Fable II Script Modding Tutorial

README!README!README!
If you are using goty/platinum hits (v10.1) you MUST add your external scripts’ path to a file called dir.manifest in the data folder!
I did not know this because I was using normal v1 where you don’t have to and I did not expect this to change. So, add them like so:

scripts/CodeLoader.lua
scripts/RuntimeCode.lua

Also, I was wrong about scripts never being run again. It seems that all scripts in generalsetupscripts.lua ARE actually run again every time you load a save. I'm still unsure how it all works but by modifying an internal script to call the codeloader script, it is apparently possible to add it to existing saves though this is temperamental and may cause crashes and very odd behaviour. I will continue to look into how saving works; to see if we can safely modify internal scripts so the modifications are compatible, and can be loaded, with existing saves.

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Fable 2 uses Lua to drive several things including Gameplay, Quests, Custcenes, Debugging, AI, UI, and more. We can take advantage of this by modifying the game's Lua scripts which grants us a LOT of control over the game.

I believe by manipulating Lua alone, you can make quests as big or small in scale as you'd like. A quest where you steal someone's apple? Sure. A quest where you have to fight off ghost versions of Garth, Hammer, and Reaver all at the same time? Sure. Perhaps a cutscene showing everyone in Bowerstone Market spontaneously combusting while dancing? Sure.

Of course, if you want to keep it small and just fly around with a freecam finding the game's out of bound secrets, or terrorising villagers with several trolls while you're untouchable, go for it. Watch the first half of the video and that's all you need.

If you do plan on creating or modifying quests, you will need decent knowledge of Lua or at least some experience with programming in general. The only way to figure out how to use some systems is to know how they work. It gets pretty complicated, especially without any documentation.

I might make a quickstart guide at some point as I'm pretty sure I can speedrun getting everything set up in 2 minutes.

There's also a lot of unused stuff in the Lua scripts (including references to plot points in the main story that were changed during development).

Downloads:
(My Github downloads are slightly different, find RuntimeScriptLoader in the "Fable 2 Lua Scripts" folder)
https://github.com/JustSomeGuy1234/Fable2Modding
https://archive.org/details/BNKExplorer
https://www.python.org/downloads/
https://aluigi.altervista.org/mytoolz.ht #offzip
https://archive.org/details/luacplus
https://www.java.com/en/download/
https://sourceforge.net/projects/luabinaries/files/5.1.4/
https://github.com/esc0rtd3w/blank-intro-videos/blob/master/blank.bik

Dene Carter's Lua Tutorial:
http://www.fluttermind.com/news/archives/04-2022

Big list of interesting tables and functions I've found can be found in the following Fable2Modding Github page.


My Fable 2 Modding Github Repository:
https://github.com/JustSomeGuy1234/Fable2Modding
The quickBMS script is in the old stuff folder.

Timestamps:
00:00 Intro
02:06 Modded Xbox 360 vs Xenia
03:54 Loose files & File Extensions
04:19 Software Requirements
06:17 Downloading
06:52 Replacing intro videos
07:39 Extracting Lua Scripts with BNKExplorer
09:18 Decompiling scripts with unluac (don't do this)
10:08 Auto decompiling scripts with DecompileAllLua
11:32 Moving stuff for convenience, and backing up
12:18 Which bnks do what? (and why gamescripts_r.bnk is not worth extracting)
16:39 Before we modify our first script
18:51 Modifying GeneralScriptManager, hello world.
20:00 Using CompileCompressReplace to apply our script changes.
21:54 Testing our changes
22:32 Moving our changes to an external script, freeing us of limitations
23:44 Rerunning CompileCompressReplace one last time to apply our new changes
24:10 Adding RuntimeScriptLoader AKA CodeLoader
27:03 Adding decompiled gamescripts as a project to our text editor/IDE
27:39 SearchTools & ECTypes
29:09 You can stop watching here & Big file of functions and tables.

29:44 GeneralScriptManager explanation
30:49 GeneralScriptManager scriptchain short explanation
31:20 GeneralScriptManager scriptchain long explanation
32:12 GeneralScriptManager summary
32:46 saveload system
35:25 How to survive reloading the game: the self variable (IMPORTANT IF YOU USE COROUTINES or anything that you want to exist when reloading)
38:19 Surviving a reload summary
39:26 Quick Quests Explanation
40:33 Gameflow
41:12 Entity & Quest Threads (IMPORTANT FOR QUESTS)
42:47 Layers & NPCs
44:49 Modifying Quests
47:57 The Record System
49:19 Misc Details