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Author Topic:   adding new monsters
bitesizedchunks
Squire

Posts: 27
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Registered: Jan 2002

posted 30 January 2002 13:28     Click Here to See the Profile for bitesizedchunks   Click Here to Email bitesizedchunks        Reply w/Quote   
does anyone out there know if it is possible to create new monsters, instead of just replacing existing ones? it seems that you could just add another line to the end of monsters.txt, and add one in, but i know that adding setitems is a bad idea, as it screws up the drops, making it harder to get any sets. will adding a new row to monsters.txt mess up the spawning of existing monsters? or is it even possible? any help would be much appreciated.

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Apocalypse Demon
Moderator

Posts: 4023
From: Mississauga, Ontario
Registered: Oct 2001

posted 30 January 2002 14:04     Click Here to See the Profile for Apocalypse Demon   Click Here to Email Apocalypse Demon        Reply w/Quote   
Adding new monster lines WILL mess it up. To get this to work, you need to edit allot of code in the animdata and make .cofs and other things for that monster which is too much work. See, animdata.d2 has every single animation for every single monster. Adding a new monster line in monstats.txt will not add a bunch of extra code lines in animdata.d2 for that monster, you will need to add the code and rewrite the whole animdata.d2 for this.

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God gave me a brain to use but I miserably failed to use it to my advantage

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bitesizedchunks
Squire

Posts: 27
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Registered: Jan 2002

posted 30 January 2002 14:11     Click Here to See the Profile for bitesizedchunks   Click Here to Email bitesizedchunks        Reply w/Quote   
holy hell. just as i had assumed. let's say one wanted to edit the *.d2 files...is there a tutorial out there that anyone knows of on this subject? i would love to check it out before i start asking questions that have been answered already. also, where are the *.d2 files located? i can't remember seeing them in patch_d2... thanks again.

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Myhrginoc
Honorary Warlord

Posts: 1326
From: Percussion U
Registered: Dec 2001

posted 30 January 2002 15:29     Click Here to See the Profile for Myhrginoc   Click Here to Email Myhrginoc        Reply w/Quote   
Adding a monster would require extensive DLL editing. So far, I see the following files for any monster. I probably missed other files.

DCC files for the various activities.
COF files to assemble all DCCs related to a particular activity.
AnimData.D2 hold all references to COFs and has a frame count for each one.
Sounds.txt holds the links between handles and sound files. Where are those handles defined?
Monstats and Montype to define monster abilities and characteristics. We know some of the columns in these files are overridden in the DLLs.

If it were just a matter of assembling the pieces, and expanding collection files like AnimData.D2...it would be done by now. The gold ring goes to the one who does crack that mystery.

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bitesizedchunks
Squire

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Registered: Jan 2002

posted 30 January 2002 17:33     Click Here to See the Profile for bitesizedchunks   Click Here to Email bitesizedchunks        Reply w/Quote   
well, f*#k that idea. i'll just stick to making mosters drop guts and weed. thanks anyway, guys.

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FoxBat
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Posts: 1618
From: PA, USA
Registered: Feb 2001

posted 30 January 2002 17:35     Click Here to See the Profile for FoxBat   Click Here to Email FoxBat        Reply w/Quote   
There's several unused monsters you can modify.

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bitesizedchunks
Squire

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Registered: Jan 2002

posted 30 January 2002 17:43     Click Here to See the Profile for bitesizedchunks   Click Here to Email bitesizedchunks        Reply w/Quote   
hmmmmmmmmm.....if i assumed that they could be found in monstats, would i be a fool?

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Apocalypse Demon
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Posts: 4023
From: Mississauga, Ontario
Registered: Oct 2001

posted 30 January 2002 18:37     Click Here to See the Profile for Apocalypse Demon   Click Here to Email Apocalypse Demon        Reply w/Quote   
Well, there are some unused monsters that have all the animations already. For example, the QuillBear is one, then there is the Man Eating Plant(not in the txt files though) which is only missing a gethit animation. By the way, Myhorginoc, is there a way to rewrite the .dll to add this gethit .dcc to the Man Eating plant(token XZ)? Because it's missing it...

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God gave me a brain to use but I miserably failed to use it to my advantage

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jbouley
Forum Admin.

Posts: 4907
From: Portland, Maine, USA
Registered: Jan 2001

posted 31 January 2002 01:40     Click Here to See the Profile for jbouley   Click Here to Email jbouley        Reply w/Quote   Visit jbouley's Homepage!
What if you set the gethit column in monstats.txt to 0?

Will the plant still be able to be hit, but then no longer need the animation? Or will a crash result?

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- JEFF
"A hero is no braver than anyone else. He is only brave five minutes longer."
For my latest mod (for LoD/expansion), download Version 1.1 of Sanctuary in Chaos

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Myhrginoc
Honorary Warlord

Posts: 1326
From: Percussion U
Registered: Dec 2001

posted 31 January 2002 17:49     Click Here to See the Profile for Myhrginoc   Click Here to Email Myhrginoc        Reply w/Quote   
Is the man-eating plant incomplete because the game expects a gethit animation which is missing? I encountered something similar using the elemental demon (FM) for testing...game crashed because no RN animation. So I created a one-frame one-pixel DCC with the right name, copied a one-frame COF and renamed it, and updated AnimData.D2 no crash, and my new additions stood around just fine. (I had problems for other reasons, but that's a different thread.) Seems to me you could do the same for gethit animations. The trapped soul towers you can kill in Act 4 have no gethit anims, but they die just the same.

I believe all the DLL would do is "if monster at location x,y is hit, play gethit animation now".

Tangential thought of the moment...will it work if you copy a data block in AnimData.D2, insert the copy right behind it, then edit the copy with new COF and frame data? I'll have to try that on my next anim test. I see nothing in the file that resembles a checksum at either end, and in almost every case, the only non-zero bytes are the COF name, the frame count byte, and a byte a few further that is usually 01. I'll have to rip into this file after I finish what I already started

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Apocalypse Demon
Moderator

Posts: 4023
From: Mississauga, Ontario
Registered: Oct 2001

posted 31 January 2002 18:01     Click Here to See the Profile for Apocalypse Demon   Click Here to Email Apocalypse Demon        Reply w/Quote   
Soo, you are saying that you do not need to write any entries in animdata for missing animations? Is that true? Can you reply to my question about adding stuff in animdata in the Code Editing Forum?

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God gave me a brain to use but I miserably failed to use it to my advantage

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Apocalypse Demon
Moderator

Posts: 4023
From: Mississauga, Ontario
Registered: Oct 2001

posted 31 January 2002 18:05     Click Here to See the Profile for Apocalypse Demon   Click Here to Email Apocalypse Demon        Reply w/Quote   
So, does this also mean that I can "make" or give animations to incomplete monsters that are completely missing entries for the animation in animdata?

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God gave me a brain to use but I miserably failed to use it to my advantage

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