Question Dialogue Mods

[iridium quality]

Hi everyone! So I'm writing a dialogue mod, and I'm almost finished with the writing of it, but I'm not sure how to code it.
I know that in the code, portraits have codes (like $3) and I'm wondering if anyone knows the portrait codes for Shane.
Also, is there a way I can access the game's code for Shane's dialogue? I want to copy and paste the code from there (what to say for divorce, marriage lines, etc)
One last question. How should I make the mod? Should I unzip the .json file and then make the mod or not? I have no idea how this works.
Thanks in advance for your help!
**NOTE** I have already consulted the dialogue modding part of the wiki. I didn't understand most of it, so these are my questions that I wasn't able to answer using it.

 

[lilan castel]

Listen. Use the numbers. Penny for example havs more than 5 portraits. Count from 0 to the portrait you want from the left to the right

 

[mouse]

You should start with unpacking the game files so you can see how the format works. The portrait commands that use numbers are the same for all characters, because they're based on the portrait index, starting at 0. (So top left 0, top right 1, second left 2, second right 3, etc.)

For making the mod itself, you would use Content Patcher. This is a basic intro to it, which has links to its full documentation at the top. For a dialogue mod, I don't recommend replacing entire files but instead using EditData to change specific entries. This will help keep your mod compatible both with other mods, and future game updates. Canon Friendly Dialogue Expansion is up to date but might be a bit complicated for a first example since it does translation and stuff. CP docs are probably simplest to start with.