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Re: Additional Merchant question[message #339297 is a reply to message #339285]
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Sat, 07 February 2015 01:19
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CVB |
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Messages:129
Registered:September 2014 Location: Berlin |
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As I understand the process, you can make only existing characters (those with a profile ID, not generic civilians) into merchants. The additional merchant you found is one of the NPC Hicks (forgot if father or son) who was made by Flugente to now sell milk and beef.
I never tried to make mercs into merchants, but generally speaking you are limited to use existing NPCs, and not all of those can usefully be made into merchants (makes no sense to turn Queen D or Kingpin's assassins into into grocery store owners, for example). This still leaves you with quite a list to work with, here are some ideas:
- Head miners might buy explosives (simulating that mines get more productive if you supply them with the tools of the trade)
- Joey sells marbles and buys porn
- Hans sells and buys porn and videos
- Martha and Auntie sell apple pie, bread, fruits and vegetables
- Madame Layla sells handcuffs
- The manager of the San Mona fight club buys steroids (energy boosters)
- The Balime museum warden buys items of historic interest (which might have to be added to the item list first)
- Kingpin and the Riccis buy luxury goods (silver plates, cuban cigars)
- Alma medical staff buys and/or sells medical supplies
- Dave sells toolkits
The problem is that none of these have specific dialogues for trading, so Hans might randomly threaten to kill you for buying porn from him :-)
Exception: Tina at Grumm was originally intended to repair armor, she now sells/buys clothes and LBE gear. So there already is dialogue, even if it doesn't fit exactly.
You can also move around some of the barkeepers (does San Mona really need three barkeepers, Drassen two, while Chitzena, Alma, Cambria, Balime and Meduna get none?). Some general goods can be added to their inventory. Not quite as immersive as having dedicated general store merchants, but the game effect is the same whether you buy from one or two guys in a sector.
Sam's Hardware Store could be moved from Balime, leaving Franz and Howard there.
Last idea I have is to import the two merchants from UB (if it works for mercs, it should work for NPCs), even if their NPC scripts might have to be modified a bit. At least you get the appropriate speech files.
Peace is a purely theoretical state of affairs whose existence we deduce because there have been intervals between wars.
J. PournelleReport message to a moderator
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Sergeant
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Re: Aw: Re: Additional Merchant question[message #339320 is a reply to message #339316]
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Sat, 07 February 2015 20:50
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edmortimer |
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Messages:1533
Registered:January 2015 Location: Home Free |
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It's definitely a good idea, I think. But the entire situation regarding NPCs, and what it means to re-purpose one, has to be carefully considered. I'm letting you work on the Omerta maps, as right now I'm in the middle of other stuff. Alternate maps for Omerta might get difficult considering the NPCs there, and the quests involved, and the possibility of breaking the continuity of the game-in-progress. It'll take a lot of playtesting -- probably should start out with basic alternate maps (maps with minimal changes) and switch them in-game at different progress points and see what happens.
I'd be much happier if we could create a new NPC for the merchant . . . yeah, I know . . . animations, voice files, etc, etc. A lot of work just for someone to sell shovels, sandbags and toolkits (for example). Importing one seems to be the better option than moving an existing NPC.
I'm not doing any modification of the Omerta maps right now.
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Aw: Re: Aw: Re: Additional Merchant question[message #339322 is a reply to message #339320]
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Sat, 07 February 2015 22:24
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ATigersClaw |
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Messages:209
Registered:October 2014 |
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edmortimer schrieb am Sa, 07 Februar 2015 19:50It's definitely a good idea, I think. But the entire situation regarding NPCs, and what it means to re-purpose one, has to be carefully considered. I'm letting you work on the Omerta maps, as right now I'm in the middle of other stuff. Alternate maps for Omerta might get difficult considering the NPCs there, and the quests involved, and the possibility of breaking the continuity of the game-in-progress. It'll take a lot of playtesting -- probably should start out with basic alternate maps (maps with minimal changes) and switch them in-game at different progress points and see what happens.
I'd be much happier if we could create a new NPC for the merchant . . . yeah, I know . . . animations, voice files, etc, etc. A lot of work just for someone to sell shovels, sandbags and toolkits (for example). Importing one seems to be the better option than moving an existing NPC.
I'm not doing any modification of the Omerta maps right now.
I'll work on the maps but leave everything else as it is for right now. Looking forward to what you come up with.
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Sergeant 1st Class
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Re: Additional Merchant question[message #345616 is a reply to message #339297]
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Sun, 22 May 2016 09:41
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edmortimer |
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Messages:1533
Registered:January 2015 Location: Home Free |
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Quote:generally speaking you are limited to use existing NPCs, (as additional merchants)
Can only existing NPCs become merchants? I am trying to add Betty Fung from UB into my mod. She appears, connects to her .EDT file (the proper text balloons come up when you speak with her), but she doesn't connect to her voice files (in NPC_Speech) and her inventory is empty. Neither will she buy anything. I've checked, double-checked, and re-checked again and again, but cannot find anything amiss in any of the files -- MercProfiles, MercStartingGear, MercOpinions, Merchants, BettyInventory, her .EDT & her .NPC.
I had to move her from index 73 to index 219. The Merchants.XML only went up to 169 in NPC IDs, so I added the rest up to 220. Is that my problem? Does she have to be within the first 169 NPC IDs?
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