tjashen tjashen

[eWIP] Spirit Mage Banshee and Cinder Mage Cindercorpse Sovereigns, new Undead Faction

[eWIP] Spirit Mage Banshee and Cinder Mage Cindercorpse Sovereigns, new Undead Faction

(Post Cleared for Mod Info)

This thread is for my Banshee Spirit Mage Sovereign Mod and Custom Faction, The Restless Undead. 

Meet Vlukandria!

Banshee Spirit Mage

And Toasty Skull...

Toasty Skull The Infernal

I'm getting close to bundling up the first Beta File for this mod.  This mod currently includes two 'subpaths', one for each of the above Sovereigns, those being Spirit Mage and Cinder Mage.  Both are tied to the same path selection buttons you see below.

More info soon!  See my other posts below for additional info on this mod in the meantime.

Highlight Button Spirit Mage  Button Spirit Mage

Highlight Path Spirit mage  Trait Tree Spirit Mage

Spirit Mage Tree

Cinder Mage Tree

46,025 views 59 replies
Reply #51 Top

Possibly...

snippet:

    <Cutscene InternalName="Arisen_ItemShop">
        <Description>Scene for a low level Arisen item shop.</Description>
        <CutSceneObject InternalName="Background">
            <Type>Background</Type>
            <Image>/Gfx/Revenant_Gfx/TombShop.png</Image>
        </CutSceneObject>
        <CutSceneCamera InternalName="MainCamera">
            <Position>40,30,-67</Position>
            <LookAt>0,50,0</LookAt>
            <NearPlane>10</NearPlane>
            <FarPlane>2000</FarPlane>
        </CutSceneCamera>
        <DefaultLightAmbient>0,0,0</DefaultLightAmbient>
        <DefaultLightDiffuse>385,385,385</DefaultLightDiffuse>
        <DefaultLightDirection>0.066987,-0.250000,0.965926</DefaultLightDirection>
        <DefaultRimLightColor0>35,110,380</DefaultRimLightColor0>
        <DefaultRimLightDirection0>-0.965926,0.0,-0.258820</DefaultRimLightDirection0>
        <DefaultRimLightColor1>370,210,50</DefaultRimLightColor1>
        <DefaultRimLightDirection1>0.984808,0.0,-0.173648</DefaultRimLightDirection1>
    </Cutscene>

Arisen Shopkeeper

 

Reply #52 Top

Your new shopkeeper unit (Or the default shopkeeper unit if not defined) is probably using the DefaultUnitCutscenePack which refers to Shop_LowLevel_01.png

I'm not sure if you need to define the CutSceneDataPack for both the Shopkeeper and the Sovereign, but the Shopkeeper is definitely needed. Think of it as a trade screen.

 

Code: xml
  1. &lt;UnitType InternalName="Shopkeeper_Arisen"&gt;
  2. &lt;!--Truncated xml--&gt;
  3. &lt;CutSceneDataPack&gt;ArisenCutscenePack&lt;/CutSceneDataPack&gt;
  4. &lt;/UnitType&gt;
  5.  
  6. &lt;CutSceneDataPack InternalName="ArisenCutscenePack"&gt;
  7. &lt;!--Truncated xml--&gt;
  8. &lt;CutSceneDataSubPack&gt;
  9. &lt;Type&gt;ItemShop_K_LowLevel&lt;/Type&gt;
  10. &lt;CutSceneName&gt;ArisenShop&lt;/CutSceneName&gt;
  11. &lt;/CutSceneDataSubPack&gt;
  12. &lt;/CutSceneDataPack&gt;
  13.  
  14. &lt;Cutscene InternalName="ArisenShop"&gt;
  15. &lt;!--Truncated xml--&gt;
  16. &lt;CutSceneObject InternalName="Background"&gt;
  17. &lt;Type&gt;Background&lt;/Type&gt;
  18. &lt;Image&gt;ThisFileIsInTheModsGfxFolder.png&lt;/Image&gt;
  19. &lt;/CutSceneObject&gt;
  20. &lt;/Cutscene&gt;

Reply #53 Top

Primal,

Actually, look more closely at the background behind the shopkeeper in my screenshot, Primal, then ask yourself if you've ever seen that image anywhere before (it's a photochop of two separate existing images, with the coloring tweaked to boot).  Same for the background behind the Sov in my screenshot.  The background behind the Sov didn't used to be so blue/dark... I suck at drawing my own art, but when it comes to repurposing/tweaking  existing art, yeah that's right down my alley.

