Creating a custom character by duplicating another.

[TheVision]

My friends...

Outsider:
I no longer need that list I asked for.

Maegawa:
I would like to start by saying thank you, your help with this has been invaluable.  I think I understand it now...  I have been, as you can see, messing around with the effect's and bolton's and have come to an understanding that a model has slots for items.  These slots seem generic to the game and not the models ergo there is a limited number of slots that allow a limited number of bolton's for each character.

Now I did browse through herostat.cgf intensely looking for the other fx0*'s you mentioned, but found only 1 other and it was for green goblin's pumpkins.

I would put to you that these fx0*'s are actually custom bolt points/slots.  Specified by what, I don't know yet?!  But that sure would make sense, no?


I would also just like to point something out...

      StatEffect {
      bolt = Bip01 L Hand ;
      effect = char/humant/special_burning ;
      fxlevel = 2 ;
      menuonly = true ;
      zoneonly = false ;
      }

      StatEffect {
      bolt = Bip01 L Hand ;
      effect = char/humant/special_burning ;
      fxlevel = 2 ;
      menuonly = false ;
      zoneonly = true ;
      }

Is the same as:

      StatEffect {
      bolt = Bip01 L Hand ;
      effect = char/humant/special_burning ;
      fxlevel = 2 ;
      }

Got a few more Q's after this post if you fancy a look.

[TheVision]

Next Q:  Bolton's...

Whilst trawling through herostat.cfg, testing out bolton's I came across two I liked:

Venom's Tongue

      BoltOn {
      anim = venom_tongueanim ;
      bolt = Bip01 Head ;
      model = venom_tongue ;
      slot = ebolton_cape ;
      }

Nightcrawler's tail

      BoltOn {
      anim = 47_nightcrawlerDlc_tail ;
      bolt = Bip01 Pelvis ;
      model = 4710 ;
      slot = ebolton_tail ;
      }

I want, but can't seem to get these two anim's working together?  The secondary bolt, which ever way round they are, overrides the primary bolt ergo only the secondary is animated!

I don't quite understand why if each bolt has a unique bolt point and slot, the two conflict... What am I missing?

[Maegawa]

First of all, I'd like to congratulate you Mr. Vision, your willpower for making your Nuke mod work and doing it in such small time, I really look forward to your work!

And that skin you made, pretty badass with that red tail and claws, if you could post a screenshot of his back tattoo and the fiery parts too, that would totally rock!

Congratulations and keep up your crazy (but awesome) ideas!

[Maegawa]

Sorry for not answering your questions in my previous reply, I was so impressed with Nuke that the questions passed unnoticed for me.

So here we go:

Effects
This:

StatEffect {
      bolt = Bip01 L Hand ;
      effect = char/humant/special_burning ;
      fxlevel = 2 ;
      menuonly = true ;
      zoneonly = false ;
      }

      StatEffect {
      bolt = Bip01 L Hand ;
      effect = char/humant/special_burning ;
      fxlevel = 2 ;
      menuonly = false ;
      zoneonly = true ;
      }

Is the same as this:

StatEffect {
      bolt = Bip01 L Hand ;
      effect = char/humant/special_burning ;
      fxlevel = 2 ;
      }

However, if you look at the red lines:

StatEffect {
      bolt = Bip01 Head ;
      effect = char/humant/special_burning ;
      fxlevel = 1 ;
      menuonly = false ;
      zoneonly = true ;
      }

      StatEffect {
      bolt = Bip01 Head ;
      effect = char/humant/special_burning ;
      fxlevel = 3 ;
      menuonly = true ;
      zoneonly = false ;
      }

Though they use the same effect file, they use different fxlevels for each one. Be mindful though that fxlevel has nothing to do with the intensity of the effect, it's kinda hard to explain without confusing a litte, it goes like this: an effect file, just like a talent or powerstyle file, *sometimes* has multiple entries (try opening one with XMLBCUI to see), and the fxlevel line defines which entry will be loaded (i.e. fxlevel = 3 will load the 3rd entry of the effect file). The tricky part is that I don't see any difference between the menu flaming-head effect and the zone one even though they use different fxlevels!

