Adding items to a chest/ making a new chest

[Pipmon]

I wanted to add some items to a chest or create a new chest for the items. How would I do this?

[Aintiarna]

At the moment you can only replace things that are already there. You haven't said what experience you have with modding the game. With the current version of Mod Maker, it's a process of exporting the ebx, changing the GUID for the item you want instead, re-importing it and then saving it as a daimod. Each chest has a loot table that specifies what's in it. Some are randomised and some are fixed. You would need to find the relevant loot table and change it.

 

The easiest way by far, is to add the items to a store/shop. Lots of mods on the nexus do that already and you can sell the items for 0 gold.

[Pipmon]

Honestly, I have no experence at all. I found the items and the store data on the mod maker but I'm not sure how to change it.

[Aintiarna]

If you look in the "files" section of this mod: http://www.nexusmods.com/dragonageinquisition/mods/557/?

 

there's a "notes for modders" file you can download that has various bits and pieces about hex editing. Basically, you export the the store file with mod maker, then edit the file in a hex editor to change the items it sells, then re-import it and save it as a mod file.

[Pipmon]

I've looked at the files but I can't seem to match the items. I looked at the base files to try and find the items with the hed data but they don't match up. I looked at this tutorial http://daitools.freeforums.org/tutorial-give-yourself-crafting-materials-via-perks-t722.html to try and follow the steps to get an idea but the values it has and the values I get don't match so I can't be sure if its the right item or not.

 

Basiclly I wanted to add all the creature research items to a shop/ chest as farming them drains my will to live. I know there are mods that increase the drop rate but there are bugs and issues that prevent some from being dropped.

Edited September 26, 2015 by Pipmon

[Aintiarna]

The guids are reversed with the current version of mod maker. e.g take cotton as an example. Looking at the file in mod maker, the guids are:

 

e3404731-5443-4043-b380-cb95fad122da

a23e8153-5189-93b1-3d37-ebb0a4b610e0

 

At the top of the file.

 

If you want to put those in an ebx to be sold in a store, you need to reverse the first three blocks like this:

 

31 47 40 e3 43 54 43 40 (then the rest is as shown) b3 80 cb 95 fa d1 22 da

 

Same with the second guid. Every time you copy something from the asset preview to the hex editor and view versa, you need to reverse it. Importing and exporting takes care of itself.

 

Apparently the next version of the mod maker will not have this issue.

 

What I do when I'm looking for an item and crossmatching is use the last 4 digits to find it because I know they're always the same order.

[Pipmon]

Oh, I get it. I was able to find one. Nugskin in the crossroads store and edited it with the acane horror reseach but it keeps crashing when I try to import the edited EBX. I even tried importing a non edited one to check but still crashed.

[Aintiarna]

Just to clarify what you're doing:

 

1. Navigate to da3->equipment->stores and select fereldan crossroads.

2. open it up and select debug-> export binary

3. Save the ebx file and open the binary in your hex editor (I use hxd).

4. Find the Guid near the top of the file. They usually start at 00000040(h) or thereabouts

5. Replace both lines with both lines of the item you want the shop to sell instead.

6. Go back to the preview window and select. debug-> import binary.

7. reimport the file you just edited.

8. It should now display the new item in the preview window instead of the old item the shop had for sale. I think the default first item is that firebomb recipe. That should now be replaced with your research item.

 

Alright, I'll try to show it exactly:

 

This is the top of the crossroads store ebx:

 

CE D1 B2 0F D0 07 00 00 30 04 00 00 1A 00 00 00

01 00 01 00 01 00 0B 00 19 00 E0 01 30 00 00 00

02 00 00 00 50 00 00 00 2E 35 82 59 F6 7E E3 11

AF 28 B2 EE 0D 36 5A F0 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00

3F 9F F3 AC D9 43 5A 45 98 39 7B 2F 76 26 7A 42

F3 61 07 B0 F7 73 8B 48 A8 9F D5 FA F1 4F BE 65

 

Those last two lines are the ones you need to replace for the first item. If you click on "firebomb" in the preview window, you'll see that the first guid ends in 7a 42 and the second in be 65. That's how you recognise it amongst that jumble.

 

Lets say I wanted to replace that item in the store with arcane horror rags. What I would do to make it easier, is find the arcane horror rags item, export the ebx as before, then look for guid to simply cut and paste. In the preview, I ccan see that the first one ends in 4096. So I scour the binary file looking for that sequence. Same for the second Guid. Eventually I find this:

 

DC A5 63 CC 1D 85 45 9F 6A D6 4B B5 5E 40 96

6E 57 32 41 AB C1 50 79 80 37 18 DB 61 20 D8 32

 

The first guid is usually near the top of the ebx and the second is usually near the end of the ebx after the pathname of the file.

 

Now, I copy the two lines, select the two lines in hxd for the crossroads store file corresponding to the firebomb and just paste over them. When you're done, the crossroads store file top will look like this:

 

CE D1 B2 0F D0 07 00 00 30 04 00 00 1A 00 00 00

01 00 01 00 01 00 0B 00 19 00 E0 01 30 00 00 00

02 00 00 00 50 00 00 00 2E 35 82 59 F6 7E E3 11

AF 28 B2 EE 0D 36 5A F0 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00

DC A5 63 CC 1D 85 45 9F 6A D6 4B B5 5E 40 96

6E 57 32 41 AB C1 50 79 80 37 18 DB 61 20 D8 32

 

Make sense?

 

Then simply open up the ferelden crossroads store file, go to debug->import, import your newly edited ebx and presto, instead of a firebomb, it should show up an arcane horror rags.

 

Save the file to a daimod, merge it with modmanager and try it out in game.

 

Edit: You'll also want to look into the quantities since some of the items will not be set to sell an infinite amount. To set the quantity to infinite (i.e. displaying -1 in preview) the hex codes need to be set to FF FF FF FF at the correct offset.

Edited September 26, 2015 by tirnoney

[Pipmon]

Thanks to your guide I succefully managed to change an item! I merged it and it worked. However when I edited it with more items it saved and merged fine but the game keeps crashing?

[Aintiarna]

THings have just gotten easier since there's a new version of Mod Maker out that displays the correct guid order with a checkbox in the asset window. Update to version 1.0.0.18 and you can simply cut and paste the guids.

 

Crashing can happen because of other things. It needs to look like this in the preview:

 

Item : [EquipItemAsset] da3/equipment/items/armors/heavy/equip_armor_heavy_var1_0311a

UnlockPlotCondition :

PlotConditionReference :

ConditionSchematic :

ConditionType : PlotConditionType_Invalid

PlotFlagReference :

PlotFlagReference :

PlotFlagId :

PlotFlagId :

Guid : 00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000

DesiredValue : True

NumberInStock : -1

If there is anything in guid above other than all 0000000, it will crash. If there is anything other than PlotConditionType_Invalid, it may crash.

I'm not explaining it very well. It's all so much more complicated than that and it took me a long time of trial and error to figure it all out. Also, the Guids at the top of the ebx are not necessarily sequential. You need to make sure you are replacing the exact one you wish to replace, don't just blindly overwrite the next one down. Have fun!