add an NPC to existing location.

I've decided to return Anishai to Maevar's guild, after I've took over his guild (she disappears from the second floor when the player completes the thieves guild quest)

 

I used DLTCEP for the task. Did everything according to DLTCEP tutorial (opened AR0303, added an actor (THIEF7.CRE), set animation, dialogue, position, visibility to -1. I've double checked everything and even ran NearInfinity to edit AR0303 (the editor shows that Anishai is present). But when I run the game she's not in the guild.

 

What I'am doing wrong?

 

p.s. Should I tweak something in the saved game?

 

p.p.s. Sorry if similiar topic has been resolved - searched the forums couldn't find it!

[Kulyok]

You can add any NPC, joinable or not, via Weidu modding. It means that you take any Setup-Mymod.exe, rename it to Setup-MyAnishai.exe, create a MyAnishai folder... and then you download some simple Weidu mod and see how it's done.

 

http://www.pocketplane.net/oneday - take Branwen from here, and open branwen/scripts/ar0500.baf

 

This is how I add Branwen to the Bridge District. You need to rename this file to AR0303, change the coordinates and change the NPC's name.

 

You also need relevant strings in .tp2 - look for AR0500 and delete the rest(except lines like AUTHOR ~~ BACKUP ~~ BEGIN ~~). Then rename .tp2 file to Setup-MyAnishai.tp2

 

Basically, it should work from the first try. If it doesn't, please come to the Modding Q&A forum with more questions.

[Kulyok]

Welcome to G3, by the way.

[Mike1072]

p.s. Should I tweak something in the saved game?

If you already visited the area before you added the creature to it, that change won't be visible when you load the save game.

 

If you use Kulyok's method of adding a creature to an area, by spawning it in the area's script, the creature will appear regardless of whether you visited the area beforehand or not, because scripts are not stored in the save game.

[Meddling Wizard]

<br />

You can add any NPC, joinable or not, via Weidu modding. It means that you take any Setup-Mymod.exe, rename it to Setup-MyAnishai.exe, create a MyAnishai folder... and then you download some simple Weidu mod and see how it's done.

 

<a class="bbc_url" href="http://www.pocketplane.net/oneday" rel="nofollow external" title="External link">http://www.pocketplane.net/oneday</a> - take Branwen from here, and open branwen/scripts/ar0500.baf

 

This is how I add Branwen to the Bridge District. You need to rename this file to AR0303, change the coordinates and change the NPC's name.

 

You also need relevant strings in .tp2 - look for AR0500 and delete the rest(except lines like AUTHOR ~~ BACKUP ~~ BEGIN ~~). Then rename .tp2 file to Setup-MyAnishai.tp2

 

Basically, it should work from the first try. If it doesn't, please come to the Modding Q&A forum with more questions.

Interesting, I'll try this out! Should take on Weidu modding seriously, seems to me

Welcome to G3, by the way. <img alt=" " class="bbc_emoticon" src="http://forums.gibberlings3.net/public/style_emoticons/default/smile.png" />

 

Many thanks! Hope to do some nice mods in future! Have been palyin' BG since the game came out and just can't stop!

[Avenger]

Using area scripts for creature spawning has pros and cons as well.

If this is a mod with an existing area, you will eventually end up adding the creature via weidu. But overdoing scripting for placement will cause some lag.

If the preferred creature placement were scripting, then all the original areas would do that as well.

I think the best solution is to add the creature directly to the area (by weidu, since you don't want to supply the overwritten area, just your modification).

What Mike said is also true, if the area is already in the saved game, you won't see the change, unless it is spawned by script.

Even then, if the area has no script set, you will not have anything to add the NPC to (if you want to stay saved game compatible).

[Meddling Wizard]

Thanks all,

I'll try Kulyok's methods first.

 

BTW, does anyone know good tutorials which cover .d in depth (not just say and chain)

Interested in extend_top, extend_bottom stuff.

 

thx

[Kulyok]

Weidu Readme is your best bet, I guess - I haven't seen in-depth tutorials on these particular topics. Branwen commentary covers parts of it, and once you've had the basics with Infinity Explorer as your base for state numbers, the sky's the limit.

[jastey]

Kaeloree wrote wonderful tutorials for the 4 different CHAINs. But yes, WeiDU readme is a good place to look.

[Creepin]

What I 'am trying to achieve (without apparent success) - is to add an NPC to existing location.

As I've recently found out, latest version of Weidu incorporates macros specially geared towards easy adding creatures to existing maps, among other things. Using it makes adding creature to a map a matter of 1 copypaste and 6 data entries. With area patching became so easy I would strongly advise against adding creatures via cramming an area script: in most cases you can't realistically expect yours will be the only creature added to certain map, and when there's dozen of those stuffed to an area script, it will lead to lagging at best, and to some parts of some mods (yours perhaps) not firing at all at worst.