Tweaking the Merchants (Help with visuals)

[Biogamer82]

I'm one of the (probably) many players who downloaded and loved Lathlas' "Merchant Pack" mod. I'm trying to change the appearance of some of the merchants, but I'm having some trouble. I want to get all my problems solved, but I'll only post one request at a time (so we all don't get overwhelmed, myself included.)

First Problem: The fletcher (gun merchant) is set to have the same hair color as the vanquisher, which (thanks to another mod), is soft pink. How do I give the fletcher her own hair color, independent of what color the vanquisher has? I already have the mod with the color I want, I just need to get it on her.

I'm very new to modding. Most of what I know (and it's not much) is from trying to decipher the code of other mods. If I need to change the code, or go into TorchED, Please keep the instructions simple and straightforward.

[Brixtan]

Deleted for incorrect info - move along nothing to see here

[Arkham]

I could be waaaaay off base here, but you probably will need to do that in some type of 3D modeling program to change the texture, assign it the merchant mesh, etc.

I don't know for sure, but hey may not have to. He could try editing the relevant .material file directly, and see if he can reassign that NPC's hair texture that way.

[Jarcho]

Changing the material file would also change the vanquisher's hair color.

To change only the fletcher's hair, find the fletcher's dat file (somewhere in the "media\units\monsters" directory of the mod) and open it up in notepad. Look for the line that starts with "<STRING>HELMET_BASE_MESH:" , and change it to point to a new directory such as "media\wardrode\fletcher" instead of "media\wardrobe\vanquisher". You would then need to create this new directory (within the mod directory) and copy the "vanquisher_hair.MESH", "vanquisher_hair.SKELETON" and "vanquisher_hair.material" from the old directory, "media\wardrobe\vanquisher", into it (found in either your TorchED directory, or from the "pak.zip" file in your Torchlight directory). Finally you would have to copy the png from the hair color mod, "vaq_hair_01.png", over to the directory you created earlier.

If you need that explained in a nicer way I'll change it tomorrow, I can't really do much better in my current state of tiredness.

[Phanjam]

If you need that explained in a nicer way I'll change it tomorrow, I can't really do much better in my current state of tiredness.

Hehe, allow me Dusho...

To change only the fletcher's hair:

1. navigate to the "media\units\monsters\merchant" folder of the mod and find the file "merchant_fletcher.dat" which is the fletcher's dat file.

2. open this file in notepad and look for the line

<STRING>HELMET_BASE_MESH:media\wardrobe\vanquisher\vanquisher_hair.MESH

Change this line to

<STRING>HELMET_BASE_MESH:media\wardrobe\[newfolder]\vanquisher_hair.MESH

where [newfolder] is any name you want (though "fletcher" is a good suggestion)

This tells the mod to stop using the Vanquisher's hair texture for the Fletcher, and to use the texture from [newfolder] instead.

3. You then need to create the [newfolder] directory within the "media\wardrobe\" directory of the mod and put the following files into it:

vanquisher_hair.MESH
vanquisher_hair.SKELETON
vanquisher_hair.material

Note: you would copy these files from either the "media\wardrobe\vanquisher" folder in your TorchED directory, or from unzipping the "pak.zip" file in your Torchlight directory.

4. Finally you have to place the actual hair texture file "vaq_hair_01.png" into [newfolder] as well. But now you have the option to use any version of this file, from just copying the original Vanquisher file (raven hair) to using textures from the various Vanquisher hair color mods.

[Biogamer82]

Hey everyone. I did a little messing around after my original post, and I managed to get the hair to work. The method I used was the same as Phanjam and Jarcho described above.

I also managed to solve another problem i had: I wanted to change the look of the zealot gem merchant without changing the look of Valeria (one of the quest givers outside the Shadow Vault). Velari made a cute black hair version for her "Crouching Pet, Hidden Beast" mod (I think Velari's a girl) that I wanted to use.

What i did was take the file I wanted ("krissiepriestess" in media/models/Zealot for those who have the mod), opened it in photo editing software, change the name to "zealotmerchant" and the file type to .png. I placed the file in the media/models/NPCs folder of the merchant pack, and, in the "merchant_gems2" file, I added the line "<STRING>TEXTURE_OVERRIDE:media\models\npcs\zealotmerchant.png". Worked beautifully.

OK, One more question. Not a visual change, but hopefully this will be easy. In the merchant pack, Tarn sells two potions, one health and one mana. he has an infinite supply and the potion quality increases with your character level. Now, I have the "Tara_General Merchant" mod Installed, and her inventory is the same as the default merchant: town portal scroll, identify scroll, random pet transform fish, and 4 health and mana potions of varying quality.

BTW, Phanjam, thanks again for your help and patience.

Anyway, How do I get Tara's inventory to match Tarn's?

[Phanjam]

hmm, strange but Tara's inventory should match Tarn's exactly, because all the Tara mod does is use a different mesh and texture for Tarn - it doesn't change any of Tarn's spawnclasses settings (which govern what the merchant sells).

