A19 NPCs DMT Mod

[mr.devolver]

We have the same goals, and we'll get there
I need to add DMT support into the mod launcher, than we'll be set for a cut over.

I pushed the new SDX_Dialog and aUI_Dialog modlets with new version numbers; should fix the hiring issue.

Thank you, but I don't see the update. I refreshed the list just to be sure, right clicked both mods and clicked Update to force redownload, but the content seems to be the same.

 

[sphereii]

Thank you, but I don't see the update. I refreshed the list just to be sure, right clicked both mods and clicked Update to force redownload, but the content seems to be the same.

Sorry, try again

 

[mr.devolver]

Sorry, try again

Thank you again, this time the update showed up correctly and I will try it now.

 

[mr.devolver]

Last update - my observations so far (uploading reference video, takes forever (╯°□°)╯︵ ┻━┻):

Shown in the video:

- Sometimes your hired NPCs get lost fighting zombies.

- NPCs now follow all the time, no way to give them any different command. The only difference seems to be their movement animation:

Follow me - walk animation (video 1:35)

Stay here - run animation (video 1:53)

Guard here - run animation (video 2:25)

Wander around here - run animation (video 2:37)

Follow me for your patrol route - walk animation (video 2:51)

Patrol your route - run animation (video 3:18)

- NPCs are now traders - they don't have their own empty inventory like before, but instead they are selling stuff. (video 3:56)

- When you ask your NPC about jobs, you get console spam of "NullReferenceException: Object reference not set to an instance of an object" (video 4:27). I believe this was fixed in one of the older versions.

- Dialogue option "Nevermind" is gone

- There is a rare glitch with vehicles - when you drive in a vehicle and then get out, sometimes your hands seem misplaced and blurry when you move (video 7:55). I added this here because so far I was unable to reproduce this glitch before hiring an NPC. The only way to fix this is to close the game and load it again.

EDIT: Actually it's pretty easy to reproduce: spawn both 4x4 and NPCAmmo near you. Get in vehicle and get out.

- NPCs seem to like getting hurt by the traps (video 10:50)

- Bringing NPCs to trader base may cause your NPC to disappear and since they ignore all the commands like "stay here", "guard here", etc. this is likely to happen often (video 12:12). EDIT: I just checked through console command "le", NPCAmmo was really gone. I suspect trader Joel is a cannibal, how can we protect our NPCs from him?

Not shown in the video:

- If you hire two NPCs, they can fight each other to death in case that one hits the other by accident - Not in the video, but when you place hired NPCAmmo, next to a bunch of zombies and a hired NPCFarmer between them, NPCAmmo is likely to shoot NPCFarmer when actually trying to shoot the zombies behind him. Once that happens, NPCFarmer and NPCAmmo don't like each other anymore...

- In one case NPC was losing health for no apparent reason and he wasn't healing like he should. Unfortunately, I was unable to reproduce this yet.

 

[mr.devolver]

Here's the reference video I promised:

[video=youtube_share;OLg2tehC_JA]

 

[sphereii]

Last update - my observations so far (uploading reference video, takes forever (╯°□°)╯︵ ┻━┻):
Shown in the video:

- Sometimes your hired NPCs get lost fighting zombies.

- NPCs now follow all the time, no way to give them any different command. The only difference seems to be their movement animation:

Follow me - walk animation (video 1:35)

Stay here - run animation (video 1:53)

Guard here - run animation (video 2:25)

Wander around here - run animation (video 2:37)

Follow me for your patrol route - walk animation (video 2:51)

Patrol your route - run animation (video 3:18)

The follow all the time has been fixed. Will push out to the production repos shortly.

- NPCs are now traders - they don't have their own empty inventory like before, but instead they are selling stuff. (video 3:56)

Fixed this too. Another thing that got broken when shifting things around for Harmony.

- When you ask your NPC about jobs, you get console spam of "NullReferenceException: Object reference not set to an instance of an object" (video 4:27). I believe this was fixed in one of the older versions.

- Dialogue option "Nevermind" is gone

This is due to a bad quest. I've removed the quest option of the dialog system for the base NPCs.

In addition, I made some new requirements where certain joins and options will only appear if relevant. For example, if an NPC is missing a Patrol AI task, it will not show the Patrol Your Route / Follow For your Patrol route.

Likewise, if there's no quest, the option won't display.

- There is a rare glitch with vehicles - when you drive in a vehicle and then get out, sometimes your hands seem misplaced and blurry when you move (video 7:55). I added this here because so far I was unable to reproduce this glitch before hiring an NPC. The only way to fix this is to close the game and load it again.

