darthmaster50 Posted April 28, 2006 Share Posted April 28, 2006 Sorry if mods think this is spam but I know how to make custom chars for pc. The model I might be able to edit it but i probably need a different gif edtor than kotors and need to make new models. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DarthMaul v.1/2 Posted April 28, 2006 Share Posted April 28, 2006 What's up everyone? I just wanted to breeze thru and say "Happy MODding!" to all my nOOb MODder class mates! I hope all is well so far - nothing too complex yet, right? Also, I just wanted to HOLLA! at our "Professor of MOD", Darkkender - and reiterate my gratitude for setting this curriculum up for us I am sure that I speak for the rest of the 'class' when I say THANKS for providing us with this! Everything is looking good - please keep up the good work...er, I mean instruction! Anyways, I have to inhale my dinner and get back to my 'home work', I still have a couple of changes to finish making to my recruit (also, there is a new 'My name is Earl' episode on in a few! ) - DM.005 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
REDJOHNNYMIKE Posted April 28, 2006 Share Posted April 28, 2006 I've been a little busy and haven't started yet, but is it okay to host links to actual files instead of screens? Maybe all work could be compiled into a final project that way;) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Darkkender Posted April 28, 2006 Author Share Posted April 28, 2006 That would be fine RJM. Darthmaster50 I would actually recomend posting the question above in the main forums. This is mostly due to the more technical nature of the question. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BlazeHoliday Posted April 28, 2006 Share Posted April 28, 2006 darkkender, can u post a schedule for your future installments! i'm dying to see the rest of the process! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Darkkender Posted April 28, 2006 Author Share Posted April 28, 2006 darkkender, can u post a schedule for your future installments! i'm dying to see the rest of the process! I'm hoping to post the 3rd part of course #2 this evening. Alot of this depends on my machine time. Most of my daytime posts are while I'm at work so it makes my tutorial writing schedule about as tight as my mod making schedule. I also was thinking that I would be able to break course #2 into 3 parts but I'm realizing that either I'm going to have to have an advanced UTC editing course with 3 parts to itself or 6 total parts for this segment. Because of all the GFF files the "UTC" covers the most indepth amounts of material. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jae Onasi Posted April 29, 2006 Share Posted April 29, 2006 ^ I don't mind smaller 'classes' (but more of them). It makes it easier to absorb each concept properly. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr Maniac Posted April 30, 2006 Share Posted April 30, 2006 Do you have any idea what the "Minion" class is? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Darkkender Posted April 30, 2006 Author Share Posted April 30, 2006 Do you have any idea what the "Minion" class is? The minion class is basically the soldier with some slight differences. It is used for almost all of your monsters and many of your generic NPC's Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Darkkender Posted April 30, 2006 Author Share Posted April 30, 2006 Part #3 Course #2: Creating The Character Okay we have our edited 2da files and we have a utc file that isn't quite finished. So where do we go from here? The next steps have a couple of solutions, I'm going to give you both of them. First solution we throw our 3 new 2da files into our overide folder and make certain that Kotor Tool is supposed to check overide folder first. If your not certain if you have Kotor Tool setup that way then I'll show you how real quick. From Kotor Tool choose the "Tools" menu and go all the way down to options. Image_1 Choose options and click on the tab titled other. Image_2 You will see a checkbox labeled "Look in Games Overide for 2da files" make certain it is checked and click "OK". That done we can open our UTC file that we created earlier and edit it in Kotor Tool. So go to the "File" menu at the top and choose Open GFF files. Now Kotor Tool should recall where you last saved your UTC file but just in case it doesn't I hope you do. Locate and open your new Recruits UTC file. With our new UTC file already opened go to the appearance drop down menu and scroll all the way to the bottom. You should find your new appearance.2da entry listed there. Image_3 Now go to Portraits and do the same thing with that drop down menu and go to the last entry. Once again at this stage I will recomend saving. However this time lets change our file saving convention. Let us add a "x_" to the beginning instead of "p_" that way we can compare some information in the next set of steps. Alright I told you at the beginning we would need KGFF installed for this course. Okay at this stage open up 2 sessions of KGFF, in the first session open our first UTC file without the changed appearance & portrait entries. In the second session open up the one we made with appearance & portrait changes. Right off the bat you will see our appearance type changes on the first line. However when you scroll down to portraitID you will find that our portrait change didn't happen. Here is a snapshot of x_vader & P_vader for comparison. Image_4 Image_5 This is because Kotor Tool has a glitch when it comes to saving the