[mBase.ini concept] Fellow Travelers - Meeting the Same People at Different Bases

adoxa

From jflp.txt:

DATA\MISSIONS\mbases.ini
- changed Scripts\vendors\li_commtrader_fidget.thn to
  Scripts\vendors\robot_commtrader_fidget.thn for all the robot traders (removes
  lots of warnings relating to Sc_MLHEAD_MOTION_SHAKHEAD_NO_000LV_XA_%);

DATA\SCRIPTS\VENDORS\robot_commtrader_fidget.thn
- new file based on li_commtrader_fidget.thn, deleting the
  "Sc_MLHEAD_MOTION_SHAKHEAD_NO_000LV_XA_%" event. {S}

```So you'll have to find all the robot traders and replace them (depends on how modified your mbase.ini is; if there's lots, you might be able to use something like KDiff3 for selective replacements), and extract the new script.

I expect all the animations for the bartenders are male (like the player animations; bit of a surprise when I first tried using Juni instead of Trent). Probably a fair bit of work to change them.

? Offline

Notepad - Find and Replace, takes seconds

Moonhead

Gibbon wrote:
Notepad - Find and Replace, takes seconds

Nah, at least an hour, for me, (which I do not have right now, coz I have to install the new AVG on my other pc):

First, do all the hacks - don’t forget to backup first
Then decide what chars to make ‘global’ - again, backup first
Then test
Then run into unexpected things, either caused by, or totally unrelated to the hack, or somewhere in between, that I can’t resist of resolving

Meanwhile, family life goes on. Just finished hanging a flat screen tv on the wall. Right now I’m installing AVG at the other pc, and the I’ll have to prepare to do some groceries on foot coz its very snowy here (we aren’t really used to that anymore, and the parking lot at the mall will be like Stalingrad '42. )

Btw the AVG thing sucks, tried it earlier this week and it failed. So that’s why I do not classify it as “EASY”.

Then I have to prepare for some dinner we arranged months ago (when we didn’t know that the roads would be such a mess) and we have to at least double the estimated travelling time.

Meanwhile, my girlfriend is nagging me to do this and to do that. I will keep my temper coz when I kill here, I’ll be thrown in jail and a few months to several years later in a forensic mental hospital, and then the testing of the mBase NPCs hack will be delayed by at least 6 more months (when my excellent behaviour will have earned me the right to have a computer at my cell - where I will have no internet to report back to you guys).

So, the fastest way for me is to patiently wait until next Tuesday. Or until everyone here sleeps
Forget my whining, I’m testing it now (found a one hour gap in my tight scheme )

Unfortunately, I got a crash as soon as I clicked the Bar icon

What did I do?
I apllied the proposed hacks to content.dll, then I refered to a bunch of Liberty Police officers from the mBase entries in my new base, Li_03_05, that are also at Planet Denver.

Instant crash when I clicked the bar icon. Now running scans. FLScan didn’t find anything; running FLEC now.

Moonhead

FLEC doesn’t report an error either.

Anyway, it crashed. So I must assume the hack doesn’t work :(vOr I messed up the experiment, but wouldn’t know why. I did, how I intended it to work: referring to a given NPC from more than one Base.

Thanks anyway Adoxa, for the effort!!!

adoxa

@Gibbon: Sure, if you want to replace all the human traders, too.

@Moonhead: It’s not enough to just reference the NPC (npc = …), you still have to define it ([GF_NPC]). At least, that’s all I had to do - apply patch, no crash; add npc line, crash; copy [GF_NPC], no crash.

LancerSolurus

As far as I know there are no female bartender thns. It seemed to be a bone issue between male and female skeletons (the left and right arm is switched). You could create a duplicate thn anim for it and switch the root arm bone names.

Moonhead

adoxa wrote:
@Gibbon: Sure, if you want to replace all the human traders, too.

@Moonhead: It’s not enough to just reference the NPC (npc = …), you still have to define it ([GF_NPC]).

Of course, once. At least, that was the intention, because when I define the NPC for each base, then it will be two separate people.

So, from my Li03_06 base I refered to a NPC that was defined in the Li03_01 mBase section, with the intention that it appears as if this NPC travels between Li03_01 and Li03_06 and can be met at the basr of both stations.

adoxa wrote:

At least, that’s all I had to do - apply patch, no crash; add npc line, crash; copy [GF_NPC], no crash.

But - didn’t you then just add another NPC??? Or does the game indeed link the visit/know status of both these NPCs??

It seems a bit weird to me that there are two NPCs with the same nickname, while I understood your hack would make them global…

adoxa

My hack makes them global by ignoring the base test and just testing the nickname, meaning the same nickname in multiple bases will reference the same NPC (whichever base you visit first will have the vnpc line; any other base will continue to reference that first one). This only affects the vnpc stuff, not mbases.ini itself. And it’s still a theory until you put it to the test…

Regarding the animations. Given Lancer’s hint about switched arms, had another play with Juni. Went into li_hatcher_body.dfm and switched the LCollarBone and RCollarBone names in the sphere parts. That improved it somewhat, but the neck was still twisted and the torso doesn’t look right (not really surprising, I guess). BTW, it’s no good just changing the animations, simply because most of them don’t exist for the female. Same with the voice.

Moonhead

adoxa wrote:
My hack makes them global by ignoring the base test and just testing the nickname, meaning the same nickname in multiple bases will reference the same NPC (whichever base you visit first will have the vnpc line; any other base will continue to reference that first one). This only affects the vnpc stuff, not mbases.ini itself. And it’s still a theory until you put it to the test…

Thanks for clarifying! I’ll give it another try then.

adoxa wrote:
Regarding the animations. Given Lancer’s hint about switched arms, had another play with Juni. Went into li_hatcher_body.dfm and switched the LCollarBone and RCollarBone names in the sphere parts. That improved it somewhat, but the neck was still twisted and the torso doesn’t look right (not really surprising, I guess). BTW, it’s no good just changing the animations, simply because most of them don’t exist for the female. Same with the voice.

Hmm… So, we can’t have any female bartenders?? If I’d be running a pub, I’d take that to court :pint:

adoxa

You can’t have female characters (like bartenders or shipdealers) using the male animations, but of course, replacing the animation could be an option.

Moonhead

It is only now that I can confirm the hack, as suggested by Adoxa, does actually work. Thanks again

Btw one of the people said “Nice of you to come back” to Trent. Which is a phrase that doesn’t really suite my intentions, but hey, it comes close enough now.