Quick Modding/Hacking Answers Thread

.......ALSO does anyone know how to remove max life????? I didn't find the answer anywhere
I tried adding 1001 life but... that just gave me 1001 life!

I will assume you use Cave Editor:

Spoiler: Adding HP through the settings

You can edit the maximum hp value by going to "Game settings"

Selecting "New game data" values for HP.

And changing them to your desired value.

And voilà!

Refilling health will not bring it down to 232 as seen with commands.

But if you get a life capsule this happens.

And going to a refill station will bring back down to 232.

Spoiler: Adding HP through Life Capsules/Commands

If you're talking about life capsules then start with putting in the life capsule (obvious enough):
Also make sure you're using the right command:
<ML+XXXX: This increases your maximum life by X which is what life capsules use.
<LI+1000 (Can also be <LI+XXXX): This restores 1000 hp (Or X) but does not increase the total hp, the <LI+1000 command is used in health refill stations.
You don't have to use <ML+ or <LI+ in just their respective areas, you can really use them anywhere like how beds use the <LI+ command for restoring HP and the health refill stations use both <LI+ and <AE+ for health and ammo.
So in a script you'd use:
<PRI<SOU0022<DNP0901<CMU0016
<MSG<GIT1006Obtained a =Life Capsule=!<WAI0160<NOD<RMU<ML+0003
Max health increased by 3!<NOD<END

But going to a refill station will bring it down to 232.

I hope either method helps!
Just remember that the game can only really remember 232 hp so getting 1001 through the game's settings will work fine until you get a capsule and refill your health. But getting 1001 hp through commands will go down to 232 once you refill your health.

 

wait where is this npc.tbl editor?
I tried downloading boosters lab but whenever I click on a map it won't load
Am I missing something?
It still has that blue/purple title screen saying "Boosters Lab" in the middle
Whenever I click on the 4 options
Tile
Entity
Map
ScriptData
it just shows me a random picture of a cat and some buttons

What's parallax scroll clouds?

I'm not editing this one in because the last post is getting kind of full plus i'm not sure if people are ignoring this because it doesn't show any new messages
please don't give me a warning or anything I just am super new to all of this fancy stuff that you guys seem to act like it's 2nd grade math

I'm honestly so confused though.
One of my other maps I can change the background EASY
But this other one seems to be IMPOSSIBLE. Nothing is changing. It just keeps showing black.
Am I doing something wrong with this map? WHY IS IT SO BROKEN!?!?

I'm gonna try to clear up a few Booster's Lab-related things using screenshots. This should help just in case you end up using Booster's Lab for some things. At the end, I also answer your question on bkFog not working.

Spoiler: How to Navigate Booster's Lab

- Load the mod you want to edit.

Note: If you click "Load last", it will load up the last mod you saved work on.

- You should end up with something like this:

- To open a map to edit, double-click on the map name in the list under Map listing.

- It may take a while to load if it's the first map that's opened right after opening Booster's Lab, but you will end up with this:

- As you can see, we are currently in Tile mode (the bubble next to Tile is filled in). As you can imagine, this is where you change the tiling. A nifty trick in this mode is to double-click in the Tileset to pop it out into its own separate window.

- If you click the bubble next to Entity, you lose the ability to affect the tiles, but gain the ability to place, remove, and edit entities.

- It depends on the version you are using, but with the latest version you mouse over the space you want to add an entity and press "I".

- This also happens to be the mode in which you can edit npc.tbl. To edit it, just click the button...

- ... and you'll be brought to this window.

- Clicking the bubble next to Script will bring up various tools involving editing the script, but I usually ignore most of them...

- ... in favor of the Script window that automatically pops up the first time you click the Script bubble.

- When you click the final bubble next to Mapdata, you will be brought here.

- This is where you change various things like the background, how the background scrolls, what tilesets are used, and more.

- To answer your question on making bkFog work:
1. Next to Background, make sure it's set to bkFog.
2. Next to Scroll Type, select "7 - Parallax scroll (clouds)". This is necessary for making each "layer" of clouds in bkFog move to the side at different speeds instead of tiling like bkBlue is supposed to.
3. The background should now be a functional bkFog.
Note: If it is still black, I faintly recall that it might be due to you adding more maps than the game can handle. I could be wrong, however.

 

I'm gonna try to clear up a few Booster's Lab-related things using screenshots. This should help just in case you end up using Booster's Lab for some things. At the end, I also answer your question on bkFog not working.

Spoiler: How to Navigate Booster's Lab

- Load the mod you want to edit.

