Author Topic: Complicated Item Creation - by Lone Wolf  (Read 20141 times)

Offline Ghreyfain

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Complicated Item Creation - by Lone Wolf
« on: April 01, 2004, 03:42:13 AM »
Complicated Items Tutorial  

Complicated item making from the ground up
Written by Lone Wolf
Thanks to Ghreyfain for some bug squashing
This tutorial will learn you how to make advanced and complicated items. To use this tutorial no item editing knowledge is required, however any experience will help you enormously. I'll use an longsword here as an example but it applies to all items.

Tools required:

1. EFFMaker. http://www.teambg.com/?page=tools/basiccustomizing
2. Infinity Engine Editor Pro. http://www.teambg.com/?page=tools/basiccustomizing
3. Near Infinity. http://www.idi.ntnu.no/~joh/ni
4. WinBIFF. http://www.teambg.com/?page=tools/basiccustomiszing

Files requires:

1. SW2H10.itm (Holy Avenger +5).

Table of contents.

1. Making up the item.
2. Split the statistics to their headers.
3. Setting the basic settings.
4. Setting up the equipping effects.
5. Adding the Grand Master proficiency.
6. Adding the 8D10 lightning bolt.
7. The lightning bolt itself.
8. Making the invisible creature.
9. Executing the lightning bolt.
10. Adding the item's information.
11. Setting up the first extension header.
12. THAC0 & Damage vs. Evil.
13. Adding the 3x per day spells.

Step 1. Making up the item.
Think of an item. It may sound simple but when you want something special it is harder than you would think. If you've thought of something, write it down and make up it's history. In this tutorial I'll use this:

Moonblade
Discovered in Irenicus's dungeon, the sword is ancient, wielding numerous powers and abilities. Along the length of the blade are Espraur runes, denoting the powers. In the hilt of the moonblade is a semi-precious, blue-flecked moonstone that acts as a natural conduit for the magic within. Lost long ago in the dungeon, it had chosen to bond itself with the child of Bhaal to return order back to the world of Abeir-Toril.

If the blade is wielded by an person of evil alignment, an lightning bolt of no less than 8D10 will erupt from the blade, leaping the blade out of the wielder's hand.

Statistics:

Equipped Abilities:
50% Magic Resistance
Dispel magic 3 times per day
Dispel magic whenever sword strikes an opponent
Cast Flame Arrow 3 times per day
100% Fire Resistance
Grants Grand Master Proficiency
+2 bonus to all saving throws

Combat Abilities:
THAC0: +5 bonus, +6 vs. Evil
Damage: 1D8+5, +6 vs. Evil
Damage type: Slashing
Weight: 3
Speed Factor: 2
Proficiency Type: Long Sword
Type: One handed sword
Value: 35,000 GP
Unusable By:
Non-elven lineage
Druid
Cleric

Step 2. Split the statistics on their headers.
Now we've thought of an item, we'll have to put every statistic on it's appropiate place. Divide them like this: Resistances, AC bonuses, Savingthrow bonuses and other effects that have to take place on the wielder go to the Equipping header (first tab in IEEP).

Put the combat effects on the Extension header (third tab in IEEP). The cast spell x y times per day require an Extension header of themselves. To add another Extension header simply click the "+" button at the left top window. NOTE: if you still want to use the "per day"-charges for certain headers, no more than 3 can be added without losing the "per day" settings.

For my item the division would be like this:
Equiping header: 50% Magic Resistance, Immunity to Fire, Grants Grand Master Proficiency and +2 bonus to saving throws and the 8D10 lightning bolt.
Extension header #1: Dispel magic on target.
Extension header #2: Dispel magic 3x a day (as per the cleric/mage spell).
Extension header #3: Flame arrow 3x a day (as per the mage spell).

Step 3. Setting the basic settings.
Finally the moment has come that we are going to make the item. Start up IEEP and select "Item Maker", then select "File" -> "New Item File".

