Balious's Help Thread

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Re: Balious' Help Thread

Postby Decepticon on 30 May 2009 23:43

Hi Balious, how's it going? I'm pretty new to this forum and to modding, but let me throw-in my tuppence-worth anyway :D

What you're trying to do acheive with your mod is pretty complex stuff, so if you're wondering what to do next I'd suggest backing-up what you've done so far and creating a new gamedata folder for the purpose of practicing some stuff. Then maybe set yourself a few tests, for example adding a new mission to one of the npc's in the rookie camp that spawns some mutants you have to kill with some items as a reward, creating a new weapon or armour, messing with all.spawn etc. This way you'll be learning how everything works without getting bogged-down with having to make it work together within the game. Then when you come to actually working on your mod you'll have a much better idea of what you need to do and how to go about it, and you might have some bits and pieces you can transfer across fairly easily.

Like I said, I'm not experienced with modding, so I can't help you much in that respect, but patience and perseverance is the key, all the best modders started out with the basic stuff and worked their way up.

Anyways, good luck with it, I'm looking forward to seeing how it turns out, might give me a reason to revive my copy of shoc :thumbright:
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Re: Balious's Help Thread

Postby Balious on 31 May 2009 21:56

Thanks for the advice Decepticon I try that straight away. Starting with the quests.

On another matter my faction is all setup from the creating factions guide on the wiki. Just need to give them a background story and all that along with the spawning and smart_terrain. Also Jamie gave me permission to build onto of his Faction Wars 1.1 mod so alot of wars will happen. Also he built his mod on ZRP so I have that for my mod too.

Involving the PDA. I believe I can do the information part fine but not 100%. But my questions about it from my last post are still open for anyone that can answer it.

In my mod I would like to have a few more features but they from other mods mainly NEWSA. The features from NEWSA I want is the advanced AI (who doesn't want that?), The Trader information for what they sell, the smart terrain (unless this is included for the AI as I just like Mole), PDA ranking stuff (unless this is already in ZRP), The Hud (I love that hud) and the weapon files (these arent important but I do love that shotgun). Of course I believe I have to ask Nightwatch for permission so I ask here.
Nightwatch may I use a few of these features? And how do I get at these if you do let me?

I think thats all for now.

Edit:
Im struggling on the quests. The guide for it in the important links thread doesnt work and the one on the wiki doesn't explain it well enough to me. I thought there was one on the filefront forums of stalker but it seems I was wrong as I couldn't find one. Anyone know of a good guide?
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Re: Balious's Help Thread

Postby Nightwatch on 01 Jun 2009 23:27

hey Balious,
Great to hear that you've continuing your efforts on developing your mod. While on the subject, I can maybe offer a small opinion, if not an advice. I would recommend that starting to build your mod from a relatively simple base and, after seeing and evalutaing the results of this first stage, then continuing with its development and expansion/enhancement would be a more preferable approach, if this approach were to be compared with working to create a mega mod at the start.

Thanks for nice praises for the NEWSA. :mozilla_smile: Instead of the long and tricky job of extracting the AI from the mod, I can give you a link to Xtreams's latest superb AI pack FINAL which you can download and use as it is intended without worrying if any AI extract from the (NEWSA.SIMBION_Tweak) mod has been made properly or come free from any modifications.

This is the link:

http://stalkerin.gameru.net/modules.php ... ed&lid=247

You can study and use/emulate the trader functions. But be careful not to copy as it comes, as many items do not exist in other mods, not in ZRP either.
I have used two lines from ZRP some time ago and duly credited, but not any PDA stuff, so whatever you are looking for is probably not included in ZRP, unless it has incorporated it, -I don't check ZRP, so I can't elaborate on it, frankly.
You can get the HUD. But you say that your mod has the frame of ZRP, and you may quite probably have serious problems when trying to incorporate this and any other features on it. You can get the auto-shotgun ( I expect that you'll keep its name intact as well).
PS: Nandersen is very good with HUDS as far as I'm aware, have you checked your project with him yet? If not, I'd recommend it, he can provide very good and useful help to you.
I'd prefer you do not extend to the other NEWSA weaponry at this stage. After I've seen your mod and its operation, we can speak again. As I said, it's always better to try to make a lean and clean simpler mod that will run to the nearest to your expectations, then slowly build on it. :mozilla_smile:

(Also, thanks for asking my help on how to take/incorporate some elements, but there are some obstacles in front of me which would make my involvement not likely at this stage. I'm really, extremely busy nowadays on many fronts, and I'm already a bit behind in all schedules.)

