What do I need to know/have to make an NPC?

Bad Karma · Post by **Bad Karma** » Tue Jun 25, 2002 3:01 pm

I've heard about (but not tried) custom NPC's, and I was wondering how I would go about making one and what I would need to do so. I'm not too knowledgable about the BG2 editing 'scene' so any help would be appreciated.

Sabre · Post by **Sabre** » Tue Jun 25, 2002 11:35 pm

Go to TeamBG, they have tools and tutorials that will help.

kopywrite · Post by **kopywrite** » Wed Jun 26, 2002 1:12 am

Or you could try WeiDU.

Bad Karma · Post by **Bad Karma** » Wed Jun 26, 2002 8:31 am

Thanks, I'll try 'em out and see what my severely limited intellect can accomplish.

jcompton · Post by **jcompton** » Wed Jun 26, 2002 11:15 am

WeiDU is the tool/system to use for new NPCs--that's why all of the major new NPC projects use it.

Here's a basic tutorial on using WeiDU to create a new NPC.

http://forums.forgottenwars.net/index.p ... readid=678

You will also want to acquire these tools to help you explore in-game dialogue and scripts:

Infinity Explorer (http://infexp.sourceforge.net)

Near Infinity (http://www.idi.ntnu.no/~joh/ni/)

Aqua-chan · Post by **Aqua-chan** » Wed Jun 26, 2002 11:49 am

@ jcompton -

Since I went to try this stuff out, I've learned that it is really challenging and difficult. However, I'm going to try it anyways.

I've read some of your earlier posts on the Forgotten Wars boards, and I think I have the dialogue files almost right. However, I do need some help here.

I'm asking your permission to e-mail you for some slight tips on a certain file I just CAN NOT figure out. If you don't want me bugging you about it at your e-mail address, then I'll just find another sourse. However, I think that you, with a lot of experience with this by creating Kelsey, may be my best bet.

Sorry, Fable. If you don't like this post, I'll delete it lata.

PS~ WeiDU is not as easy as people make it out to be!

Bad Karma · Post by **Bad Karma** » Wed Jun 26, 2002 11:58 am

Please dont' tell me all this junk requires even the most basic of programming knowledge (which I don't have). Is it really really tough, or would it be comparable to, say, modding weapons for Rogue Spear (which I've done with moderate success). I'm just an ambitious kid who wants to make an NPC, but if I need to know programming I should just give up

Aqua-chan · Post by **Aqua-chan** » Wed Jun 26, 2002 12:26 pm

Karma, I've tried editing and working on other MODs before. This is the first time I'm ever going to try to make one up from scratch, but I can easily tell you it's gonna take a lot of typeing to get where you want to go.

Look. This is the BEGINNING of my "Welcome, hello, can I join the party?" conversation. I'm creating another Druid who is half-sane and isn't a freak about Manaining the Balance, and you'll meet up with her just ouside the Druid Grove. She'll explain a little of the situation, but look how long it is...

I'm not even halfway done yet and still don't know what I'm doing. If somebody whose made an NPC would check over this and help me figure out what I'm doing wrong, then I may have a chance.

Rattman · Post by **Rattman** » Wed Jun 26, 2002 12:29 pm

you also need imaginagtion, time and the ability to make people interisted in your mod

and you may want to ask what people would like to seen in your mod

Bad Karma · Post by **Bad Karma** » Wed Jun 26, 2002 12:45 pm

I can handle the typing, and I like to think I have at least an excuse for an imagination, but do I have to know programming languages?

Bad Karma · Post by **Bad Karma** » Wed Jun 26, 2002 12:46 pm

Originally posted by Rattman
and you may want to ask what people would like to seen in your mod

Cruel as it may sound, I'm not interested in making an NPC that other people will enjoy playing (just yet). I want to learn how to do it first, and if I'm able, THEN I'll ask around. At this time, I'm just testing the water.

jcompton · Post by **jcompton** » Wed Jun 26, 2002 10:39 pm

Originally posted by Aqua-chan
If you don't want me bugging you about it at your e-mail address, then I'll just find another sourse. However, I think that you, with a lot of experience with this by creating Kelsey, may be my best bet.