You'll now see the Equiping header of IEEP (first tab). In the Bace Price field enter the value you want your item to have, in this case 35,000. Now you need to specify which pictures (BAMs) you're wanting to have displayed in the game. I've chosen to use the BAMs of the Equalizer, the inventory BAMs are always having an I as prefix, the description BAMs an C and the ground BAMs an G. In the "Inventory" box we add "ISW1H54", in the "Ground" box we put "GSW1H02" and in the "Desc. Pic" box we fill "CSW1H54" in.

Ignore the "Unknowns" button and you'll see an button with the text "Attributes", click it and an screen will popup. Check the "Droppable", "Displayable?", "Copyable?", "Unbreakable", "Magical" as well as both "Silver?" boxes. After doing this hit the "Close" button.

Back in IEEP's main screen take an look at the second column of fields. The "Stack Maximum" field can be ignored (only for arrows, bolts, bullets and gems is it of importance). Put an value in the "Lore to ID"-field, appropiate to the powers of your item. Magical daggers+1 get around 10, and I'll give the Moonblade an value according to it's power, 100. The next field, "Enchanted to Hit", is extremely important for weapons or ammo, because it determines what it can hit. This statistic has no influence on THAC0 or damage, it only tells the game how strong it is. Due to the great strength of this weapon I'll put 5 in it (highest possible in BG2:SoA).

Next is an pull-down list named "Proficiency", here you'll (don't be surprised) enter the proficiency of your item, in this case "Longsword". Below is the "Item Type" box, where you'll enter the correct type of your item, in this case "Other sword". The last but not least of the pull-down lists is the "Paper doll" box, also select the proper one. NOTE: Using an 2-handed animation, like Halberd, for an axe will crash the game. Vice versa is the same story.

The "Equipping effects" box is skipped for the moment and we'll have only the "Usability" button left, click it and an screen pops up. Check out the classes, kits and/or alignments forbidden to use this item. Don't forget to set the "Weight" box to it's appropiate value.

Step 4. Setting up the equipping effects.
We will now go back to the "Equipping Effects" box, click the "+" button next to it to add an effect. New effects are standard set to "Bonus to AC vs. Weapon type", this is not what we need thus scroll down to "Magic Resistance Bonus". Set the "Timing mode" box to "While equipped", and ignore the "Duration" box. The first probability box is set to 0 (zero) and the second to 100, the "Target" box is set to "Self". All of the other settings are of no importance for this effect so click the "Click to edit Attributes" button. Choose the right type, in this case "1" (straight stat change), and fill in the appropiate resistance, 50 in this example.

If an weapon grants something special it would be best to have an icon displayed over the characters portrait. This is very easy, use the same steps as we used for the "Magic Resistance" effect to add another effect. Set the type of this effect to "Display Special Effect Icon", the timing mode, probability and target are set the same as for the "Magic Resistance". Now click the "Click to edit Attributes" button, and enter in the "Icon Type" box the correct value, in this case 28 (Protection from Magic).

Repeat the previous two alineas for the 100% Fire Resistance effect. Though the amount of resistance is now 100 and the "Icon Type" is 16 (Protection from Fire).

Next on our list is the "+2 bonus to all savingthrows", if you've succeeded all previous steps, this one won't be hard. Add an effect, select "Save vs. Breath bonus", timing mode "While Equipped", target "Self", probability boxes 0 and 100. Hit the "Click to edit Parameters" button and set the "Statistic Modifier" to 2. Repeat this 5 times for all types of savingthrows.

Step 5. Adding the Grand Master proficiency.
Modifying proficiencies can't be done with IEEP solely, therefor (if you've downloaded everything on the list) we'll use EFFMaker.