Simply changing the info card background didn't do the trick, hence my making a new cutscene file (similar to what Stardock did in DLCs04 and 05).  I went a bit further than they did, though, and hunted down ALL of the tags and changed as many backgrounds as I could.  Almost none of the default tags are still in play with the cutscene files I have for this faction.

Only one or two backgrounds aren't currently defined via the arisen cutcenes files (the background behind the perk tree picker, for example, and Dynasties 'cuz we no longer have those).  So yeah, I'm about 8 steps ahead of you on this one.

As for simply calling out the filename and hoping the game would see it in the mods folder, with no 'routing path' listed in front of the .png name, no that didn't work.  First thing I tried...  Not saying it wouldn't work for others, just that in my experience no dice.  Y'all are welcome to try.

Not assigning a directory path works fine for the Sov picker background but the other backgounds never change, unless I 1) Put them in the Core Gfx folder and 2) point to any subdirectory I may have used when placing the image in in the core Gfx folder (be it the existing backgrounds folder, or the folder I dropped in myself).  I could have put them top level .gfx, but I don't like intermingling modfiles with core files, hence the separate folder option.

I wouldn't be surprised if this is why the cutscenes.xml files specifically call out the directory routing for images.

Reply #54 Top

Quoting tjashen, reply 53
So yeah, I'm about 8 steps ahead of you on this one.

And yet, the proposed solutions (Diplomacy & Shop) work perfectly fine from the \mods\ folder (.png + .xml) whereas, according to you, your 8-steps-ahead-of-me code doesn't. You have such a pugnacious demeanor toward posters trying to figure out a solution with you. Out.

Reply #55 Top

Quoting Primal_Savage, reply 54

Quoting tjashen, reply 53So yeah, I'm about 8 steps ahead of you on this one.

And yet, the proposed solutions (Diplomacy & Shop) work perfectly fine from the \mods\ folder (.png + .xml) whereas, according to you, your 8-steps-ahead-of-me code doesn't. You have such a pugnacious demeanor toward posters trying to figure out a solution with you. Out.

Gentlemen. Gentlemen.

Please. You both are easily within the top 10 modders for this community. It would be a shame for it to come to blows. (especially since I can't mod worth a.....)

:)

 

Reply #56 Top

Quoting Primal_Savage, reply 52

Your new shopkeeper unit (Or the default shopkeeper unit if not defined) is probably using the DefaultUnitCutscenePack which refers to Shop_LowLevel_01.png

I'm not sure if you need to define the CutSceneDataPack for both the Shopkeeper and the Sovereign, but the Shopkeeper is definitely needed. Think of it as a trade screen.

 

Code: xml
<UnitType InternalName="Shopkeeper_Arisen">
<!--Truncated xml-->
<CutSceneDataPack>ArisenCutscenePack</CutSceneDataPack>
</UnitType>
 
<CutSceneDataPack InternalName="ArisenCutscenePack">
<!--Truncated xml-->
<CutSceneDataSubPack>
<Type>ItemShop_K_LowLevel</Type>
<CutSceneName>ArisenShop</CutSceneName>
</CutSceneDataSubPack>
</CutSceneDataPack>
 
<Cutscene InternalName="ArisenShop">
<!--Truncated xml-->
<CutSceneObject InternalName="Background">
<Type>Background</Type>
<Image>ThisFileIsInTheModsGfxFolder.png</Image>
</CutSceneObject>
</Cutscene>

The underlined sentance was the thing I had issue with.  You said my faction was using the Default Unit Cutscene Pack, when indeed it was not, which was clear simply by looking at the screenshot I posted along with the code.  Your info is of course valuable to other modders whom may have not messed with cutscenes before, for others that may be doing research after the fact.

