Person Images

[Diche_Bach]

If I just overwrite M07.png with a new pic (a png of my forum avatar reduced to 60x64 . . . he is one of my old EVE Online characters . . . EVE . . . a galaxy where everyone is a douchebag . . . bit of a lampoon toon, and he has become one of my favorite online avatars) will I (should I) be able to select it in a game setup?

E:\Users\Diche_Bach\AppData\Local\Capitalism Lab\MOD_kit\Images\Persons

There doesn't appear to be an analogue of this directory that is above MOD_kit. Just breezed through some of the online documentation and the directories for the beta release.

What I'm guessing is either:
1. the game path for the avatar selection image pane paths to that directory (actually seems unlikely)
or
2. there is a copy of that directory packaged into the .exe and if you want to change any of the avatar images you have to package it into a mod, using that .bat thingy . . .

[Diche_Bach]

Based on this:

The “Persons” folder It contains person portraits in PNG file format. To mod, simply replace an existing PNG file with a new one. The image size must be 60x64 pixels.

I'm gathering just overwriting existing files should work . . . might've been user error on my side . . . will retry that

Nope still not working: probably I'm doing something wrong, else the description is a bit unclear and one has to create the new mod and load it in order to load the changes Will check back tomorrow to see if anyone has any suggestions, and maybe upload the actual .png file if needed.

[eleaza]

Based on this:

The “Persons” folder It contains person portraits in PNG file format. To mod, simply replace an existing PNG file with a new one. The image size must be 60x64 pixels.

I'm gathering just overwriting existing files should work . . . might've been user error on my side . . . will retry that

Nope still not working: probably I'm doing something wrong, else the description is a bit unclear and one has to create the new mod and load it in order to load the changes Will check back tomorrow to see if anyone has any suggestions, and maybe upload the actual .png file if needed.

http://www.capitalismlab.com/how-to-make-a-mod.html

You need to actually make a mod to change a person's portrait. Pack all the files into a .RES file, and put the .RES under the MOD folder, and load the MOD in main screen.

In order to create a modded person, you need to change the Persons.DBF in MOD_kit/Data folder, and place the actual .PNG of the head icon in MOD_kit/Images/Persons folder with filenames indicated in the Persons.DBF.

[Diche_Bach]

Ah thanks Eleaza!

Seems that that description of how to do it is a bit misleading.

ADDIT: Whoo hoo! Success.


Won't lie, that was a tad bit complicated. But actually compared to the process of making mods for virtually any other game I've ever fiddled with: pretty dang easy.

Couple points of complication/confusion that other may find edifying:

Apart from using the changes in the "example.txt" only change I made was to change M07 image to my DicheBach avatar. Now that I've got that baseline process under control, I may may more changes. The proper way to do this:

1. Get your pic and save it with the proper format: 60x64 .png file. I'd recommend saving it someplace outside the CapLab directories first.

2. Now decide which stock portrait you want to swap out (I went with M07.png, and decided this using the list of photos on the 'how to make a mod' page) and name your new pic with that file name.

3. Make a copy of the original .png you are going to replace (either rename it originalM##.png, or cut paste it to a different directory) just so you retain copy of that original graphic file (just in case . . . I actually failed to do this myself so it is not a show stopper).

4. Make your MyMOD.txt file, as per the directions in the How To page. I won't belabor those directions, they seemed clear and adequate and I doubt most folks would have any difficulties there, though if anyone does ask and I'll help if I can.

5. As far as I can tell, you do not need to make any changes to the Persons.dbf file if all you are doing is swapping out an existing pic slot. I suppose you can add new rows to that dbf file and thus retain all the old and add new pics but haven't gone there yet <- something you said made me think I needed to do that, and that created some wrinkles for me Eleaza (MS Excel is not a 'fan' of dbf files, though the trick seems to be: tell it to save it as an .xls close the file [and/or MS Excel] and then rename the file itself, simply changing the .xls extension part of the file name to .dbf . . . end of the day, I just reverted to the original .dbf file because I did something to the one I made some changes in that were invalid . . .

In sum: if you just want to swap out an existing portrait for a new portrait, and do NOT want to make any changes to that person slot's "attributes" (skills and affinities, sex, name) then you do NOT need to do anything to any other files in the /DATA or /Image sub-directories of the /MOD Kit sub-directory . . .

6. Run PACKALL.BAT. Just right-click it and select Open. You'll briefly see the windows console flash past and when you are done, you should have a CAPMOD.RES file in the
Q:\Users\User\AppData\Local\Capitalism Lab\MOD_kit directory (or its analog directory path on your install)

I'm not certain if this file is already there before you do step 6. If it is, I'd suggest deleting it. Not sure, but I think if there is already a file in that location, it might not overwrite it . . .

Bit of clarification here: The supposition I am making above could be incorrect. The alternative explanation would be: the PACKALL.BAT does NOT work properly when you right-click "Run as Administrator" <- one of those two use paths will cause the process to fail, meaning the mod will not show up else not work when you put it in the Q:\Users\User\AppData\Local\Capitalism Lab\MOD directory.

So the safe bets: for step 6: A. If you see a CAPMOD.RES file in there before step six, just cut-paste it to some other location (so you can bring it back if you need to); B. do NOT use right-click Run as administrator . . . use right-click Open.

7. Now that you have your CAPMOD.RES file and your MyMod.txt file, you are nearly done! Just rename your CAPMOD.RES file to match the prefix part of your .txt file (if MyMod.txt then MyMod.RES as the 'how to' page explains quite clearly)

8. Copy those two files and paste them into the \MOD directory.

9. Launch game and select your mod and choose "Use"

[Diche_Bach]

Haven't had too much luck yet at making any changes to any of the existing rows in Persons.dbf

My alternate pic is currently in the M01.png slot, and I've tried a couple changes to that row in the .dbf file, repackage and try the changes (Pack.bat didn't seem to do anything . . . I had expected it to prompt me for a directory--> file to select but it didn't so I've just been using packall.bat everytime and overwriting the previous version) and I keep getting a run-time error (I can easily replicate it and post a screen-cap of the actual error message if you guys want).

The error is something about a mem::add scope resolution argument : "way too much memory. . ."

If I use the stock Person.dbf -> no error

If I use the one with the row corresponding to my avatar pic swap out and edited to my like -> error

Suspect there is a limit on sum for all the fields in a record (the sum of the 'skills' values) that I've exceeded, else I screwed up and named a "male" a female, else it doesn't like the name I used (seems unlikely) or possibly some other random typo error (typing o instead of 0 seems to be a favorite of mine).

Not meant to be a bug report as it is not a bug, but just a headsup to other users: expect a bit of 'resistance' and trouble shooting if you try to change any of the values in Person.dbf.

[eleaza]

You probably need to use openoffice to edit the DBF file, less of an issue in my experience.
http://www.openoffice.org/
Remember each field in the DBF file is limited as which type and the length, as well as value range. Don't exceed them.

And use XnView to edit the PNG image files
http://www.capitalismlab.com/forum/view ... iew#p17137

As to packing the file, you can edit the PACK.BAT and PACKALL.BAT and change the output .RES name inside, it's much easier. And sometimes run the pack.bat inside MOD_kit/Images/Persons before PACKALL.BAT in the game root (Or you can try to edit the FILELIST.TXT to select which files to be packed inside the .RES, remember to make a backup of FILELIST.TXT)