Start up EFFMaker and select "Make EFF File", and the editor should appear. As effect type we select "Proficiency Modification". If there are 4 boxes behind the "Prof. Star" and "Prof. Type" caption, hit the "Edit all as one" box. The value for the "Prof. Star" box is quite obvious, 5. The setting for the "Prof. Type" isn't hard either, just search the appropiate value in the "Effect Information Window" (if this isn't displayed, hit the F2 button), for this weapon it'll be Long Sword and thus 90 and fill it in. Set the target to "Self", the first probility box to 0 and the second to 100. Now save the file as LWLSGMPR.eff (change it to your needs, but remember that it can't have more than 8 characters).

Now minimize EFFMaker and go back to IEEP, add another effect to the "Equipping Header" and set it's type to "Use EFF File". Timing Mode is set to "While Equipped", target to "Self", probability to 0 and 100. And now comes the trick, put the filename you saved your eff as in the "Resource Key" box.
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Offline Ghreyfain

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Re: Complicated Item Creation - by Lone Wolf
« Reply #1 on: April 01, 2004, 03:42:34 AM »
Step 6. Adding the 8D10 lightning bolt.
For the lightning bolt we'll need some more advanced tricks but we'll start at the beginning of it. I'll use the invisible creature trick to execute an script which will throw the 8D10 lightning bolt if the sword is wielded by an evil person.

Go back to EFFMaker and make an new EFF file. Effect type is set to "Creature Summoning", target to "Self" and the probability boxes to 0 and 100. Now comes the trick add the filename (without the .cre suffix) to the "Resource Box", since the filename of the creature we want to summon is "LWMNBLIC" we'll just add that. Now save it as LWMNBLIC.eff.

Now close EFFMaker down, we won't need it anymore. Back to IEEP we'll add another effect to the "Equipping Header", and again it's an "Use EFF File" effect. The settings for this effect are exactly the same as our previos "Use EFF File" effect, except for the "Resource Key" box, there you'll put in the filename of the eff you just made, the timing mode which must be "Permanent" and be sure to set the 2nd parameter to 2 (since it's an summoning file).

Step 7. The lightning bolt itself.
Save your item (I've named it LWMNBL.itm, since we need to refer to it) and close "Item Maker" but not IEEP. Fire up the "Spell Maker" and make an new spell. Name it "Moonblade Lightning Bolt", leave all the other setting what they are and add an "Extension Header". Set the "Spell Form" to projectile, "Target" to "Pre-target", "Level required" to 1 and "Range" to 1000. Add an effect and set it's type to "Fixed/Random Damage", timing mode "to "Permanent", target to "Pre-target", probability boxes to 0 and 100. In the first "Dice Roll" box you enter 8 and in the second 10. To make it an real Lightning bolt we'll hit the "Click to edit Parameters button" and set the 2nd parameter to 262144 (Electricity). Last but not least we'll add some graphics to this spell, simply click the "Graphics" button select one appropiate to yours, in this example I'll use the "Lightning bolt (no rebound)" for this one. Save the spellfile like this SPCL000, we'll need to refer to it later.
NOTE: If you use this for BG2 with the Throne of Bhaal expansion, you can give it any name you want. To prevent overwriting of customs, an prefix must be used.

Step 8. Making the invisible creature.
Be sure that you've saved your item and close down IEEP to prevent errors with NI which we're going to use now.

Start NI and if necessary point it to your BG2 directory. Double click on the "CRE" directory and select "AATAQAH.cre", and hit the "Export" button in the lower left corner. Export it to your "override" folder and name it "LWMNBLIC.cre". Now follow the same steps for "AATAQFGT.bcs" in th "BCS" folder and export it as "LWMNBLIC.bcs" to your "override" folder.

Hit the F5 button to refresh the navigation tree, now go to the "Override" directory and select "LWMNBLIC.cre". The ninth row from above is the "Status" setting, when you click it an selection menu will appear at the bottom of the screen. From this box you'll select the appropiate state, in this case "STATE_INVISIBLE", and hit the "Update Value" button. Now scroll down until you see an entry named "General Script", click it and another selection menu will appear. Select the appropiate script from the list, here LWMNBLIC.bcs, and hit the "Update value" button and save the creature.

