How can I modify the default NPCs?
Also interested in this, as well as creating custom NPCs. I looked through the Editor options in 1.7.0 and I see I can designate things about the custom NPC (Alexia). But I don't know how to actually add them to the game. Did some searching online, and I'm finding bits and pieces of stuff that may or may not be relevant anymore. Something about using Trellis for the sprites, another thing about generating art for the character. But nothing technical, like how to actually get said art/sprites in the game itself.
Is there a basic walkthrough anywhere? I can look up tutorials and put in the necessary elbow grease myself, I just need to know where to start. What tools, what order, etc.
Ok, after finagling with the custom creator, I figured out how to actually get the Alexia NPC in the game and modify some of her settings. Still working on trying to figure out how to create a character file, which I assume contains the sprite and character art. Haven't had any luck on finding out how to do that yet.
For a quick and dirty you'll need an image of the character you are going to use. If you don't have one, have an AI generate one for you using CivitAI Pony Diffusion v6 XL with the No Artist Style; Smooth 2, LoRa. If you don't care about style use Perchance furry generator. You'll want a full-body portrait in 2:3, around 2k resolution though it can be less, with a neutral pose, and a simple plain background for background removal.
Look online for a free 2d to 3d model converter to make a 3d mode of your character. You should get a .glb you can import during character creation for your directionals.
Use one of the many online tools to upscale your image, 2k-3k is fine, and remove the background, making it a .png file. Import the image and .glb and that's the bare minimum you'll need.No problem. I highly recommend using perchance's ai furry generator, making sure to use the ai prompt enhancer tool. Makes it look good, like 90% of the time, then go find some site to enhance/upscale the image and remove background. Much faster than learning civit.ai's tag prompt and hierarchy, and you only get so many tries a day while figuring it all out.
I did take some time to register with CivitAI and give them a fair shot. I couldn't figure out the No Artist Style, Smooth 2, LoRa you mentioned earlier. Probably an additional filter I had to add on with the Add+ button, but couldn't find a perfect match.
I also took a look at perchance, too. Much simpler, and will probably be what I'm going to try moving forward. I barely started looking at 2D to 3D sites. Found a free one and it generated a model fully grey? Might've just been because it was free. I'll search around and try a few others later on. Thanks again for your help. You're awesome!
I know exactly the issue you're having with Civit.AI, when selecting the LoRa be sure to be in the Create panel that opens on the side. Choose Additional Resources, No Artist Style should be the first one if you're using Pony Diffusion. At the bottom where it says Abstract Painting, it's a DROP DOWN, I had assumed it was specifically for abstract painting, but you can click on it and select Smooth 2 from there.
Try ai3dgen, it gives you a free use every day, no account, and looks like it comes colored. I didn't download from them because they messed up the model, but it's worth a try.
If you're ever curious about the Silverpine's dev NPC creation process, it basically involves using Pony to generate an image of the character with 'anime' semi realistic settings, then TrypoSG to create a 3D model of the character with texture (There is a github for it online that teaches you how to set it up, you'd need to install a few things using CMD if you're on windows, notably Python libraries and such, takes some fiddling especially since you need specific versioning for it to work proper, possibly also setting up a virtual machine for it) once that's done, they took front, back, and side views of the character, and reduced their resolution to a rather low number I can't quite recall.
Hopping in the same thread, I'll second the request as to what art to put where and how. Also, this is fantastic! Thank you ever so much for the hard work! On to questions, haha!
1) Is it defined off of a custom Player Character with the same name perhaps?
1A) If so, is it possible to edit or add to a current NPC's art? And again, how would we do this? For example, Rosalyn.
2) Regarding editing an NPC's information mode: is there any way we could load up the bio or info on a cannon integral information character loaded for reference? Easier to work with stuff that is presented rather than going in blind, though the custom NPC seems useful.
3) I recall reading there was a hard limit on extra town NPC's, or it would require replacing others. Is that no longer the case? How many is too many?
4) Regarding Faction: Does this define if a character shows up and is permanent within the village proper or not? Do they just visit or do they get a proper place to live? Or if you set one as 'important' to a current NPC, do they live there instead? Essentially, what defines where they exist, if it all?
4a) Can the character be married or join the players household, Mirel style?
I don't have all the answer, but I have some, so I'll give you what I know, and be corrected later if wrong.
1. Yes, create a custom player character and in the custom player character field enter that character's name. It basically uses the images from that custom character you make as the NPC's.
