Ok so this is me having 0 experience with breakdown. I am going to assume that it works similiarly to the base game (Why the hell wouldn't it?).

Soo you extract the pak, good good.

Couple things.
1)The game uses a soft overwrite process
This means that it first checks for specific files in a specific location, if they are there then the game uses them. If not, it goes after the info in the pak.This is how we 'mod'. We give it these files in these specific location. Thus it loads those and ingnores the one of the same name/location in the pak.

2)You have to preserve the file/folder structure.
So once you extract the pak (Don't do this in your game folder..ever. Do this in a folder on your desktop or somesuch) and you modify the files..you have to put them back VERY exactly. Luckily, when you extract the pak (Hopefully using SODET, it has worked perfectly for me), you can see WHERE.

As an example, let us take the items.xml file (Sorry but I am using the base game here, just to explain). It is found inside the gamedata.pak and the exact PATH to it is libs/class3/items/items.xml

So after editing that file, I now want to put it back and make the game recognize the edits. So in my game folder I create a folder called libs. Then I create class3 folder inside of that, and finally an items folder inside of that one. This is where i finally put my newly modified file....AFTER i convert it of course.

Somewhere out there (Google it) is a program called XML2BMD. You should have noticed while looking through those pak files that there were always 2 files of the same name. One was .xml (This is the one we edit) and one called .win.bmd. The program converts XML to BMD with a simple drag and drop. It is the .bmd file that you need to put in (my example) that newly created items folder.

Once this is done, presto.


Soo what did you do wrong.
1)Dont touch/replace/etc the BreakdownC.pak in the game directory. Leave it alone. If you need a copy to extract to get to the files, make a copy. Case in point. I have a folder on my desktop just for modding stuff. I put my pak's in there before extracting.

1B)Don't repak the pak. See my instructions above. You never need to make the files into a pak again; just a bmd file, and then put it in the right place.




So..as an example. In my game folder (Going back to state of decay for a sec). The gamedata.pak file is still there, always will be. But lets say I created those libs/class3/items folders and put my altered items.bmd (converted from xml format by the nifty program) into that items folder.

What happens? The game loads..looks for the folders FIRST. It seems that Items.bmd file and loads it. Since it doesnt see any of the gobs of other files? Those it loads from the gamedata.pak. This way you are making changes to just the files you need. Hence my early comment of soft overwrite.

Hope this helps. And this makes me realize someone needs to do a guide to modding.

The randoms are oh so fun to work with.

I wont go through how to get access to the file, the info is in these forums.
But the file you are looking for is libs/class3/rts/characters.xml

If you are using notepad++ (which you should be), open the file in that. Go to the top, view, fold all. This will make life simpler.

You should be able to easily see the hero's, they have their own thing.
The others..those are the randoms. The ones with the HUGE name lists.

Thats whered you mess with them.

Now i havent personally messed with looks/voices but...
Considering...
This mod: http://www.nexusmods.com/stateofdecay/mods/7/?
And this mod: http://www.nexusmods.com/stateofdecay/mods/6/?
Exist..that tells me that it might be possible to do what you are asking.

And you are right, messing with the randoms is a big job and its one you might not be able to test easily as there are more than a few randoms and unless you find the 'right' one..yeh.

Hope this helps.

Err fair point. Still though. The George Romero mod has two separate files for the base game and for breakdown. So that leads me to believe there are some differences. Not entirely sure though.
Will have to look into it a bit.

OOO nice idea. I think i know where. Before i say, let me double check that it is what i think it is. Plus..i dont have breakdown yet (Hoping for Xmas sale). But everything should be similiarish.

Id say id put it in my mod but yeh, its for regular only, not breakdown..well not yet.

Love it man!. You need to get it up on Nexus Mods bad, well both of your mods.

Anyways, question..well 4..since you seem to be the car guy.

1)Any chance of making a version of the armor pickup that oh..doesn't overwrite the normal one? Just curious, still love the base red truck: it looks so good with blood on it.

2)How hard would it be to put into effect some sort of upgrading system? Like I go find a pickup, take it back and put it in a parking spot. Then kinda like how you upgrade protection radius of an outpost, you can choose to upgrade the vehicle. Itd have to check that it was a pickup of the right type. Pay a few resources and boom, you got your Apoc-Truck. Just a thought.

3)How hard would it be to find and nix the stupid bit of code that makes resource bags just float out of the back of the pickup? Should be able to haul those round demmit!

