Journals and Letters

[Devair]

I mainly just want to know if its going to be way over my head and if I should stop pursuing it (at least for now) or if it's fairly easy to create a letter or journal which pops up with text somewhere.  For example, the opening letter for Christof, Anezka's letters, Garinol's journal - things like that.  They don't have to have sound/voice behind them, obviously.  I wouldn't expect that to be possible... erm... but with what some of you guys have done, maybe it IS possible.  I'd be happy with just text, though, because I'm sure  that's way out of my depth.

I went nosing through the various things in the single player to look at them with the NOT editor and think I have the concepts down pretty well on how to make them.  Any attempts on my part to get them to pop up text crashed the game, though. 

Is it in depth Java or something fairly basic?

[Javokis]

I think it's really simple and shouldn't need Java. All you do is create a custom ntx file (I think), place it in the strings folder. The NTX file is a lot like an HTML file and uses tags to create a rich text style format system. The best thing to do is learn by example by going into I think the Local_eng.nob file with winzip and finding the NTX files under the strings sub-directory. Add an NTX line to a chronicle's NMF file matching the name of the ntx file you created in the strings folder then assign the ntx file to a special item in NOT Editor using an NTX tag. The text will show on any chronicle with the assigned NTX file for that item when it is used.

I'll have to re-install everything since I did the big huge partition project with my new HD last week to know what you have to do for sure. I hope this at least points you into the right direction. 

[Devair]

Thanks!  That's more than I had before.    I found all those files where you said they'd be, and think I have a grasp on it.  I think.  I'll try it and see if I can manage.  As always, thanks for the help!  I'll post how it goes one way or the other.

[Ezykeyal]

I've done this once but the books and scripts were bound to the environment you were in.
Perhaps there's a way around it but I don't know of any way.

[Devair]

I've done this once but the books and scripts were bound to the environment you were in.
Perhaps there's a way around it but I don't know of any way.

Hm, well in my case that won't bother me, I don't think.  Thanks for the warning, though - it will be helpful.

[Javokis]

I think what Ezy is talking about is that when a player leaves a multiplayer game after taking the item with your text message, the item will no longer work even if the player returned to the same server with the same item. In essence, the items only work during a single player session on the server, but it should be safe for players to move from location to location as long as they do not disconnect while they carry your text item. If something like that were to happen, simply respawn the item using the ST tools.

[Devair]

I have progress but it's not quite right, yet.  I often miss the really obvious.  Case in point, I've been using your Javokis' walkthrough since day 1 every time I got stuck - about a month now I've been referring to it.  I just noticed it was "by Rainmoon" today.   

That being said, here's what I did:

Backed everything up, just in case.

Created a new NXT file in my strings folder.
Copied an existing one for the tags - which I could actually understand so I was okay with that.
Saved.
Opened my chronicle NMF file and added the line to include my new NTX file
Created a new item off Sir Cuthbert's letter in NOT editor.
.... crashed several times trying to spawn it....
Created a complete duplicate of Cut's letter except I renamed it CuthbertsLetter2
Stopped crashing and spawned it (obviously had a problem somewhere with what I was doing in the NOT editor)
It "spoke" just like the original.
Altered the ITEM_TEXT tag to mine
It didn't crash, but also didn't do anything except give me the sound effect for using a scroll or a book.

Curious, I copied the entire NXT file and placed it in my new creation.  Saved.
Altered the original NMF file to only read my creation and not the original.
All letters spawned just fine, but none of them actually opened and said anything.

Restored the NFM file to original state.

Double checked to make sure I didn't give my game a nervous breakdown with my alterations, and was happy to find out I didn't... this time.

I do have progress since the item is actually spawning, but I'm thinking I must have a problem in my NXT file.  Which is odd since it looks really straight forward even to me.  I'm going to take a look at it again after work tomorrow, but if anything in my little path of Malkov up there is glaring out that I did wrong, by all means, let me know. 

[Devair]

Thanks to you guys pointing me the right direction, I got it to work.

I'm not saying this is the most effective means or if it'll work on another chronicle, but it's a step in the right direction for me.  

I backed everything up.

Opened the Local_Eng.nob
Extracted the prague.ntx  (I'll be using a very vanilla version of the Single Player in AOR to help my friend learn how to play.  I just altered a few things to put our characters in with their own agendas/problems instead of Christof.)
Took off Read Only
Edited it to include an extra letter at the bottom
Saved
Returned it to Read Only
Used Winzip to place the new copy back in the NOB

Used the NOT editor and Cuthbert's letter to guide me through the correct tags. Saved it.

It spawned and popped the words up, and didn't interfere with any existing documents which are already in there.

When I start using another chronicle which wasn't included with the game I might bump into some problems again, but for the moment, I have it working.

Normally messing with NOB files worries me, but this time it seemed to actually work.

Oh and I need to watch my editing.  The irony made me laugh.

[Javokis]

Awesome. I figured it wasn't too difficult.