Bolt Points
Every character has bolt points, otherwise they wouldn't animate! Ok, these bolt points are defined in the model when they are rigged for the game. I think this thread will be very helpful for you, both for this and your next question (which I unfortunately can't answer as I don't understand Venom's Tongue and Nightcrawler's Tail boltons very well...). The fx bolt points, only a few characters have them (Wolverine, Blade, Deadpool, Elektra etc), however, they differ from character to character: Wolverine's are where his claw trail effects bolt to, Blade's are where his gunfire effect and katana trail effect bolt to, etc. Human Torch's, however, are in the same place as his L Hand and R Hand are, so it's kind of nonsense, that's why I told you to change the fx01 and fx02 lines to L Hand and R Hand in the herostat entries.

[TheVision]

Maegawa:
Your comments put a smile on my face and give me an urge to strive on, thank you!

As per your request...


Here's the modified hulk skin:




Here's my modifications to it:




Here's the character select:








Here's the in-game character select:




Here's a few of the passive for the only outfit:






Here's a few powers:






Here's a few abilities:








Here's a few animations:






Here's a failed 1st attempt at a load screen:




Here's what it will soon look like:




Here's the texture_icons:




Here's me sayin' thank god that's done!

Ok then, first of all...  Sorry for the oversized pic's.

Next...  I have been experimenting with the fxlevel property in order to ascertain it's function and came to a decision to have both effects set to 2 on this basis:

On cycling through the various fxlevel values, there is a slight but noticeable difference in the positioning, size and speed of the flame effect upon the model.  Whereas one would engulf the head (fxlevel = 2), another would rest atop the head (fxlevel = 3).  This gives credit to what you said about different effects...

Next, I'm going to give a little explanation for a few of the images:

• Character select:  I've not transferred the latest skin over yet, TBA.
• Powers:  Have icons from other characters stored in nuke_icons, not referenced out to other character icon files!
• Abilities:
  
  
  
  • Fire Immunity:  Was a straight rip from Human Torch
  • Impervious: Now this was a neat trick for a greenhorn!  I took the affecter properties from Luke Cage's Rebound power and modified a duplicate of the Fire Immunity ability to run with the new affecters, and as the gif above shows... Projectiles bounce right off as they would if they hit a Hulk!
• Animations:  Thought I'd show you the trail effects of the hand flames...  Head doesn't trail!
• Load Screen:  Failed inexplicably???  see the next post...

P.S. Thanks for the vote of confidence but I fear I've but scratched the surface, as now I have to look into properly transferring powertsyles, fightstyles, entities, talents and then there's always the package files...  So god damn much to learn!

[Maegawa]

Wow, I'm really impressed with Nuke, the changes on his skin gives him a total different look (it's like a demon who escaped from Mephisto's Realm!), and those glowing red hands and fire everywhere effects are just killer, imagine how cool it is to play as him in the Mephisto level...

You said you've only scratched the surface, don't worry, that's pretty normal, my friend, every big thing starts with a small idea, take my Flash mod for instance, his creation was similar to your Nuke mod, I duplicated Quicksilver and started to change his skins, huds, icons etc, then edit powerstyle and talent related stuff, ya know, the kind of process your doing with Nuke.

About your loading screen issue, I think this topic will help a lot (though the images are no longer avaiable, it's very easy to understand it).

The head trail doesn't appear because there's no trigger to define it in the powerstyle, if you open that power's entry in the powerstyle, you'll notice there are two triggers that bolt the trail effects, one bolts the trail effect to the right hand and the other bolts it to the left hand, to add it to his is head is very simple, you simply copy either of the two triggers and change the Bip01 L Hand or Bip01 R Hand to Bip01 Head.

