Make your own mercs?

[chlom]

Is there any way to make new mercs from the bottom and adding them to A.I.M without destroying the old ones?

[L3TUC3]

Yes, this is possible. I've done it with placeholders and it's surprisingly easy. A quick look at the file structure should be pretty easy to add everything.

A quick tutorial:

Your main file is basis\scripts\logic\persons.xml and the easy/hard ones. Open it with a decent XML editor such as MS excel. This will make your life a lot easier.

Edit persons.xml
[blockquote]1. Go to the mercs subsection (it's at the start) and insert an new row.
2. Type a new name in the first column (for example I called mine "dutch")
3. Under the npc column put "aim". Freelancer will not work. You will have to set one other merc with aim to freelancer as there's a preset amount of mercs you can choose from.
4. Under desc you can put whatever you want (afaik). I can't read russian so I don't know what this does, but most like it describes the character.
5. Under body put one of the previously mentioned bodytypes or create your own by creating a new xml file in scripts\logic\body and naming it accordingly (example "merc_dutch")
6. Under hair copy one of the already available hairtypes or create your own by adding a new texture file in basis\textures\units\hairs. Apply the name as accordingly (example hair_m_m_dutch.dds).
7. Under animation put alfa or karate. The difference being the animations the character uses in melee. A martial arts expert has karate moves for example. I don't know if you can add custom animations yet.
8. Under portrait you can copy a portrait or add your own.
9. Things controls the equipment that optionally comes with you when hired. You can copy one from another merc or add your own set of stuff in basis\scripts\logic\Things.xml, Things_easy.xml and Things_hard.xml
10. Deposit controls the amount of money you get back when your merc dies. Set it to whatever you want.
11. Salary controls the amoutn of money the merc gets paid at 00:00 hours each day. Set it to whatever you want.
12. Health controls the hitpoints the merc has. Put it to whatever you want.
13. Level sets the level at which the merc is. I'm not sure how this works but I believe this controls if the merc wants to work for you or not depending on your experience with others.
14. Dexterity, agility, strength, wisdom, leadership, marksmanship, mechanical, explosives and medical attributes should be pretty straightforward. Set them to whatever you want up to a 100.
15. I don't know what sight does. Set it to 1.0 to be safe. Set it to 0.5 to wear an eyepatch. Set it to 1.5 to be a mutated freak.
16. I don't exactly know what hearing does, but I believe it's the distance mercs can hear an enemy move about. Set it to 20 for default. Set it to 0 for a deaf merc.
17. Sight_angle controls the angle the merc has it's peripheral vision/field of view at. 160 is default. Increase for female mercs. Decrease for crosseyed/eyepatch wearing mercs.
18. Racist. Controls if the merc is a racist and can make racial comments.
19. Sexist. Controls if the merc is a sexist and can make sexist comments. There's multiple degrees. "No" means there's no comments. "Yes" means the merc will make comments. "Very" means that the merc will make a lot of comments. "Gentleman" means that the comments will only be positive/flattering(?). Not quite sure on this as I haven't seen this in game yet.
20. Sex. Controls the gender of the merc. Should be pretty obvious.
21. Nationality. Sets the nationality of the merc. There's quite a list. I haven't found out how to add nationalities yet.
22. Hated_nationality. Sets the nationality the merc dislikes (or not). Default is none.
23. Race. Sets the race of the merc. There's only three choices: white, black or asian.
24. Attitude. Sets the attitude of the merc. Not sure how this works in regards to relations between mercs.
25. Skill1 sets the main trait of the merc. Most are pretty obvious.
26. Same as skill one only it controls the second skill.
27. Phobia sets a fear or affliction the merc has.
[/blockquote]Edit speech.xml.

Copy a row and rename it yo your merc.


Add a .xml file in basis\locale\usa\scripts\people.

Edit this file for your merc's backstory. Look in the other .xml's in the folder for examples.



Edit messages11.xml, messages.xml, messages_f.xml, journal.xml in basis\locale\usa\scripts\strres

Add sections for every instance of your merc. There are mostly for hiring and dismissing.

Edit remarks.xml

This is a bit of a pain. It's easiest to just copy one of the mercs and renaming the names in the first column. Or if you really want you can make your own sounds and put them in a corresponding folder.


Your own portrait:

Portraits are easy to add and it makes the game fun to see your own face! Simply open up an image with image editing software (make sure it can edit alpha channels!).

1. Crop the face to 64x64.
2. Edit the alpha channels and "blacken" the parts of the image that are not necessary. This will make sure that the IMA backdrop is seen in the background.
3. Save the file as a .tga and put it in basis\ui\resources\portraits\mercs and name appropriately (example "dutch_icon.tga")
4. Crop the file to 32x32 and save with the _small.tga extension. (example "dutch_small.tga")
5. Then create the critical and na "not available" icons and name them accordingly.

That's it!

The only problem is that I haven't been able to hire my guy yet and I'm quite stuck on how to fix it as I believe I have set every option and altered all the necessary files needed. I'll poke around to try and fix this.

[L3TUC3]

I've tried to fix the problem but thus far I haven't been successful.

I can make my merc show up in the IMA list, weapons and all, responses etc. But once I click the "hire" button nothing happens.

I'm stumped. The only thing I can think of is a call in the .exe or that I've missed/misnamed a call in one the xmls. I'm not going to bother with it for a while.

