Characters are installed inside the /chars folder, each in its own sub folder. It's recommended, but not strict required, to name their directory exactly the same as their DEF file. Doing so will facilitate the process of adding them to the Roster as we'll see later.
Stages are installed in the /stages folder, but in fact, can be placed anywhere as we always refer to them by the relative path from the content root directory.
The Roster is configured in the file pointed by [Files] select in the System Motif definition, usually named select.def.
As in any DEF file, it follows the same INI-like structure, containing just 3 sections: [Characters], [ExtraStages] and [Options].
How to add characters
Characters are registered in the Select Screen by adding them to the [Characters] section of the select.def, one character per line. The order they will be displayed in that screen is the same you add them here. Let's suppose your Motif has 5 rows and 5 columns, the first 5 characters in the list will be the first row, the next 5 the second row, and so on, up to 25 chars (25 lines) in this case.
Use the format:
charname, stagefilename
eg. For a player with filename "kfm", and stage filename "stages/mybg.def" type:
kfm, stages/mybg.def
If you want to load a different DEF file, you can enter it as a directory plus the DEF file. This example loads up chars/kfm/alt-kfm.def:
kfm/alt-kfm.def, stages/mybg.def
If you put "random" as the stagefilename, then a random stage will be selected for that player. eg.:
kfm, random
Elecbyte M.U.G.E.N supports Zipped characters in a special way. On MUGENext, you can use ZIP everywhere without any special syntax to refer the content inside. But, for compatibility, we also support the M.U.G.E.N way. To do the Elecbyte way, place the ZIP file in the /chars/ directory. The syntax is as follows:
zipname.zip:defname.def, stages/mybg.def
For example, if you have newsuave.def in suave.zip, the syntax is:
suave.zip:newsuave.def, stages/mybg.def
If your DEF file has the same name as the ZIP file (eg. suave.def in suave.zip), you can just put the name of the ZIP file alone:
suave.zip, stages/mybg.def
Note: Remember that, for MUGENext, you can register Zipped characters the same way as the regular ones. The syntax above is just for compatibility.
Optional parameters may follow on the same line, separated by commas. Each parameter has the form: paramname = paramvalue where paramname is the name of the parameter type, and paramvalue is the value to assign that parameter.
The optional parameters are:
- music: Set the paramvalue to the name of the music file to use as the BGM for that character. This overrides the bgmusic parameter in the Stage's DEF file, so you can re-use the same Stage for multiple characters, but have a different BGM playing for each person.
- includestage: Set the paramvalue to 0 to avoid including this stage in the stage select list (in VS, training modes, etc).
- order: Set the paramvalue to the ordering priority to give the character. Valid values are from 1 to 30. A smaller value means you will fight the character sooner. You will never fight an order 2 character before an order 1 character, and never an order 3 character before an order 2 one. For example, you might want to set your boss character to have order=3. The default order value is 1 if you omit this param. See *.maxmatches under [Options] for how to limit the number of matches per order priority.
Some examples:
kfm, stages/mybg.def, includestage=0 kfm, stages/mybg.def, music=sound/song.mp3 kfm, stages/mybg.def, music=sound/song.mp3, includestage=0 kfm, stages/mybg.def, order=3
You can also add a randomize icon to the select screen. To do this, put the word "randomselect" on a line of its own, with no extra parameters.
To left a cell blank/empty, just write an invalid character or the word "empty" on a line of its own, with no extra parameters.
How to add stages
Any Stage mentioned in the [Characters] section, except the ones with includestage=0, are automatically registered.
To add more stages to the list, put them in the [ExtraStages] section of the select.def, one per line. eg.:
stages/stage0-720.def
Arcade Mode options
The [Options] section is used to setup the Arcade mode.
- arcade.maxmatches: Here you set the maximum number of matches to fight before game ends in Arcade Mode. The first number is the number of matches against characters with order=1, followed by order=2 and order=3 respectively. For example, for 4,3,1 you will fight up to 4 randomly-picked characters who have order=1, followed by 3 with order=2 and 1 with order=3. Up to 30 entries allowed.
- team.maxmatches: Maximum number of matches to fight before game ends in Team Mode. Like arcade.maxmatches, but applies to Team Battle.