Go ahead and e-mail me, although I also see that you're on the FW boards now so you might consider posting your problems there, where more than one person can help.

jcompton@xnet.com.

PS~ WeiDU is not as easy as people make it out to be!

I rather think it's not as hard as people make it out to be.

Yes, you must understand the game's .DLG format, but that's a requirement for ANY dialogue tool.

And yes, it helps if you understand the concept of a compiled programming language. But that's valuable to understand anyway.

jcompton · Post by **jcompton** » Wed Jun 26, 2002 10:53 pm

Okay. You're close, you just need to tighten up your understanding a little bit. First of all, you don't need that last END at the bottom and you stopped using capital letters after a while which can be a problem.

The basic PC-talking-to-NPC stuff is right, but your interjections are not.

IF ~~ THEN BEGIN HelpGroveTwo
SAY ~Yes. The solution. To regain the Grove, Faldorn will only fight by traditional druidic procedures. None other than a druid may challenge her, so I suggest you either prepare one that is currently in your party, or either find another who would be willing to do the job.~
IF ~IsValidForPartyDialog("Jaheira")~ THEN EXTERN ~It is quite possible that I can go into combat with Faldorn. However, it seems that this young woman here has more quarrel with the Shadow Druids than I. Perhaps the matter should be left to Cernd, or even Delara herself.~ GOTO SelectDruid
END

When you want to EXTERN to a new dialogue state (line), you must CREATE that new state with an APPEND. Here's how this works:

IF ~~ THEN BEGIN HelpGroveTwo
SAY ~Yes. The solution. BLAH BLAH BLAH willing to do the job.~
IF ~!IsValidForPartyDialog("Jaheira")~ THEN GOTO SelectDruid
IF ~IsValidForPartyDialog("Jaheira")~ THEN EXTERN JAHEIRAJ JaheiraComment1
END

Now, we need to insert Jaheira's line into the JAHEIRAJ (joined-party-dialogue/commentary) DLG file. You can do this with APPEND or APPENDI. I would use APPENDI in this circumstance, and just have the next section (before the AboutFaldorn state) be this:

APPENDI JAHEIRAJ
IF ~~ THEN BEGIN JaheiraComment1
SAY ~It is quite possible that I can go into combat with Faldorn. However, it seems that this young woman here has more quarrel with the Shadow Druids than I. Perhaps the matter should be left to Cernd, or even Delara herself.~
IF ~~ THEN EXTERN S#Delara SelectDruid
END
END

(APPENDI and APPEND need a second END when you're done appending, to tell WeiDU to stop appending!)

Now, here's what will happen:

If Jaheira is around, we'll branch from HelpGroveTwo to her comment, and then back to SelectDruid, part of the S#Delara dialogue.

If Jaheira is NOT around, we'll just go from HelpGroveTwo to SelectDruid.

Aqua-chan · Post by **Aqua-chan** » Thu Jun 27, 2002 7:18 am

Thanks jcompton, you're the best. This will give me something to do until I get back on my home computer and start really getting this stuff together.

jcompton · Post by **jcompton** » Thu Jun 27, 2002 8:46 am

Originally posted by Aqua-chan
Thanks jcompton, you're the best.

(Remembers something about "flop" and grumbles mightily.)

jcompton · Post by **jcompton** » Thu Jun 27, 2002 8:49 am

Remember to fix the other interjections you have further down in the same way.

Aqua-chan · Post by **Aqua-chan** » Thu Jun 27, 2002 9:13 am

Originally posted by jcompton

(Remembers something about "flop" and grumbles mightily.)

Hey! I was talking only about one specfic dialog there! Not the whole guy! Jeeze!

...I'm sorry, but the only person I take that kind of lip he gave me is my mother.

Yes, yes. I'll fix the baddies in there soon...