Hey Guys
I really need some help to get me SP Mod started. Firstly let me give you a bit of info on what the mod will be about. Based on George A. Romero's Zombies trilogy of films (Night of the living dead, dawn of the dead.. etc) i am hoping to creat a MOD which recreates the storylines and atmosphere of these films.  Now heres my problem...
I've had lots of experience with making multiplayer maps in the past, but now i am just venturing into SP modding I am really stuck as to how I can get a Zombie charater into a SP map!!
For a start, I had the idea of using the NPC Virus victims' Skins (&maybe models) and modifing the sounds and behaviours so that they are more like Zombies. But I have no idea as to how i start doing this. Ive looked around the net, but cannot find any tut's on how to make and intergrate new enemy models into SOF2 (Using that new goul technology thingy)
Can anyone point me in the right direction? I heard about scripting, but haven't got a clue about that either! (doh!

Any help would be much appreciated! I really want to get this idea off the ground!!

Cheers,
Rob Briscoe

LOL... I was going to do something similar with the zombies and all.... I also was going to use the virus victims as my zombies but instead... I decided differently. Anyway, I know how to script the NPC's to do different motions I have posted some of my scripts i believe in one of the two Rappelling posts that are here on the SP forum. It may help you on your journey when you start to do your scripting... also check out the Scripting docs in the sdk/docs folder....

Hi, Thanks fo your reply!
I have been playing around with the NPC files and have learnt alot from there. The closest I could get though to making 'zombie' like actions (walking up to the player and biting them) was to edit the NPC and to changed its occupation to 'dog'. The NPC then took on characteristics of the dog, but when it came to biting the player, nothing happened!!

How can i get this to work? Is there a file which defines the attaking action of different types of NPC or is this all A.I. Programming?

This has to be the biggest obstacle i have to cross making my MOD, might as well get it out of the way  

I can't wait for animatED! The rappelling poosts are here on the sp forum.... jeeze... just scroll down the posts (theres only two pages) and find them... I would post a link but I think you will find them.

Thanks for the help Mechanodroid,
I've now had a quick peek at some of the .skl and .frames files to get my head around this whole animation thing. To be honest I feel like im just poking around in the dark here with no idea as to what im doing. Is there any kind of documentation or tutorials out there which explain the structure and functions of these files, or just something that will give me a better understanding of all of this stuff! Im a bit swamped at the moment.
SOF2 is great for MP mapping, but Im finding SP editing really frustrating with the lack of docs and tuts available

Keep up the support Raven, its much appreciated!  

Hey,
I have tried your idea, but still seem to be having problems getting the NPC to Bite. I pasted the  "bite" section from the dogs .Skl file here:

Action
{
Name "Bite"
Skelement "Body"
Primitive "Attack"
VAngle 16.000000
HAngle 0.000000

Transition
{
ToAction "Stationary|Full+None+Normal+Sit|Breathe"
Sync "None"
Duration "150"
RandomDur "0"
}
Transition
{
ToAction "HMove|Full+None+Normal+Stand|Run"
Sync "None"
Duration "150"
RandomDur "0"
}
Transition
{
ToAction "HMove|Full+None+Normal+Stand|Walk"
Sync "None"
Duration "150"
RandomDur "0"
}
Transition
{
ToAction "Stationary|Full+None+Normal+Crouch|Breathe"
Sync "None"
Duration "150"
RandomDur "0"
}
Transition
{
ToAction "Stationary|Full+None+Normal+Stand|Breathe"
Sync "None"
Duration "150"
RandomDur "0"
}
AnimationFile
{
File "m:\_animation\xsi\rottweiler01\dogbite.xsi"
}
}

and put it into the "average_sleeves" .skl file, I then changed the:
AnimationFile
{
File "m:\_animation\xsi\rottweiler01\dogbite.xsi"
}

to something like:

AnimationFile
{
File "m:\_animation\xsi\male01\damage\any\stand\normal\67plus\impact\head\p0\000\0

00\painheadlow_front01.xsi"
}

The problem is that when the NPC approaches me in the game, it looks like he's going to bite me but I take no damage.
Again I am stumped!
Here is a copy of my custom NPC file too:


GroupInfo
{
Skeleton "average_sleeves2.skl"
ParentTemplate "NPC_Dog"
}

CharacterTemplate
{
Name "NPC_Zombie_Male"
FormalName "A Bloody Zombie"
comments "A villager dying of the Gemini Virus."
Occupation "dog"
Model "models/characters/suit_sleeves/suit_sleeves.glm"
Skin
{
File "virus_male"
Inventory
{
Item
{
Name "sleeves"
}
Item
{
Name "collar_suitsleeves"
}
}
}
}

Any ideas on where im going wrong?
Cheers for the help so far it has been useful!