BigRedKane

Ok, some may have noticed I was creating a vampire custom hero....everything works on him so far but I've hit a snag.
I want him to have Glorfindel's horse riding abbility (which works fine at the moment) but also I want him to be able to change into a vampire bat (or bat cloud) and a seperate toggle to change into a vampire werewolf (useing a warg...they look more werewolf like...kinda like American Werewolf in London style...heh).

The problem isn't in Kain's ini, but in the VampireBat one...obviously I want him to be able to change back...lol.
I had set up a child object of the Crebain (crows) and changed their skins to the cavebats and changed a few other bits such as the sounds to the cavebats one (kinda like what the re-skin does for 'em) and then I added the Beorning human/Beorning bear toggle (from the BFME The War mod and modified for VampireBat)...but it keeps giving me an undefined Behaviour error on game boot up.
I now know it's something in the toggle that it don't like since I deleted the other behaviours and left the transform toggle in and it STILL did it.....grrrr.....lol.

If someone could be kind enough to tell me what I need to change (or new code I need to add) I'd be very grateful...I can pretty much guess where to put it...lol...just need the toggle thingy working. I also changed the kindof a little to match Kain's (the vampire) and removed lifetime update with the relevant command.

For those that might be interested I'll list his powers/abbilties (all been coded so far...need the game to boot to check 'em). -
1) Horse Toggle
2)Vampire Bat Toggle
3)Vampire Werewolf Toggle
4)Blink (teleport)
5)Raise the Dead (army of the dead Summon).

He also has a hidden elven gifts that kicks in at about lvl 5....and aragorn's leadership which is available from lvl 1. And he has a vampire health drain on his custom KainSoulReaverSword weapon thanks to Zimoo...(thankies Zimoo... ).
The elven gifts/healing is set up so he can heal even during combat....making him one tough s.o.b.....well anyone who's familiar with Blood Omen and Legacy of Kain series of games will know just how tough Kain is.
I also added SCARY MONSTER to his kindof....that means anyone, friend or foe, that meets him will likely cower in fear...(I have great fun with that...lol).

Hi everyone,

I have been reading these posts for quite some time so I thought it was about time I introduced myself....lol.

First of all I'd like to thank all the talented and knowledgable people here for their contributions to the community in general, without which I'd still be sitting on my tod scratching my head wondering how to mod certain things....heh.

Some of you have become quite well known names to me, such as Zimoo, Lauri, 2Playgames, Solinix, Master Windu and a few others.

I've never posted here before because I've either been busy with work, or busy learning about modding BFME 2 or busy playing it, this place being one of my number one choices for learning about modding and I've even recomended a few people here from the EA modding forum (I'm PlayerLordSauron there).

Ok, a bit about myself....I'm a self employed artist based in the UK. I make textures, morphs (for shapeing base models), poses and character packs for Poser and Daz Studio. For those of you not familiar with what those applications do - they're 3D graphic character design and scene creation tools. Daz Studio is free, Poser is not. I also sell my creations through outlets such as Renderosity. For those of you wanting to learn more about texturing (and maybe other elements) I suggest checking out Daz (www.daz3d.com) and Renderosity (www.renderosity.com) and reading some of their tutorials and stuff, it's also free membership to those sites.

As far as modding BFME 2 goes, I've learnt how to "clone" existing heros by setting up a new folder in the objects folder (ie. MyMods) and placing the new hero files in there, but setting them up as child objects to the hero they are cloned from. I found this to be much safer, expecially in cases such as the Balrog where removing the lifetime update on the original will cause crashes somewhere (in Balrog's case this was near the end of one of the story levels where it needed the lifetime update).
I've also tinkered around with the Playertemplate file and added heros (that's kinda "too easy"...lol...didn't even need a tutorial for that one...heh).

Also mucked around with the credits file....had a ton fun with that....then decided to create a serious one.
There's also a bunch of other stuff I've learnt, but I'll be here all night if I listed all of 'em...lol....suffice to say I've learned enough to navigate the folders with ease, change a few things and create my own ini.big files and stuff.

I use the replace ini.big file method....I've had crash problems with the shortcut way. I don't mind since it only takes about 1 second to back up an ini file on my machine and it's a process I only do once (I file everything carefully and perminantly). I still need to learn about adding custom assets to the assets file though, so any pointers on that will be greatly appreciated.


I'm also a little stuck on my cloneing exisitng hero mod. At the moment I'm trying to create Kain (the vampire from the Blood Omen games). I'm useing Glorfindel as the base model since he looks quite close to Kain's apperance. I can get him in the game and he works/functions pretty much ok, even got it so he doesn't cast a reflection and he can ride Glorfindel's horse (weapon toggle, and horse riding are options I felt every character should have...except maybe trolls....they'd crush the poor horse...lol).

Anyways, the problem with Kain is his name comes up with "Controlbar missing: Kain" or some such as does his description and that's despite adding his name and description to the lotr.str file. I also created a commandset for him and stuff (just wanted him to have Glorfindel's set as a test, then change later), but all the powers are greyed out in game except for the horse mount. He also can't seem to level up (his level is set to 0).
I'm sorry if these questions are something you've had before, but I've wrestled with this thing for over a month and nothing works so far.

I also think it would be neat if existing heros from the game appeared in their own catigourie within Create-a-Hero, just as a default model and textures the player can add their own name, attributes and powers to. I'm guessing that will be a headache though...lol).

Anyways I'd better end this here, sorry for the length...I hope to chat/communicate with some of you soon. And since I missed it, I hope you all had a great christmas and have an excellent new year. Bye for now and take care.

Edit : I used the BFME 2 The War mod to build my other mods on since it has loads of added buildings and stuff, it's possible the lotr.str file that came with that isn't implimented correctly and so I'll probably have to create a new one following a tutorial. I only really need to know a few things on this - 1) where can I find the original lotr.str file? 2) considering I use the replace ini.big file method, where should I place my modified lotr.str file when it's done? and 3) I can open the lotr.str file in notepad, is this a good way to edit it, or do you reccomend a better way?

I also noticed a thread in this forum regarding the lotr.str by Lord Elrond, that has drawn to my attention about the names and further makes me suspect the moded file I do have is defective.

Also re-read the guides at 3rd Age and noticed I'd forgotten about the levels file...(big DUH!...lol)....should solve the Kain level problem...hopefully.