custom portraitID's at the time of this tutorial. So while I told you there was 2 methods for setting your 2da changes in your UTC file I actually half told the truth. That is we can change the appearance without any problems but the photo we will have to change manually in a GFF editor. So lets go ahead and manually change the portraitID to 63 for our UTC file. To do so all you need to do is click and highlight the field and the editable data will appear to the righthand side. Simply click on the field with the incorrect photoID in it and type 63 for our new Portrait. Save our UTC and thats that. You want to know the best part now when we open our UTC in Kotor Tool the portrait will actually be pointing to our new portrait like it's supposed too. That and Kotor Tool doesn't foul it up incase you are afraid this might happen. Now we have explored much into the factors of the basics into changing the appearance of our new character however there is much more still left undone. For the majority if not all of the rest of the lesson I will be trying to keep you in Kotor Tool's UTC editor. Simply because it is better for a beginning modder to navigate and understand. However always be prepared for the need to switch out for a pure gff editor for various tasks. Were going to take a look at some other portions of the UTC. Remember when we changed our class to Jedi Guardian but did nothing else? Well now we're going to go back and play with some different aspects of our character. First thing we want to look at is the Statistics tab for our UTC, Image_6 once there you will find saving throws, ability scores and hit points. Of the 3 I just mentioned only one set of them is not tied into your characters class, that is ability scores. Since it actually would be ideal to create any character or creature using the rules system properly I'm going to show you how. Ability scores are very much the most flexible thing to work with as your the one who really determines them. However I would recomend against over powering your character/creatures ability scores unless it is really necessary, such as that 5 tom Rancor really should have a strength 30. I would recomend for most characters no more than 2 ability scores of 18 and try to have the majority in the 10-14 range. Now to figure out what your ability score adjustment for your creature is simply take the ability score and subtract 11 if the ability score is odd or 10 if the ability score is even. Then take the remainder and divide in half this will be your ability score modifier. For the purposes of this tutorial I'm going to leave the Atton's default ability scores alone. Now when we were looking at the classes.2da above you will have seen a column labelled hitdie. For the Jedi Guardian the number in that field is 10. So to determine what our creatures hit points should be we take that number and multiply by 0.75 or 3/4. We then take the results in this case 7.5 and multiply by the class level in my case 3 and I would get 22.5 we will then round this down to 22 and this will be my base hit points. Some of you might be wondering where I come up with multiplying the hit die by 3/4. Well this is also a quick gamers trick because over the course of multiple levels the average gamer will roll hit points out to about 3/4 of the maximum potential. Now all I need to do is take my Con modifier times my level and add this to my result above. So in my case Con modifier +2 * 3 = 6 + 22(Average HP) = 28. This will be my base hit points. For Max hitpoints I take my Hit Die + Con modifier * my level and in this case my result would be 36. So I enter in 28 For Base hitpoints and Current Hit points and 36 for max hit points. So my new UTC's statistics should now look like this. After reviewing Information about saving throws brought to my attention by Stoffe I have removed the above Saving throw information. Okay that's enough to take in in this part so I'll let your brain rest and we'll tackle Skills, Feats, & Powers in the next part. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BlazeHoliday Posted April 30, 2006 Share Posted April 30, 2006 shoudl i just save the 2da's or should i use the xml format? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stoffe Posted April 30, 2006 Share Posted April 30, 2006 Image_7 As you look across you will see a column labelled savingthrowtable. The entry below that will be the name of the 2da file for your classes saving throws. So since I'm going to be making my recruit a Jedi Guardian my saving throw table will be the following. Image_8 Since I plan to leave my recruit as 3rd level to begin with I will locate the row for Level 3 and I will see that my Fort save is +3, my Ref save is +3 and my Will save is +2. So lets go ahead and put those numbers in the proper saving throw fields in our UTC file (snip) The Saving Throw boxes in the UTC editor are for bonus saving throw values on top of those granted by their class levels and ability scores. Characters automatically get the saving throws assigned for their class from the above mentioned 2DA table when they level up. Thus, doing as you described above the character will end up with 3/3/2 saving throw values from their class, bonuses from the ability score ranks, plus an extra 5/6/2 as a bonus from what you entered in the UTC. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr Maniac Posted April 30, 2006 Share Posted April 30, 2006 One quick question. Say you set your character's appearance to that of a creature (specifically a Tach). Do you still have to do all of the appearance.2da, and heads.2da editing? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Darkkender Posted April 30, 2006 Author Share Posted April 30, 2006 The Saving Throw boxes in the UTC editor are for bonus saving throw values on top of those granted by their class levels and ability scores. Characters automatically get the saving throws assigned for their class from the above mentioned 2DA table when they level up. Thus, doing as you described above the character will end up with 3/3/2 saving throw values from their class, bonuses from the ability score ranks, plus an extra 5/6/2 as a bonus from what you entered in the UTC. I had not run into that being the case in the past. However I will double check this and make corrections if that is the case. I have found in the past that NPC recruits almost always end up levelling up after joining and afterwards there stats are correct for there level even after I fill in data in these fields. One quick question. Say you set your character's appearance to that of a creature (specifically a Tach). Do you still have to do all of the appearance.2da, and heads.2da editing? The heads.2da editing is only used for a recruit who has a head model. However I would still recomend creating a Unique appearance.2da entry. You will also need a portraits.2da entry. In part #2 of Course #2 I mentioned that there was diverging schools of thought. The quick and easy direct reference to existing entries. While I only covered the topic of Human appearances for your recruit the principal is similar. Even though there won't be any real conflicts it is always better to have a unique entry for any creature that gets recruited or whose role is more than just as a one shot wonder. That way later if you want to give your special creature it's own unique texture like darkenning the skin and giving sith eyes to it it won't effect all creatures of the same type. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DarthMaul v.1/2 Posted May 1, 2006 Share Posted May 1, 2006 Hey there, Darkkender! So far so good with the assignments DK! WOW - you are really doing a nice job of breakin the courses down into easy, bite-sized pieces! Say, you some sort of instructor or teacher in the "real world"? Quick question DK - I am just mimicing what you have done as an example to us so far (I'm just using PMC01 as my 'recruit' model) - while this is fine for me to learn with, I was actually hoping to MODify the 'commoner - male - FAT' NPC as my recruit - however I noticed that there are no 'value' numbers for this appearance for 'normal head' or portraits.2da - these 'values' are listed as '****' in both .2da's. What I wanted to know is can I use this appearance for my 'recruit', and if so can I just give the appearance a differenthead and a different portrait- so as to continue the 'course' learning process? If you think this is too difficult for me right now - or just not possible - I'll just stick to the 'recruit' I have already started! Thanks in advance for the 411, DK (and everyone else)! - DM.005 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stoffe Posted May 1, 2006 Share Posted May 1, 2006 I had not run into that being the case in the past. However I will double check this and make corrections if that is the case. I have found in the past that NPC recruits almost always end up levelling up after joining and afterwards there stats are correct for there level even after I fill in data in these fields. It has been this way since Neverwinter Nights, the fields in the UTC are for allowing additional saving throw bonuses, usually used to make bosses tougher. Saving throws from classes and abilities are calculated and added automatically. But if you won't believe me it's fairly easy to test, so I just tested it myself. Here are screenshots of 3 variants of the same character template: Level 3 Jedi Guardian, flat 10 in all ability scores, no saving throw bonuses. Level 3 Jedi Guardian, flat 10 in all ability scores, Fort3/Refl3/Will2 saving throw bonuses. Level 3 Jedi Guardian, your ability score bonuses, Fort3/Refl3/Will2 saving throw bonuses. Results: This image shows which saving throws they ended up with in-game, respectively. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Darkkender Posted May 1, 2006 Author Share Posted May 1, 2006 Sorry for not getting back sooner on this. I looked into what Stoffe mentioned above and discovered she was correct. I had looked into last night and with your screenshots above they go to further cement my not being very attentive. Sorry for doubting you Stoffe. I'll correct the tutorial to properly reflect the correct information. @DM.005 -- If you could list which appearance.2da entry you are thinking of I could take a look and see if I can over any insight. However if what you say is true there is no entry in the heads column for the appearance then the appearance is likely to be a full body & head mesh. Now this does not preclude you from using that appearance for your recruit provided you like the head. As to the teacher thing. Well I have frequently been a Supervisor Lead at many of my jobs. That or some of my jobs I have been responsible for training employee's on different projects. I've even thought about when I go back to school to change my degree to a teaching degree. But here is what might blow your mind. My own spirtual beliefs include those of my Native American ancestory. At least in the respects of having spirit guides to further lead me down the right path in life. This is more akin to star sign, zodiac signs than a religion to itself. Anyways