gengoro's Farm & Halloween Farm maps

[life_matrix]

Recently, I've been looking for Halloween maps. So I tried to install Gengoro's Farm & Halloween Farm maps for FFvTR. However, I can't get it to work right.

While I could get the map itself to show up and I could actually play the map, the extra animals that are supposed to be included do not show up. The only animals I could see on the map are some crows and other flying birds which I assume are pigeons.

First, have to wonder if this is related to not installing FFvTR in the default location. The instructions call for copying the files into the "C:\Program Files" directory. However, I manually copied the following folders to their respective locations on my FFvTR installation on F:

* Custom/Art/library/characters/cow
* Data/Art/level layout/farm
* Data/Art/library/area_specific
* Data/Art/library/characters/chicken
* Data/Art/library/terrain/farm

After I realized the animals did not show up, I doublechecked these files and folders. But everything appears to be where they should be.

I also have to wonder about the 2nd part of the instructions, which calls for using FFEdit to manually add entries in the "templates" and "characters" tabs to get the sky and animals to show up. The details:
[spoiler]To install:

Place folder into C:\Program Files.

To see sky backgrounds:

1.open ffedit and click on templates.

2.click on new and type in sky and click ok.

3.then simply type in the stats as shown in the provided sky.jpg.

4.make sure the example nif is

library\area_specific\city\street_objects\sky_backing\sky_backing.nif

5.then save.

6.next click copy and then click rename and then type in sky1.

7.change the example nif to

library\area_specific\city\street_objects\sky_backing\sky_backing_2.nif

8.then save.


To see animals:

Chicken1:
1.Go to templates and click on chicken.
2.Click copy and rename to chicken1.
3.Change class to civilian.
3.For skin type random.
4.Save
5.Click on the characters tab and click on chicken.
6.Click copy and rename to chicken1.
7.Change AI to CCivilian
8.Save

Horse:
1.Download beyonders byd_horse mesh at ffunderground.com
2.Go to templates and click on chicken1.
3.Click copy and rename to horse.
4.Change example nif to C:\Program Files\Irrational Games\Freedom Force vs The 3rd

Reich\Custom\Art\library\characters\byd_horse\character.nif
5.Save
6.Click on the characters tab and click on chicken1.
7.Click copy and rename to horse.
8.Save

Cow:
1.Go to templates and click on chicken1.
2.Click copy and rename to cow.
3.Change example nif to C:\Program Files\Irrational Games\Freedom Force vs The 3rd

Reich\Custom\Art\library\characters\cow\character.nif
4.Save
5.Click on the characters tab and click on chicken1.
6.Click copy and rename to cow.
7.Save[/spoiler]

I triple checked those instructions, but I can't find fault with what I did.

I even examined the Mission .dat, but it appears that all the NIFs for animals (and there are supposed to be a bunch) point to the right directories. Perhaps these animals are only supposed to show up when the map is used for a mod? Are civilian-type characters supposed to appear in the Rumble Room?

To be on the safe side, I went through the Characters tab again and unchecked the "Campaign Only" box for each type of animal. But even this did not appear to change anything...

P.S.: I should probably mention that Gengoro's readme should be updated to reflect that it's no longer possible to download Beyonder's byd_horse mesh from ffunderground.com because that site is gone. Instead this mesh can be downloaded from the BYD_animal_meshes Yahoo group.

[Previsionary]

Gravy, all your posts seem so long and detailed, heh.

If Gengoro used a direct path in ffedit for the extra animals in his maps, then they won't show up for you UNLESS you create those folders on your C drive for some reason or you go through ffedit, find the animals, and give them the location to the meshes on your pc (relative or direct).

All map pieces show up in every mode. A civilian/animal/whatever else will show up in rumble room just as it would in a campaign. You'll note (once you go through them a bit more) that there are even game modes that take advantage of this.

This in ffedit:

C:\Program Files\Irrational Games\Freedom Force vs The 3rd Reich\Custom\Art\library\characters\byd_horse\character.nif

will not work for you if you don't actually have anything on the C drive related to the game.

F:\Program Files\Irrational Games\Freedom Force vs The 3rd Reich\Custom\Art\library\characters\byd_horse\character.nif

That might if your F drive is set up that way.

library\characters\byd_horse\character.nif

is the best way to handle your issue because if your files are placed correctly, the game will pick it up in the correct location without you having to specify a drive letter and all that jazz.