Step 9. Executing the lightning bolt.
Now open up the script we exported in the last step and delete everything what is in it (shouldn't be much). Now we need the filename of the spell (SPIN000) since it's an custom spell we can't use things as WIZARD_MAGIC_MISSILE or CLERIC_HEAL. Scripting custom spells is very easy, save your spell (like I did) in this format: SP[Type](Level)## Type is PR for priest spells, WI for wizard spells, IN for innates and CL for special spells. Level is quite obvious and the ## are just the number you gave it. This is extremely important for scripting spells, simply leave the SP prefix away (we now got CL000). Change the Type according to this: PR becomes 1, WI becomes 2, CL becomes 3, IN becomes 4. (what we got left is 3000). The 4 digits you now have are enough to script with.

We're putting this script in the big box:
IF
HasItemEquiped("LWMNBL",LastSummonerOf(Myself))
OR(3)
Alignment(LastSummonerOf(Myself),LAWFUL_EVIL)
Alignment(LastSummonerOf(Myself),NEUTRAL_EVIL)
Alignment(LastSummonerOf(Myself),CHAOTIC_EVIL)
THEN
RESPONSE#100
ForceSpell(LastSummonerOf(Myself),3000)
DropItem("LWMNBL",[-1.-1])
PickUpItem("LWMNBL")
DestroySelf()
END

IF
HasItemEquiped("LWMNBL",LastSummonerOf(Myself))
!Alignment(LastSummonerOf(Myself),LAWFUL_EVIL)
!Alignment(LastSummonerOf(Myself),NEUTRAL_EVIL)
!Alignment(LastSummonerOf(Myself),CHAOTIC_EVIL)
THEN
RESPONSE#100
DestroySelf()
END
NOTE: If you use Throne of Bhaal and saved the lightning bolt under an custom name, replace the ForceSpell() command for ForceSpellRES("Filename here",LastSummonerOf(Myself)).

Hit the compile button and save the file.

Step 10. Setting up the information about the item.
Very easy and short one this one, close NI and start IEEP up again. Load your item again in the "Item Maker" and go to the second tab. Write the name of your item in the smallest box under "Identify" and its story in the big box. The two under "Unidentified" can be left empty but for the sake of completeness copy & paste the story of an non-enchanted version in here.

Step 11. Setting up the first extension header.
First we need to extract the Holy Avenger (SW2H10.itm) from Items.bif, we need it for the dispelling effects. After you've extracted it open it up with IEEP's "Item Maker", and go to the "Extension header". When you click the pull-down box under "Item effects" you'll see no less than 42 effects necessary to dispel magics. To redo all this with our item is very time consuming and gives a lot of chances on bugs, therefor IEEP has an damn nice option.

Go to "Edit" in the menubar and select "Copy current Extension header", now open your item again and go to the "Extension Header" tab. If everything is in order then all fields are grayed out. Again go to "Edit" but now choose "Paste to Current Extension Header", now an screen pops up asking you if you're sure to paste the extension header in here, since everything will be deleted and we haven't filled anything out there is now danger so just choose yes.

Now we've got the dispelling effects but also the attackstyle and type of an two-handed sword, it's only an small effort to change it. The "Attack Type", "Use Location", "Target Type", "Damage Type" and "Ammo" can be left for what they are, they're having the right values already. "Speed Factor" on the other side needs to be changed, longswords are much faster than two-handed swords and daggers are much faster than longswords etc. you'll get the point. In our story we've determined the speed factor at 2, so type in in the box. Next on schedule is the "Attack Range", all one-handed weapons have an range of 1 and most two-handed weapons have 2, however ranged weapons have ranges of about 100. Since we've got an one-handed weapon we enter a 1 in the box.

