How to restore a dead NPC in Fallout 2?

[smoothVTer]

In FO2, somehow during the Metzger fight, Karl died. Consequently, I cannot finish the Modoc quest and tell Karl to go home.

When I use the latest Fallout 2 Savegame editor, I notice that when Karl is present at Mom's during one of my past good saves, there appears to be an entry under Maps Tab --> DENBUS2.SAV --> Local Variables --> mcKarl.int[critters]

In my current latest save, where Karl is completely missing and gone without a trace, I notice that mcKarl.int[critters] is also missing from the Local Variables list. I'm concluding here that when an NPC dies, their entry is removed from the .int in the Local Variables lists and they become not interactable or visible any more.

Is there any way to restore Karl to be alive/present/visible again at Mom's diner? If this involves mcKarl.int at the above location, what general steps are required to ressurrect Karl back in The Den?

Thanks for any advice, everyone!

 

[Lexx]

Without some 1337 haxoring or ugly savegame editing (which most likely will break other things), you won't get him back. The only other way is to reload an earlier savegame.

 

[smoothVTer]

Without some 1337 haxoring or ugly savegame editing (which most likely will break other things), you won't get him back. The only other way is to reload an earlier savegame.

I am perfectly willing to go around and start hacking, decompiling, unpacking, re-compiling, etc. Just need someone to outline the steps involved in a general sense, and I'll have a go at it.

I'm running the US version, kilap's patch, and the high-res patch if that matters.

 

[Per]

You can try getting a denbus2.sav from an old save (or if you don't have one, get denbus2.map from master.dat and rename it), load your game, go to the Den on the world map, swap out the map file in data/maps before entering, talk to Karl, leave, then swap back the original file.

 

[smoothVTer]

You can try getting a denbus2.sav from an old save (or if you don't have one, get denbus2.map from master.dat and rename it), load your game, go to the Den on the world map, swap out the map file in data/maps before entering, talk to Karl, leave, then swap back the original file.

Per,

Tried your suggestion, thought it would work, had no doubt. I created a sandbox environment, then copied over an old DENBUS1.SAV & DENBUS2.SAV ( where Karl is scared of ghosts, muttering to himself...) to current save slot.

Upon arrival back in the Den, things look to be restored back to original state; Metzger's gang is all there. Mom talks as if she hasn't met me before. However, Karl is still missing from Mom's.

I saved this sandbox experiment game and went back to the savegame editor, oped it up. Seems that mcKarl.int[critter] disappeared! Simply from me stepping onto the newly copied Den map.

Checked all the GVARS I could: KARL_PIP=0, KARL_SEED=8, KARL_STATE=0 .... GVAR_DEN_FLAG_1=-1205698559 GVAR_DEN_FLAG_2=-918503424 GVAR_DEN_FLAG_3=41955

None of these flags differs from before I enter the Den to after I enter the Den in my new sandbox environment. So there's got to be some other hidden flag causing Karl to disappear. At least, that's what my limited experience browsing these forums is telling me.

Anyways, thanks for your help thus far. I'm a bit obsessive, and I can't use my linux programming experience on this platform.