Help: Modifying Activities

R

RogueTM

The various _a_*.xtbl files in "misc_tables.vpp_pc" contains all the various parameter for the activities like Trailblazing, Snatch and so on, but any changes
made, like increasing the amount of time you have to complete the activity and then putting the file in "Root" has no effect.

So what am I missing?
 
Have you tried re-packing them in the .vpp_pc file, then replacing the default one (after backing it up, of course)?

I haven't hit your problem, so my suggestion may be useless.
 
Ben.Swami said:
Have you tried re-packing them in the .vpp_pc file, then replacing the default one (after backing it up, of course)?

I haven't hit your problem, so my suggestion may be useless.
Click to expand...

Tried that as well, still no change.
 
I'm not sure of thread necromancy here, but I found the solution to this one finally.
The _a_*.xtbl files in the misc_tables and da_tables vpp packages are.. ignored. I don't know why. Maybe it's a holdover from SR2 when they didn't have specific spots to activate specific levels of the activity?

Anyways, the files you want are in the _a_ACT_LOC_LVL_modal.str2_pc file in sr3_city_0.vpp_pc. As in for say trail blazing northwest region level 2, it's _a_tb_nw_02_modal.str2_pc (Genki is rm for Running Man). Inside the str2 file is another copy of the given xtbl file. Modify that file, repack the str2, and slot it into the game root directory to override it. It should work.
Note that I had a lot of hassle, it may not work if the file size changes, or it may just have to re-index it or something or be really slow. I can attest however when it works it actually works and lets you modify the stuff given in the xtbl for that given activity like time, requirements, reward cash/respect, and so on.

The actual global tunings for all activities are in activity*.xtbl in misc_tables.vpp_pc, those control things for all the activities of a type as opposed to that specific one like the _a_*.str2_pc ones do. Those files can be dropped into the root folder and will override stuff as needed.
Oddly, if you have say turn off spawning in the disables flag, you ALSO need to turn off distant spawning and roadblocks otherwise once you move you will see vehicles/peds. Parked cars is independent from those also. Without checking SR2's design I suspect the disable spawning flag is for say fight club to ensure nobody pops up in the middle of where you are, and doesn't automatically turn off distant spawning since you can't move from the cage while the activity is in progress thus it's not needed.
 
Er... it's very likely I didn't.
I guess I *did* miss a step, when I asked about str2 modding I didn't get an answer on procedure.. and maybe I missed it in one of the threads.

How would I know which ASM is for that given mission? There's none actually labeled for it.. the ASMs in sr3_city_0 are assorted asms for some of the str2 pairs but not for the activity things (well, except Running Man). I assumed then it was ok to not bother fiddling with an asm since there wasn't one there.

Considering it (eventually) did work, although I don't know why it did the one time and not the prior attempts, I guess it's not entirely needed? There's a sr3_city_missions asm in the sr3_city_missions vpp_pc archive.. and it mentions containers which are referenced by header and offset and are names which are likely then references.

If you know how that's being referenced (are the vint_docs part of it? I'm not too familiar with the internals of their engine) could I get a hint? I'm suspecting a lot of activities is handled in the engine directly.. unless I missed a file somewhere, the luas used by missions are generic 'library' ones and one that doesn't do any actual activity-specific coding. So maybe there's a file-type I wasn't looking into and assuming wasn't part. ctdg_pc files? czh_pc/czn_pc?
 
It'll work if you get lucky, basically. You need to update the ASMs. I don't know which ASMs are for which str2's, unfortunately.
 
Well, ASMs are convertable so I can grep em all once I've got them changed over. The problem in that case comes right back to what I asked before about str2 editing in another thread that got no reply. How do you find the header/data size of an str2? In the asm for some stuff I see multiple parameters for each primitive, such as a name (self-evident), a type (by table), allocator (always 0? Is this a preload?) then unknown3, unknown4, the header, the datasize, and unknown7. Without knowing how to find a header/datasize I can't safely change str2s (without a lot of luck as you noted, which explains why it only worked the last time I tried) but without knowing what the unknowns are I'm really gambling on luck should I want to add anything new. Not that I'm at that state.. for the original thread here just knowing the header/datasize would be enough.. how do you tell these since it's not always uniform? Verbose in the tools doesn't say the header size when it packs an str2, so I dunno,..
 
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