What’s stopping modders adding more custom characters ?

Discuss modding questions and implementation details.
Post Reply
Turner12
Posts: 1
Joined: Wed May 26, 2021 10:35 am

What’s stopping modders adding more custom characters ?

Post by Turner12 »

Title says it all, why can more tracks be added but not more characters? Is this an issue that could ever be fixed ? Is anyone actively working on it ? Any info would be great 👍
tp link login
sarkari job
192.168.1.128
Last edited by Turner12 on Mon Jun 07, 2021 8:37 pm, edited 1 time in total.

User avatar
Hazelnut
Posts: 3015
Joined: Sat Aug 26, 2017 2:46 pm
Contact:

Re: What’s stopping modders adding more custom characters ?

Post by Hazelnut »

Sorry the title doesn't say it all to me, I've no idea what you're saying is currently being stopped. What do you mean by custom character? Generic NPCs? Named people? Random townspeople? Quest targets? Player character classes? Text characters?

I assume by tracks you mean soundtracks but you could also be referring to tracks added by my Basic Roads mod for all I can tell.

Your question is not as clear as you seem to think it is...
See my mod code for examples of how to change various aspects of DFU: https://github.com/ajrb/dfunity-mods

User avatar
King of Worms
Posts: 4751
Joined: Mon Oct 17, 2016 11:18 pm
Location: Scourg Barrow (CZ)
Contact:

Re: What’s stopping modders adding more custom characters ?

Post by King of Worms »

Well, having a option to introduce new mobs would be a great start. There has been talk about it for years, but no progress. So, is that even possible?

Lokkrin Zhataros
Posts: 256
Joined: Thu Nov 21, 2019 9:27 pm

Re: What’s stopping modders adding more custom characters ?

Post by Lokkrin Zhataros »

I’ve asked that question before several times about what are the current possibilities through modding tools to add new skills, races, mobs, NPCs, items, etc. etc. Asked about a year ago said they were working on it (which is perfectly understandable), asked once more recently in detail but got no answer. Wondering why? It’d be nice to know the status of this part of the DFU project.

User avatar
Jay_H
Posts: 4061
Joined: Tue Aug 25, 2015 1:54 am
Contact:

Re: What’s stopping modders adding more custom characters ?

Post by Jay_H »

Lokkrin Zhataros wrote: Wed May 26, 2021 8:43 pm I’ve asked that question before several times about what are the current possibilities through modding tools to add new skills, races, mobs, NPCs, items, etc. etc. Asked about a year ago said they were working on it (which is perfectly understandable), asked once more recently in detail but got no answer. Wondering why? It’d be nice to know the status of this part of the DFU project.
With the scant knowledge I have from working on Unleveled Monsters, I can say Daggerfall's enemy generation is very rigid. Even if you create a new monster, it won't appear anywhere in the world unless you alter the spawning tables to create them. Even then, that makes multiple monster mods incompatible one with another.

That's what I do know. What I don't know is whether things can be added or changed yet.

l3lessed
Posts: 1399
Joined: Mon Aug 12, 2019 4:32 pm
Contact:

Re: What’s stopping modders adding more custom characters ?

Post by l3lessed »

You can bypass the table completely and create a custom spawner that spawns custom mobs next to or in place of current mobs.

This would be much harder, as it would have to be done through unity scripting and using the streaming world. But, you could create a custom enemy npc using the proper daggerfall unity npc objects provided in DFU, save the custom NPC class object, then when a player enters a location, like a dungeon, grab all the enemy npcs, then loop through them and have a spawn chance trigger that your custom npc will appear next to them, or remove/disable the original and place the new one there.

There is a few ways you could go about getting this done, it just much more unity script centered and requires injecting the assets at run time, after you set them up in your mod during the start routine. The spawn table is only called during NPC creation/cell creation, and this can be intercepted within the streaming world class; when a new npc is spawned it appears as a new object in the streaming world class object. You can even see this in the editor as dead npcs disappear and new npcs show up under the streaming world object in the editor hierarchy.

What is stopping you isn't the tools themselves, its that you can't do it through the default daggerfall unity method provided, and would have to come up with a unity script based solution that injects at run time. As usual, I'm almost sure its possible, just lack of time and a dedicated, knowledgeable developer.

I was thinking of scripting tools needed for modders, both advanced and new, and having a spawner for current enemies in the streaming would would be helpful to people, yes? It would add a spawn script class to the enemy npcs you could call and use to spawn any gameobject/NPC where the enemy is?
My Daggerfall Mod Github: l3lessed DFU Mod Github

My Beth Mods: l3lessed Nexus Page

Daggerfall Unity mods: Combat Overhaul Mod

Enjoy the free work I'm doing? Consider lending your support.

User avatar
Hazelnut
Posts: 3015
Joined: Sat Aug 26, 2017 2:46 pm
Contact:

Re: What’s stopping modders adding more custom characters ?

Post by Hazelnut »

Lokkrin Zhataros wrote: Wed May 26, 2021 8:43 pm I’ve asked that question before several times about what are the current possibilities through modding tools to add new skills, races, mobs, NPCs, items, etc. etc. Asked about a year ago said they were working on it (which is perfectly understandable), asked once more recently in detail but got no answer. Wondering why? It’d be nice to know the status of this part of the DFU project.
Who is they? :)

I've enabled new items to be added, and shown many ways to implement different types all fully integrated into the games systems. I've also demonstrated new NPCs in my mods as well... it's hard to add a guild without NPCs and new services.

At one point I did give mobs a bit of thought but as yet no fixed plans on how to enable adding them. There're no straightforward ways I could see. As Blessed says it's easy enough to add mobs into the game through code, but to have new mobs fully integrated into Daggerfall game systems (spawning, loot, quests etc) is a much tougher challenge.

The other things are not things I've ever had the intent to work on myself.
See my mod code for examples of how to change various aspects of DFU: https://github.com/ajrb/dfunity-mods

Post Reply