Home » PLAYER'S HQ 1.13 » JA2 Complete Mods & Sequels » Arulco Vacations » MercProfiles.XML Add-On Tweak (Add-On for Arulco Vacations v1.03)
| MercProfiles.XML Add-On Tweak[message #340960]
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Tue, 12 May 2015 04:07 
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 edmortimer |
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Messages:1533
Registered:January 2015
Location: Home Free |
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MercProfiles Tweak
This add-on requires a new game. It will not work with a saved game. It is an advance peek at one of the major features of the upcoming v1.04 of Arulco Vacations. This Tweak deals with the following attributes of each and every character: Nationality, Hated Nationality, Race, Racism, Sexism, Refinement, Appearance, Care Levels, Hated Individuals and Buddies. Each character was assessed as to all of these attributes. Enhancements, corrections, and new relationships were instituted. It is designed to bring new depth to the inter-character relations. You will find that those characters with law enforcement backgrounds, for example, will prefer working with others from the law enforcement field, and will not like working with known criminals. The same goes for the reverse of that situation. New relationships are also based on other character attributes that different individuals have in common -- such as Loners like to work with other Loners, Sociables like to work with other Sociables, Good Guys like to work with other Good Guys, etc.. This adds another aspect to the overall Morale System upgrade that is already included in Arulco Vacations v1.03. See the MercProfiles.XML page on the Arulco Vacations blog for more info on each and every change made.
To add this feature to your already existing v1.03 install unzip the archive into the main game folder, overwriting two files: MercProfiles.XML and Backgrounds.XML (there were a couple minor Character Background fixes made since v1.03 came out -- see the info on the Miscellaneous page).
You can download this Add-On from the Add-Ons page of the Arulco Vacations blog.
[Updated on: Tue, 12 May 2015 04:41] Report message to a moderator
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| Re: MercProfiles.XML Add-On Tweak[message #341724 is a reply to message #340960]
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Sun, 12 July 2015 23:02 
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| Flugente |
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Messages:3507
Registered:April 2009
Location: Germany |
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I've recently gotten around to fiddling a bit with MercProfiles.xml. You've altered many buddy/hated relationships, but this can be problematic.
First of all, most of the buddy/hated dialogue refers to a specific merc - if you change that, this might lead to odd results. Dumb example: if you change's Raider's buddy from Raven to Bull, Raider will compliment Bull on what a good wife he is  . We also don't have any new dialogue here, so the new relations wouldn't be voiced.
This is merely a glitch though, nothing will crash here. However consider this small example:
Let's say Vicki no hates Lynx. We hire Lynx and drop him into Arulco. Now we want to hire Vicki. At this point, she will refuse working for us categorically - we employ her enemy, and none of er friends. But there is no dialogue, so nothing plays... the hiring screen simply closes instantly. The player has no idea, and will likely assume this to be a bug.
A solution is to use text only. The /MercEdt folder has files that contain the text that is displayed will a dialogue plays. Let's say Lynx is her hated merc #2 with a hated time of 10, that would mean QUOTE_HATE_MERC_2_ON_TEAM,// = 87, will be played. We add text, and then this happens:
This text will vanish relatively fast. Solution in this case would to add a completely silent soundfile as 004_087.wav that is long enough for the player to have time to read this. That or random gibberish.
Depending on how much work you are willing to do, you could fill all relations for all mercs this way, but the lack of sound will be somewhat unsatisfying I presume.
If you only want Mercs to like each other, editing MercOpinions.xml is the way to go.
[Updated on: Sun, 12 July 2015 23:04]
I know now that it could never work between us, as much as we wanted to, it could never be! Not because you're a rabbit, but because you're black.
If you want, you can donate to me. This will not affect how and what I code, and I will not code specific features in return. I will be thankful though.Report message to a moderator
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| Re: MercProfiles.XML Add-On Tweak[message #344753 is a reply to message #340960]
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Sun, 27 March 2016 18:50
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| breversa |
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Messages:104
Registered:November 2010 |
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(Thread necromancy warning ?)
Ed, your work on mercs relationships is AWESOME!!! I spent several *hours* reading your explanatory post last night and found it very well thought out, so much that I'd love it to be included in stock 1.13 ! :-D
There's however the speech issue... but I for one could live with text-only.
Other options I'm thinking of :
- using a similar-meaning sound file. I'm pretty sure I saw that somewhere : the text said something and the sound was different, but the meaning was the same. Something like text = "I've come across an enemy !" and sound = "Enemy's here !"
- regarding your *bleep* sound idea, using one of the merc's pain grunt sound effects might be appropriate for text related to hated mercs. It's not perfect and won't never equal a voiced text, but I think it's better than either nothing or a moreless random sound/music. Otherwise, silence is the way to go.
- tweaking /cutting the names out of the sound files, where appropriate. For instance, if we could get "Dimitri" out of Ira's "Good show, Dimitri !", we could use that new sound for anyone else. I'm no sound specialist so I cannot comment on the feasibility. It may also not work for all the cases. For instance, Raider and Raven's lines could hardly apply to anyone else. But aren't we trying to get the most of finite resources ? :-)
[Updated on: Sun, 27 March 2016 18:57] Report message to a moderator
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Sergeant
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| Re: MercProfiles.XML Add-On Tweak[message #344757 is a reply to message #344753]
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Sun, 27 March 2016 19:55
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| edmortimer |
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Messages:1533
Registered:January 2015
Location: Home Free |
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Quote:(Thread necromancy warning ?)
I hope not -- I'm still working on Merc relationships! It is a massive undertaking. I am glad you like it!
Quote:- tweaking /cutting the names out of the sound files, where appropriate. For instance, if we could get "Dimitri" out of Ira's "Good show, Dimitri !", we could use that new sound for anyone else. I'm no sound specialist so I cannot comment on the feasibility. It may also not work for all the cases. For instance, Raider and Raven's lines could hardly apply to anyone else. But aren't we trying to get the most of finite resources ? :-)
That is definitely doable. I'm not a sound engineer but I can do basic work on sound files -- which is all it takes for this (I just finished chopping up and re-assembling sound files for Brenda (the punk at the porn shop in San Mona) so she can be recruitable).
Quote:- regarding your *bleep* sound idea, using one of the merc's pain grunt sound effects might be appropriate for text related to hated mercs. It's not perfect and won't never equal a voiced text, but I think it's better than either nothing or a moreless random sound/music. Otherwise, silence is the way to go.
I like that idea! Maybe the HUMM sound ("Hmmm!") for some, and I'm sure there are other appropriate speech or sound files appropriate for everyone. It is a lot of time-consuming work, and at the moment I don't have as much time as I'd like.
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