NPC disguised as mob disguised as player (mob_avail.txt): Display & interaction issues arise.

[FabulousFred 0]

Greetings,

 

I started writing a script just yesterday, and apparently the documentation available did not prove sufficient for me to solve everything to my satisfaction.

As I haven't written anything for Hercules before, I am still very much in need of experience. But let me begin at the start...

 

Meet Malyguard:

 

 

Malyguard is my testing NPC. As you can see, he spends his time guarding the empty cities of Prontera.

However, he isn't actually an NPC like any other! Because I followed the instructions given here, he is apparently rather a mob disguised as a player, which is used as an NPC sprite in a script.

 

Naturally, I wanted nothing more than to use the very sprite displayed above to be used in a regular NPC, blue text and all. Instead, he usually looks like this:

 

 

That means he can be right-clicked like any actual player (the menu doesn't work) but not directly clicked to start a conversation like all the other, blue-fonted NPCs using a real NPC sprite.

No good! I can do that, too, but only if I use any other sprite that is not created by re-skinning a mob and disguising it as a player.

 

Since the NPC is supposed to look like an actual player, there have been some minor imperfections in my implementation to say the least. What I did was rename the sprite NPC to " " (...yeah) and put an invisible HIDDEN_NPC above him, which at least makes "Malyguard's" boots and lower legs click-able like the entire NPC normally would.

 

Now, that would be a good start, but the illusion is quickly dispelled by right-clicking anywhere in the general vicinity:

 

 

I have a few ideas how I might have to change the client-side by adding a new, custom sprite and importing that to the server's database, but I'd rather avoid all that extra hassle.

 

So before I do that, or add lots of small, invisible NPCs around him, I thought I'd ask here and see what the more experienced folk might suggest.

 

Cheers,

Fred