Now a suggestion of mine, try removing the shoulder fire effects and adding the following entry in their place, it's the flame-on effect that I ripped from Human Torch's powerstyle:

      StatEffect {
      bolt = Bip01 Spine1 ;
      effect = char/humant/special_flameon ;
      fxlevel = 1 ;
      }

I think it will look great, but don't feel forced to do it, as it's just a suggestion

There's ton of info about power transferring and understanding of powerstyle and talents at the knowledge base, they'll help you a lot!

If you need any help with his powers or effects, feel free to contact me, either here of through PM, as I have some great ideas for him!

[Outsider]

I haven't responded since due to my being very busy, but it looks like you're getting a good handle on things with this "Nuke" character.

That loading screen (LS) uses the same pic as my Red Hulk LS, only mine has fire in the background. Anyway, I'll try to give a quick rundown for the loading screen issue, as I've made hundreds of them that you can see at my Creation Station. (See my signature below for the link to it.)


1. Make sure you have the SkinnerUI program and a photoshop editor (I use GIMP), as you'll need it to create LS, HUDs, and icons. I assume you have it already, having made those icons.

2. Take any image you want of a certain character -- preferably a desktop/wallpaper large image. Crop it or scale it to 1820 x 1024. (This is how it will look in the game.) Now flip it vertically, so it's upside-down. Next, stretch the width to 2048 without changing the height. It should now be 2048 x 1024. (Don't worry that it's stretched and upside-down, it will align when you're playing the game.)

3. Open up SkinnerUI (it should have the offsets for "char_load_01.igb" already), and locate "Open IGB" at the top. Copy "char_load_01.igb" from your game's "textures/loading" folder, and paste that wherever you have the SkinnerUI program. This will be your go-to file for all future loading screens.

4. In Skinner UI, hit "Open IGB" and find that file you've just pasted. It should open up. (If it doesn't, the offsets are below in bold text.) Then, when you see the picture, hit "Export" and name it whatever. Wait for it to appear. Don't exit out of Skinner yet -- keep it open.

char_load_01.igb,-DXT1,2048,1024,356265,1024,512,94121,512,256,28585,256,128,12201,128,64,8105.

5. Now, on your photoshop program, take the bmp file that just appeared. Take the 2048 x 1024 image you saved earlier, and place it on top of the original image. They should be the same size. Check all corners and make sure it's aligned correctly so you don't see the original image. Save.

6. Back to SkinnerUI, hit "Import," and find the bmp image you've just saved. In a little bit, you'll see that the original image on the screen has been replaced with the new image. Hit "Accept."

7. The "char_load_01.igb" has now been overwritten, now having your image. A .bmk file (or something like that) will be there as well -- delete that. You can also delete the bmp file, as you no longer need it. Copy and paste "char_load_01.igb", and name it something else. And BAM! The loading screen is done.


If for some reason you still any trouble, post it here as you've been doing. I can't promise I'll respond right away, but Maegawa's made some LS's as well, so he should be able to help you as he's been doing.

[TheVision]

Maegawa:

You say contact you, but I ain't a clue how! I just post 'n you reply...  Thanks for the link, though these two guys were the ones I was talking about that were contradicting each other.  It made it very confusing, but Outsider has just shown me the door and I've walked through it!

You seem very enthusiastic about this mod, but you must remember I have not done this before now and in the case of Nuke I have over embellished him with adornments I like in order to grasp the extent of the games capabilities.  This has happened to such a degree that I originally had in mind to create a "Thunderbolt" Ross character and as you rightly said he now looks like Mephisto's right hand man!

That being said.  I will test out your suggestion and maybe get a pic' in Mephisto's realm!  Please continue with your suggestions and bring on these "great ideas"...  This is after all only my 1^ST mod and god knows what your count is?!  I was indifferent to the head trail, it was just a side note.  It would have been overkill to place one there I think?

I will continue down the demonic route with Nuke, it seems a shame to waste him.  Maybe, after I re-arrange his fighting style, powers etc...  I'll make him official and available?


Outsider:

Busy or not my illusive friend, with that one post you cracked it for me.  I could see that there was a 2048*1024 image in the igb.  Thing is I still don't know how to use skinnerUI properly and as I could only enter up to 1024*1024, I only entered the 1024 offset.  I knew I could edit the offsets in the file but assumed to stick to a square ratio.  This obviously screwed with my LS's...