one of these guides is "Wolf" who is the teacher. As with a sign of the Zodiac a spirit guides teachings are more representative of one personality and nature. Which in turn leads to my own tendancy to pass on knowledge. But I've really digressed when talking of my self there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DarthMaul v.1/2 Posted May 1, 2006 Share Posted May 1, 2006 @DM.005 -- If you could list which appearance.2da entry you are thinking of I could take a look and see if I can over any insight. However if what you say is true there is no entry in the heads column for the appearance then the appearance is likely to be a full body & head mesh. Now this does not preclude you from using that appearance for your recruit provided you like the head. What's up, DK? The appearance I was talking about in my other post was the ' commoner_male_fat' appearance listed in TSL with the other 'commoner' appearances - it only has **** for it's 'normalhead' and I believe 'portrait' as well - I don't mind the default head look for this appearance, but it does not have any DS transition - now that DOES bother me, as I enjoy playing as DS 8/10 times! Is it possible to switch this appearance's 'normalhead', 'portrait', and DS transition - I think that the DS transition is 'texaevil' or something like that - and still keep the 'fat' body type? I am guessing that the only way to do this is to re-model the appearance in 3dsMax or gmax (I'm DEFINITELY not ready to try that---yet!), right? And as far as the whole 'digressing' about yourself and your Native American heritage - that does not bother me one bit, as I myself have ALOT of Choctaw blood running through my veins! Though I am not nearly full-blood or even half (my father was half - grandmother almost full), I am shamefully lacking knowledge of this part of my heritage - something I need to change! And as far as ms.stoffe goes, as usual her word is as good as gold, huh? Anywho, I better knock off the chit-chat before RedHawke or darth333 comes along and clips my --- er, wings! Besides, I get to go to the doctor in a little while, WHOOPEE! < VERY painful sarcasm! > Thanks for the character help, DK! Like I said, it is a TSL appearance - commoner_male_fat. - DM.005 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Darkkender Posted May 1, 2006 Author Share Posted May 1, 2006 As far as Darkside appearance's go that is determined by the skin texture of the appearance. This will actually be one of the many topics covered in some of the advanced courses. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
darthmaster50 Posted May 2, 2006 Share Posted May 2, 2006 Will there be any modeling help added? If so I would be very happy because I know about all most every file except a few and would like to learn how to model. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Darkkender Posted May 2, 2006 Author Share Posted May 2, 2006 Because of my pure inability to model the only course likely would be an advanced course that would be a team effort between myself and one of the master modeller and texturers. I must say my best recomendation on that particular subject would actually be to browse through the hundreds of websites out there devoted to teach modelling from beginner to advanced techniques. Mostly because the sheer amount of working knowledge in the 2 modelling programs that we can use goes far beyond what Holowan Labs is capable of providing at this time. I'm sure if you PM'ed somebody like oldflash he might be able to point you in the right direction. That is if creating models and graphics are really something you are interested in. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DarthMaul v.1/2 Posted May 4, 2006 Share Posted May 4, 2006 Hail lord Darkkender?! Yoohoo, any body home? DK, is everything all right? Seriously, I have not seen you around in a while - Are you working on the next course? Or, is there a different problem? Hey, I know every one needs a break now and then, but I am worried about you. I think it is safe to say that it's out of character for you to disappear from the forum for this long! If you just need a break from messin' with 'Holowan U', NO problem! I think we all can understand that - but just pop in and let us know you are OK! Your pal, - DM.005 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EnderWiggin Posted May 4, 2006 Share Posted May 4, 2006 The last time he was on the forums was this morning last night, at least where I live. The last time he posted here was the day before yesterday. Sometimes RL sucks and he might not have had much free time recently, etc. Don't worry, he's reliable and will be back. _EW_ EDIT: You're right DK, I don't have the time zone changed in my preferences, and instead of subtracting hours, I added by accident. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Darkkender Posted May 4, 2006 Author Share Posted May 4, 2006 Last night actually EW, unless Your in Australia. Then it might have been your morning. @DM -- I'm sorry had too much real world getting in the way of my typing the next section. I should have it ready by tonight provided nothing gets in my way. No worries though Holowan U is one of my many priorities for time right now. Just not at the top. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DarthMaul v.1/2 Posted May 5, 2006 Share Posted May 5, 2006 {snip} Spam is bad for your health... let's keep the chatter down, ok? Re-read the forum rules concerning spam. This is your second warning. - d3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.