Trying to work with IEEP and DLTCEP Options

[Sir_Carnifex]

I'm trying to familiarize myself with item making, so I downloaded both IEEP and DLTCEP.

The problem is that IEEP refuses to run. I checked out TeamBG to see if anyone else had the problem and sure enough, I found the exact same thing (IEEP refuses to run).

Ok, so the advice in that forum was to use DLTCEP instead. This program will load up but I do get the error "Can't load MORALEAI.ids!" Other than this, it seems to be working fine once I found out where the "read-only" check was.

Now it's time to ask some questions.

1. Can DLTCEP do everything that IEEP does?

2. If not, does anyone know a solution to getting IEEP to run (I'd like to use this as there's a tutorial for item creation with IEEP and I don't see one for DLTCEP).

3. What does the failure to load MORALEAI.ids mean?

4. When I make an item, DLTCEP updates my dialog.tlk. Is it putting in strings? If I save the ITM somewhere else and then load it into a game with the original dialog.tlk, will the item not work?

Thanks!

Carnifex

[Baronius]

2. If not, does anyone know a solution to getting IEEP to run (I'd like to use this as there's a tutorial for item creation with IEEP and I don't see one for DLTCEP).

COMDLG32.OCX is the part of TeamBG's VB6 package, you can get it on the excellent Sorcerer's Place:
http://www.sorcerers.net/Games/IEmodding/index.php

4. When I make an item, DLTCEP updates my dialog.tlk. Is it putting in strings? If I save the ITM somewhere else and then load it into a game with the original dialog.tlk, will the item not work?

It will probably work, but its name, description and other related text properties will become incorrect. This is true to many other file types as well, I suggest you to read my short introduction, link & discussion can be found on the IE modding forum of Sorcerer's Place.

Consequently, you need your mod's WeiDU installer to integrate the texts for items and other files into dialog.tlk during the mod's installation. You will learn to use WeiDU anyway (especially because you're creating an NPC mod), but let me list a few hints:

• You've probably seen an existing mod's package already. You need a main folder for your mod (e.g. halbo) that contains two required files -- setup-halbo.exe, setup-halbo.tp2 -- and several subfolders, such as "items", "spells", "dialogues", "translations" etc. The translations folder contains TRA files, these files contain the text properties of your mod's files (think of them as "exported" parts of dialog.tlk). TRA files can be manually written and edited, but usually they're generated by software -- e.g. the output of WeiDU dialogue compilation/"traification" or generated by other tools (such as TP2CG).
• The TP2 file contains the installation instructions and logic. This is where you also tell WeiDU to install the text properties of your files into dialog.tlk. If your file, e.g. CXTEST.ITM is located in the folder "items", the TP2 installation code block for this file will start with COPY ~halbo/items/CXTEST.ITM~, followed by various "SAY" instructions. These "SAY" lines tell WeiDU which texts (unidentified name, description etc.) of the item must be installed to dialog.tlk. If you use TRA files (that is what you should do) in your mod, then the second argument of "SAY" instructions is always a reference, such as @1 or @2. The number in this reference is an index of a TRA entry (an entry inside a TRA file that can be found in your "translations/english" folder and in other language subfolders). I suppose there are several TRA tutorials available, one short introduction can also be found in the manual of BlackWyrmLair's TREP tool (TREP can easily edit TRA files and it supports the work of mod translators).
• There is a tool available for generating the aforementioned code blocks for certain file types, including items. It's called TP2 Code Generator, hosted by the Black Wyrm's Lair. Its use can be learnt in a short time, and you can use it to generate the code block for your items and other files (but it does not generate complete TP2, just "COPY" blocks: you need to copy & paste them into your existing TP2). Of course, you will probably learn much more about TP2, but this can make development faster even if you're able to write such code on your own. You can also use --automate, but TP2CG offers more features (such as automatic commenting and TRA indexing).