PancakePirate on 18/10/2015 at 10:56
Hey =)
First of all: I know that there are hundreds of probably very good DromEd tutorials, but I have only one specific thing I want to learn and don't want to create missions on my own.
I like Thief 2 in general but I absolutely hate those mechanic beasts (the ones who are walking around). So, I thought if it is maybe possible to change those mechanic beasts in T2 story missions to human guards, but (if possible) keep their old patrol routes.
Can someone tell me if there is a way to do that? =)
Thanks in advance :)
Lisa
Dev_Anj on 18/10/2015 at 11:22
Just copy all the properties of human guards into the mechanical beast entities in the gamesys, including the model name. Give this gamesys a new name, save it in your Thief 2 folder, and assign it to all the missions in the Thief 2 folder. Save them with the same name. Both guard and robot properties are in the Object Hierarchy menu.
FireMage on 18/10/2015 at 11:29
So there are many strategy to do what you want to do.
IMHO the shortest method is this one:
Open Dromed, and press F5 to see the object hierachy window.
If F5 don't work, go Editors/object hierachy.
Then go to physical/creature/robot/CombatBot. Then press the Edit button and delete all the properties inside.
To make it faster, I recommand you to press Alt then D, then O without stoppind pressing Alt!
Normaly only Links and Act/React may resist to that key combo. To delete them, just double-clic on the sub properties in front of you to go into another window that will make you able to delete them.
Once everything is deleted in CombatBot, normaly you will just see it father "Robot" that you have no use to delete or modify. It is easy to reconize it because of it cube icon.
Now once you did that you have nigh terminated! You just have to select the CombatBot archetype and drag it to:
physical/creature/animal/human/guard/swordsman/grunts/sword guard
Now save "Gamesystem" with the name "Dark.gam". It will maybe warn you that you will crush a file. Have no shame and crush the file!
Then, when the game will read all archetype CombatBot it will see no propeties then will check it parent's properties and because the parent is a sword guard, it will load a sword guard instead of a combat bot! ;)
Of course it will be always the same guard in all missions with a sword. But it is the simpliest method to replace an entity! ;) There are surely some other that will allow you to do more detailed and complete. But the work may be harder! :)
But if you really want to replace the bot of a mission by a specific entity per mission. You can do it easily!
You just have to open the mission, edit the object hierarchy again, drag "CombatBot" to another place, another guard. Save the gamesystem with another name AND click in the Black Box in the bottom right of Dromed and type in: set_gamesyst "name of your new gamesyst"
Press Enter then save the mission.
Then the mission will have it own database that will interpret differently what a CombatBot is! :cheeky:
Above all if someday the robot miss you. Keep somewhere a copy of your original mission and the original Dark.gam!
Enjoy! :cool:
PancakePirate on 18/10/2015 at 21:51
Hey :)
Thanks a lot! =)
So, yesterday I played around and tried to get this to work.
I deleted all the CombatBot properties in dark.gam and moved the combat bot to a swordsman, but I still have a problem. When I try running a mission with combat bots with the new dark.gam, the game crashes at the start of the mission.
When I load a CombatBot mission in DromEd and go to play mode, I get an error that says "invalid joint ID". When I skip the error, I can play, but the sword guards are only standing around in T-shaped position and are not moving...
I also tried this in Thief Gold to change bugbeasts to bowmen, which worked better: The bowmen act normal, the game doesn't crash, but I can't hear any footsteps (neither garret's nor the opponent's) or the noise when you're hit etc...
Do you have any idea what I did wrong? :)
LarryG on 18/10/2015 at 22:41
The honest answer is that you are trying to do something that is way beyond your knowledge and skills with DromEd. I suggest that you play T1 and TG if you don't like the robots. The robots are integral to T2. Replacing them with human opponents is not only very very difficult, but essentially destructive to the game plot. Without them, the plot makes no sense. Similarly replacing bugbeasts with humans is a bad idea. If you don't like either T1 or T2 as is, play some other game that you do like. It is not worth the effort to do what you want with Thief.
Dev_Anj on 19/10/2015 at 00:14
It's pretty obvious that he/she doesn't care about the impact on the story, he/she just wants to get rid of those enemies. So be it.
I think you're getting those errors because you're not modifying the gamesys with a level loaded. Load any of the original levels and then modify the gamesys.
FireMage on 19/10/2015 at 07:20
Nope it won't change anything if she load a mission or not. No the problem is me. I have forgotten that some properties are directly rewritted in some entities.
Pancake: Do you have Dromed Toolkit? If yes, normaly you may see a menu with Highlight. With it there is Highlight per archetype. Do that and type CombatBot, or bug beast in tg.
Then once you did that, go in the highlight menu again and click Remove Property and type in the pop-up: Creature
Repeat this process in all missions.
About the bug beast, do you have drag 'n drop the BugBeast to a specific human archer? If you just drop it in bowman, you may have some trouble. Plus I think that you'll see your archer shooting flies instead of arrows. :erg:
@LarryG: The person is perhaps just scared of these creatures and can't finish the game because of it but want also keep the same amount of enemies just for the challenge! Some people already did that with spiders! So I don't see the problem with Bots and Bug!!
The game is a bit broken after such thing, it's true. But this is her right! It's her game not yours after all! :p