So I got on board, acquired the 2048*1024 offsets and done what I'd done previously, which by chance is very similar to your method and here's the result...







Thanks guys!

[TheVision]

Next Q:  viewing MUA files.

Hey guys.  I have just transferred human torch's Nova Blast over to Nuke's files and the process consisted finding:

• power6:  In the powerstyle file.
• power6:  In the talent file.
• flame on & flame off events:  Also in the powerstyle file.

Now this process took a lot of searching through scatty looking files in order to find these objects, so I'm writing a few small web apps to use as GUI's for these files.  In other words you open human torch's powerstyle file in the GUI, select the fightmove 'power6' from a dropdown box and the 'power6' object is displayed as text for you to copy.

Is there anything like this already available, or do you guys want a taste when I'm done?

[Maegawa]

Well, I don't know any other way to open the MUA files without using XMLBCUI. What I do when making any modification, however, is the following, every time I open a char's talent, powerstyle or entities file, I copy everything and save it in a .txt file, that way, if I wanna take for example Black Panther's Dagger Throw power, I won't need to do all the decompile process with his powerstyle, talent and entities files respectively to get only one power entry, sure it sounds a bit lazy, but when you see the time it saves you notice how it comes in handy. And I do a few "variations" of said file, for example, (original) means that the text is the original without any modification to it, (*author name* booster) means that the text is from the file of a booster someone made, (MUA2) means the text is from MUA2 files, (XML2) means the text is from XML2 files, and when it doesn't have any ()'s it means that it has text modified by me. Here's a pic showing what I said:



I have like 173 .txt files of these, which as I said helps a lot when I need to get power info from another char's files.

[Outsider]

Well, I don't know any other way to open the MUA files without using XMLBCUI. What I do when making any modification, however, is the following, every time I open a char's talent, powerstyle or entities file, I copy everything and save it in a .txt file, that way, if I wanna take for example Black Panther's Dagger Throw power, I won't need to do all the decompile process with his powerstyle, talent and entities files respectively to get only one power entry, sure it sounds a bit lazy, but when you see the time it saves you notice how it comes in handy.

This is what I do, indeed. You unknowingly revealed one of the secrets as to how I create so many mods so fast... It's not lazy, it's smart. I especially do this because my coding is different for nearly every mod I create. It's a definite time-saver.

[TheVision]

My Friends...  I'm sorry!  I was not very specific in that last post.  Let me try again...

Your both experienced modders, so take a quick glance at this passive's code from the back end of the Black Widow talent file and see if you can spot the mistake the modder didn't...

   talent {
   descname = Increased XP Gain ;
   description = Increases the amount of XP earned ;
   icon = 22 ;
   icon_texture = textures/ui/talent_icons.png ;
   name = widow_outfit41 ;
   skin = 3 ;
   type = passive ;
      talentvalues {
         talentvalue {
         level = 1 ;
         name = widow_outfit41_pct ;
         value = 1.02 ;
         }

         talentvalue {
         level = 9 ;
         name = widow_outfit41_pct ;
         value = 1.1 ;
         }

      }

      level {
      count = 9 ;
      description = %widow_outfit41_pct:s $XP ;
         powerup {
         life = -1 ;
            affecter {
            affect_type = scale ;
            attribute = xp ;
            level = %widow_outfit41_pct ;
            }

         }

      }

   }

   talent {
   descname = Energy per Kill ;
   description = Regain $EP per kill ;
   icon = 15 ;
   icon_texture = textures/ui/talent_icons.png ;
   name = widow_outfit42 ;
   skin = 3 ;
   type = passive ;
      talentvalues {
         talentvalue {
         level = 1 ;
         name = widow_outfit42_pct ;
         value = 5 ;
         }

         talentvalue {
         level = 9 ;
         name = widow_outfit42_pct ;
         value = 25 ;
         }

