Merchant quest

[John Xenir]

I r noob at modding m&b, so I decided to start with doing quests and initial merchant quest looks quite interesting as it features many different things. I am able to follow how the quest progress via dialogs and quests modules, but when it goes to "action", I am kinda lost. To be specific, where (in modules) is merchant brother spawned. I looked in triggers module, but I am not able to find it there.

 

[Mad Vader]

If you are a noob quests are a challenge. But you may be a persistent SOB type of noob, so here we go.

Where is merchant's brother spawned? Here's how to go about it:
1. The merchant brother must be a separate troop, so first search the troops file for "brother" or whatever his onscreen name is.
You get this:
  ["relative_of_merchant", "Merchant's Brother", "{!}Prominent",tf_hero,0,0,fac_kingdom_2,
  [itm_linen_tunic,itm_nomad_boots],
  def_attrib|level(1),wp_melee(10),knows_athletics_1|knows_ironflesh_2|knows_shield_2, 0x00000000320410022d2595495491afa400000000001d9ae30000000000000000, mercenary_face_2], 

2. Now if you search the module system for "trp_relative_of_merchant", you will get all the references for the brother, including his spawning code. Like here in the "bandit_lair" mission template:
...
This sequence:
          (try_begin),
            (eq, ":starting_town_faction", "fac_kingdom_1"),
            (assign, ":troop_of_merchant", "trp_relative_of_merchant"),

... is followed by code to find the nearest entry point, and spawning the brother there:
          (add_visitors_to_current_scene, ":nearest_entry_point", ":troop_of_merchant", 1, 0),

 

[John Xenir]

Ok thanks, but what is overall purpose of mission template module? They are not explained in Armagan's module system documentation. I pretty much understand other modules, maybe only what would be a difference between triggers and simple triggers and why they are separated.

 

[Mad Vader]

Mission templates define what happens in scenes, like walking around town, battles(!), or anything else. They ARE explained in Chapter 11 of this tutorial: http://forums.taleworlds.com/index.php/topic,56798.0.html.
Triggers and simple triggers are basically the same, (the) triggers are slightly more powerful. Read the top comments in the files to see why.

 

[Caba`drin]

module_triggers and module_simple_triggers run on the world map.

Only the triggers in a specific mission template's list within module_mission_templates run in the mission/scene defined by that mission template.
Mission template triggers are of the same format as the old-form/module_triggers. See my syntax guide for more info...but definitely start with the link MadVader posted.

 

[John Xenir]

Okay, I went through the tutorial (except texture things which I won't need for now), it went everything well, except battle arena with geoffrey, how to actually activate this mission template.

Btw, what the sign {!} stands for?