I have been reading the Coldstone boards daily since last summer and was trying to hold out for being the 1 millionth registered member, but since I decided to attempt a plug-in, I guess it is time.

1. I want to add some NPC's to Dernath after all the Dernath quests are completed. A new NPC in another part of the kingdom sends you to see so-and-so in Dernath who moved in after everything was safe. I think, the best time to enable this is when the Long Haired Savior reports to Septembris that all the garrisons have been warned. How do I find out that that part of the quests is done? It would not seem too fitting to have most of the town crying about those terrible cyclopes and a few residents celebrating how great it is now that the evil beasts are gone!

2. How can I erase the bad creatures in new locations where there originally was wilderness? I'm not talking about new maps. I want to add buildings and people to the POG map like the herbalists and mage tower in Trinity. Using an NPC event with delete all will remove everyone in the square. I don't want to change what is roaming around on the other side of the water or the far end of a square. In one case, it may cause removal of someone needed for one of the game quests; I'm not sure. It can be rather annoying for the player character to be talking with a friendly NPC while something is chewing off his arm.

In a related note, I am trying to place stamps and NPC's by using Mr. Bledfast's POG Dev Tools and the debug keydown to take the character figure to maps and read the co-ordinates. Is there a way to do this without getting chomped the second the new guy steps foot in the tile? Also, is there something faster than having to start a new game every two minutes to see if I have an NPC walking around the correct position? I was attempting to get a man to walk back-&-forth in front of a building and he kept hiding behind trees and wandering down the road. Maybe he is shy and doesn't like talking to strangers? The Berglum captain won't talk to me either at first!

3. Is it possible to add those blue shimmering S's that mark secret paths?

Thanks in advance.

Pamela -- The Codewizard

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Hey, welcome to the boards!!! I'll see what I can do to help you. #1 is possible, but may be a bit time consuming. First head over the CS addons page and download the Trinity Source. This will tell you MANY of the different variables that are set, and when. However, I believe the one you are looking for is unavailable there, however, if you email Dee I think we will tell you. Anyway, #2. This one is a bit harder because you there is no way to delete a specific NPC. You would have to delete all AND add NPCs that have duplicate stats to those that you deleted. As to you NPCs going where they should't: You give an NPC a range when you create it. This range is a square, however, there is another way to do this. Instead, you can make the NPC move to a certain tile, then delete the NPC and replace with another NPC that moves back to the tile you started on, but otherwise looks and acts the same. They will have to have different names (but no one sees these anyway), but thats not a such a big deal. Now, the final part, #3. The blue S's are a stamp and you might be able to get them in the trinity source (I doubt it, but its possible). Otherwise, just take a screenshot and edit out the surrounding green, etc. Then just place it as a stamp. Hope this is at least semi useful (especially due to its length. Sorry about that). Once again, welcome to the ColdStone boards and good luck with your plugin!

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CI-I@()s
(url="http://"http://www.evula.org/world-of-cha0s/")The Homepage of Cha0s(/url)

(quote)Originally posted by Codewizard:
**I have been reading the Coldstone boards daily since last summer and was trying to hold out for being the 1 millionth registered member, but since I decided to attempt a plug-in, I guess it is time.:) As far as not getting chomped during the planning, I suggest having a Wonder Woman character built up with 800+ strength so that you go to that square, kill every that screeches, and then take your time plotting out the changes.

3.) The S in the circle won't shimmer if you use the screen shot method, but who will notice. That's your best method as the animation for this feature is unavailable to my knowledge.

I, too, say "Welcome" and good luck with your plug-in.

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**

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Originally posted by Rubber Ducky:
**
2.) In reply to CHa0s' answer about an NPC going to a specific tile, Yes you can do this but I don't know how you would ascertain that he had reached there before you replace him with his double who walks back the other way. The NPC cannot trigger an event, so I don't see a back and forth movement as possible. You can, however, give him a range of only one tile which keeps him from wandering too far.**

Tisk tisk RD, you forgot something... There is an event link in the NPC panel called "Target Reached". In this case, a synonym for "Problem Solved"

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CI-I@()s
(url="http://"http://www.evula.org/world-of-cha0s/")The Homepage of Cha0s(/url)

Thanks folks.

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Originally posted by CI-Ia0s:
**#3. The blue S's are a stamp and you might be able to get them in the trinity source (I doubt it, but its possible). Otherwise, just take a screenshot and edit out the surrounding green, etc. Then just place it as a stamp.
**

::slaps forehead:: Yes, that would work, wouldn't it?

I changed the range for the NPC and he is sticking closer to home now. It was pretty amusing to watch, though, when, using the Dev Tools, the player figure popped in and the NPC took one look at him and turned away into the trees, made a left, and went down the road with his back to the character. Time to head on over to the inn for a shower!

As far as the pixel count, luckily I am great at math.

Hmmm ... new ideas, new ideas.

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Another resource to take a look at is the (url="http://"http://stark.evula.net/plugin_faq.htm")Creating a plug-in for Pillars of Garendall: 101 FAQ(/url). It isn't done, it's being revised and compiled, but has quite a bit of information on it that might aid you in doing things you want to do.

Refer to it and ask questions if/when you have them.

Oh, and if you don't see something on there please let us know. I want it thorough.

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Originally posted by Codewizard:
2. How can I erase the bad creatures in new locations where there originally was wilderness?

If you know the exact code name for the NPC(ie, sp_dude_in_cellar) then you can create an NPC of your own with the same name and use the NPC_Control to delete it from the area. Be sure that after you create the event to delete the NPC that you then delete completely your new NPC(else your NPC will replace the NPC of the game which you don't want to do).

So pretty much what you will be doing is making an NPC so that you can delete it from the map with an event(if the NPC doesn't exist in your NPC folder then you can't delete it), and then removing it from your code so that you merely remove what the game puts in.

Now, as mentioned above, the kicker is knowing what the NPC's actual name is. Just because an NPC is named "Fayleese" in the game does not mean that its code name is "Fayleese." You can certainly guess and check, but your best bet is to find out who put that NPC there(is it added in a plug-in or is it a standard game NPC) and mail the author requesting the name of the NPC so you can modify it.

Be aware that if you replace the NPC with one of your own that any events associated with that NPC will no longer function(because events are stored on the NPC file).

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Quote

Originally posted by Stark Bledfast:
**Another resource to take a look at is the Creating a plug-in for Pillars of Garendall: 101 FAQ. It isn't done, it's being revised and compiled, but has quite a bit of information on it that might aid you in doing things you want to do.
**

Studied it, bookmarked it, and saved it for off-line reading. Nice work.

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Originally posted by Codewizard:
Studied it, bookmarked it, and saved it for off-line reading. Nice work.

Thanks.

As mentioned above, it is still in progress. If something is confusing, let me know. If something is missing, let me know. If you figure out an easier way to do something, let me know.

At some point I'll make it "official" and link to it from my main web page, and include it in my signature file as well. Until then, it is simply an "unofficial" FAQ.

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