Can I replace agent cutscenes with simple TGA images?

[es157]

For the purposes of my mod, I figured that those infiltration and assassination cutscenes, though cool in vanilla, don't really belong in the new GoT setting. For the sake of immersion and gameplay practicity, checking the box that says "Don't show this movie type again" while in-game doesn't feel like the best of solutions either. What I really want is to remove the cutscenes entirely and return to the old RTW interface, which merely showed a TGA picture illustrating that the mission had either succeeded or failed.

The same already happens in MTW2 for everything that is not infiltrations, assassinations, and marriages, so I thought it should be possible to replace those as well.

I'm aware that I can turn off all videos in the preferences file, but I don't want to remove the intros and the victory and defeat videos. Is there a way out for my problem or am I stuck with either the cutscenes or a black screen no matter what?

[Callistonian]

The config file has different lines for different types of videos so you can selectively enable/disable them. If you do as shown below, it will leave the intro videos and any scripted videos intact but only disable the ones for assassins and spies.

[video]
movies = 1                      ;game launch video, faction intro movies
event_movies = 1             ;historic_event fmv, I think also the victory/defeat videos, may also include princess marriage
assassination_movies = 0   ;assassination
sabotage_movies = 0        ;sabotage
infiltration_movies = 0       ;spy infiltration

There is also the event_cutscenes option under [game], I'm not sure what that one does. Users of your mod won't be able to re-enable these videos without editing their config file which is akin to editing any other file in the mod (i.e. nothing you can do about it so it's just as good as another fix).

The other option is to edit descr_movies.xml and basically delete all the contents. This file links those assassination, sabotage, and infiltration events covered by the configs to fmv files. You can likewise change/remove the intro, victory, and some scripted movies in descr_movies_tracks.xml.

[es157]

The config file has different lines for different types of videos so you can selectively enable/disable them. If you do as shown below, it will leave the intro videos and any scripted videos intact but only disable the ones for assassins and spies.

[video]
movies = 1                      ;game launch video, faction intro movies
event_movies = 1             ;historic_event fmv, I think also the victory/defeat videos, may also include princess marriage
assassination_movies = 0   ;assassination
sabotage_movies = 0        ;sabotage
infiltration_movies = 0       ;spy infiltration

There is also the event_cutscenes option under [game], I'm not sure what that one does. Users of your mod won't be able to re-enable these videos without editing their config file which is akin to editing any other file in the mod (i.e. nothing you can do about it so it's just as good as another fix).

The other option is to edit descr_movies.xml and basically delete all the contents. This file links those assassination, sabotage, and infiltration events covered by the configs to fmv files. You can likewise change/remove the intro, victory, and some scripted movies in descr_movies_tracks.xml.

Unfortunately, all that this method does is auto-check the "Don't show this movie type again" box, while the player can freely uncheck it in-game at any time. It's not exactly the solution I had in mind, though I'm starting to think these videos can't be completely removed.

[Callistonian]

That checkbox is on the movie scroll. How is the user going to uncheck it if they never see the movie because it's been disabled in the configs? They can't. Checking that box for the first time is equivalent to setting the config to 0 (false) - the only way to re-enable the movies after that is to edit the config file. So this is a completely valid way to remove those movies from the game.

An equally valid way, which has nothing to do with configs or check boxes (and which I already suggested above and you seem to have not even read), is to delete the entries for those movies in descr_movies.xml. The user can set all of their configs to 1 (true) and they still won't see those movies if their linkages have been removed from that file.

[es157]

That checkbox is on the movie scroll. How is the user going to uncheck it if they never see the movie because it's been disabled in the configs? They can't. Checking that box for the first time is equivalent to setting the config to 0 (false) - the only way to re-enable the movies after that is to edit the config file. So this is a completely valid way to remove those movies from the game.

An equally valid way, which has nothing to do with configs or check boxes (and which I already suggested above and you seem to have not even read), is to delete the entries for those movies in descr_movies.xml. The user can set all of their configs to 1 (true) and they still won't see those movies if their linkages have been removed from that file.

You are mistaken. The box still appears in the assassination report after you set the movie value to 0, and you can uncheck it at any time during the game. It is not necessary to go back to the preferences to restore the cutscenes.

As for your alternative, I have yet to see what it does.

Update: I have deleted everything inside the descr_movies_xlm file, and the result is that the cutscenes do disappear completely, however the check box asking whether I want to see the movies still appears in the report. However small this may seem, I want to get rid of this check box. Is there a way to do it?

[Callistonian]

You're right, the assassination event does still have the checkbox even though there is no movie. That must be an old bug on CA's part.

Anyway, the checkbox option can be removed by commenting out the line 'ui_element center' for mission_assassinate, mission_sabotage, etc. in descr_event_images.txt. Combined with removing the movie linkages in descr_movies.xml, all traces of the movies will be completely gone. I'll leave it to you to find the .tga file names so you can edit those as needed.

[es157]

You're right, the assassination event does still have the checkbox even though there is no movie. That must be an old bug on CA's part.

Anyway, the checkbox option can be removed by commenting out the line 'ui_element center' for mission_assassinate, mission_sabotage, etc. in descr_event_images.txt. Combined with removing the movie linkages in descr_movies.xml, all traces of the movies will be completely gone. I'll leave it to you to find the .tga file names so you can edit those as needed.

What does the entry called agent_movie stand for? In the same file there are entries for mission_assassinate, mission_sabotage, and mission_spy already.

[Callistonian]

I don't know precisely what agent_movie (or most of the event types in that file) refer to off hand. I do know that mission_assassinate is the successful assassination event so commenting out the UI element on that entry will remove the checkbox for that particular message. You need to experiment to remove the checkboxes for the other events although as you've seen, their names in that file make it pretty obvious which messages they refer to. I call these 'messages' instead of 'scrolls' because I'm fairly sure they only trip MessageClosed and not ScrollClosed (and there are no named UI elements for these 'scrolls').

You should be fine with deleting stuff (such as the UI element for the checkbox) in descr_event images, and changing things works as well, but adding stuff usually doesn't work in my experience so be warned. Fortunately, all you need to do is delete or comment out a few lines for those assassin-related events.

[Gigantus]

Simply editing the entry below from descr_event_images should do the trick

agent_movie
    icon    agent
    importance high
    width 536 false
    format
    {
        string         center verdana_med    black
        movie         center 536 304   <--- put semi colon in front of line (or delete) to disable movies
        image     center    agent_pic      <--- enter this line to use TGA "agent_pic" picture instead, requires to create and place    <--- put semi colon in front of line to remove check box TGA picture as usual
        ui_element     center ;; movie option   <--- put semi colon in front of line (or delete) to remove check box
    }