How does one make their own NPC?

[Kahshim]

Either the tutorial didn't explain it, or just didn't do a good enough job for me.

But how does one make an npc, that says something to do with modstrings?

I want to make dialog for a quest but didn't really get told how to do so in the tutorial. It simply said to link the DialogPak to some .dbr which I have no clue on how to make my own.

Help would be greatly appreciated, and if possible, it would be nice detailed.

[Xanarios]

Making your own NPC / dialog is pretty simple. Here’s a quick and dirty way, though it requires decent knowledge of how the tools work. This is done off the top of my head, however, so certain names might be wrong. I’ll come back after work to fill in the missing details and do corrections

Step 1: Acquire some NPC templates.
All NPCs require at least three things (at least from what I’ve been able to accomplish with them): a physical description package, a dialog package, and the actual dialog. The best way to get these is to simply copy them from the resources provided in game.

Find an NPC that you want your new one to look like. Import their physical description (found somewhere in resources/creatures/npc/~) into your own database. Next, import just about any working dialog package (found in resources/dialog/). I, personally, took one from the /speaking/ subcategory, which gave me the templates filled in for audio options as well.

Since you are making a completely new NPC, you will have to rename these files (otherwise they will overload existing NPCs). You might want to move both files into someplace more useful as well.

Step 2: Write that script.
Open up the modstring file and add in some new lines of text / information. Something like:

New_NPC_Name=Bob
New_NPC_Default=Hi.
New_NPC_Assorted=Hello again.
New_NPC_Irritation=Stop talking to me, please.

Step 3: Edit the Dialog
This is the most complicated part, all the information in the dialog package needs to be linked to the modstring file and only then can you link the dialog package into the physical descriptor package itself.

Open up your dialog package and peruse the categories. Of relevance are the entries along the lines of “DialogDefaultTag” and whatnot. They should point to some random resource from the original NPC. Delete the information there and insert in one of the lines you wrote from the modstring file. In this case, I would point the tag to “New_NPC_Default”.

Repeat this for the assorted text and then for the irritation text. Also be sure to remove the audio information, otherwise you will get strange things playing as your NPC speaks.

Step 4: Connect NPC and dialog
Open up the physical description package and find the "DefaultDialogTag" category. Point the entry to your new dialog and boom! you have a fully working NPC with custom text.

Step 5: Name the NPC
Go to the character description tag in the ‘character variables’ category. Change the description to the string of the name you specified in the modstring file. In this case “New_NPC_Name”.

You’re done! Build your database (super important) and open the world editor. Your new npc should be available for placement now.

[Kahshim]

I am trying to make it in the quest editor for one of my tabs is my mods database etc, since when I create anything it doesn't go into any older location so theres no other way for me to add it to my actual quests from what I can tell.

They show for the tutorial to goto Tutorial12/ however, I can't even do that.

[Xanarios]

Originally Posted by Kahshim

I am trying to make it in the quest editor for one of my tabs is my mods database etc, since when I create anything it doesn't go into any older location so theres no other way for me to add it to my actual quests from what I can tell.

They show for the tutorial to goto Tutorial12/ however, I can't even do that.

The only real good way that I've found of making 'new npcs' and whatnot is to go through the Art Manager and add in entries to the database. The quest editor tabs are simply a way of arranging resources, not so much a way of adding / editing content.

[Kahshim]

Well my problem is when making a quest when its time for me to say (in this example illuminate) I have to have a path leading to the npc. the ... for me will only lead to npcs that are in the official database/resources and won't let me use edited ones.

So is there a way I can get the path to lead to my custommaps folder then to the npc?

I am wondering if it would look like ./custommaps/mod/database/records/npc/npcname.dbr

Have any tips on how to get this to work?

EDIT Fix: I went into Titan Quest located in My Documents/My Games edited the QuestEditor.ini, inside made it for I had my own tab. Though at the time this didn't do anything when I relaunched the editor, triedl oading my mod still no tab and nothing had changed. Well after about two hours of fiddling aroudn it randomly added the tab I had been waiting for and as I told the QuestEditor.ini to it lead straight to my custommaps/mod/database folder. So either my QuestEditor hates me or the change took a while to take effect.

[Kahshim]

Ok.... New problem...

I got everything set up to my knowledge it should have worked, walked up and talked to the man (used man001 from greece, dephi though changed it to 001_Villager) and it says "Tag not found: Village Leader" at the top. The only place Village Leader is in 001_Villager is in the description under actor variable. What should I change this to the Actors name, which is under NPCName01=Asrin. So does this mean Village Leader should be changed to Asrin, or NPCName01 ..? >.> I will keep messing around.

[Xanarios]

Originally Posted by Kahshim

Ok.... New problem...

I got everything set up to my knowledge it should have worked, walked up and talked to the man (used man001 from greece, dephi though changed it to 001_Villager) and it says "Tag not found: Village Leader" at the top. The only place Village Leader is in 001_Villager is in the description under actor variable. What should I change this to the Actors name, which is under NPCName01=Asrin. So does this mean Village Leader should be changed to Asrin, or NPCName01 ..? >.> I will keep messing around.

Best described by the following picture:


You need to edit the field "description" under "actor variables" in your new character's DBR. Just plug in the string name you assigned in the modstrings file. The NPC will take the whatever the value of that string as their name.

In my example, my modstrings file contains the line.

NPC_XP_Name=XP Bot

so any NPC I create using this DBR will have "XP Bot" as their name.

[DaveyJJ]

Thanks for the great help, Xanarios.

[Kamidan]

For those of us that are thicker than the rest, if someone has the time and inclination could you put together either a short movie or screenshots showing the steps to get custom dialog Please?

I have no problem creating really beautifull maps, and placing NPC's on the map but Im completely lost when it comes to actually finding the files I need to find as well as editing them. For example you say to edit the modstring file but in artmanager my modstring file is blank.

I've imported a NPC record into my mods database but can't figure out how it attaches to a particular NPC in the editor.

Perhaps Im going about it wrong. Should I be importing the desired NPC into artmanager then placing the NPC onto the map in the editor? If so, how would I know which one it is? Is there a special section in the editors resources that will show me only those NPC's that I have imported into the artmanager mod files?

Also Im wondering if I can keep artmanager open at the same time the editor is open and just switch back and forth between them and the information will be automatically updated after a save or do I have to save in the editor and reload in the artmanager and visa versa?

Thanks,

[DaveyJJ]

Originally Posted by Kamidan

For those of us that are thicker than the rest, if someone has the time and inclination could you put together either a short movie or screenshots showing the steps to get custom dialog Please?

I have no problem creating really beautifull maps, and placing NPC's on the map but Im completely lost when it comes to actually finding the files I need to find as well as editing them. For example you say to edit the modstring file but in artmanager my modstring file is blank.

I've imported a NPC record into my mods database but can't figure out how it attaches to a particular NPC in the editor.

Perhaps Im going about it wrong. Should I be importing the desired NPC into artmanager then placing the NPC onto the map in the editor? If so, how would I know which one it is? Is there a special section in the editors resources that will show me only those NPC's that I have imported into the artmanager mod files?

Also Im wondering if I can keep artmanager open at the same time the editor is open and just switch back and forth between them and the information will be automatically updated after a save or do I have to save in the editor and reload in the artmanager and visa versa?

Thanks,

I'll try tonight for you. The process is a bit awkward, yes. It basically involves what Xanarios posted up top ... if you follow those steps it should work. The key is to make sure you modstring has content including an NPC name and that the dbr of the NPC is identifierd as that NPC and that their dialogue point to the dbrs for them.