4)Cow..Catcher? Any chance of one of the pickups getting a nice big cow catcher on it? Id love to see zombies being flung to each side and splatting on buildings. Would rock.

Anyways, thanks for the time, great mod. Keep up the good work.

So from what I understand, the new guns that Breakdown brings into the game are only available during play in Breakdown. They don't ever show up in the original game.

As I don't have Breakdown yet, this is what I could find out there. If I am wrong then the entire point of this post is void but oh well. Going on the assumption that all that I have found is infact correct, the question comes to me that I wonder how hard it would be to import them into the regular game.

Technically, from what I can tell, one would simply need to import the item data into the items.xml file and also import the data into the search.xml file. Make sure all the skins and such were put where they belong, and presto.

That's in theory at least. I don't currently have breakdown so I can't look at their files sadly.

Of course, someone could go too far and actually release the breakdown weapons in a standalone fashion for importation into the base game so you'd never have to get breakdown to get access to those weapons; but that is not what I am suggesting.

Thoughts?

Seriously. Just checked closer. Oh you can change what button executes but err.
It doesnt mention TWO things...
1)The Z being shove when there isn't something to execute
2)E being kick when there isn't something to 'use'.

Im wondering if there is some conditionals somewhere like...
If you press Z, it checks to see if there is something executable within whatever radius, if not, it shoves the closest zombie oriented infront of your character.
That is what it seems like.

Not sure why but they have made use of multi-use buttons..with no way to remap them. Ickyness.

Ill look into a bit more, see what i can find, but I can tell you now what I doubt youll have much luck. Its probably deep in somewhere and you probably can't easily...separate the Execute & Shove, they seem to be tied together.

Regarding the original structures & components from Undead Labs:
"© 2013 Undead Labs LLC. All Rights Reserved."

(Totally borrowed that legal stuff that from Phacops' Fortitude Mod)


The Brimstone Mod seeks to change many small aspects of the game to bring a more realistic game to the player. From weight changes, new traits, and tweaks to the search system, to a full renaming of all firearms to their correct Real World names; the Brimstone Mod aims to change the player's experience only slightly but in powerful ways.

(Redoing this section, will be up soonish. All info is available at link below)



http://www.nexusmods.com/stateofdecay/mods/8/?

^ RIGHT THERE ^
Remember to vote/endorse it if you like it.


Warhead Killor: Thanks very much for the Steam Group! Without it, well shit, I probably wouldnt be doing this right now. Thank you again sir.

Phacops: Firstly Id like to say thanks for your legal line in your Fortitude Mod. Second, thanks for releasing the Fortitude Mod, it was a major inspiration to get into the guts of this game and start messing around.

I am always willing to recieve help or insights from members of the community. Have an idea of something you would like to see included? Let me know.

If you really want to be a big help, you can hopefully help me figure out how to make the following things actually happen:

• Changing the Day/Night Cycle from 1hr-1hr to 2hr-1hr.
  
  I have found a ton of code taking about things that occur at day/night but I have yet to find that magic piece of code that controls the timing of day/night. Thats what I need. It is hiding from me.
• Changing stack sizes of Meds/Etc.
  
  Changing stack sizes for Ammo is easy. Meds? Not so much. All other items, besides ammo, only stacks to 3. I am just not sure where that is, cause it isn't where it is like in the ammo. Im hoping to be able to individually modify the numbers per item in the best case scenario.

Those things are the big headaches currently.

Hrm.
I found a lot of stuff talking about night time, day time, next day, etc. Didnt find that though.
It is rather frustrating, hopefully will find it soon.
Mind sharing where that was?

*Cough*
libs/config/prototypeactionmap.xml
Scroll down to where it says like UL Keys or whatever

Youll need to unpack the gamedata.pak (Software to do so can be found linked in this forum)
Do it somewhere safe..like your desktop. The unpacking program will put it there in a nice folder and it wont damage your gamedata.pak file.
Open the new desktop folder. Navigate to libs/config
See that prototypeactionmap.xml? Yeh you want that. Make a copy, paste it to desktop.


Now back to where gamedata.pak was/is (It shouldnt have moved)
Create a Folder named libs inside of your game folder (C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\State of Decay\Game)
Then create a folder called config inside of that folder.

Now open that prototypeactionmap.xml file on your desktop. Scroll down to the part about UL Keys. Edit em. Save it, move it into that brand new location...which should be (if you followed this)...

C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\State of Decay\Game\libs\config\

Presto.

Was this potentially the most amount of work to change a few keys? Yep.
Who should you thank? UL. Shitty system they had for this..really..shitty.