How do you add Headgear to an NPC? (KOTOR 1 / KOTOR Tools)

[Revanite 2]

I'm looking to change a specific NPC, better known as the Anchorhead Tradesman on Tatooine to suit my playthrough immersion needs. First off, there are far too many of them sitting in one area and they all have the same appearance due to them being control by a single utc file (tat17_news_01.utc). So just to make things it a little more believable, I figured it would be fitting to make them into soldiers, thus wearing the same uniforms. So I intentionally picked a head with zero hair/facial hair as the base (PMHB03), because most people look quite similar when they're bald. For the outfit I chose the (Powered Light Battle Armor), the green and yellow makes it feel like they're associated with Czerka, so they're basically mercenaries/agents of Czerka.

For the final touch, I wanted to make them wear this particular headgear: Bothan Perception Visor (g_i_mask03) because it looks like sunglasses, making them feel more mysterious/ambiguous. Problem is I can't get it to appear on the NPC. I'm using Creature Editor and subsequently the Inventory Editor via Kotor Tools to make a utc file for the override. I assigned the proper feats so I don't think there should be any issues with regards to armor restrictions, but the headgear still won't show up regardless. Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Edited September 27, 2023 by Revanite

[Thor110 484]

1 hour ago, Revanite said:

but the headgear still won't show up regardless.

I don't know how it looks in kotor tool as I tend to use K-GFF Editor to edit .utc files, but I presume you have added it to the Equip_ItemList and not the ItemList?

[DarthParametric 3,777]

Struct ID 1 is the head slot. For a beginner, using KTool is probably the best way to get started until you learn the inner workings of GFF. If you are only making mods for your own personal use then you (mostly) don't need to worry about KTool's drawbacks. It's only when making mods for public release that I would caution against its use. Hopefully Holocron Toolset will eventually supplant it altogether, but its GFF editors are still far too flaky to trust just yet.

Additionally, your target NPC may need to meet certain requirements to equip some headgear, just like weapons and armour. Also, the ultimate limitation for headgear is whether or not the head model being used has the appropriate hooks. If it doesn't then everything else is moot. It would be advisable to do your initial testing with an appearance that uses a PC head to rule this out.

[Revanite 2]

2 hours ago, Thor110 said:

I don't know how it looks in kotor tool as I tend to use K-GFF Editor to edit .utc files, but I presume you have added it to the Equip_ItemList and not the ItemList?

I appreciate the reply Thor110! As for the Kotor Tool: Inventory Editor, this is how it looks like when I'm trying to add armor to an NPC. I simply dragged the item I wanted from the list on the left to the appropriate slots on the right. It worked for the armor but not for the headgear. I've never tried the K-GGF method before but I'll give it a try once I installed the software.

 

1 hour ago, DarthParametric said:

Additionally, your target NPC may need to meet certain requirements to equip some headgear, just like weapons and armour. Also, the ultimate limitation for headgear is whether or not the head model being used has the appropriate hooks. If it doesn't then everything else is moot. It would be advisable to do your initial testing with an appearance that uses a PC head to rule this out.

Thanks for replying DarthParametric! I'm not too sure whether the head model that I used is part of the playable PC heads. I'll give it a check and test out what works!

 

Update 1: I can confirm that the head that I used is indeed a PC head and am able to equip the headgear in a playthrough, despite it not working for the NPC. I will proceed to try the K-GFF method. If nothing works then so be it lol.

 

 

 

 

 

Update 2: Brought over the utc file that I edited via KOTOR Tools to K-GFF editor and this is what it looks like. The item code for the head gear is already intact (g_i_mask03), even though it doesn't appear on the NPC in the game. So the question now is: Do NPCs in KOTOR 1 even wear any of the in-game modular headgear? We know that in KOTOR 2 they do.

Conclusion: Perhaps NPCs in KOTOR I aren't meant to have any headgear on. I do not recall any ever wearing one, except the ones that comes as a whole set, ie. Mandalorian, Sith Trooper, Imperial Officer, Republic Trooper, Dark Jedi (with the Hood), ect.

Edited September 27, 2023 by Revanite
forgot to add picture

[DarthParametric 3,777]

Hrm, I seem to recall this coming up once before, now that I think about it. Perhaps on one of the Discord channels a year or two ago. It might have been something ebmar was experimenting with.

There is a way to forcibly do it via custom head models with incorporated masks, but that's not a particularly desirable approach for more than one or two instances.