And, I'll come back to you about the "quests guide" question, as it's a rather very long matter; someone else can even come earlier.
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Re: Balious's Help Thread

Postby Decepticon on 03 Jun 2009 02:34

Well, I too am attempting to create a new quest, so I feel your pain :mozilla_smile:

Haven't got very far yet, but one piece of advice I can give is not to try and write it directly into the game files straight away - make a few txt files and write all your codes into those, that way you can easily see what you've done and what you still need to do. When you're comfortable you've written all the code necessary, simply copy-paste into the relevant locations.

One of the problems I'm having is that the file structure for quests in Clear Sky seems to be pretty different, and I can't find any info specific to creating CS quests. Hopefully with a bit of perseverance I'll work it out.

I'll post a 'mini-guide' if and when I do figure it all out...
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Re: Balious's Help Thread

Postby Balious on 06 Jun 2009 14:47

Thanks guys.

I have finally managed to get the all.spawn open. Will begin my testing with it soon when i get the time. Infact Jamie has been helping me quite abit as we making a mod for CS with two others.

I contact Nandersen about the HUD when I have everything else done. Its one of the least important things i really need.

I understand Nightwatch. Everyone is quite busy most of the time lately (Its that time of year I guess).

Thanks Decepticon for that piece of advice :mozilla_smile:
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Re: Balious's Help Thread

Postby Balious on 06 Jun 2009 22:02

Sorry for the double post.

While im still trying to work everything out with my mod I thought why not make a little story and what not and get some characters. Perhaps you lot like to be in it?

So far I only have:
Stando – Leader of the Dragons Faction
Balious – Leader of the Corruption Faction
Gary – Trader of the Dragons Faction

Of course Corruption are evil and wanna take over the Zone and other things, Evil stuff. Are neutral to Bandits & Mercs, Friendly with Monolith and enemy to Military, Loners, Freedom, Duty and Dragons.

While Dragons are good and wanna protect it and all that good nice stuff. Are neutral to Loners & Duty, Friendly with Freedom & scientists/Ecologs (however spell) and enemy to Monolith, Bandits, Mercs, Corruption and Military.


Is there by any chance a way to add a new mutant into the zone? Or can we only have the ones already in the game? (including the cut out ones).
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Re: Balious's Help Thread

Postby Balious on 25 Aug 2009 13:30

Ok im back learning to mod.

Nightwatch
For that AI pack do I just download 1.4 or do I download 1.4.1 as well?

Anyone
Does anyone have a link to the latest ZRP? I figured it be best to build the mod on and like to have it on my computer as I try modding.
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Re: Balious's Help Thread

Postby VINTAR on 25 Aug 2009 14:39

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Re: Balious's Help Thread

Postby Nightwatch on 25 Aug 2009 15:16

Balious wrote:Ok im back learning to mod.

Nightwatch
For that AI pack do I just download 1.4 or do I download 1.4.1 as well?


always download the latest version. :mozilla_smile:
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Re: Balious's Help Thread

Postby Balious on 27 Aug 2009 15:35

Okay so I was looking at the Quest creation guide. http://sdk.stalker-game.com/en/index.ph ... t_creation and did what it said just to see if I can get it right before attempting my own but whenver I try and start a new game I get this:

FATAL ERROR

[error]Expression : false
[error]Function : CXml::Init
[error]File : E:\stalker\sources\trunk\xrXMLParser\xrXMLParser.cpp
[error]Line : 87
[error]Description : XML file:gameplay\game_tasks.xml value: errDescr:Error reading end tag.


stack trace:

From what I can tell it seems theres a problem understanding a tag in game_tasks.xml. I looked through the guide about this but never saw anything about a game_tasks.xml file being needed or mentioned anywhere.
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Re: Balious's Help Thread

Postby Balious on 28 Aug 2009 17:34

Okay I got pass the error but the game crashes when i get the quest and check the tasks screen even though I done what the guide said and also there appears to be no dialog.

