PSTEE Modding Questions

Aquadrizzt

1) In the character record, the character's faction takes a prominent location with a circular graphic and associated text on mouse over. What defines which graphic/text are used here? It is UI based or it is somehow externalized within 2das or other game files.

1a) How do I add new frames to STFCTION.bam and make them link to the various factions a character can possess? (Say, for example, I want to add an Athar faction symbol and tooltip).

2) What controls the slots available in a character's inventory screen? Is it accessible/customizable beyond what is already present in game?

badungu

1) The bestiary graphics/texts are defined in the bgee.lua (search for "bestiary =" without quotes) and referenced in the animation inis under [monster_planescape] bestiary.

2) I think only the slots inside of the creature are available or did I get your question wrong?



I don't think you can add more than that...

Aquadrizzt

@badungu ,

1) I'm not asking about Bestiary; I'm asking about Factions. More specifically, having figured out how the UI works, how do I add new frames to STFCTION.bam and make them link to the various factions a character can possess? (Say, for example, I want to add an Athar faction symbol and tooltip).

2) -1 in the inventory of a .cre file just means that the slot is empty, not that it is unusable.

kjeron

For TNO, the UI selects which frame to display based on Global Variables. It appears to use the lowest frame number among factions whose Global Variable (JOIN_FACTION) set to '1'. Not sure if there is a way to map more factions to frames though, I couldn't find any other references.


Slots are defined between the (new) file: "ITMSLOTS.2DA", and the (old) files: "ITEMTYPE.2DA" and "SLOTS.IDS".
PST Creature files also store their number of item slots in the CRE file, at offset 0x7c.
Haven't experimented with any of it yet.

Aquadrizzt

New question: what determines which location TNO resurrects at upon death?

Aquadrizzt

Even more questions: how would one go about adding a new special ability to an existing character. For example, say I want to give Morte a new innate ability patterned on Adder's Kiss. I've tried copying and converitng Adder's Kiss to an innate, but I can't seem to get it to display in Morte's specials bar.

Aquadrizzt

Continuing on this thread of "why isn't this thing working in the PSTEE engine", why are controllable NPCs that are not in the party unable to use items in their quickslots? And how would I make them able to do so?

elminster

Aquadrizzt said:

Continuing on this thread of "why isn't this thing working in the PSTEE engine", why are controllable NPCs that are not in the party unable to use items in their quickslots? And how would I make them able to do so?

You can't change item flags to allow their class? Whether or not an NPC is allowed to use an item (as far as I know) is just decided by the flags in that particular item file.

kjeron

elminster said:

You can't change item flags to allow their class? Whether or not an NPC is allowed to use an item (as far as I know) is just decided by the flags in that particular item file.

It's not about equipping them, it's about using them through the action-bar. If the creature is not in the party, nothing shows up when you click the "Select Item" button, just as nothing shows up when you click the "Select Weapon" button. Forcing them into the party enables items to show up in these menus.

To contrast, the "Select Spell" button works for creatures whether or not they are in the party, as long as they are a spell-casting class.

nullset

Can anybody tell me how to import an animation INTO PSTEE? I thought I had it figured out with the bam and ini files, including putting an entry into animate.ids but, while I can create my new character and it declares that it is using my animation, it has a location circle but no animation. That would be great if I wanted an invisible character, but that is NOT what I want. The RESDATA.ini index file controls only the bestiary animations - (true, that is every creature that comes with the game) - and it did nothing for me anyway. A complete sample of how to do this would be greatly appreciated, as my mistake might be a flag in any of the ini, ids, or cre files. Or it could be something else I have missed entirely. HELP!!!

argent77

There are several factors coming into play:
- Animation type: PST:EE uses animation type F000 for all of its animations. This type is special, as it supports running creatures, or special animations such as TNO waking up on the slab in the Mortuary. Other animation types are still partially supported, but don't provide all the features you would expect from a PST animation.
- Animation scale: This is not about visibility itself, but PST:EE animations are about 33% bigger than their BG/IWD counterparts. Your creatures would look out of place, unless the reduced size is intended.

All you need is
- The xxxx.INI file, which defines the creature animation properties
- BAM animation files of the creature (depends on animation type)
- Optional BMP palettes, WAV sounds, etc. that are referenced in the INI file
- A new entry in ANIMATE.IDS corresponding to xxxx.INI. This one is not strictly needed by the game itself, but it helps to assign the right animation to your CRE file.

I have attached an archive containing animations ported from BG2EE to PSTEE, that I originally prepared for a discontinued idea for my Djinni Companion mod, and an example creature . See screenshot:

Animation has been rescaled, but otherwise uses the same animation type (7000) and resources from BG2EE.

Afaik, PST:EE reads bestiary information from the BGEE.LUA and might only work with type F000 animations.

nullset

@argent77 Thank you very much. I will now beetle off and give it a try. I have an idea that needs a sirene, a will-o-the-wisp, and an imp.

nullset

@argent77 It worked!!! It took a bit of fiddling as the sirene 2000.ini is for [monster_layered], which evidently PST doesn't do. Had to shuffle it into the 7000 series [monster]. A couple of minor adjustments for the class, and now I have a sirene, an imp, and a will-o-the-wisp. Thanks to you. If you are interested, what I am working on is putting in a post-game section showing what happened to Nameless, Annah, Grace, Morte, Dakkon, and Nordom. The interrupt of the EOG was simple enough, but I ran into this animation problem. Now, I can get on with the real design. TTFN