EDIT: Actually it's pretty easy to reproduce: spawn both 4x4 and NPCAmmo near you. Get in vehicle and get out.

- NPCs seem to like getting hurt by the traps (video 10:50)

- Bringing NPCs to trader base may cause your NPC to disappear and since they ignore all the commands like "stay here", "guard here", etc. this is likely to happen often (video 12:12). EDIT: I just checked through console command "le", NPCAmmo was really gone. I suspect trader Joel is a cannibal, how can we protect our NPCs from him?

Will investigate this. I haven't visited a trader with them, nor spawned in a vehicle.

Not shown in the video:

- If you hire two NPCs, they can fight each other to death in case that one hits the other by accident - Not in the video, but when you place hired NPCAmmo, next to a bunch of zombies and a hired NPCFarmer between them, NPCAmmo is likely to shoot NPCFarmer when actually trying to shoot the zombies behind him. Once that happens, NPCFarmer and NPCAmmo don't like each other anymore...

- In one case NPC was losing health for no apparent reason and he wasn't healing like he should. Unfortunately, I was unable to reproduce this yet.

The in-fighting is likely due to the Party code I had tossed in quickly. I'll revisit it.

I had an NPC bleeding last night too, and he had the bleeding buff ( I didn't have the Entity_Patch ).

I'll review your video once I get into the office. Thank you for it.

 

[mr.devolver]

This is due to a bad quest. I've removed the quest option of the dialog system for the base NPCs.
In addition, I made some new requirements where certain joins and options will only appear if relevant. For example, if an NPC is missing a Patrol AI task, it will not show the Patrol Your Route / Follow For your Patrol route.

Likewise, if there's no quest, the option won't display.

Does this mean that there will be different types of NPCs, each one for different purpose? I think it would be nice if modders could have NPCs that are involved in certain hard-coded quests in which case they might want the NPCs to act strictly according to the quest, without a chance for players to control them. However, there should also be NPCs that you can freely control through various commands in dialogue, basically what we have now, for more flexibility for both mod creators and players.

Will investigate this. I haven't visited a trader with them, nor spawned in a vehicle.

For clarification: It's really easy to reproduce the bug with vehicles: Spawn 4x4 truck and spawn NPCAmmo next to it. Get in the vehicle and get out, you don't even need to drive just get in and out and you don't really need to hire the NPC before doing this. I figured this out later, but didn't clarify in the edit part of the post, sorry.

As for the NPCs disappearing in trader's base, it's even easier to reproduce. Just go to the trader area, stand close to trader and spawn NPCAmmo in front of the trader. As soon as I did that, NPC showed up for like half a second and instantly disappeared.

I had an NPC bleeding last night too, and he had the bleeding buff ( I didn't have the Entity_Patch ).

The problem I talked about there was with Patch_Entity enabled though. Either way, if you want to investigate the health issue, it really helps to have that Unlock Health Bar mod enabled so that you can watch their health in real time. I wasn't lucky to reproduce it yet.

I'll review your video once I get into the office. Thank you for it.

You're welcome.

Do you plan to have that "Help me loot this place" option back? It was disabled before release, I was really looking forward to that option when I watched the teaser. Also, it would be awesome if we could use shift + left click to transfer stuff into the inventory of our NPCs.

 

[sphereii]

Does this mean that there will be different types of NPCs, each one for different purpose? I think it would be nice if modders could have NPCs that are involved in certain hard-coded quests in which case they might want the NPCs to act strictly according to the quest, without a chance for players to control them. However, there should also be NPCs that you can freely control through various commands in dialogue, basically what we have now, for more flexibility for both mod creators and players.

Specialization was always an end goal. The initial NPCs are more jack-of-all-trades to help with testing. There will be randomized elements to the NPCs as well, where you may meet a Baker and he'll be able to do different things, with different levels of benefits.

For clarification: It's really easy to reproduce the bug with vehicles: Spawn 4x4 truck and spawn NPCAmmo next to it. Get in the vehicle and get out, you don't even need to drive just get in and out and you don't really need to hire the NPC before doing this. I figured this out later, but didn't clarify in the edit part of the post, sorry.

As for the NPCs disappearing in trader's base, it's even easier to reproduce. Just go to the trader area, stand close to trader and spawn NPCAmmo in front of the trader. As soon as I did that, NPC showed up for like half a second and instantly disappeared.