[Tagwyn]

You call that checklist "simple?" Are you into nuclear engineering? t

[Reinforce]

If you have Microsoft Office's XML editor makeing your own mercs super easy. You can get a free trial of it off Microsofts home site. If your useing a text editor like notepad or something ya it's super hard.
 
As for not being able to hire them. I remember seeing something about that in a lua file.. I'm pretty sure it's mercs.lua Don't hold me to that though. I'm just happy makeing my own custome player merc, Never did do a whole team.
 
Much Love,
Reinforce

[tvluther]

Any progress on getting the created Merc hired? I would like to see this available, it would be so cool.

[Mekii]

I believe Reinforce is onto something with the mercs.lua file.
I think you also might want to add your own merc to it, might solve the hiring issue.
Though, i haven't got around with making mercs yet so I honestly don't know what it would solve, if anything.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Mercs =
{
   morah        =     {
                       alive         = true,            -- selfexplanatory
                       hired         = false,            -- is he already hired by player (changes automatically on hire/dismiss)
                       dr             = 032,                -- deathrate tolerance, the higher - the more tolerant
                       rt             = 088,                -- reputation tolerance, the higher the more tolerant
                       mt            = 005,                -- morale limit (when reached - merc terminates contract)
                       friend1     = "",                -- friend1
                       friend2     = "",                -- friend2
                       buddy         = "",                -- friendtobe
                       nonfriend1     = "",                -- enemy1
                       nonfriend2     = "",                -- enemy2
                       nonbuddy     = "",                -- enemytobe
                       hatenf1        = 000,                -- hate rating for nonfriend1, the higher - the more hatred
                       hatenf2        = 000,                -- hate rating for nonfriend2, the higher - the more hatred
                       hatenb        = 010,                -- hate rating for nonbuddy, the higher - the more hatred
                       buddylike    = 000,                -- friendtobe rating for buddy, the higher - the more love
                       goodguy        = true,            -- trivial
                       salary        = 100,                -- per day payment
                       available    = true,            -- available for hire
                       agency        = AGENCY,            -- how to hire: AGENCY|FREELACNER
                       hasMessage    = 0
                   },
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

[whitezen]

how to change merc`s body into a sex appeal type ? i can change them into ELITE female , but can`t change it into Queen of Butsi [&:]

[blemishednicely]

how to change merc`s body into a sex appeal type ? i can change them into ELITE female , but can`t change it into Queen of Butsi

You try simply switching paths/skins in the XML? My first foray into HG mod was swapping heads/bodies & changing gear out---made pirates/marauders look more ragtag or civvy (ie the enemies in jeans & Wht tank top), made bank security look more like cops etc. Got pissed off at one point due to 'nadage -explsv's not poltic'n-, so fired Dictator in a lil sundress with a straw hat. Fun but very Crayola...Hell you can even run around skinned as Janus' hated bro yourself. One of my merc's looks like 47, another is Mike, another still was some unused bits described as---let's be P.C. on the PC "a large person of the local persuasion" (one I'm willing to bet the Russ 'grammers wouldn't reiterate, say in an L.A. intersection circa mid-90's)....you can bet if that one works pretty much all skins ought to.

P.S.
May have just answered one of my own questions...gotta go!

Hope that helped

"Don't worry Lieutenant, there's absolutely no way they can possibly hit us at this ra---"

[blemishednicely]

Think that's "persons" XML, BTW...but s'been awhile, sorry gotta go again...damn coffee!

[echoco]

Hi, I've been lurking around for awhile and wondering if anyone managed to add their own mercs to AIM?

-edit-

I managed to get it to work instead of creating a new character I went and changed the stats for the imp_ characters

imp_male_01
imp_male_02
imp_male_03
imp_female_01
imp_female_02
imp_female_03

I think these are the proxies fro your player characters so you have a possible 5 custom chars and 1 player char
might want to change the pointer for voices because these imps have the same voice.

weapon sets are default imp_set but can be changed to customized ones. These have their own unique images custom portraits are called imp_m_## or imp_f_##

Adding these to IMA you need to go into initcampaign and under each of the If statements for normal/easy/hard put a line of code
mercs.imp_f/m/_##.available = true

this will make them available on the mercs hiring page but will nudge other mercs will less experience off the screen.

Not sure if not desabling a proportionate number of mercs will cause a crash or error shouldn't so but in case it does just disable the mercs you never want to hire with
mercs.NAME.available = false

couls aso set the merc to be already hired with something like
hire.merc("NAME") <<not too sure if thats totally correct

there are examples of these codes in initcampaign already so use those as reference

Now I'll be off to make a Ghost recon team


Happy hunting

P.S. reinforce, thanks for all your work, I got a lot out of all your posts, can I request an RPG-7?

[blemishednicely]

I may be wrong but I think it's already in there, echoco...at least the 3 sets/2 rockets usually found in the Marauder's Hut on "Crossroads"(1st) level LOOK to be the anti-armor head variant for an RPG-7 (minus the docking shaft/tube). If so, wonder if the anti-personnel head could be added also/instead? Thatsa nasty lil' toy for the girls/boys to gather round 'n play!

I know you specifically asked Reinforce...hope you don't mind my "butting in"


"If you're white, out on the streets you stay/brown, for you, a house they'll pay - unemployment on the rise/immigration, no surprise" -Reveal

[markbernaldo8]

i have the same question and i want to thank everyone who's responding in this forum, thanks for answering the question, it really helps us a lot.