Note: If you click "Load last", it will load up the last mod you saved work on.

- You should end up with something like this:

- To open a map to edit, double-click on the map name in the list under Map listing.

- It may take a while to load if it's the first map that's opened right after opening Booster's Lab, but you will end up with this:

- As you can see, we are currently in Tile mode (the bubble next to Tile is filled in). As you can imagine, this is where you change the tiling. A nifty trick in this mode is to double-click in the Tileset to pop it out into its own separate window.

- If you click the bubble next to Entity, you lose the ability to affect the tiles, but gain the ability to place, remove, and edit entities.

- It depends on the version you are using, but with the latest version you mouse over the space you want to add an entity and press "I".

- This also happens to be the mode in which you can edit npc.tbl. To edit it, just click the button...

- ... and you'll be brought to this window.

- Clicking the bubble next to Script will bring up various tools involving editing the script, but I usually ignore most of them...

- ... in favor of the Script window that automatically pops up the first time you click the Script bubble.

- When you click the final bubble next to Mapdata, you will be brought here.

- This is where you change various things like the background, how the background scrolls, what tilesets are used, and more.

- To answer your question on making bkFog work:
1. Next to Background, make sure it's set to bkFog.
2. Next to Scroll Type, select "7 - Parallax scroll (clouds)". This is necessary for making each "layer" of clouds in bkFog move to the side at different speeds instead of tiling like bkBlue is supposed to.
3. The background should now be a functional bkFog.
Note: If it is still black, I faintly recall that it might be due to you adding more maps than the game can handle. I could be wrong, however.

Thanks for helping!
Just one question...
How long does it take for the first map to load? I think the maximum time I waited was around 7 seconds (I was confused... not impatient... maybe both)
I'll try it again if it takes like 30 seconds

Also still the bkFog thing being layered didn't seem to work. nothing does D:
No backgrounds work so I'm not sure

 

Make sure the new spritesheets are in the name format NpcLoremIspum.bmp with LoremIpsum being any word, really, and to have those in the Npc folder.


For this one, this is easy! Both Sand Zone and Labyrinth npcs are set to read off of Npc set 1, so all you have to do is to open up the npc.tbl file in Booster's Lab and make it so the entities seen in the NpcMaze bitmap are set to load off of Npc Set 2. And then you'll be able to use both Sand Zone and Labyrinth enemies in the same map!

question:
i got boosters lab working somehow!
all this stuff is insanely cool, i'm being overwhelmed with new features
I like it but at the same time so many awesome stuff is making me go CRAZY! I WANT TO USE IT ALL!

just wondering if i put a sandzone monster as npc set 2 does that mean i can't use it for any other thing?
or do i just always need to put it as set 2?

 

Yeah, you'll need to keep using it for NPC set 2 for every map, if you do that.

 

So I've been trying to make my own random little boss
It's just a gaudi egg (those things that don't move, don't do any damage and you can walk through them. They are basically those white balls that give xp)
What i did is with boosters lab i went into that npc.tbl thing and i made it so all gaudi eggs have 1000 health...
and touching them does 15 damage..

it seems to work actually
boss bar health shows
when i do damage the boss health lowers

only one issue..
whenever i kill it, it dies and theres still about 1/20 of the boss health bar left
so the death script never runs
and the gaudi egg is already destroyed
how do i fix this?
I already did a mini boss like this with a power critter before so i know it works

i've tried lots of different amounts of health but they all do the same thing
I've tried:
999
1000
2000
4000

all of them leave just that tiny bit of health

 

some types of NPC have special behaviour to run animations when they reach a certain amount of health. When this happens, instead of normal death behaviour, the animation plays and the NPC becomes unshootable. This is very common for labyrinth enemies in particular. So, it probably won't work for that NPC. You can use a different one and change its sprites probably, though, for that kind of behaviour.

 

some types of NPC have special behaviour to run animations when they reach a certain amount of health. When this happens, instead of normal death behaviour, the animation plays and the NPC becomes unshootable. This is very common for labyrinth enemies in particular. So, it probably won't work for that NPC. You can use a different one and change its sprites probably, though, for that kind of behaviour.

darn
got any good ideas for sprites that don't move that i can add health to?
i don't want to use ones like pot because i'll use those later and i don't want a pot to be doing 15 damage and have a ton of health

 

one of the statue types would probably be a good pick

 

one of the statue types would probably be a good pick

are those the bunny statues?
like on the outerwall

or are you talking about something else

 

I dunno just go through the list and pick something you don't need

 

I dunno just go through the list and pick something you don't need

i cant find many since i'm using sandzone and labyrinth sprites already in one map

also for some reason parrots aren't shootable...
they just act like they aren't even there (except the ones holding the bone chomping skeletons)


EDIT: Nevermind!!!
I was able to find one
I took those snowball things with the mini snowballs around them (i think they are called fuzzcores but they look like snowballs)
In fact, I think it works even BETTER than the gaudi egg!

