Creating multiplayer characters

D

Dibujante

First time out of the vault
To clarify, I'm talking about creating prefab multiplayer characters, which access the characters.txt file for names and descriptions, among other nice things.

Creating an Actor entity in the editor and then trying to save it as a .chr through the "save chr" function returns the error, "This is not a multiplayer entity." Saving it through the "save" function as a .chr file succeeds but the .chr in question isn't recognized by the multiplayer character selection screen.

One (admittedly inelegant) solution is to cut and paste existing multiplayer characters, change their names and change their attributes, but it would be nice to be able to do it directly through FT Tools, since the editor hints at that being a possibility:

"Multi Player Characters
- The characters that appear in the Multi Player Selection window are a special kind of Actor entity.
- These entities are created as normal actors, but then saved out as .CHR files."

I searched the forum and didn't find any relevant info, and none of the tutorial sites cover multiplayer character creation (although they cover singleplayer character creation). If anyone has info on this, let me know.

Oh, and I did look through every part of multiplayer characters looking for some attribute or value that would define it as a multiplayer character and found none.

Thanks
 
I don't normally do multiplayer but IIRC FT Tools will only allow you to open the existing chr files and save them. If you want to make extra characters you'll have to copy and paste as you've said.

To get them to show up on the character selection screen, again IIRC you'll have to edit the text file (or create one) in core\tables called mplayer.txt and add their path and file name.
 
Thanks, I'll do that, then.

edit 1: Well, I tried. Apparently the "save chr" function is broken or I don't entirely understand it, because it doesn't actually make any changes. It looks like the only functional approach is using a hex editor, unless someone can (hopefully) correct my error.

edit 2: okay, it's not that bad but even more retarded. If you use the "save as" function it will save your unit as a .ent, which can then be modified with a hex editor to convert it to a .chr, which will have the updated stats.

edit 3: This is hopefully the final edit. If you delete/rename the file you're working on before saving it will actually save the opened (modified) stats to disk. How this bug got past QA is beyond me.
 
Save chr works, it's a bit funky though. This might be due to me using a path, but if you've copied and renamed one of the existing chr files then it tends to save the changed character using the original file name.

Try backing up the original characters before making your changes. Then rename your new characters and restore the originals.
 
Thanks for the tip, save chr works under very specific conditions, it appears.

However, I've also found out that the filenames for the multiplayer characters are hardcoded. It's possible to modify these characters all one wants but there is a hardcap on how many prefabs can exist. I cannot imagine why they thought hardcoding filenames for the prefab characters was anything but a bad idea :(
 
Hell I don't know why they needed to make multiplayer characters use a different file format from the other entities, or why the mp character you can make is different again from the premade lot. But then as I understand it MP was a late edition to the game, and several things were compromised to fit it in.
 
Actually, after some hex editing I have figured out how to add an unlimited number of fully functional prefab multiplayer characters to the game.

1. Open up a legit character and remake them however you like. If the game requires you to enter a name, delete it later from the customName field under the Name section (very important, hardlocks can occur otherwise).

2. Open up a hex editor and change all references to the character's filename to the new filename you want for the character. Save this file as the new filename. Note: the filename must be the same length as it was previously.

3. Open /core/tables/mplayer.txt and add the path to the new filename.

4. Open /core/locale/game/characters.txt and add a name_ and desc_ for the character.

5. It should now work. If it doesn't, Something Is Wrong.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top