Creating a World – Character portraits, creation and use

[Gigantus]

Missing numbers is a possibility although if loading screen numbering is anything to go by then numbers after the 'break' are not used.

[Xagamon]

Maybe I should share my log? I read through it and didn't see what exactly the issues is myself. There are plenty of other errors in it that never caused trouble, mostly cosmetic stuff. The error is listed at the end, under faction standing triggers. I commented the triggers out but no improvement.

Or maybe should I make a new thread for this? I only post here because this started after I converted the portraits.

[Gigantus]

I think it will be best to open a thread in the workshop. Also compress and attach the portrait folder in question.

[Xagamon]

Never mind, it's not the portraits. I removed them to make the game use vanilla. Problem continued. It is something else, I'm sure. I will explore more and stop posting here.

Sorry for wasting time.

[Gigantus]

Looking for answers is never wasting time. Good luck.

[Gigantus]

Here is one for giggles: the first, fully functional family merchant with traits and custom portrait (he won't marry or have children, being a merchant). Can be used to add princesses to the family tree complete with traits and custom portrait or to spawn agents with traits and custom portraits.

    monitor_event FactionTurnStart FactionType england
        spawn_army 
            faction england
            character    random_name, merchant, age 40, x 105, y 145, family, portrait mansfeld
            traits IAmPrincess 1 , NaturalPrincess 2 , GoodPrincess 1 
            unit    NE Bodyguard    exp 6 armour 0 weapon_lvl 0
        end
        terminate_monitor
    end_monitor

[Withwnar]

spawn agents with traits and custom portraits

Brilliant.

[Gigantus]

A byproduct of the question 'how to add princesses to the family tree' from the workshop. As long as the body guard is a valid entry from the EDU it will work, it will never appear in game. The agent will act as usual, eg a princess (with the family entry) can be married to a heir via diplomacy.

Being able to give agents traits directly and custom portraits is something I intend to exploit to the fullest. An event where you get to adopt a surviving princess from a defeated faction comes to mind as well.

[Withwnar]

Bad news: I tried that trick with a diplomat and he died when I loaded a save game that had him in it. I didn't try other agent types.

[Gigantus]

I'll give it a shot with multiple agents (without the family entry) , maybe just a fluke.

Edit: nope, they all died when loading a save, that's a bummer. I feel reminded of the bug where CoA, MotH characters would die if the faction didn't have a general_unit assigned, eg on reload the game looks for the bodyguard which obviously isn't there.

[Withwnar]

Yeah, a shame about that. That reason makes sense. I was thinking that this would be a way to give agents labels as well, which would have been very useful.

Still, there might be some use for it. If the agent is only needed temporarily anyway, i.e. spawned and killed before any game saving would happen (e.g. during turn end), then this could be used to give him a label (assuming that works) which can be used to do things with him and kill him.

EDIT: tested and yes, labels work. Better still, the same label may be used multiple times. e.g. Spawn a character with a label, do stuff with him, kill him. Then repeat that again using the same label: no problem. Try doing that with a named_character type and it fails with a "label already in use" error.

Temporary agents wouldn't have many applications but should the need arise then this method could be very handy. I have occasionally used them and needed Unique Names to do it, which requires a faction slot and more script.

EDIT2: The label could also be used to give him ancillaries. Being a temporary character there's probably no point in doing so, ditto for portrait, but you never know.

[TheEliteDwarf]

I was wondering how I could use existing backgrounds for custom portraits that are already in the mod I'm working on for when I create new portraits.

(It looks like MIKE GOLF asked this question on page 5, post #81, of this thread but he wasn't answered).

Anyway, the portrait I'm adding is part of a specific culture and all the portraits of that culture have the same background. However, due to how creating custom portraits requires the erasing of the background, I'm unable to extract the background.

Is there a way of undoing the erasing of the background in the portrait_young.tga file which would allow me to use it or perhaps would I have to go to the original creator of the portraits and ask them for the background image they used?

Any help with this would be appreciated.

[Gigantus]

Bit of a bummer - you might have to use in game screen shots and then reconstruct the background by cutting out the head. Choose small heads and then perhaps two or three will give you enough area to serve as background.

Set your game resolution to 1024*786 to get the proper size - else resize the portrait from the screen shot correctly.

Else contact the creator of the portraits.

[TheEliteDwarf]

Bit of a bummer - you might have to use in game screen shots and then reconstruct the background by cutting out the head. Choose small heads and then perhaps two or three will give you enough area to serve as background.

Set your game resolution to 1024*786 to get the proper size - else resize the portrait from the screen shot correctly.

Else contact the creator of the portraits.

Thanks for the reply Gigantus!

I'm going to contact the original creator and if that doesn't work out then I'll try what you suggested.

[Delphor]

Did you ever figure out how to fix adding custom portraits for princesses such that it would display in the family tree?

[Gigantus]

Afraid not.

[Napovanni]

Hi All,

Any idea of this amazing modding idea of the potraits has been cancelled to be included in the SSHIP mod?
Very curious to know