I understand now because the snowball things don't have the little death animation, like gaudis flop over and the gaudi eggs leave a little mark of something

Thanks noxid!

 

Here's a tip: some entities have their sprites specifically set to show up on all maps, such as NpcRegu or NpcSym. Maybe you can use one of those?

 

I can no longer seem to edit picture's now that I have used boosters lab on my thing.
All the image files are renamed to .bmp for some reason, and I've tried all these different things but I either get one of two errors:

1.) The game gives that annoying f%fa93189734 error
2.) The game says "(Not responding)"

What can I do to fix this? I know cave editor has a built in editor but I really wish I could use my own, I'm using paint and it's so much easier to use it. Does boosters lab have a good built in editor?
Is there any other way to fix this?
I'm able to get the game back to normal but I can't make any more image changes which is disappointing.

 

In the mod I'm working on, I'm attempting to have a fireplace-fire block a path if the player has the Polar-star variant in their arsenal. If the player is unarmed the path is supposed to open up allowing the player to access this area. Here's what I have for the action thus far:
<KEY<FLJ6000:0210<FL+6000<AMJ0002:0901<MSGHey bud, no weapons allowed!<NOD<CLR<MSGOh, you don't own one?<NOD
Come this way, meet me at the end
of the path.<NOD<SOU0015 [Removing fire code would go here?]<END
The flag jump for event 210 will be used for the player talking to the fire a second time which allows the player to go to the other opening on the same map, I have the ability to go to that side of the map down but removing the fire entity visually is where I'm having a problem. Event 901 in the AMJ command means the player is denied all together. If the player talks unarmed they're allowed access.
The only problem is how do I remove the fireplace-fire like they do in grasstown? I think it's DNP0038 (reading to delete entity 38, the fire) or it's ANP0038 that'd just remove the fire temporarily like in Grass Town using the Jellyfish juice.

 

In the mod I'm working on, I'm attempting to have a fireplace-fire block a path if the player has the Polar-star variant in their arsenal. If the player is unarmed the path is supposed to open up allowing the player to access this area. Here's what I have for the action thus far:
<KEY<FLJ6000:0210<FL+6000<AMJ0002:0901<MSGHey bud, no weapons allowed!<NOD<CLR<MSGOh, you don't own one?<NOD
Come this way, meet me at the end
of the path.<NOD<SOU0015 [Removing fire code would go here?]<END
The flag jump for event 210 will be used for the player talking to the fire a second time which allows the player to go to the other opening on the same map, I have the ability to go to that side of the map down but removing the fire entity visually is where I'm having a problem. Event 901 in the AMJ command means the player is denied all together. If the player talks unarmed they're allowed access.
The only problem is how do I remove the fireplace-fire like they do in grasstown? I think it's DNP0038 (reading to delete entity 38, the fire) or it's ANP0038 that'd just remove the fire temporarily like in Grass Town using the Jellyfish juice.

I'm no expert but have you tried using <CNP which will change the NPC to whatever one you want (in this case nothing, 0000)?
again i'm no expert

 

BL automatically changes images to BMP because it's much easier to edit than pbm. I'd recommend using Paint.net since MS Paint can't edit BMPs (I don't think). If the problem isn't editing the files, but loading them, go into Cave Editor, "Game Settings", remove the copyright pixel requirement, and change "pbm" to "bmp". Cave Editor's pbm/bmp editor is only good for quick palette changes (while modding) anyways.

So paint.net is able to edit these files?
I wonder why that would be able to and not the normal paint that comes with my computer..

 

Um, but MSPaint DOES edit bitmaps? Just right click on the bitmap and select "Open With..." and choose "Paint". Actually, if you're sick of accidentally opening it with Photo Viewer instead of MSPaint, then make that the default program to open bitmaps with, instead!

 

Um, but MSPaint DOES edit bitmaps? Just right click on the bitmap and select "Open With..." and choose "Paint". Actually, if you're sick of accidentally opening it with Photo Viewer instead of MSPaint, then make that the default program to open bitmaps with, instead!

that seems to work!
probably saving it as a different file and converting it messed things up

 

I think it's more that MS paint doesn't know how to handle indexed palettes intelligently thus it's not recommended for editing