I'm just a sad starter

[berelinde]

If you mean that you don't know how to harvest a bmp image from the internet, the answer is "You don't."

 

You save the picture in whatever format it comes in, usually jpg or gif. You're really lucky if it's a png, but don't count on that, because that format takes more than 10 times as much space as a jpg.

 

You save it to your computer in its original format, say jpg.

 

Then, you open it using photoediting software, blow it up to as big as possible, make your changes, and change your format when you save it. I use Fireworks by Macromedia for most of my photoediting and use Corel PhotoHouse if I need to flip it or if I want to do anything like grab a point on the photograph and pull it (I did that on my avatar to make the nose about 10% bigger). In Fireworks, saving to a different format requires me to change my export options and export the photo, but it has many different choices.

 

Short answer: you download in whatever format it comes in, and save it in whatever format you want.

[Bardess]

But how will you know what's wrong with my portrait if I post it in jpg format? It might, I don't know, lose its bmp settings. But I can do it, never mind.

[Bardess]

Here's what I got in my tp2 file, below the line for copying the cre file.

 

COPY ~AssassiMod/Z#fiarsM.bmp~ ~override/Z#fiarL.bmp~

COPY ~AssassiMod/Z#fiarsS.bmp~ ~override/Z#fiarS.bmp~

 

-- the one that works

 

-- and the one that doesn't

[Miloch]

Here's what I got in my tp2 file, below the line for copying the cre file.

 

COPY ~AssassiMod/Z#fiarsM.bmp~ ~override/Z#fiarL.bmp~

COPY ~AssassiMod/Z#fiarsS.bmp~ ~override/Z#fiarS.bmp~

Hmm. You might want to copy the portraits before you copy your CRE. Otherwise the CRE is looking for something that doesn't yet exist. If that doesn't work, you could also try adding this line:

WRITE_ASCII 0x34 ~z#fiars~ //Small portrait

Also, like Rabain suggests, you should make sure the small portrait is 8-bit, or 256 colours. It will 'work' in full colour but there will be palette issues so I wouldn't recommend it.

[Rabain]

You have storage space online somewhere? Or use photobucket.

 

Once you've uploaded the image put a link to it in your post!

 

Or email it to rabain [at] blackwyrmlair.net and I'll take a look at it.

[berelinde]

I've downloaded your images and formatted them to something that I know works. I've moved them to my own host site so you can download them.

 

When you download them, you can do "Save target as" and rename them. I would suggest renaming them Z#Fiars1M.bmp and Z#Fiars1S.bmp.

 

After the images, I'll give you the code for getting them into the game.

 

Z#Fiars1M.bmp

 

Z#Fiars1S.bmp

 

Naturally, you're going to want to choose your own soundset, but this will give you the framework.

For your tp2:

/* Portrait Assignment */
MKDIR ~portraits~
COPY ~AssassiMod/Z#Fiars1M.bmp~ ~override/ZFiarsL.bmp~
COPY ~AssassiMod/Z#Fiars1S.bmp~ ~override/ZFiarsS.bmp~

//Creature copying and naming
COPY ~AssassiMod/Z#Fiars.cre~ ~override~
SAY NAME1 ~Fiars~
SAY NAME2 ~Fiars~
WRITE_ASCII 0x248 ~Z#Fiars~ #8 // override
WRITE_ASCII 0x2cc ~Z#Fiars~ #8 // dialogue
WRITE_ASCII 0x34 ~ZFiarsS~ #8 // small portrait
WRITE_ASCII 0x3c ~ZFiarsM~ #8 //large portrait ==still looking it up
SAY INITIAL_MEETING ~Hello~
SAY MORALE ~I'm outa here!~
SAY HAPPY ~Nice and evil, just the way I like it.~
SAY UNHAPPY_ANNOYED ~What is this? A ladies' tea?~
SAY UNHAPPY_SERIOUS ~You pansies make me sick.~
SAY UNHAPPY_BREAKING ~Ladies, adieu. I can stand the stink of sefl-righteousness no longer.~
SAY LEADER ~Now you shall know what is meant by evil genius!~
SAY TIRED ~Hey, slavedriver! How about a breather?~
SAY BORED ~I'm bored.~
SAY BATTLE_CRY1 ~Ready or not...~
SAY BATTLE_CRY2 ~Make peace with your god!~
SAY BATTLE_CRY3 ~Time to die!~
SAY BATTLE_CRY4 ~You'll never know what hit you.~
SAY DAMAGE ~Ow!~
SAY DYING ~Heh. Never expected it to be me in this position.~
SAY HURT ~Everything is going dark...~
SAY AREA_FOREST ~What do you want me to kill out here? A squirrel?~ 
SAY AREA_CITY ~I love the city! So many easy marks!~
SAY AREA_DUNGEON ~Well if this isn't wasting my talents, I don't know what is.~
SAY AREA_DAY ~Too much light, not enough shadow.~
SAY AREA_NIGHT ~Darkness is a welcome friend.~
SAY SELECT_COMMON1 ~What?~
SAY SELECT_COMMON2 ~Yes?~
SAY SELECT_COMMON3 ~Hmm?~
SAY SELECT_COMMON4 ~This had better be good.~
SAY SELECT_COMMON5 ~Can it wait?~
SAY SELECT_COMMON6 ~Leave me alone. I'm busy.~
SAY SELECT_ACTION1 ~Whatever.~
SAY SELECT_ACTION2 ~Yes.~
SAY SELECT_ACTION3 ~Hmf.~
SAY SELECT_ACTION4 ~You bothered me for that?~
SAY SELECT_ACTION5 ~If I must.~
SAY SELECT_ACTION6 ~*sigh*~
SAY SELECT_ACTION7 ~Yeah, yeah.~
SAY SELECT_RARE1 ~I'd rather slit your throat.~
SAY SELECT_RARE2 ~Is this really necessary?~
SAY CRITICAL_HIT ~Yeah!~
SAY CRITICAL_MISS ~Hrmf!~
SAY TARGET_IMMUNE ~Got a better idea, genius?~
SAY INVENTORY_FULL ~Carry it yourself.~
SAY PICKED_POCKET ~It's mine, now!~
SAY HIDDEN_IN_SHADOWS ~You can't see me.~
SAY SPELL_DISRUPTED ~Well, that's one spell wasted.~
SAY SET_A_TRAP ~Let's see you outrun that one!~
SAY BIO ~Fiars's story would go here.~

