This tutorial describes how to copy an AI from Dromed Deluxe to be used in a stand-alone mission. The examples are for a FireMageX, but are typical for any AI, or even regular objects.

In this tutorial I assume that you have two folders, one with Dromed Deluxe, and the other with a regular installation of Thief. You could also use just one folder, but then it is more difficult to notice when you have forgotten to copy a file.

You should also be using a mission with a custom gamesys. Before starting, make a copy of your current gamesys and mission, just in case something goes wrong.

Begin with making some folders in your Thief folder, if you haven’t already.

Thief2 \
       + obj 
       + mesh \
       |      + txt16
       + snd

You will also need a schema folder, but we’ll copy that one later.

You will copy the files for the AI model (.bin and .cal) and skin (.gif) from DeDx. Go to the mesh folder in DeDx. Find the files fmage.bin and fmage.cal, copy them to the your own mesh folder. From the mesh\txt16 folder, copy fmage.gif to your mesh\txt16 folder. There is also a PCX image used for the corpse. If you don’t copy this, then Dromed will crash when you try to pick up your mage. The image file is specified in Inventory→Render Type: Alternate Bitmap. For the fire mage, it is xfmage. You find these files in the obj folder, not in txt16. Copy it to the obj folder of your mission.

Open Dromed twice, one with your current mission and another with basemis.mis from DeDx.

Open the object hierarchy of DeDx and find the FireMageX archetype. Mages are listed under physical\Creature\Animal\Human\MageTypesX. But MageTypesX doesn’t exist in your own gamesys, so you’ll have to create it.

In your object hierarchy, select the Human archetype, then click Add. Type MageTypesX in the box and click “OK”. You will see that the new archetype has been added at the end of the list.

Now select the new MageTypesX and click Edit. Do the same in DeDx. You will see a list of properties: AI→Ranged Combat, AI→AI Core, etc. You have to copy all these properties to your MageTypesX archetype. It helps to move the windows around so you can see the DeDx properties and your new properties at the same time. When you’ve created all the properties, click on Done.

Now select your new MageTypesX again and click on Add. In the box type FireMageX and the new archetype will appear. Select FireMageX and click Edit in your gamesys and in DeDx. As you did before, copy all the properties of the fire mage from DeDx to your new archetype. But don’t copy the links, because you don’t have the projectiles that the mage is linked to. You’ll have to create the projectiles before you can add the links.

Now would be a good time to save your gamesys and make a backup copy.

Open the list of links for the FireMageX archetype in DeDx. You can write down the link data now so you won’t have to come back here later. Select the ID number of the link, then click on To. A window with the properties of the projectile object is now shown. You can also see the parent archetype of the projectile, which is firebolt. This is a standard object (all the custom archetypes in DeDx end with X), so you don’t have to create it. But you may not know where to find firebolt in your gamesys. Keep clicking on lower archetypes until you get all the parent names: physical\Projectile\CritterShots\firebolt\FireMageBoltX.

Create the FireMageBoltX archetype in your gamesys using firebolt as the parent. Keep the object window from DeDx open so you can copy the properties. After the projectile is created, you can finally make the link from FireMageX to FireMageBoltX. Remember to copy the link data from DeDx.

This object only had one link. But you will have to find the destination and create a copy of it (if necessary) for each link from your new archetype. You might also have to create new meta-properties, although there were none for the fire mage.

Now you need to copy the sounds for the AI. (Save your gamesys and make another backup.) You will need the schema files for the new sounds. The easiest thing is to simply copy the folder named schema from DeDx to your working Thief folder. Both DeDx schemas and standard Thief schemas are included there. You can edit the schemas, or delete the parts you will never use, after you’ve copied the files. But if you’re not comfortable with creating or modifying custom schemas, then you should leave the files alone – you don’t want to make a mistake that would prevent the game from working.

Now you should have this in your Thief folder:

Thief2 \
       + obj 
       + mesh \
       |      + txt16
       + snd
       + schema

Open Dromed and in the command line type reload_schemas. If there is a problem, an error message will be shown in the status bar at the bottom of the window. There is also the possibility that Dromed will crash on you with the message:

Ran out of abstract obj ID's
Re-run with a larger obj_min. (File: objsys.cpp, Line: 367)

Click No, Dromed won’t let you ignore this error.

Schemas need object IDs, and there are a lot of them in DeDx. Open dark.cfg in your Thief folder and fine the line:

min_obj_id -8192

Change it to:

min_obj_id -10240

Then save the file and start Dromed again. Type the Dromed command purge_missing_obj and then reload_schemas and it should work.

When you load schemas, they are imported entirely into your gamesys and Dromed doesn’t need the files anymore. So it isn’t necessary to put the schema folder in the ZIP file of your mission. Some people include new schemas anyway, just for reference. But if you add or change something later and need to reload the schemas again, you need all the schema files or it won’t work. Don’t think that “the other stuff is already there, I only have to add the new schema”. It doesn’t work that way.

The sounds for the speech of the mages are in the folders mage1 and mage2. Copy those folders into your snd folder. Thief will assign one of those voices to the AI when you play the game. If you’d rather use just one, then choose the voice you like and copy only that folder. If you do that, you’ll need to set the property Speech→Voice to vmage1 or vmage2 when you create the AI in Dromed.

For the mage shots, you need to look in the schema file named MiscSFX.sch. All the schema files are plain text and can be opened with Notepad. Search for ”MAGE FIRE BOLT”. After that, and right before the line that begins with env_tag, you will see mgfire. This is the name of the WAV file you need. In the DeDx folder, you’ll find it in snd\t1sfx. Copy it to your snd folder. You don’t need to create the t1sfx folder, but it doesn’t hurt if you do – you can even name it just sfx or whatever you like. Dromed ignores other folders inside the snd folder. (But this also means you can’t have two files with the same name but in different folders.)

There, all is done. You should be able to create a FireMageX object and have it work. The files and folders you copied are:

Thief2 \
       + obj \
       |     + xfmage.pcx
       + mesh \
       |      + fmage.bin
       |      + fmage.cal
       |      + txt16 \
       |              + fmage.gif
       + snd \
       |     + vmage1 \
       |     |        + ... lots of files ...
       |     + mgfire.wav
       + schema \
                + ... lots of files ...

Remember to include these files in the ZIP archive of your mission. Except the schemas, which aren’t needed to play the game.