Try removing the Crouching Pet mod for a while (don't worry, we'll put it back - this is just a test ) cause it does change spawnclasses settings for merchants that sell fish (remember to revert your pets back to normal first, before removing the mod)

If Tara's inventory goes back to just the potions without the Crouching mod, there's your culprit. But fortunately, Velari has a version of the Crouching mod which is "fishmash compatible". That just means it's spawnclasses setings have been adjusted to sell the crouching pets fish only through Awful Arthur, the fishmonger in the Merchant Pack, leaving Tarn/Tara's inventory alone

[Biogamer82]

The fishmash version of crouching pet is what i have. I did try removing the mod, like you said, but her inventory is the same. Anyone else have any suggestions?

[Phanjam]

sorry that didn't work Biogamer (darn! and i was so sure too...)

[Velari]

Hi Biogamer82, nice to hear that you managed to adjust the gem seller's appearance successfully, and of course that you appreciate the look that I made
You picked the right texture as well - when Krissie's turned into a Dark Priestess she uses Valeria's model (to avoid nasty crashes, heh :/ ), while the player's pet version uses the Zealot model. There are some minor differences so if you used darkpriestesspet.dds instead it would have looked a bit less nice

As an aside on the hair colour on things that use the Vanquisher model (even though that's been solved already ), I tend to use brown hair such as on the NPCs in my mods, and it tends to involve having a new folder in the wardrobe section, basically what Jarcho and Phanjam explained, so yeah

Try removing the Crouching Pet mod for a while (don't worry, we'll put it back - this is just a test ) cause it does change spawnclasses settings for merchants that sell fish (remember to revert your pets back to normal first, before removing the mod)

Well, it certainly doesn't affect them directly. There are two ways you can look at it. On the one hand, the only thing spawnclass-related it does is add an additional spawnclass for what is essentially a "hidden merchant." However, since it's a completely new spawnclass it shouldn't modify existing spawnclasses in any way and as such presumably doesn't cause any issues of this sort.

On the other, it adds new fish. This affects vendors that sell items of the unittype Fish (such as Arthur) in the sense that it expands the amount of different items such a vendor has to choose from when its selection is being rolled. However, it doesn't change the spawnclasses involved directly, it just adds certain items. Only merchants that have the unittype Fish in their spawnclass should be affected, which of the ones I know of should only be Arthur - including the "hidden merchant" in my mod I mentioned, it only points to specific fish items rather than the entire unittype Fish.


ANYWAY, NOW THAT I'M DONE ARGUING A DEFENSE FOR MY MOD xD
Here's the thing. Tara uses the same spawnclass for her items that Tarn does in the original game, MERCHANT_GENERAL_INVENTORY. With the Merchant Pack, which Biogamer82 mentioned using, Tarn is modified and uses a different spawnclass, MERCHANT_APOTHECARY. Note that his displayname in the Merchant Pack is Tarn the Apothecary rather than Tarn the Merchant

I'm assuming that it's this discrepancy that causes the difference in inventories between Tarn and Tara.

One thing I am curious about is when you mention Tara's inventory includes "random pet transform fish." Which are they? Are they the Cat, Dog, and possibly Ferret fish? As these (the first two at least ) should appear in standard Torchlight, while in the Merchant Pack they are moved to Arthur instead, I believe. So if those are the fish that appeared, that would support the whole thing I just pointed out as probably being the issue. And you should put Crouching Pet, Hidden Beast back again if you haven't done so already

However, since you called them "random," I spent quite a while wondering whether perhaps the spawnclass in my mod somehow managed to overlap with the spawnclass for the merchant. So if it is a semi-random assorted of fish that all lead to transformations from Crouching Pet, Hidden Beast ... yeah, then it's something else entirely which I hope isn't the case

[Phanjam]

ANYWAY, NOW THAT I'M DONE ARGUING A DEFENSE FOR MY MOD xD
Here's the thing. Tara uses the same spawnclass for her items that Tarn does in the original game, MERCHANT_GENERAL_INVENTORY. With the Merchant Pack, which Biogamer82 mentioned using, Tarn is modified and uses a different spawnclass, MERCHANT_APOTHECARY. Note that his displayname in the Merchant Pack is Tarn the Apothecary rather than Tarn the Merchant

I'm assuming that it's this discrepancy that causes the difference in inventories between Tarn and Tara.

Oops, velari is absolutely right (again and as always ). My Tara mod modifies the original-game Tarn, not the Merchant Pack Tarn.

So I made a version that is supposed to be compatible with the Merchant Pack mod - I will just test it to make sure it's working, then I'll post it for DL

Thanks velari! Oh, and I certainly didn't mean to imply that your mod was poorly made in any way!

[Biogamer82]

Hey everyone. I did some experimenting since my last post, and got Tara to work like I wanted. Like Velari mentioned (even though I just NOW read her post), I changed Tara's spawnclass to MERCHANT_APOTHECARY to get her play nice.

Oh, Velari! The random fish I mentioned are the basic dog and cat transformation fish that Arthur sells in the merchant pack. with the general merchant, you either have the dogfish or the catfish, but never both at once (unlike Arthur).

Thanks again to everyone who offered their insight. Really appreciate it

[Phanjam]

Glad you got it to work properly Biogamer!

And using the same fix (thanks again velari) here is the merchant pack-compatible version of the Tarn-to-Tara mod