Modding FOT characters/Recruits

Hehe, I see you kept the Ice picture. I always recruit her, she's cool.

 

Ice rules. Ice and Jo.

 

Encounter Location & Character Changing

OK, I have two questions...

1) I have heard of the encounters 'The Pipboy,' 'Pitch Black,' 'Bazaar Day,' ;Coppertops,' and 'Trader,' Though I cannot find them! I've found all the other ones, though... If anyone could tell me their locations, I would greatly appreciate it.

2) OK, I would really like to fiddle with the characters in the recruit pool... I have figured out how to change their names and descriptions, but I cannot figure out how to A) Switch character's pictures, and their ranks... Is this possible to do?

I would like to switch things around so that cool-looking faces go with the most useful recruits lol.

 

You can usually get different special encounters by returning to the site of one you've already found. Otherwise try google. Or you can extract the bos.cam using winzip and open it in the campaign editor in FT Tools and see the locations of the various encounters.

First up create a new folder under your fot folder at the same level as the core folder. So if the path is c:\program files\14 degrees east\fallout tactics\core you want c:\program files\14 degrees east\fallout tactics\wild (for example). Make a shortcut to ft tools (it's installed with the 1.27 patch or 1.26 german patch IIRC) and add - path wild to the end of the shortcut's path (leaving a space before the -) this will open up the tools pointing at the new path you've created so you won't overwrite anything.

In locale_0.bos there's a file called characters.txt, extract this to wild\locale\game. In there you'll see that the character names and descriptions are set up like this

name_CORE_stealth = {Ghost}
desc_CORE_stealth = {Use the stealth character's sneak skill to get close to the enemy or scout out a position.}

this bit 'CORE_stealth' is the display name of the recruit, if you extract the recruit entity files from entities_0.bos to wild\entities\recruits and open them in the entity editor section of FT Tools you'll see under name the display name field will be filled in. The display name is case sensitive and links the entity to the description and the portrait. The patch adds some recruits to core\entities\recruits though I'm not sure if it alters all of them, it's been a long time since I've had a vanilla install, though if there are 70 files in core\entities\recruits after patching just copy the folder to your wild folder rather than extracting them from the bos file.

The portraits are in gui_0.bos extract them to wild\gui\char. To change the portraits, the easiest way to change the file name so if you want to use the Core_stealth.zar portrait for Stitch rename it CORE_rec_hm09.zar.

To change the rank of a recruit you'll need to open them in the entity editor and under race you can choose the rank from a pull down list. Though remember rank will affect when they'll show up in the game, if you are a lower rank you won't see them until you reach the same rank, so there's little point in swapping a level 1 recruit with a paladin unless you level them up in the editor first.

Then when you've finished making your changes make a new shortcut to bos.exe and add - path wild to the end so that you can run the game with your changes.

 

Thanks for the help!

 

[FoT Tools.exe]Using the char that I created

I created a char in BoS multiplayer char editor, then I saved it, now I want to use it on the level editor, how do I do it?

 

Start a new multiplayer game and then load the character. Or is it load the character and then start the game? Not sure never bother with multiplayer myself.

If you want it available in the squad selection screen add it to core\tables\mplayer.txt following the same format as the other characters.

 

Thank you for teaching me how to play multiplayer with the created player, but what I want is to "convert" it into a entite.

 

[Entities Editor]How do I change the face pic?

I am creating an actor, I want to change his face picture, I dont know how to change it, please, help me.

 

The only way is to make a note of it's stats and skill points and make a new entity from scratch.

 

I've only just covered this a few posts down.

Merged.

 

Is it possible to make new face pitures making a new PNG and then converting to zar and then creating a folder Core\gui\char, and then I put my face picture there. If yes which is the height and width in pixels of the portrait?

 

Yes, again read the forum before posting. This was mentioned only 12 topics down.

 

question

ok fiddling with FOT I managed to add a Dog into my starting group, seeing you don't get any throughout the single player game.

so now I know i can mix it up for the first map.

now my question is if I do all that and not put him/her/it on a map but enter all the info, especially the Recruit Pool Definitions.

will they just show up in the pool after that mission?
or is there somthing else I need to do to get that to work.

thanks in advance

EDIT: new question. I cant't seem to get the character descriptions to show. any idea what i'm doin wrong? I entered the description int he text like the tut says. but the new chars descriptions are empty.

 

If you add the dog to the recruit pool definitions you'll have to then import them into the bos cam file before it'll show up.

The character descriptions are dependant on the display name matching, it's case sensitive so make sure it's exactly the same in the text file and entity.

 

yeah got the dog working great... Dogmeant is schooling them dogs in the first mission ;-p hehe

still having trouble with their description though...

i think i got everything set up right with cap sensitive and all.. but for some reason the 2 chars i test added to the first mission dont have descriptions... odds are its a DUH thing but... lol... its eluding me atm...

 

ok the tut says to enter this

name_[whateverYourCharacter'sDisplayNameIs] = {Character'sName}
desc_[whateverYourCharacter'sDisplayNameIs] = {Character'sBio/Story}

and we'll use my Dogmeat char... heres what i entered

name_dogmeat = {Dogmeat}
desc_dogmeat = {Loyal companion of yours for a couple years. Skilled at sneaking and ripping out kneecaps.}

my ent file is

dogmeat.ent

in the ent editor name is Dogmeant and display name is dogmeat...

i could get a SS of the screen... in case im missing somthing if need be.

 

If that's how it is in the editor then there's your problem right there.

 

heres the ent info under NAME section

Display Name: dogmeat
customName: Dogmeat
Tag Name:
Broken:
Player Index: 1

and as i said the ent file is lower case.

if i change the custonname area all it does is give the name a lower case letter in the game and still not display the description.

EDIT: sorry about being annoying, this is prob somthing so darn simple i'll kick myself... but atm cant figure it out for the life of me. gah.

 

Yeah as I said (but maybe not clearly enough) the problem is the custom name, you don't need it! It overwrites the display name (and bio).

If you are using the character generation screen (from the entity editor) to make or edit a character it'll ask you for a name before you can exit but just put anything in and delete it when you're done. You just need the display name filled in (and maybe tagname if you are going to script the character).