Been experimenting with Parker's movement speed ( single-player campaign only), which unfortunately also changes the movement speeds of all the miners in RF. I've been told that I would have to create a new entity class (i.e., a copy of the miner1 entity class ) then go through each map and replace the existing miners with this new class in order to have any movement speed changes I make affect Parker exclusively.

I have a fairly good idea how to create the aforementioned entity class in the entity.tbl file. What I'm not clear on is how to go about replacing the default miners in each map with this new entity class. I'm assuming that changes would need to be made to some of the .rfl files in one of ( or both? ) of the following .vpp files:

levelsm.vpp
levelspf.vpp

Was hoping someone could point me in the right direction. Thanks!

Probably should have guessed that based on their names ( e.g., levelsm, with the "m" signifying multiplayer ). So I should be looking at the following?

levels1.vpp
levels2.vpp
levels3.vpp

Which of the .rfl files do I need to edit in order to make the changes I indicated? I've opened up an .rfl file with the Red Faction Level Editor, but I have no idea how to replace the miners entity class using the editor.

If you want to change Parker's properties without affecting all other "miner1" entities (Parker's entity type is "miner1"), you'll need to make a new entity class in entity.tbl with identical properties to the default "miner1" (call it "miner1AI" or something like that), and replace each instance of "miner1" with "miner1AI" in every .rfl in levels1-3.vpp which have "miner1" entities (there will be a lot).

The easiest way to do this is with the following steps, however I can't 100% confirm this won't mess up some scripting done in some specific levels. There will be a bit of trial-and-error involved.

1. Open .rfl in REDPF
2. Press Shift+W, Shift+Q, and Shift+H (to unhide and unlock everything in the map)
3. Tools->Select Objects
4. In the "Show In List" section of the "Select Objects" dialog, untick everything except "Entities"
5. Here's the somewhat tricky part. Most of your "miner1" entities will probably be named "miner1", however in some instance, I'm sure the level designer renamed them. It might take some trial-and-error to make sure you get them all.
6. When you have your group of "miner1" entities selected in the "Select Objects" screen (hold CTRL and click on them), press OK
7. Press Ctrl+P to open the properties dialog for your selected entities
8. Change "Class Name" from "miner1" to your custom "miner1AI" class and press OK

NOTE: If "Class Name" is blank as opposed to reading "miner1", you have entities of multiple different classes selected. In that case, I'd back out and ensure you only selected the entities you wanted. Otherwise, you might end up changing some of the guards, mercs, creatures, etc. into miners, which could mess up a lot of stuff.

For any additional "miner1" entities you may have missed (probably because the level designer set a unique script name), locate them in your map, click them, Ctrl+P to open properties, and set "Class Name" to "miner1AI" as above.

After you've done that and saved all the .rfls, pack them into a new .vpp (or multiple), and put the .vpp(s) in a folder under "RedFaction\mods\" (so if your mod is named "ParkerSpeed", your directory structure would be "RedFaction\mods\ParkerSpeed\"

You can then edit the miner1 entry in entity.tbl as you like, pack it into another .vpp file, and put that .vpp into the same "ParkerSpeed" directory under mods. Then, in the PFLauncher, select "ParkerSpeed" from the "Mod:" dropdown, and launch the game.

Red Faction loads .vpp(s) from the mod folder after loading the stock game content - meaning if levels1.vpp has a file named "L1S1.rfl", and you have a file named "L1S1.rfl" in a .vpp file in your mod's directory, the copy in your mod's directory will be the one loaded in-game when you start a new campaign.

Hope this helps! Let us know if you have any other questions or run into any trouble.

Hey Goober:

Thanks for the in-depth tutorial! I managed to get as far as step 7 before running into issue:



After pressing OK in step 6, the "Select Objects" window closes and the group of miner1 entities appears in an unlabeled window at the bottom left-hand corner of REDPF. Looks like this:

Selected Objects:
UID: 8322 Name: miner1
UID: 8335 Name: miner1

However, I'm unable to select/highlight the aforementioned entries. Furthermore when I press CTRL+P ( or go to Edit ->Properties ) I get the following error message:

"You must select brushes before you can modify brush properties."

Not sure why this is the case, given that I'm simply trying to change the class name of the aforementioned entries, not edit their appearance, textures, etc.

Got it, thanks Haze. BTW, how do I tell which one of the UID's is Parker?

Sorry, but perhaps the phrasing of my question was unclear. I had already copied/pasted/renamed a copy of the miner1 entity class in the entity.tbl file. What I'm trying do now is determine which of the numerous miner1 entities in the .rfl files is Parker. I'm still using the original miner1 entity type for Parker, and the "new" miner1A1 entity type for all the other miners.

For example, in the L1S1.rfl file ( found in level1.vpp ) there are 21 entries for miner1. If I'm not mistaken, one of these is Parker, so I would be renaming the other 20 miner1 entities, and leaving Parker's unchanged. I just need to know how to discriminate between Parker and the other miners.

Alright, changed all the miner1 entries in the various .rfl files to my "new" class of miner1A. Started up a new campaign, and.... there were no miners, just guards. So where did I go wrong?

Anyone?

maybe the new thingy you added in entity.tbl has something wrong, or you entered the incorrect name in RED

Do the miners show in the editor?