Mod:Placing characters

In items.txt found in the Dead Rising 2\data\datafile.big folder are around 165 different survivors and psychopaths. This file controls the actions and behavior of the survivors. See: Mod:Placing characters/list for a partial sortable list of survivor attributes.

Creating new survivors
Gibbed's is required to first unpack datafile.big to access the missions.txt. See the Gibbed's article for more information on how to unpack a file.

You need to open:
 * Dead Rising 2\data\datafile.big\missions.txt

Add the character into a mission.


 * Example:

The following is added right below the 	cMissionLevelReady Lush_Americana section in missions.txt: cMissionSpawnNPC Lulu {	DefaultBehaviour = "Idle" NPCName = "srv_lulu" Rotation = "0.6" SpawnPoint = "-311.7, -5.6, -86.1" }

cMissionSpawnNPC Julius {		DefaultBehaviour = "Idle" NPCName = "srv_dale3" Rotation = "2.3" SpawnPoint = "-313.8, -5.6, -83.9" }

Now Lulu and Julius will appear in the Lush-ious Lady mission in the same room as Kristin.

Up to nine characters (not including Chuck) can be added to Fortune City at any one time. And while there can be more then nine characters in the city at once, missions will not spawn unless the total number of survivors is eight or less (Psychopaths and Rebecca do not count towards that limit)

Cinema characters
With Cine (cinema) characters there is an extra step to add them to the game.

Spawning the "Cine_xxxx" entries from items.txt won't work, because they don't have the necessary data. Instead, copy one of the srv Entries in items.txt, and then edit the model that that survivor data will call, which are "cine_leah" "cine_luke", and for Victor, "cine_pa_t1".

These new entries will not have the correct names though, they will have the names or the survivor data you copied unless you alter the str_en.bcs file.

Differences between the below two sections.

Character placement distortions
For both regular in game and cinematic characters, the hands of the placed characters are disfigured, being larger than normal. The feet are slightly distorted also.

Psychopath placement
Attempting to spawn the cinematicchef resulted in a deformed Chef with claws, using the same format as above:

cMissionSpawnNPC boss_chef {	DefaultBehaviour = "Idle" NPCName = "srv_boss_chef" Rotation = "0.6" SpawnPoint = "-311.7, -5.6, -86.1" }

Case Zero and deleted entries
An almost full list of entries is found at on this page A more detailed partial list Mod:Placing characters/list.

Below is a list of characters from Case Zero, scrapped entries which did not make it into the final game, confusing named sections, or characters who are not named in the game but are named in the files.

Add case zero and scrapped survivors in Chuck's notebook
Change

ShowUpInNoteBook = "false"

to

ShowUpInNoteBook = "true"

There are duplicate entries for many of the main characters, most of which will crash because they share coding.

List of attributes
List of attributes for characters found in Dead Rising 2\data\datafile.big\items.txt

Zombified characters


Iszombifyable = true is in the items.txt file.

If a survivor has a zombie variation, then they'll have another model with the "_zombie" extension.

For example, there is "srv_denyce", and right below it is "srv_denyce_zombie".

If you zombify a character with no zombie model, then you will get a "missing prop" box instead.

If the zombie model is renamed with the regular models name in NPCs.big, a terribly distorted character results.

Other characters mention in debug string
There are other characters mentioned in the debug string, and also in the game text.

Tutorial

 * Anyone who is already in or added to the notebook, listed as "Safe", can randomly show up in the safehouse.