      }

      level {
      count = 9 ;
      description = +%widow_outfit42_pct $EP per kill ;
         powerup {
         life = -1 ;
            affecter {
            attribute = energy_per_kill ;
            level = %widow_outfit42_pct ;
            }

         }

      }

   }

   talent {
   descname = Defense ;
   description = Increases $DR ;
   icon = 22 ;
   icon_texture = textures/ui/talent_icons.png ;
   name = widow_outfit43 ;
   skin = 3 ;
   type = passive ;
      talentvalues {
         talentvalue {
         level = 1 ;
         name = widow_outfit43_dr ;
         value = 1 ;
         }

         talentvalue {
         level = 9 ;
         name = widow_outfit43_dr ;
         value = 9 ;
         }

      }

      level {
      count = 9 ;
      description = +%widow_outfit43_dr $DR ;
         powerup {
         life = -1 ;
            affecter {
            attribute = defense_rating ;
            level = %widow_outfit43_dr ;
            }

         }

      }

   }

Did you miss it?  I did!  The first passive has the intention of increasing XP, yet it's icon is 22, the icon used as the default Defense icon!



Now with the kindest of regards to the Black Widow modder...  Personally I would consider this an easy mistake to make, though it should be picked up on in the final testing stages.  There is so much code just for these 3 passives, one wouldn't think to notice such a small error...

Unless you had one of these:



I do because I just spent the last 24H writing it!  Thing is I really don't fancy writing any more as it will turn into a massive project where you can view/edit/save/create parts of or full files, be them herostat/fightstyle/talent etc...

So back to my last question:  Is there anything like this already out there or do I have my work cut out for me?

And if there isn't...  Would you guys find a use for this kinda app?

P.S.  You are both correct in that it is both "lazy" and "smart".  I myself have such a directory filled with decompiled xml files...  My intention is not to open anything binary like engb/xmlb/pkgb, I have not the knowledge for that as of yet, but this app does deal with anything in text format, be it txt/xlm etc...

P.P.S.  It ain't finished yet!

[Maegawa]

I'm afraid that you'll find a lot of "mistakes" such as the one you found on Black Widow's passives (don't know if mistake is the correct term for it), and not only in mods, but also in the default chars' files too, I say this from experience, a while ago I was taking every passive I could find in the default chars' talents and writing in a .txt file for easy access, and I noticed that a lot of characters have different descriptions, icons and values for their respective passive, so I picked the ones that were more common and made more sense for each one.

One thing that I found a little odd, however, is the values of each passive, the ones that increase the damage of something to be precise - for example, Daredevil's Baton Damage passive, at max level, will only increase the damage by 15%, which is a little too small for me. So every passive that increases the damage of something, I changed the max level damage to 30% and the minimum level damage to 6%.

Another thing that may confuse you in the way are the Weapon Damage and Sai Damage passives, 'cause they are defined in the powerstyle file too, I think that only Deadpool and Elektra have them, I'm not sure about Blade though.

Anyway, if you want the .txt file I've mentined, here is a link to download it, be mindful though that I've increased the values of most of them by 100% (i.e. 15% to 30%) and a few names and descriptions too so that they follow the same pattern, but overall they have the same effect, only a little buffed up, and I can't assure you that the passives of every default char is there, but I can say that most of them are.

[Outsider]

With passives, it's also important to note that you can only have them for the first four skins. A mod can have up to six skins to choose from, but only the first four will have passives.

In the passives' coding, you'll see "skin = 0" This means the very 1st skin will have this passive. So naturally, "skin = 1" means the 2nd skin, and so on. There is no "skin = 4" or greater for the reason explained above.

A fun thing you can do with passives are that you can make a skin focus on certain aspects. One skin can focus on melee (Melee Damage, Critical Strike, etc.), another on power (Power Damage, Max Energy, etc), another on defense (Reflect Melee, Dodge, etc), another on health (Max Health, Health Per Kill, etc.) Or it could be completely random with no particular focus. You get the idea. You can choose which ever passives you want, and there are many. Typically, everyone has the Defense passive though.