Next row contains also some wrong info for our weapon too. The "Use Icon" box must have the same setting as the "Inventory" box at the "Equipping Header", so we'll add here also "ISW1H54". Leave the "THAC0 bonus" and "Charges" box as they are, they don't require modifications. The "Item Damage" boxes do require modfication though, the first and third box are in order, the second isn't it's stating 10 where it should state 8, just change this. Now an very important change must be made which is (sadly) the source of many crashes due to errors in the "Animation". Hit the "Animation" button and an screen pops-ups, since we're making an longsword set the "Overhand Swing %" and "Backhand Slash %" boxes to 50 and "Thrust %" to 0.
NOTE: These sum of these 3 boxes must be ALWAYS 100, except for missile weapons they're all set to 0.

Step 12. THAC0 & Damage vs. Evil.
To add the extra +1 (so it becomes +6) damage versus evil persons we'll make another eff file with EFFMaker. Boot EFFMaker and choose "Make EFF File" and set it's "Type" to "THAC0 Bonus", "Statistic Modifier" to 1, "Modifier Type" to 0, "Target" to "Self" and the "Probability" boxes to 0 and 100. Save it as "LWMNBLTC.eff".

Next is the extra damage, make an new eff and set it's type to "Fixed/Random Damage". Set the "Fixed Damage" to 1, the "Damage Type" to 16777216 (Slashing Damage), "Target" to "Self" and the probability boxes to 0 and 100. Save it as "LWMNBLDM.eff", and close EFFMaker.

First we delete effect #9 (Use EFF File) on the first Extension Header, since it has effects unwanted for this weapon. Now add an new "Use EFF File" effect and set the "Timing Mode" to "Duration", "Effect Time" to 1, "Target" to "Self", probability boxes 0 and 100. Set the "Resource Key" to "LWMNBLTC" and hit the "Click to Edit Parameters" button. Set the first parameter to 4 and the second to 8. Repeat this 2 times with all field matching except the first parameter this one is set respectively to 7 and 10. Now we do exactly the same for the damage except for the "Resource Key" which is set to "LWMNBLDM", the "Target" which is "Pre-target" and the "Timing Mode" which is "Permanent", both parameters are the same as with the previous "Use EFF File" effect.

Step 13. Adding the 3x a day spells.
At the right top of the "Extension Header" tab you'll see an pulldown box with an few buttons next to it, hit the "+" button to add an new Extension Header and select it via the pulldown box. Set the "Attack Type" to "Magical/None", "Use Location" to "Magical", "Target Type" to "One Target" and "Damage Type" to "Piercing". "Ammo", "Speed Factor" and "Attack Range" are left for what they are. The "Use Icon" box must be set to the appropiate version of "Dispel Magic", (Hint: take the filename of the spell you want to use and paste an "a" behind it), thus we'll fill SPWI326a in in the box. Set the "Charges" box to 3 and check the "Per day" checkbox.

Hit the "Animation" button and set the "Backhand slash %" and "Thrust %" to 33, and the "Overhead swing %" to 34. Add an "Cast Spell (Mage/Cleric)" effect and set the "Timing Mode" to "Permanent", probability boxes to 0 and 100 and "Target" to "Pre-Target". In the resource box we'll slap the filename of the without .spl thus SPWI326.

Repeat this step for the Flame Arrow, but now the "Use Icon" value is SPWI303a, the "Resource Key" is set to SPWI303 and the "Attributes" are set to "Dispellable & Allow Resistance".
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Offline El Holmo

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Re: Complicated Item Creation - by Lone Wolf
« Reply #2 on: March 09, 2006, 06:09:24 PM »
1. EFFMaker. http://www.teambg.com/?page=tools/basiccustomizing
2. Infinity Engine Editor Pro. http://www.teambg.com/?page=tools/basiccustomizing

4. WinBIFF. http://www.teambg.com/?page=tools/basiccustomiszing

Teambg is nowhere to be found.. can any of you send me the tools? I would appritiate it.

Offline icelus

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<Moongaze> Luckily BWL has a very understanding and friendly admin.

 

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