Item editing questions, [Moved by Baronius from IA forum] Options

[Selvanus]

Alright thanks, sorry Cromwell, you just don't live up to my expectations.
(Edit) What is paperdoll animations ID?
(DLTCEP 6.8)
What are these unknowns also?
Also, sorry to be bothersome, but I'm guessing stat restrictions means stat requirements? lol


Ahh, this looks much easier, once I get all the crap written down, that is.

Alright, in the icon and attributes section, what is destructed item?
What is conversion label also?
In the descriptions section, what does "Tagged Entry" do when you check it?
Also, to the right of the title, there's a -1 by default when you do new item, what's that mean?
Also, when creating a new effect for an item, what does the 'Explode' button do?
Uhh, what's paremeter style..?


Perhaps you should give me a readme? lol

Also, you said that the cloak is inaccessible in the cave? Well, uhm, how did I pick it up magically?

This post has been edited by Selvanus: Nov 6 2007, 02:40 AM

[Baronius]

(Edit) What is paperdoll animations ID?

The "paperdoll" of your character is displayed when you switch to inventory screen. Animation ID determines what graphics appears when you equip something that has visible sizes in the paperdoll. For example, if you want, you can set a sword's ID to club, and it will look like a club in the paperdoll's hand.

What are these unknowns also?

Game resources (such as items) have a well-defined binary structure. For example, the attributes (such as type, animation ID, price) of an item are stored sequentially in a file or file collection (BIF file), and each attribute (e.g. price) has an accurate position in this sequence. However, the role of some bytes/bits in this sequence hasn't yet been found by modders -- they don't know what "it does in the game", unlike in case of known fields. For example, if you change the long integer in position 52 in an item, you will change the base price. Similarly, if you write thirty-two ones to position 8, it will be interpreted as -1 by the game (signed long is represented in two's complement) and -1 means "Item has no name, it has no entry in dialog.tlk". E.g., claws of monsters are usually "invisible undroppable" weapons, and since you can never see (or pick up) a ghoul's hand in the game, it needs no name.

Also, sorry to be bothersome, but I'm guessing stat restrictions means stat requirements? lol

Yes, lower limit of those attributes.

Alright, in the icon and attributes section, what is destructed item?
What is conversion label also?

Actually, I think it's "Conversation label". The icon of a destructed item is used e.g. when a weapon breaks during combat (this happens in BG1).

In the descriptions section, what does "Tagged Entry" do when you check it?

Tags are automatically replaced by their values in the game. For example, <CHARNAME> and <PROHISHER> are dialogue tags (dialogue tokens). When you see "Hello Selvanus!" in a game dialogue, it's actually "Hello <CHARNAME>" in your dialog.tlk.

Also, to the right of the title, there's a -1 by default when you do new item, what's that mean?

It means it has no name.

Practically all texts in the game are stored in your dialog.tlk (and in case of certain national game versions, dialogf.tlk). That is, an item's name and description aren't stored in your ITM resource file. Just an identifier, a "key", which gives where to find the text. E.g., 112 means: "Open dialog.tlk and find the 112th entry, and read its content. It is my description.". Minus one means there is no text. (In two's complement binary encoding, it's 0xFFFF).

Also, when creating a new effect for an item, what does the 'Explode' button do?

It just displays a long value as separate bytes, starting from the most significant byte. (So it doesn't edit the item at all.)

Uhh, what's paremeter style..?

It also doesn't change anything, just specifies how DLTCEP should interpret the value (e.g. as colour). Never forget, everything is represented by ones and zeroes, and their meaning is completely determined by how these sequences are interpreted by us (by our software). Of course, if you display the colour value for an Armour Class Modifier, it won't be too informative (but not harmful either, because the file isn't changed at all).

I would write a tutorial, but I have no time, I'm afraid.

[igi]

It also doesn't change anything, just specifies how DLTCEP should interpret the value (e.g. as colour).

That was (probably) the original purpose, but as far as I know DLTCEP - and everything else - mainly ignores this.

[Baronius]

I don't understand what you mean.

I meant that DLTCEP interprets the value and displays the interpretation (e.g. 0 as Red Tinted Black). Of course, its inverse operation isn't supported (user gives a string such as a colour name, and it's converted to a value) -- if this is what you meant by ignore.