 

Tell me if that works.

[Bardess]

Yay! Berelinde's formatted portrait does work. Even if some of my earlier small portrait versions were in the right format, I must have made a typing error somewhere. I tend to make two mistakes at a time. Then again, Bioware portraits with changed names did work as well. Let me blame it on Photoshop then

 

Thank you!

 

It seems my actual problem's been solved.

 

I have another one, of course, but I wanted to take another look at some tutorials before I cry for help here. (it's about the dialogs the NPC should start - well, he doesn't and I'm trying to get to the root of it).

 

SAY AREA_FOREST ~What do you want me to kill out here? A squirrel?~

 

Hey, there was supposed to be a banter about being turned into a squirrel with Edwin!

[Bardess]

After fixing a lot of things, I've:

-made PC-init talks possible

-made a lovetalk actually fire

-made a couple of interjections

What I'm still unsuccessful at is appending another NPC's dialogue. I want the girl in the Bridge district ("MY MOTHER SAYS BLAH BLAH...") to make a note about Fiars as well. I've been following a certain guide, but her and Fiars's lines I've added don't really appear in the game, they can only be seen in IE. I wonder where the problem is now.

 

Also, the interjections I've made are about what the liutenant tells you upon entering the district, and I've made sure that they work. In the same manner, I tried to add interjections to the dialogue three peasants are having about the slaughtered Shadow Thieves, but it reports me on errors when installing the mod.

 

?

[Meira]

What I'm still unsuccessful at is appending another NPC's dialogue. I want the girl in the Bridge district ("MY MOTHER SAYS BLAH BLAH...") to make a note about Fiars as well. I've been following a certain guide, but her and Fiars's lines I've added don't really appear in the game, they can only be seen in IE. I wonder where the problem is now.

 

I've done it like this:

 

CHAIN
IF WEIGHT #-1 ~InParty("M#Amber")
See("M#Amber")
!StateCheck("M#Amber",STATE_SLEEPING)
RandomNum(2,1)
Global("M#burch2Amber","LOCALS",0)~ THEN BURCH2 burch2Amber
~MY MOTHER SAYS THAT ALL DEVIANTS SHOULD BE SENT TO SPELLHOLD!~
DO ~SetGlobal("M#burch2Amber","LOCALS",1)~
== M#AMBERJ
~Well, I'll see you there, then.~
EXIT

 

The RandomNum() above means that this interaction doesn't necessarily happen right away, which is inline with the original system how the minor citizens of Amn may interact with the NPCs in your party.

[Bardess]

Thank you, Meira, that indeed worked. Poor Fiars... *snicker*

 

My questions will never cease... Is there a way to render a creature invisible? I want Fiars to start the first dialogue while hidden, and I've got a new cre file for that purpose. Only that I'm using a cat for the animation! It works, only that when it talks to me, the lines I choose are marked as "Man-in-Hiding" as well. Why could that be? And how to get rid of the cat (and possibly the blue circle around it that shows for a second when it talks to me)? Note that this is happening in the Docks district and that it would make no sense making the dialogue trigger upon entering the area.

[Bardess]

Umm, so, you really don't know how to make an invisible creature?

 

Another modding question, if I may? Though I think it might be a bit too late to pose it now. Do my dialogue files *have* to be seven letters long or less? Something wrong with a banter file being named Z#FiarsB?

[Meira]

Umm, so, you really don't know how to make an invisible creature?

 

I don't off-hand remember how to make the invisible creature you need here. Creatures like that (invisible, no circle visible) are used for various tasks in the original game. Actually, I believe the circle is black, but that's almost the same. One instance that I remember is a ToB area, in the Watchers keep I believe, where you have to light some fires to open giant doors. (Vague, huh? )

 

I'm sure someone here remembers how they're done, though.

 

Another modding question, if I may? Though I think it might be a bit too late to pose it now. Do my dialogue files *have* to be seven letters long or less? Something wrong with a banter file being named Z#FiarsB?

The dialogue file names must be eight letters or less long. Your banter file should be BZ#Fiars.

[Kulyok]

You might want to check out this thread

 

http://forums.blackwyrmlair.net/index.php?showtopic=113

 

and choose a different prefix for yourself, not "Z#" - it has already been registered for someone else.

[Bardess]

Thanx. I'll try to register Z_ then. I want it to be a Z !

[Bardess]

Hey, would there be a way to delete a certain beggar from an area, but one whose CRE file appears multiple times? (and I would like only one of them removed)