custom squad troubles

[denniskaufman]

Hate to bother people with my problems, but I've tried my best and now I am out of ideas. here's my problem:

To start off, my goal was to add 14 custom recruits to the recruiting master at the first bunker. I was planning on just using the portraits of exsisting entries on my custom characters' stats (ex, use Farsights portrait on my custom character "val").

I started this whole process by unziping the entities_0.bos, Mis-Main_0.bos, spr-sprites_0.bos, and the tiles_0.bos files (as per some tutorials I read)

(for ease of understanding I’m just going to describe the process I took to create 1 of the 14 characters I did. The process is the same for all 14)

CHARACTER CREATION
I then used the editor (that comes with patch 1.27) to take the path “core/entities/recruits” to open “hf03.ent”. I pushed “create” to change all her stats and skills to my liking. Under the “name” tab on the left I kept the “display name” as “CORE_rec_hf03”.

To finish the creation of this character I saved the new entity as “val1.ent”

CHARACTERS.TXT
Secondly, I went into “Fallout Tactics\core\locale\game” and opened the “characters.txt” file to add “ name_CORE_rec_hfval1 = {Val} ” and “desc_CORE_rec_hfval1= {description}” under the “ //Pool characters” area. Then saved

CAMPAIGN.TXT
Next I went into “Fallout Tactics\core\tables” and opened the “campaign.txt” to add “{mission01;add;entities/recruits/hfval1.ent},” under the “//Initial pool” section. I also added “//Female Sniper” a few spaces away from the other stuff. Then saved.

CAMPAIGN EDITOR
I then re-opened the Editor to click on “campaign editor” there I took the path of “core/Mis-Main_0/campaigns” to open the “bos.cam” file. Through some tutorials i read they say I am supposed to click the “tools” tab to click on “import recruits” which it gives me the option to open a “.txt” file, to which I select “core/tables/campaign.txt”. Once done I push “Save”

CONCLUSION
I gained all this knowledge through reading many tutorials and COUNTLESS attempts at new games (I hate how many times I’ve had to play that first mission just to find out my custom recruits are not with the recruit master in the first bunker)

The thing is, none of this is working!!! I’m out of ideas! I’ve tried so many times and read SO many tutorials to get to this point; where I plead with you all to help me make this work. Any and all advice is welcome ... and sure, if you want to flame me, go ahead, I kind of deserve it for bothering all of you.

 

[TwoEyedYum]

Under the “name” tab on the left I kept the “display name” as “CORE_rec_hf03”.

... to add “ name_CORE_rec_hfval1 = {Val} ” and "desc_CORE_rec_hfval1= {description}”

I saved the new entity as “val1.ent”

opened the “campaign.txt” to add “{mission01;add;entities/recruits/hfval1.ent},”

Look what you did there. Didn't read further as i believe you need to fix those first.

 

[denniskaufman]

okay, my mistake

1. the saved entity is "hfval.ent" that was a slight typo. sorry.

2. if i change “name_CORE_rec_hfval1 = {Val} ” and “desc_CORE_rec_hfval1= {description}” under the “ //Pool characters”

to

“name_CORE_rec_hf03 = {Val} ” and “desc_CORE_rec_hf03= {description}” under the “ //Pool characters”
will I get my Custom character with Farsights profile picture or would i just get a second Farsight character?

also, I've still been reading up on my own, and I realized that when I type .zip over a .bos file, it converts into a .zip file (which I want). but it doesn't work the other way.

As in if i type ".bos" into a ".zip" file, it won't convert back to a .bos file

I found that really wierd

 

[TwoEyedYum]

Will answer most things later, but for now:

*.bos is *.rar archive. Nothing added.
You can easily change extension, and archive still will open.
Actually you can just open *.bos with something (i believe it's not WinZip, there are plenty of other archivators)

 

[denniskaufman]

thanks for the reply TwoEyedYum. I'm still reading up some stuff on my own, but can't wait for some more info from you

 

[TwoEyedYum]

Well, i'm lost in your way of doing things, so i will just give you my own overview of what character consists of.

Let's say, we have entity hm01.ent
If we open it in Tools, we can see its Display Name set to CORE_rec_hm01.
core\gui\char:
CORE_rec_hm01.zar
(tied to Display Name of entity).
core\locale\game\characters.txt
name_CORE_rec_hm01 = {Robin}
desc_CORE_rec_hm01 = {...description here...}
(tied to Display Name of entity)
core\tables\campaign.txt
{mission00;add;entities/recruits/hm01.ent}, //Male Stealth
(tied to entity filename)

So if you are going to create new character:
1) Open recruit entity, change its parameters and Save as new entity with different name. Filename only used in campaign.txt;
2) Change Display Name to something unique, like XYZ;
3) Copy one of existant portraits, and rename copy to XYZ.zar;
4) Add name_XYZ = {} and desc_XYZ = {} to characters.txt;
5) Add recruits filename to campaign.txt like it should be.

If you did everything right at step 5, your recruit WILL appear at RM after returning to bunker. For testing everything else just place that new entity in beginning of Brahmin Wood, set its Player number to 1 (similar to existing Farsight and Stitch). Now start new game with your custom campaign and look at new recruits right in beginning of mission.

Also don't forget to import RM list from campaign.txt in YOUR new campaign and saving it before running general test with full Brahmin Wood -> Bunker run.