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How to Piece Together Your Own Hub

By: Kiramin

This article will explain how you link together areas to form a hub and name the areas and exits, by walking you through the process of putting together your own custom hub. This was written before the release of the Vampire SDK, so you will need a text editor to open all the files mentioned in this article in order to edit them.

1. Preperations.

First, create a "strings" directory under your main vampire directory. Then, use Winzip to open the Local_Eng.nob file and extract the file "chronicles.nls" to that directory. Now, download this file: yourhub.zip. Extract yourhub.nmf, yourhub.nsc, and yourhub.nst into the "chronicles" directory and yourhub.nls in the "strings" directory you created. Rename all of them to reflect the name of your hub. It might also be a good idea to save a copy of these files so you can use them to make more hubs in the future.

2. Modifying the NMF file.

Open up the NMF file and look it over. The first line, NLS, tells Vampire the name of this hub's NLS file. Change it to match the name you picked for your hub. The second line (I believe) tells the game what kind of money the hub will use. The terms you can use are "GoldBag", "GoldCoins", "cashus", and "cashuk". You can include as many money types as you wish, seperated by spaces like so: "GoldBag GoldCoins cashus cashuk". Finally, NST identifies the name of the hub's NST file. Again, change it to reflect the name you choose for your file.

Save the NMF file, and open the NSC file. The purpose of the NSC file is to store the data about the different areas/levels in the hub and how they connect.

3. Defining your Areas, Exits, and Settings in the NSC file.

The text to the right of the "Locations" and "Exits" headings are examples of the format you should use. The [AREA_ID] tag is the ID you will use to refer to that area throughout your hub. The [levelfile] is obviously the file in which vampire stores the area's architecture. I'm not sure what the "null" means but it was used for every location in all four original hubs. The "mapNYCdocks.nui" and "mapGunHaven" obviously store the map information for that area. Finally, the "0x0" at the end is some sort of flag, though I can't say what it does. When you wish to include an area in your hub, open up the NSC from one of the empty hubs (located in the Chronicles directory), find the line for that area, and copy and paste it into your own NSC file.

Here is something to keep in mind: When the game starts, the players spawn at exit number zero in the first location listed in the NSC file.

The exit data is a bit more straight forward. The [AREA_ID] must be replaced by an [AREA_ID] that is defined in the "Locations" section and the [EXITNUM] must be replaced by a valid exit number for that area. Again, you should take a peak at the NSC file from the original hub, this time to make sure you are using a valid [EXITNUM] for that area (If you don't see them use an [EXITNUM] in the original hub, it probably isn't valid). Once you have replaced both area/exit pairs with a valid [AREA_ID] and [EXITNUM], you have linked those two exits so that players can travel between them by clicking on them. NOTE: You do not have to connect the exits again in the opposite direction. A single grouping allows travel in both directions.

For example: If you want to allow travel between East and West London, you only need this line... "exit WestLondon,2 EastLondon,0" ... OR this line ... "exit EastLondon,0 WestLondon,2". Not both! In fact, I recommend strongly against putting both since I have no idea what it would do. Also, it would probably be bad to connect one exit to many different exits. If you want to make travel between exits one-way (only from the first exit to the second, not vice-versa), simply add a 0x100 at the end of the line, like this: "exit WestLondon,2 EastLondon,0 0x100". You can also lock an exit by adding 0x1 to the end of the line: "exit WestLondon,2 EastLondon,0 0x1".

Finally, lets go over the "Chronicle Settings." The "metafile" is the name of your NMF file. Remember it? Simply change the text "yourhub.nmf" to match the NMF file you set up a while back. Second, I believe the "portal" defines what area you portal back to with Walk the Abyss. It is followed by the number fifteen in all four hubs, though I don't know the signifigance of the number 15. The "reviveloc" provides the area and exit where the players can revive themselves after they enter torpor. Make sure to seperate the [AREA_ID] and the [EXITNUM] by a space, not a comma. The last thing you might need to change is the "flags." If you're hub is Modern, then leave it as 0x7. If it is set in the Dark Ages, change it to 0x6.

4. Naming your Areas and Exits in the NLS file.

Now, save the NSC file, and open your hub's NLS file in the "strings" directory . The NLS stores the names of areas, exits, scenes, quests, and maps. I am not covering any of the quest, scene, or map info. Just leave those sections empty. Under the section labled "Levels" you must list each [AREA_ID] defined in the NSC file, followed by whatever you wish to name that area. For the Exit names, you have to do a bit of research. In the NLS file the exits aren't identified by the [AREA_ID] and [EXITNUM]. Instead, they appear to be identified by a predefined name. In order to find this name, you need to open up the NLS file from the original hub and search for it (The original NLS files can be found in the Local_Eng.nob). Be careful when trying to match up the [EXITNUM] and the exit name; the number at the end of the exit's name doesn't always match the [EXITNUM]! Pay close attention to how they matched up the areas in the originals and you should be able to figure it out. When you find the right exit name, replace the tag [EXITNAME] in your NLS file with the exit's name. The first entry tells the game what text to display when a player hovers his pointer over the exit. The second entry tells it what to say if that exit is locked. Just to be clear, when you paste in the [EXITNAME], leave the "_L" right on the end (no space), because that tells the game you are defining the locked message for that exit.

Now be sure to save the NLS file. You only have one more thing to do before your hub is fully operational... open up the "chronicles.nls" file that you extracted ages ago. You must add an entry for your chronicle. On the left, type in whatever name you have been using for you files (you know, whatever you replaced "yourhub" with). On the right, type the full title of your hub. There you go. You should now be able to start up Vampire and wander around in your hub.

5. Using a NST file to make storytelling less complicated.

What? You want me to tell you some more? Well... I guess there is one other thing I could show you. Remember that NST file that you downloaded. Well, that stores the shortlists for ST object placement. Currently, it only has a few very basic objects and actors. If you wish to add more, open it up and type in the names of the different objects, actors, and props from the Object Pane in ST mode. This helps a bunch when you have a few objects you would like to be able to find and add in a hurry, because you don't have to search through a gigantic list all the time.

Now, that is really all I have tell you. If you have trouble getting this to work, stop by our Editing Forums to get help from other Vampire editors. You can also download the example hub that I made while I was writing this article.