Faylin Mod

Quillmagic

Farmer
Hey guys! I REALLY want to make a mod which puts my character Faylin (and maybe a few other NPCs) into the game with a new location! But... there’s a problem. I don’t know the first thing about modding. Any tips/guides would be much appreciated!
 

Chililover

Planter
I don't know much about modding but I can give you the frame works for certain aspects of your mod!
Custom locations: TMX Map Toolkit/TMX Loader (documentation on the mod page under spoilers)
Custom NPCs: Content Patcher + TMX Loader + Custom NPC Fixes (documentation for Content Patcher here, for TMXL see entry above, no documentation for CNPCF). Our NPC expert is fellowclown, who has several different NPCs. Trent is also a good resource.
  • NPC data is added by CP, TMXL for the maps, CNPCF is needed for all custom NPCs to function properly
  • May also add new items, forage, etc via the other frameworks
You might also want this


Custom mail: Mail Framework Mod (documentation for MFM included in the mod download. Check inside the mod folder for a commented example content pack). PPJA makes use of MFM for delivering recipes.
  • Can also use CP and fake events to trigger, but MFM has more features and is easier to use
This is from the guide posted by minervamaga.
hope it helps, and can't wait to see how it turns out!
edit1
I did some digging and here's a wiki for modding regarding sprites and portraits!
if you need any help or have questions regarding pixel art and portraits I'm the guy! (Palletes styles etc. I'm sure you have it though!)
Edit 2 boy do i feel dumb I didn't link it here's the link https://stardewvalleywiki.com/Modding:Content_Patcher
 
Last edited:

mouse

Farmer
To add to this, there is an overview of all the files being touched for NPC making/editing you can look at, an NPC Creator* you could check out if you're on Windows, as well as a very great many already existing Custom NPCs of varying complexity you can look at for examples, hehe. To actually create/edit the maps themselves, you'll need Tiled. All those json files in existing mods can be opened in any text editor, but something that catches syntax errors is very useful, like SublimeText (unlimited free trial).

NPCs are big projects, but mainly because of the edits to different files and all the things people dream up to do with them -- trying to cover new sprites/portraits/dialogue/schedules AND new items/locations/rooms/progression changes etc is a lot at once. If you can break down your ideas into parts, it's usually very helpful! If you get stuck you can always check out the #making-mods channel of the Stardew Valley Discord, as there are a number of friendly NPC and map creators around :)

(Also just to clarify, Custom NPC Fixes is not needed for the creation of an NPC, but your players will need to install it if your NPC will spawn on a custom map. There's no documentation because you don't do anything with it as an author. MFM allows some things not normally allowed via mail as well as other features, but until you know you need those features you may not need a pack for it!)

* I do think you're going to be digging into the files at some point no matter what, so NPC Creator may or may not just be delaying the inevitable for you depending on how you learn. If you find yourself often getting errors in files you don't know anything about, you might consider rolling up sleeves and learning the hard way first :D
 
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