Geneforge 1: Is There Any Way to Revive an NPC?

[Cerlis]

Forewarning, this post contains spoilers for later parts of Geneforge 1. If you haven't played through Geneforge 1 yet and wish to avoid spoilers, now's your change to click away from the page.

 

More context in the spoiler, but to summarize I killed Sniff in Wooded Valley and I need to revive him. I don't care if it's through legitimate means, a cheat, or even modifying my save to reset the entire zone. Loading an old save is doable, but it's my last resort.

 

Spoiler

 

While trying to find Astrov I came across a hostile Servile, which I killed without a second thought. I figured he was one of the Taker's scouts or something. After running around like a chicken with it's head cut off, I finally gave up on finding Astrov by myself and checked the wiki. As it turns out, the Servile's name was Sniff, and he was Astrov's scout, whom I was supposed to deliver a letter to in order to gain entry.

 

After a brief Google search to find out why Sniff was hostile, I found a similar scenario on these forums, albeit from a slightly less bloodthirsty player. Apparently attacking your own creations is considered a hostile act, and causes the area to turn hostile as well. I often killed my own creations for experience, so this is likely the source of my problem.

 

Up until recently I'd been following the golden rule of 'save early, save often', but as the title implies I chose to neglect this advice at the wrong time. The only save I made before killing Sniff would set me back an hour's progress, but that includes clearing the Inner Crypt, which I'd rather avoid doing a second time.

 

 

Edited August 13, 2019 by Cerlis

[Lilith]

I don't think there's a simple way to revive him as such, but I suppose you could copy-paste his dialogue into some other unimportant NPC's dialogue script to effectively transform them into Sniff, so that you could talk to them to complete the quest instead.

 

If it's any consolation, nothing you do in the Inner Crypt is important to how the rest of the game turns out, so if you do end up reloading an old save you could just skip it next time around; it's also the most difficult area in the game, so if you were able to clear it you don't really need any of the loot from it for anything else.

[TheKian]

I'd have to check to see what talking to Sniff does, but if it changes an SDF you can just use the "SDF ___ ___ ___" cheat to replicate it. The bigger problem would be that the Sholai in the cave will be hostile to you. I think that in Geneforge 1, the cheat to make people NOT hate you again is 'pleaseforgiveme'.

[Cerlis]

Edit: Since we're talking about modifying files, it may be worth mentioning that I'm playing the Steam version.

 

I'm slowing building myself back up to run through the Inner Crypt again, but I'd definitely prefer to use one of the methods you both provided, if I could figure them out. I'm unfamiliar with scripting in general, let alone Geneforge's scripts, so attempting to figure out which parts to copy and paste over would be mostly guesswork, I'm sure I'd break something.

 

That said, I found z35woodval.txt and z35woodvaldlg.txt in Geneforge/Data/Scripts. Is there anything in those files I can modify to help with my issue? I also noticed a lot of references to SDF, which I assume is related to TheKian's suggestion. I've already backed up my game folder and saves, so if I break something I can restore it easily.

 

Reviving Sniff or mimicking his dialogue is preferable, but unless he sets a quest flag, then at the end of the day I just need that door open so I can talk to Astrov. I can always read through the dialogue file in more detail if I want to know what Sniff would've told me.

Edited August 14, 2019 by Cerlis

[Slawbug]

Honestly, it's going to take you less time to redo that one hour of gameplay than it will to get Sneff's dialogue results another way, deal with anyone else you may have angered, any other SDFs that may have triggered from that that you haven't realized, etc., especially assuming you don't want these 'cheat' effects to be in place permanently, so you'll have to undo them all at the end.

 

(I mean, I guess if somebody else does all the research for you, it might not take less time for you  )

[Cerlis]

As you said, it's likely my best option to bite the bullet and run through the Inner Crypt again. I'm sure it won't be as bad as I'm imagining, as tends to be the case with dread.

 

I'd also like to apologize if it seemed I was expecting someone else to do all the research for me. My intention was merely to ask for advice from anyone who knew a solution off the top of their head, as I surely lack the same knowledge that many longtime players, modders and staff know by heart.

 

At this point I believe all my choices have been presented, and all that's left is to choose. I appreciate everyone's help, both for myself and anyone who may have a similar issue in the future. I'm unfamiliar with how this forum works, but I think this thread is ready to be closed/locked, if that's something you do here.

[Slawbug]

And I'd like to apologize if it seemed I was painting a picture of you wanting us to do the work for you!  That was just me being snarky and I didn't mean to imply that.  Actually, you were pretty helpful: you described the situation clearly, gave relevant extra info like platform, and did not assume it was a random bug.  That's way above average pretty much anywhere online.  Anyway, welcome to the forums, Cerlis.