Need help with schedules not loading!

[hikariasa]

Its my first time making an NPC mod so far the dialogues and sprites work when needed but Im currently struggling to make my custom NPC follow his schedule.

Here is my content.json file

{
"Format": "2.0.0",
"Changes": [
{
"LogName": "Wataru Dialogue Base",
"Action": "Load",
"Target": "Characters/Dialogue/Wataru, Characters/Schedules/Wataru, Characters/MarriageDialogue/Wataru",
"FromFile": "blank.json"
},
{
"Action": "EditData",
"Target": "Data/NPCDispositions",
"Entries": {
"Wataru": "adult/neutral/neutral/positive/male/datable/null/WizardHouse/6 17/Wataru"
}
},
{
"Action": "EditData",
"Target": "Data/Characters",
"Entries": {
"Wataru": {
"DisplayName": "Wataru",
"Schedule": "Wataru",
"Gender": "Male",
"Age": "Adult",
"Manner": "Polite",
"SocialAnxiety": "Outgoing",
"Optimism": "Positive",
"BirthSeason": "winter",
"BirthDay": "21",
"HomeRegion": "Town",
"CanBeRomanced": true,
"IsVillager": true,
"CanVisitIsland": true,
"SpouseAdopts": true,
"IntroductionsQuest": false,
"FlowerDanceCanDance": true,
"WinterStarParticipant": true,
"Home": [
{
"Id": "Default",
"Location": "JoshHouse",
"Tile": { "X": 9, "Y": 10 },
"Direction": "down"
}
]
}
}
},
{
"LogName": "Base Portraits",
"Action": "Load",
"Target": "Portraits/Wataru",
"FromFile": "assets/Portraits/WataruPortrait.png"
},
{
"LogName": "NPC Dialogue",
"Action": "Include",
"FromFile": "assets/data/Dialogue.json"
},
{
"LogName": "Schedule Dialogue",
"Action": "Load",
"Target": "Strings/schedules/Wataru",
"FromFile": "assets/Schedule/scheduleDialogue.json"
},
{
"LogName": "NPC Marriage Dialogue",
"Action": "Include",
"FromFile": "assets/data/MarriageDialogue.json"
},

{
"LogName": "Wataru Schedule",
"Action": "Load",
"Target": "Characters/Schedules/Wataru",
"FromFile": "assets/Schedule/schedules.json"
},
{
"LogName": "NPC Gift Tastes",
"Action": "EditData",
"Target": "Data/NPCGiftTastes",
"Entries": {
"Wataru": "Ah! A gift worthy of the stage itself! How dazzling!$1#You truly understand elegance, @. $0/348 395 637 446 428 72/Ah... a charming offering. I shall accept it with grace.$1#$b#You have an eye for such things, @.$0/815 595 421 340 724 424/Hm... not quite my taste, but I admire the effort.$2/330 92 167 684/...Oh dear. This is quite unfortunate.$2/168 171 172 747/Ah, a gift! How thoughtful of you.$1#$b#I shall make use of it in my own way./176 184 216 613 296"
}
},

{
"LogName": "Base Sprites",
"Action": "Load",
"Target": "Characters/Wataru",
"FromFile": "assets/Characters/Wataru.png"
},
{
"LogName": "Animation Descriptions",
"Action": "EditData",
"Target": "Data/animationDescriptions",
"Entries": {
"wataru_stand": "0 0/0/0 0",
"wataru_walk_down": "0 1/2/3 0",
"wataru_walk_right": "4 5/6/7 4",
"wataru_walk_left": "12 13/14/15 12",
"wataru_walk_up": "8 9/10/11 8",
"wataru_drink": "16 17/18/19 16",
"wataru_read": "24 25/26/26 26 26",
"wataru_script": "30 31 31 31 31"
}
},
{
"LogName": "Wataru's Festivals Data",
"Action": "Include",
"FromFile": "assets/data/Festivals.json"
},
{
"Action": "EditMap",
"Target": "Maps/FarmHouse",
"FromFile": "assets/Maps/Wataru_Room.tmx",
"ToArea": { "X": 52, "Y": 6, "Width": 6, "Height": 6 },
"When": { "Spouse": "Wataru" }
}
]
}



and here is my schedule for him Im making him temporarily live in George and Evelyn's house for nowww


{
"Changes":
[
{
"LogName": "Wataru Schedule",
"Action": "EditData",
"Target": "Characters/schedules/Wataru",
"Entries": {
"default": "600 JoshHouse 9 10 2 wataru_walk\"Strings\\Schedules\\Wataru:default1\"/900 Town 66 99 2 wataru_script\"Strings\\Schedules\\Wataru:default2\"/1500 ArchaeologyHouse 11 9 2 wataru_read\"Strings\\Schedules\\Wataru:default3\"/2000 JoshHouse 9 10 2 wataru_stand",
"spring": "GOTO default",
"summer": "GOTO default",
"fall": "GOTO default",
"winter": "GOTO default"
}
}
]
}

 

[Lenora Rose]

To answer your most immediate question, my understanding is that spring, not default, is the one schedule you absolutely must have or the schedule will break. And you don't need to set GOTO once you have a spring schedule, as it will default to that if no other is found.

A few other things: You seem to have disposition settings both as they worked in 1.5 and as they work in 1.6 (although the latter should be its own separate .json), and some other weirdnesses. For 1.6 I'm going to suggest you look again at this tutorial, which walks through what you need in separate files (dispositions, schedule) and what you need in your main content.json.

Tutorial: Making a Custom NPC

Last edited by Boxosoup on 2026-02-20 04:15:54 So, you're interested in creating a new character for Stardew? Good news: with version 1.6, creating a character is easier and allows for more flexibility than ever. However, NPCs are one of the more complicated things to create for Stardew, as they...

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