1A. Directly editing or adding Original NPC's? At the moment, no, but that might change later, since there are things in the works for customizing NPCs. For now, you can asset rip the game assets, find base game NPC art and use that to create your "custom" character. I did this with Oriana and basically have a player character version of her I can use. (New Idea! Run around as a tame and love-able Acacia.)
2. Again, at the moment no, but it could be later. I happen to know all the NPC's descriptions, personalities, and their relationships with other NPCs. I keep it all on a notepad on my computer for referencing.
3. I also have this question. Does this remove current NPCs? If so which ones? Or does it just add more and how many is the limit? I'm sure we'll get an answer eventually.
4. I suspect Capital, might be like Mirel and Other, like Orson. Both come and go on a routine. Probably to visit, so tavern rooms. But if not, then I have no idea and have the same question where new NPC's will live. I suspect once the Get Position tool is working we'll get a map of Silverpine and can set where they spawn and which plot of turf they own if any.
4a. You can probably try making that a thing between two NPCs or you and an NPC right now. I don't see why it won't work, but don't expect some grand ceremony.
Hm. Well, for 4, Mirel basically starts living at the players flat, so I was curious if this is one way to make a footprint or resident.
A thought... if we make a custom NPC, but give them the same name for the "player", do we get to inherit all their lore and links with others characters?
I was toying with the idea as you are a certain green thumbed fox's daughter that has returned home a somewhat accomplished adventurer, perhaps even making the bread Fennec a cousin or sibling for extra sillyness. But as current NPC's can't have their relations tweaked I'm not sure how much traction this would have besides doing it the usual way of brute forcing the narrative.
By the by, what is your tool of choice for ripping art references? I've been drawing my own stuff, but being able to emulate the original would be a lot smoother with the art around, for sure.
Giving the player character the same name as an NPC bugged that NPC when I talked to them, they literally soft locked the game, but that was way back in 1.2 release. And I was also literally playing as that NPC to see how the game would handle it. I imagine naming a custom NPC the player character's name would cause similar problems, but would probably link relevant lore.
Your best bet is to make a new NPC and adjust their relationship to the original NPC, instead of changing an original NPC's relationship with another original NPC.
Asset Ripper GUI. It can easily be found on GitHub if you search for it. If you are just using it for reference material while drawling, you're best bet to save time on finding the files is to export everything and look for the 2D Textures folder. Keep that and delete everything else. You should be able to easily scroll and find all the NPC art.
I was trying to use workflows on ComfyUI a few months back, to see if there was a way to emulate the style, but I needed to pay money to upload LoRas, and my gpu is too old to run their software locally, so I can't do anything for character creation anymore. I envy your talent for drawling.
Running the .exe should open a tab in your browser, from there you can load the game folder data, either then export everything to look through it in your directories, or click View Loaded Files and then Sprite Data Storage. Ctrl+f, "sprite_npc_(npcname)_big"; all lowercase, to find specific NPCs files, which will have an image tab with the NPC's dialog image.
It's a bit difficult to explain what the faction value actually does because it influences a lot of little things internally, and should simply be "Silverpine" if the NPC lives in Silverpine, "Capital" if the NPC is an offscreen visitor from the capital like Mirel, and "Other" if they live in the wilderness. It has no influence on anything that is clearly visible to the player.
The custom NPC's daily routine in dynamic mode is solely influenced by the private character description, knowledge, and possible routines you have set up. The AI will try to infer a daily routine from those things. For example, if you have a custom NPC that has just two possible routines, "visit_tavern_in_silverpine" and "stay_in_capital", and a knowledge entry that says "%NAME% visits Silverpine every Tuesday.", the AI will most likely set up a daily routine that results in the NPC visiting the tavern every Tuesday.
Custom NPCs being able to move in with the player like Mirel will come in a minor update. You can currently have 8 custom NPCs enabled at the same time.
Neat! Eight whopping characters! Much wow!
Three follow up questions (and thanks for the explanation and reply!): What determines the art used? Is it a custom character set up just like a PC like we've been thinking?
Leaning on the example you gave, what would be the name of Gareth's shack/the PC's home for directions for visiting? Let's say the custom NPC is a blacksmith and already holds a "lease" to use the grounds to work, so they visit a certain set of hours regardless if the player owns it or not. Would that work? If so, how?
How powerful is appending information to established cannon NPCs? Can this be used to adjust behavior or establish lore that is shared through the entire village? Or even how a character presents themselves? For example, turning Hayden into a plucky tomboy, or making the guard start up a side business of knitting? Silly stuff like that.