Accessing the RTC .DAT files (and moster editing Q)

[TheMormegil]

Hi there.
I have been trying to find something to access/extract
the graphics out of the RTC .dat files with no success.
I have tried graphreader but it doesn't seem to want to
do it with RTC. Any links/ideas?

I'm starting to create a new dungeon and want to add
new monsters, or more specifically, altered versions of
existing monsters.
Is there a tutorial anywhere on how to do this?
Or could someone just paste a few line example in answer here?

Also how would I go about acquiring the correct pallette to
alter a DM image in an art package.

[Gambit37]

There are no restrictions on palettes for RTC, unlike the original DM. You can use true colour (24bit) images if you want!

There are no tools to extract images from RTC data files. If you want the original images from the original DM, there are tools available over at the Encyclopedia site: <a href="http://dmweb.free.fr.">dmweb.free.fr.</a>

As for a tutorial, check out the examples provide with RTC. There's a folder called Modules and within that another called Examples. Look for the one called Phantom.txt which has pretty much all you need to know to create new monsters.

There are no actual tutorials for RTC yet, but it's something I'm interested in doing in the future. But we're probably talking about 3 years away based on the projects I currently have on the go!

[TheMormegil]

So I need to accquire an original .dat file to get at
the existing graphics for now?

[beowuuf]

yes, but those too are available from the above address in the original PC DM download, or CSB4windows fro mthe downloads section

[TheMormegil]

Yes got that now.

I've managed to make a green dragon.
Its like the red one but colours changed to greens.
What I want to do now is change its attack set.
Problem is I don't know what the valid attack options are
and I can't find more than a couple of examples in the
sample dungeons or main ones.

Ideas?

[Gambit37]

The attack types defined in RTC.EXE are listed here. Note however that most of these can only be used by the party and won't work if you assign them to monster attacks. I'm sure you can work out which ones are applicable:

ATTACK_METHOD_KICK
ATTACK_METHOD_BASH
ATTACK_METHOD_BLOW_HORN
ATTACK_METHOD_WAR_CRY
ATTACK_METHOD_CONFUSE
ATTACK_METHOD_BRANDISH
ATTACK_METHOD_CLIMB_DOWN
ATTACK_METHOD_FLIP
ATTACK_METHOD_SHOOT_ROCK
ATTACK_METHOD_SHOOT_ARROW
ATTACK_METHOD_THROW
ATTACK_METHOD_DISRUPT
ATTACK_METHOD_INVOKE
ATTACK_METHOD_STEAL
ATTACK_METHOD_POISON
ATTACK_METHOD_OPEN_DOOR
ATTACK_METHOD_DISPELL
ATTACK_METHOD_LIGHT
ATTACK_METHOD_SHIELD_FIRE
ATTACK_METHOD_WINDOW
ATTACK_METHOD_SHIELD_SPELL
ATTACK_METHOD_HEAL
ATTACK_METHOD_CALM
ATTACK_METHOD_FUSE
ATTACK_METHOD_FLUX_CAGE
ATTACK_METHOD_FREEZE_LIFE_LONG
ATTACK_METHOD_FREEZE_LIFE_SHORT
ATTACK_METHOD_RUST
ATTACK_METHOD_LIGHTNING_LARGE
ATTACK_METHOD_LIGHTNING_SMALL
ATTACK_METHOD_FIREBALL_LARGE
ATTACK_METHOD_FIREBALL_MEDIUM
ATTACK_METHOD_FIREBALL_SMALL

[TheMormegil]

Thanks for the list.
I can't see which attack method would be a dragons bite...
any ideas?
Also is it possible to have a poision gas cloud (as opposed to
poison bolt) as an attack?
Those little guys on the rats level do it don't they?

[Gambit37]

Yes, I wondered about that too, but I can only see one poison attack in the list. I'm not sure how George has separated these out; perhaps it's a combination of SPELL_TYPE and ATTACK_TYPE. George?

[George Gilbert]

The one's you've found (i.e. those in the EXE) are all "special cases" which do something out of the ordinary. All the others are contained in the DAT files (which you can't read

I'm looking at producing a master list of all UniqueIDs (bitmaps, objects, methods etc etc) in the near future which will contain everything that you can possibly use.

[TheMormegil]

Such a list would be fantastic!
I think it would really allow for some cool stuff.
Going to leave new monsters for now then, I can get
on with plenty of other things until that list become
available.