Great. Hopefully it'll be an easy fix

The problem I talked about there was with Patch_Entity enabled though. Either way, if you want to investigate the health issue, it really helps to have that Unlock Health Bar mod enabled so that you can watch their health in real time. I wasn't lucky to reproduce it yet.

The original maslow stuff was written for cows, so I'm not too surprised that it's wonky for the NPCs. We'll probably splinter it out to its own buff system and make it simpler. We'll also be adding the maslow buff after they are hired, for NPCs, when we review that. They won't need food or water until you hire them.

You're welcome.

Do you plan to have that "Help me loot this place" option back? It was disabled before release, I was really looking forward to that option when I watched the teaser. Also, it would be awesome if we could use shift + left click to transfer stuff into the inventory of our NPCs.

Yes, I do want to bring that back. It had issues where the NPCs had super long arms. It's one of the example tasks that I think specialization will happen.

 

[sphereii]

Update pushed to the main repo

 

[mr.devolver]

The follow all the time has been fixed. Will push out to the production repos shortly.Fixed this too. Another thing that got broken when shifting things around for Harmony.

Inventory seems to work normally, but they still ignore commands. Also, I explored very large area of Navezgane on foot as well as motorcycle and I haven't seen a single NPC in the world. When I wanted to test it, I had to spawn one manually. Did something happen to automatic spawning?

 

[sphereii]

Inventory seems to work normally, but they still ignore commands. Also, I explored very large area of Navezgane on foot as well as motorcycle and I haven't seen a single NPC in the world. When I wanted to test it, I had to spawn one manually. Did something happen to automatic spawning?

Four mods were updated: SDX_Dialog, SDX_EntityAlive, SDX_EAITasks and aXUI-Dialog. Were all updated?

 

[mr.devolver]

Four mods were updated: SDX_Dialog, SDX_EntityAlive, SDX_EAITasks and aXUI-Dialog. Were all updated?

Um, I'm not sure. Perhaps you could take a look at the version numbers on the screenshot and see which ones need to be updated? I think only 2 mods were updated, but not sure which ones.

EDIT:

I manually updated all the mods you mentioned and tried again. It looks like it works now. Weird, because the version numbers didn't even change lol

Ok, so the basic functionality of working with the NPCs seems to be working correctly in this version. Only thing I'm not quite sure about is the command "Wander around here". When I click this command, he stays on his place and doesn't move at all. Am I doing something wrong?

 

[mr.devolver]

Houston, we have a problem!

[video=youtube_share;8N_Hon2LCSs]

Now we know for sure that you could play 7 days to die with NPC, but you can't play hide and seek with them!

How about a dialogue option: "Move back a little bit, or I'll take you to cannib.. trader Joel"

 

[sphereii]

Houston, we have a problem!
[video=youtube_share;8N_Hon2LCSs]

haha that was a theoretical problem... glad you were able to resolve it without the NPC dying. I'll take a look to see what we can do about that.

 

[mr.devolver]

haha that was a theoretical problem... glad you were able to resolve it without the NPC dying. I'll take a look to see what we can do about that.

Um, sure Mickey didn't die, but I did! This is mutiny! You should tell them to be nicer to their leaders! No friendly fire, no killing their leader, because trader Joel is still pretty hungry!

 

[sphereii]

Um, sure Mickey didn't die, but I did! This is mutiny! You should tell them to be nicer to their leaders! No friendly fire, no killing their leader, because trader Joel is still pretty hungry!

Mickey isn't dumb. You can't take him to trader Joel if you are dead...

 

[mr.devolver]

Mickey isn't dumb. You can't take him to trader Joel if you are dead...

But then I respawn.

 

[sphereii]

But then I respawn.

maybe we can make them be pushable so you can get out of the situation. I think I know what is causing him to get so close, so it's just fine tuning. But even with that extra space, you'd be stuck.

 

[mr.devolver]

maybe we can make them be pushable so you can get out of the situation. I think I know what is causing him to get so close, so it's just fine tuning. But even with that extra space, you'd be stuck.

I remember modders had to fix companions in Skyrim for the same reason. One mod added a dialogue option to tell the companions to move. Some other mod solved this in such way that NPC stepped away from you automatically when you pushed against him for a while.

 

[sphereii]

I remember modders had to fix companions in Skyrim for the same reason. One mod added a dialogue option to tell the companions to move. Some other mod solved this in such way that NPC stepped away from you automatically when you pushed against him for a while.

I like those ideas. I'll take a look.