↜ Add a custom monster to the game! by WNG ↝
IntroductionHello! This guide will show you how to create new enemies and include them to the monster pools to make them appear in the game among others. This was requested by sauruz. Hope you like it!
I may assume you have some basic knowledge and overlook some manipulations. Feel free to tell me if anything is unclear.Without further ado, let's get this started.
I. Create a new texture (optional)This step will require:I. Gather ressources:The plan is to create a new Hero Epiales, because Epiales are awesome. I want to give my new hero a new texture, and to do this I will import an existing texture from them. Open ARC Explorer, and browse in the directory of your game. My access path is this one :
C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Titan Quest Anniversary Edition\Resources
Inside, you will see a bunch of .arc files. The textures of monsters are stored in Creatures.arc. If you want to pick a creature from an expansion, pick the Creatures.arc from the folder XPack (Immortal Throne) or XPack2 (Ragnarok). Following this example, my Epiales texture is in the XPack's Creatures.arc. Load this .arc file in ARC Explorer. From there, you will see multiple folders named after the monsters. I will pick "epialeshero.tex". Save the file where you can retrieve it.
Launch TEX Viewer and open your texture. You will see it appear on the screen. All you have to do is export it and save it under the ".tga" format.
II. Edit the texture:Open your image-editing tool, and open your texture. Do the edits you wish to it and save your changes, still in ".tga" format. If you want to follow my example, you can take this texture for the following steps. (Make sure to save it in .tga!)
III. Import your texture into your mod:Open the Art Manager and select your mod. It will now be time to import your texture into your mod. Before importing it, I'd recommend creating a folder specifically for your custom textures. To do so, right-click on "name_of_your_mod/source > Create New Directory".
Now, select the matching folder, right-click, and select "Import...". Find your texture and select it. It should appear in the menu. Right-click it and choose Auto-Create Asset. You will be prompted to choose between Texture or Bitmap. Choose Bitmap (or Texture > DXT5 if your texture has transparency), and proceed by pressing OK.
IV. Build your texture:Your texture isn't quite in your mod yet. You will need to visit the "Assets" tab, and seek your texture in the folder structure, wich should be the same as in your "Source" tab. Right-click on it and choose "Build". When that is done, build your mod by pressing F7. Your texture will now become usable in your mod.
II. Create the monsterI. Copy an instance of the base monster:To make it simple, it is easier to work from an existing instance of the monster. Let's import an Epiales. In the upper bar, go to Database > Import Record... This will be the record I will be importing.
"records\xpack\creatures\monster\epiales\xhero_cthulekes_45.dbr"
In the Database tab of the ArtManager, open the folders to access the record you just imported. Right-click on it, and duplicate this record and rename it (to not overwrite stuff already in the game.)
II. Edit the monster:Double-click on it to edit its parameters. You will see there is a lot of tabs and parameters, but worry not : I will identify the most important ones to edit and the ones you are the most susceptible to be interested in.
Modify the parameters you wish. Feel free to explore and try new stuff as well. When your work is done, save, then right-click on your .dbr and build it.
III. Include your monster in monster poolsI. Import a monster pool:Monster pools select a number of enemies from a table and makes them appear in-game. This is what makes every run of TQ different, because we never come across the same
combination of monsters at the same place. To include our monster in the game, we will have to take the exisitng monster pools. Proceed by importing a record, and visit those folders to find them :
records\proxies greek\area001\pools\...
records\proxies egypt\pools\...
records\proxies orient\pools\...
records\xpack\proxieshades\pools\...
records\xpack2\proxiesnorth\pools\...
From there, navigate into the folders (named after racial types) and pick one or multiple tables you want to include your monster in. For my hero Epiales, I will import all the tables related to Epiales. That is :
records\xpack\proxieshades\pools\demon\epiales_01_general01.dbr
records\xpack\proxieshades\pools\demon\epiales_01_general02.dbr
records\xpack\proxieshades\pools\demon\epiales_02_general01.dbr
records\xpack\proxieshades\pools\demon\epiales_02_general02.dbr
records\xpack\proxieshades\pools\demon\epiales_03_general01.dbr
records\xpack\proxieshades\pools\demon\epiales_03_general02.dbr
II. Include your monster in the pools :Open your newly imported monster tables. To include your monster, you will need to refer it inside either "Pool" (if it is a regular monster) or "Champion Pool" (if it is a champion/hero monster.) Technically, you can include it in both, but there's no point.
So, since my Epiales is a hero, I will include it in "Champion Pool", but it works just the same for regular mobs. Here is, in the spoiler, a quick description of the fields to edit.
Save your changes, and build those tables to apply the changes to your mod.