NPC Helper 2/Docs

Create an NPC

Image variants

Show a different sprite or portrait by location, season or festival, and which image is used when several match.

A variant is a sprite or a portrait shown only in a particular place or season. Any file in sprites/ or portraits/ other than Default.png is a variant named after the file (and for portraits, Marriage.png is not a variant).

File Used when
Hospital.png The NPC is in the Hospital location.
summer.png It is summer.
Hospital_Summer.png The NPC is in the Hospital during summer.
spring13.png The player is inside the Egg Festival. See Festival outfits.
Festival.png The player is inside any festival that has no file of its own.

A variant can also come from another mod: an outfit pack or a portrait pack can add variants to an NPC, or replace the NPC's own. See Variants from other mods.

Rules:

  • The location name must be the game's exact location name. Seasons are spring, summer, fall, and winter.
  • Avoid dots in variant names.
  • Sprites and portraits use the same naming, and are chosen independently.

Which image is used#

For the NPC's current location and the current season, the first file that exists wins:

  1. The festival's outfit, only while the player is inside a festival: <festival ID>.png, then Festival.png
  2. <Location>_<Season>.png
  3. <Location>.png
  4. <Season>.png
  5. Default.png

If a variant does not exist, the next one is tried. The image changes only when the chosen file changes.

Remember that a sprite variant used for a marriageable NPC needs the extra pose frames too (see Sprites). A festival outfit is the exception: it is only worn at the festival, so the kiss, wedding and sleeping frames are not checked in it.

Variants from other mods#

A separate content pack can give an NPC more variants, with the same folders and names under its own NPCs/<Npc>/sprites and NPCs/<Npc>/portraits. NPC Helper 2.4.3 or later is needed.

  • A name the NPC does not have is added. A name she already has is replaced by the other mod's file. When several mods have the same name, the one in the folder that comes last wins, and the log says which. See Replacing images from other mods.
  • The selection above works on the names that exist after that. The files behind the names are chosen first.
  • A variant from another mod has no sprite frames checked. If it can be worn while a marriageable NPC kisses, sleeps or marries, it needs those frames (Sprites).

Festival outfits#

Name an image after a festival to dress the NPC for it. Use the festival ID from Festivals: spring13, spring24, summer11, summer28, fall16, fall27, winter8 or winter25.

text
sprites/spring13.png        sprite sheet at the Egg Festival
portraits/spring13.png      portraits at the Egg Festival
sprites/Festival.png        sprite sheet at every other festival
portraits/Festival.png
  • Capitalization and a separator do not matter: spring13.png, Spring13.png, Spring_13.png, spring-13.png and Spring 13.png are the same outfit. If two files name the same festival, one is used and the log says which.
  • The outfit is worn only while the player is inside the festival, and in the dialogue held there. Before and after, the usual image applies.
  • Sprites and portraits are chosen independently. An outfit for the sprite does not need a portrait, and the other way round.
  • The NPC must be at the festival for the outfit to be seen. See Festivals.
  • If you made festival outfits, go to that festival and check the sprite and the portrait.
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