Not arguing that you've gotten the code to work in your install, and note that I did say that others were welcome to try, but that in my own experience it didn't work.  BTW, I did Tombshop.png (with no filepath called out) where you had thisfileisinthemodsgfxfolder.png right off several days ago, in the relevant cutscene pack and cutscenes code, no dice in my case. Note that I have all mod related images in a Gfx Subfolder (in this case the RevenantGfx folder), to keep things tidy.

When I get around to NOT recoding everything to see where it all went wrong, I'll try again, but since this mod is (at this point) a ways off from being released, thanks to the lockout of the savegame issue, and since I'm doing a step by step approach this time around (load one trait, load game, see if it works, save game, check to see if savegame works, wash rinse repeat), well I'm just sharing the results of my efforts as I go along.  It's a diary of sorts I guess.

Which of course is why this is a WIP thread and not a Mod thread yet.

Also, I like locating my more extensive mods in appropriately named subfolders when possible, so that people are entirely clear which files are related to the mod and which are not (so they can delete them easily at a later date, instead of having to guess which file goes to which mod).  In this case, at this point I've generated a LOT of Gfx image files and such for this mod, so just dumping everything into the top level Gfx folder (even the Mods one) would be messy IMHO.  The community has something like 80+ mods at this point, so those image counts can add up fast...

You yourself have also noted that the game seems to have upper limits on certain things (resource count being one of them), so anything the Modding community can do to identify which files go with their mods, is a good thing IMHO.  Helps with troubleshooting down the road when people have multiple mods installed.

I always appreciate suggestions and such, just understand that if it didn't work in my case, I AM going to state that it didn't.  I know you are very comfortable in the LH .xml at this point, Primal, but not everyone else is, something to keep in mind when trying to help.  And even I am guilty of not reading the 'Fine Print' when looking over posts, so I think that this was a simple case of misunderstanding.  Peace out.

Reply #57 Top

Also @ Primal,

Apologies for coming across as pissy earlier today.  I'm a details guy, so sometimes I forget that I'm dealing with humans with feelings.  Rereading my post after the fact, yeah I can see where one would get the impression that I was being pissy...

Apologies

tjashen

 

Reply #58 Top

I tend to write rather short answers, so most of the time I end up omitting stuff on purpose. It's sort of an adaptation to the average Internet user attention span. It's fairly obvious you don't fit in the category I just defined, but that's just me explaining why my posts are, generally, short. They are not meant to be offensive, but I can certainly see where you are coming from (Underlined sentence). I did see the background and the Arisen_ItemShop xml, but I couldn't really tell if you were loading that code from the Shopkeeper CutScenedataPack or not. In any case, I figured the shortest answer to your post would simply be to post what worked for me from the Mods folder. Then you could either adopt it as is or modify it as you saw fit.

 

Concerning paths: As far as I know they are only indicative. When you write the <Image></Image> tag (and some other Gfx tags), the game automatically scans the Core Gfx folder and the Mods Gfx folder. It will use the last file in the \Mods\Gfx\ with that filename (Or in the Core Gfx if no such file is found in the Mods Gfx). Now, that does sound inaccurate based on the issues you are facing, but it testable. In fact, some Gfx paths have changed since version 1.x and some Core units/monsters still refer to old paths for some png. Yet, those .png are still being read correctly. What that means is you can actually arrange your gfx in categories/folders, such as you did with /Gfx/Revenant_Gfx/, but it doesn't matter whether you put that relative path in your xml or not (Good idea for historical/reference/troubleshooting purposes, but not mandatory).


Well that's that, don't really have anything else to add on the matter. Just another day.

Reply #59 Top

Ohh FIGHT FIGHT !

}:)

 

 

 

Oh wait, it's over already?  That's it?

Awe.