I have done everything the guide said but these things still don't appear to work. :mozilla_frown:
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Re: Balious's Help Thread

Postby Nightwatch on 30 Aug 2009 15:20

The previous one was about a incorrectly left string, but as it appears you've passed over it. Do you have a crash log on this new one?

(PS: i haven't read the guide that you refer, I don't have time to check it -too long, but I'd assume that it should be correct, after all.)
So, if you can't produce a crash report and explain in detail what you have done with examples, if necessary, then I'm afraid "I've done everything what the guide says but the game still crashes" statement would not be enough to diagnose the matter. :mozilla_smile:
(PS: I'm not ruling out completely that there may be something wrong or missing in the guide that you refer. But first you please explain what you've done, that's after checking your guide again.)
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Re: Balious's Help Thread

Postby VINTAR on 31 Aug 2009 09:05

Balious. Unfortunately the quest creation guide is'nt as cut and dried as it seems. Believe me i have tried it for days without joy. Took of four days to get the game to run without errors. A further two days to get wolf to give me the dialog option, a further week playing with spawning through script to get my quest item to spawn, and i have left it there because i cannot get the map marker to show up on the level. You could use a predefined quest, but then you cant have your own dialog. My suggestion is to add an objective to an existing task instead of creating a new task. This is what i will try when "SALVAGE MOD 2.0" is finished.
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Re: Balious's Help Thread

Postby Balious on 31 Aug 2009 10:41

Thanks guys. I sort of given up on the quests for now as I didn't want to get my mind into it while I helped jamie with Zone Wars.

Vintar or anyone
Any idea on making quests random? Like when Sid gives out a find the artifact quest it be a complete new random one or could actually change each gamethrough like first times its a chunk of meat but the second time it could be mama beads.

Also any idea how to make quests longer without using ZRP?
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Re: Balious's Help Thread

Postby VINTAR on 31 Aug 2009 11:13

Check out task_manager.script. There is script that makes tasks random. You would just need to tweak the target item part of the script. Can be done but I reckon it could be tricky cause what variable would you use to randomise the item?
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Re: Balious's Help Thread

Postby Balious on 10 Sep 2009 16:20

Just realised I never replied here.

Thanks Vintar I take a look at that when I can. Still got to reinstall stalker after a problem I ran in the game. And for the variable I have no idea.

Can anyone be able to show me an example of a script? Such as a spawn one or something. For some reason I feel like I understand it now. Even though I problay don't.
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Re: Balious's Help Thread

Postby Balious on 14 Sep 2009 16:48

Sorry for double post.

Can anyone tell me how to do the live rankings thing? So the rankings keep changing instead of just showing the same old stalkers with very few points it will keep changing and they can have lots of points like 3000 for example. I feel this is a must have feature for stalker.
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Re: Balious's Help Thread

Postby VINTAR on 14 Sep 2009 19:18

It most probably involves enabling offline content. Dont know how to do it. Maybe nightwatch knows. I have seen this discussed in the ol mod discussion thread at gsc a few days back.
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Re: Balious's Help Thread

Postby Balious on 14 Sep 2009 23:31

Thanks Vintar. I try looking tomorrow when im not tired.

Another question is about lessen corpse time. As I am currently playing Zone Wars with my Mutant Wars addon and changed the amount of mutants spawned by a blowout there are bound to be lots of dead bodies. Well these bodies tend to lag me. Anyone know how to change this? and if so does it require a new game?
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