2013-06-09, 05:16 PM
Is there a Stand Up / Sit Down event? Or are you just showing / hiding NPCs? If so, they may fade in and out.
Anyway, I only write to ask that you use the animation IDs for the purposes that they are intended for. Could you not as easily make two different NPCs? I know that can mean more MBs for your project. But that's par for the course for SOM.
I think the right way to approach this with an extension would be to have a separate MDL file for the alternative mood. But use the same MDO file (where the MDL would not include triangle data)
We could designate Angry IDs or whatever, but I think personality is probably better left to being a property of the NPC itself, since there could be no limit to the moods NPCs can take on, and certain kinds of NPCs would be more indicative of different kinds of moods (edited: other things such as sleeping / working seem like something that would warrant original IDs, since they would be like an extension of standing and sitting)
What would be more interesting if you ask me is figuring out how to merge NPCs and "enemies" into one format. That way you could do battle with a dark knight after interacting normally with him, or make friends with a monster. That doesn't mean they have to use the same PRT files, but it would be nice if you could transition between different representations seamlessly somehow. Since like you say, one PRT might be Angry, or Hostile, if they are ready to fight with you.
Anyway, the main thing that stands in the way of that is the disparity between the NPC and monster animation IDs. It's unfortunate that they overlap. There's no reason that they had too. That kind of gives me an idea. I reckon the way to make SOM play with alternative IDs would just be to find where the IDs are hardcoded into the game program. It might even be possible to trick SOM into treating an NPC like a monster and vice versa so you could trigger the change back and forth with an event.
Anyway, I only write to ask that you use the animation IDs for the purposes that they are intended for. Could you not as easily make two different NPCs? I know that can mean more MBs for your project. But that's par for the course for SOM.
I think the right way to approach this with an extension would be to have a separate MDL file for the alternative mood. But use the same MDO file (where the MDL would not include triangle data)
We could designate Angry IDs or whatever, but I think personality is probably better left to being a property of the NPC itself, since there could be no limit to the moods NPCs can take on, and certain kinds of NPCs would be more indicative of different kinds of moods (edited: other things such as sleeping / working seem like something that would warrant original IDs, since they would be like an extension of standing and sitting)
What would be more interesting if you ask me is figuring out how to merge NPCs and "enemies" into one format. That way you could do battle with a dark knight after interacting normally with him, or make friends with a monster. That doesn't mean they have to use the same PRT files, but it would be nice if you could transition between different representations seamlessly somehow. Since like you say, one PRT might be Angry, or Hostile, if they are ready to fight with you.
Anyway, the main thing that stands in the way of that is the disparity between the NPC and monster animation IDs. It's unfortunate that they overlap. There's no reason that they had too. That kind of gives me an idea. I reckon the way to make SOM play with alternative IDs would just be to find where the IDs are hardcoded into the game program. It might even be possible to trick SOM into treating an NPC like a monster and vice versa so you could trigger the change back and forth with an event.