NPC - pk-hack/CoilSnake GitHub Wiki

This mode lets you place and edit NPCs. "NPC" in EarthBound not only refers to the various people that populate the world, but also a number of other objects like lamp posts, telephones, and Pencil Statues. In other words, pretty much any sprites except for enemies that show up on the map.

NPC data exists separately of their placements on the map. When the difference is relevant, we will call the data "NPC data" and the placements "NPC instances". NPCs are indexed by a numerical ID, but there's no indexing method like this for instances. You can place multiple instances of the same NPC, but if they are close enough that they'd appear on screen more than once, only one instance will show up.

In EBME, you can also select multiple NPCs at once. Drag to create a selection rectangle or hold Ctrl and click on multiple NPCs. If not all of the NPCs share a property, it will be blank. Editing any property will apply it to all selected NPCs, but leaving blank ones alone will make sure they're not changed for each respective NPC.

Properties of NPC instances

Position

The X and Y coordinates of the instance(s). This is in pixels, as NPC instances can be placed very precisely.

NPC ID

This defines what NPC data will be used for this instance. Also, this defines what NPC data is currently being edited.

Properties of NPC data

Sprite

This is a sprite from the SpriteGroups folder. The Overworld Sprites page has more info on how these work.

Direction

This is the way that the NPC will be facing when they appear on-screen. Their movement may change this, however. Diagonal directions may not work for everything.

Movement

ID of the action script that this NPC will run. If you hover this field, some common values and their purpose will be shown. If you want to write your own, see Action Script.

Flag

This can be used to control if an NPC will appear or not (based on the following field). For present boxes and similar, this is the flag to use to check if the item has been claimed or not.

Appears

If the NPC appears always, only when the flag is set, or only when the flag is unset.

Dialogue

The CCScript to run when interacting with the object (Check or Talk to depending on type). Use $0 for no interaction. This can either be a CCScript label or hexadecimal address. Pressing the Edit CCS button opens it in your text editor.

Extra Data

For NPCs of types "person" and "object", this CCScript is ran when using an item on it (todo: what register is the item ID passed to?). For NPCs of type "item", this is the item ID to give them. You can make it 256 for no item, and 256+n to give n dollars.

Type

It can be any of "person", "object" and "item". "Person" interacts with Talk to and "Object" interacts with Check, otherwise these are more or less identical. "Item" is used for present boxes and the like.

Comments

You can leave some text here explaining what the NPC is for. It won't be compiled into the hack in any way - it's purely for your convenience.

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