Customising NPCs

[AKPiggott]

Is there any way to customise NPCs without editing npcs.cfg? In the same way that you can create bots with a BOT file in the script directory?

 

Also, how do you change the weapon of an NPC? There's no option listed in npcs.cfg, is it in a seperate file?

[JediGhost[SITH]]

If editing the NPC.cfg effects SP (which I think it does...) then changing their weapons would probably create some problems.

 

For example, when you meet Desann for the first time he kills you with his saber. Take his saber away and give him a blaster... Uh oh, what happens then?

[AKPiggott]

I'm talking about a single player level I'm making. I wanna stick some new enemies in eventually, and to do that I need to learn how to do this.

[AKPiggott]

Hmm... odd... I copied the Desann part in npcs.cfg renamed it to "granjedi", changed the model from "desann" to "gran", I didn't change anything else and when I go to spawn it, the enemy doesn't have a lightsaber like Desann, he has Thermal Detonators.... are the weapons defined in the model file or something?

[Dark Cloak]

I think they are. I changed the stormtrooper to Reborn class...so they have those cool get up moves...and I made them saber specialists...and they had lightsabers, no guns, but just fired like normal stormtroopers. Only...they had lightsabers that weren't ignited. Changed it back. I've also been able to make the blasters fire the little glow effect from the alt_fire of the golan arms gun...not the metal ball itself, but the glow effect. They have these really cool smoke trails behind them...and they don't fire in an arc, they fire straight. Looks awesome. And I got them to explode on impact. To do all of that, you have to change the .efx files around.

[AKPiggott]

Good old Mike from Raven gave me an answer:

 

"Hmm, unfortunately, the weapon they start with, by default, is hardcoded. BUT: if you place an NPC in a map, you can give them a spawnscript that has a SET_WEAPON command in it and that will give them whatever weapon you want them to have. Alternately, you could replace NPCs (ones that use the weapon you want your NPC to have) in the NPCs.cfg with your new NPC. Keep the name the same, but use your data. The scripting solution makes for a more elegant, flexible solution, though."

 

So in short: wait for the script editor.