[TheVision]

Sorry guys, have been real busy experimenting...

Would any of you guys like to elaborate a little on these topics:

Skeletons:

The skeleton files house the animations for all cases of life. These come in five flavours:
* <character number>_<character name>.IGB. These are generic skeletons. For non-playables, this includes all their animations that don't require a second participant (like grabs do, for instance). For playables, this includes only a walking animation and the various flourishes for the character selection menu.
* <character number>_<character name>_4_combat.IGB. These are the combat animations for the playables. Again, only solo actions.
* interact_<character name>_victim.IGB. This houses the character-and-victim tandem animations -- throws, grabs, special powers, etc., etc.
* fightstyle_<character name>_<description>.IGB. These are special animations that don't fit into the generic template. Like Colossus's Carryguy move, where, instead of a normal grab, he snags an enemy by his or her belt and whacks the other foes with the poor sap. Wicked. Not required for everyone.
* <character number>_<character name>_<character weapon name>.IGB. These are the animation patterns for the various weapons of the character. Not required for everyone.

Seems pretty straight forward.  Don't understand the highlighted texts.  I'm trying to create a custom mod instead of duplication.  I had no skeleton files and had to add fightstyle_default to the herostat in order to allow any basic actions...  Can I assume that fightstyle_default is a generic skeleton file that is used when no other skeletons are available?  And if so then why, when all skeletons are present and correct, does the herostat still contain a reference to it?

Package files:

Their exact purpose is to put every file you need into a "package" virtually. I think this is because the PC version don't use FB files. (I am not really sure.) So, the game must know how to find the files needed for each character.

If you decompile a few existing packages file, you will see that the format is the same among different characters. You can use one as base and modify the file names and paths, etc.

I'm about to compare a few packages to check out their formatting, but would like to know if this is the purpose of a package?

Mod creation:

Step 1: write down a powerset. While doing this, try to see if any characters have the animations. Keep in mind that you can only use 3 animationsets for a mod, NOT MORE.
Step 2: copy and rename all animation sets you want. If you decide to use only 2 anims, Use fightstyle_default. Official characters have that.

A few steps taken before creating a mod...  Ok, so I've got my powerset list!  It has 8 powers copied from 8 different characters, I know what characters have these animations because I've just ripped their powers!  So what the hell is an animationset and why only 3?  What more can I say!  Just reading this is melting my brain!!!  Is fightstyle_default a skeleton or an animation?  Are they the same thing?  Does any of this relate to the animenum poroperty of a powerstyle FightMove? AAGGHH...


Maegawa:
I have already started to create a list of passives, both custom and default.  But this is in retrospect, irrelevant, as this has only lead to a further list being generated that lists the possible affecter attributes of said passives.  Each passive talent object follows a format that can be easily copied or created, but the affecter attributes are key to the creation of a custom passive.  Your method is sound!  I can't fault it but for the fact that when creating a custom passive you have to manually reconfigure one of these templates, whereas I would rather write a little GUI to automate the process once I understand the passive talent a little better...  I will however find a use for the list you provided and thank you for it!

Outsider:
I had noticed that some mods had more than four skins, and that no skin past #4 ever showed it's passives...  I had just assumed that these were incomplete mods!  Thank you, that's two less issues to deal with.  I do use what I call "zero indexing" when writing javascript arrays and am aware of it for the icon and skin properties.

On a further note.  What you say about focusing on certain aspects in order to diversify the gameplay from skin-to-skin is most agreeable, but this gets me thinking as to how a morphing character would utilize a passive.  I mean you wouldn't want to have a passive that by chance would ignite a foe on contact when you've morphed into iceman?  One would assume to make such an ignition capability available only when that character is morphed into, as a powerup of sorts?!  Watch this space...

P.S.  A link to a morph skin/mod would be nice guys... Save me searching in vain again.

P.P.S.  Seen a mod character call "Spot" or something floating around here somewhere.  Anyone know where I can find him?  I blinked and he was gone!

Thanks guys!