Qwinn Posted February 18, 2010 Share Posted February 18, 2010 Okay, I'm trying to figure out the toolset. I'm seriously thinking about creating a comprehensive dialogue/script/cutscene/quest fixpack for DO:A - if you doubt I have the stamina, check out my Planescape:Torment Fixpack, UB and Tweak Pack mods over at SpellholdStudios :) Anyways: I thought I'd start by restoring the Shaperate's Blessings items, so I wanted to find a quest reward that was working properly as an example to base my work on. I decided on the Elf Messenger in the Prelude, the one that will give you "Sir Galen's Sword" if you lie to him that he's in trouble. Pretty simple, I thought. But I'm stumped. See, if you look under Prelude at dialogue file pre100_elf_messenger.dlg, and go down to the line where he says "Oh, that's such a relief! You really saved me from the switch for sure!", I see that that line has an action, referencing plot script "pre100pt_elf_messenger", and setting the flag "PRE_MESSENGER_GIVE_SWORD". So I look at that script expecting to see it, you know, *do* something if that flag is set, and I can't find a damn thing. I've spent two hours looking for *how* the sword actually gets given... is there some constantly running area file or something? Cause I looked for any logical thing like that, and couldn't find anything. Can someone please get me over this hurdle? Once I know what I'm supposed to be looking for here, I think I'll be able to make a lot of progress quite quickly. Thanks in advance! Qwinn P.S. I looked for a way to search all scripts for that variable name, and couldn't. They don't appear to be Ransack-able. Is there any toolset search utility along those lines? A "Find" that only works on -open- scripts isn't that useful unless there's a utility that opens every single script at once too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Qwinn Posted February 18, 2010 Author Share Posted February 18, 2010 Hmmm, okay, I found the associated Plot file. It does associate PRE_MESSENGER_GIVE_SWORD with the "Reward" "PRE_MESSENGER_SWORD". Where are rewards defined? Qwinn Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Qwinn Posted February 18, 2010 Author Share Posted February 18, 2010 Okay, I finally figured it out. Rewards are defined like 6 directories deep in what is essentially a 2DA file named rewards.xls. From there, I can sorta kinda see what's going on. My question is, how would you mod this? Would I actually want to replace rewards.xls? That seems rather drastic and very susceptible to code collision with other mods. Or would I be better off ignoring the plot/reward system altogether and just creating scripting that gives the Shaperate rewards directly? Qwinn Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DarkeWolf Posted February 21, 2010 Share Posted February 21, 2010 I really dont know a lot of what you are talking about, really. But I do know that directly replacing the file is probly really BAD. Making a copy to drop into the override folder would be a much better idea. Tho, I'm afraid I don't know if you should include just the new stuff in that, or if you also include whats in the original file. myself, I live by the saying of "when in doubt, go oldschool" and would consider doing it by script. But there's so much crap that is involved with the way that this game handles stuff, that I wouldnt have the faintest idea of where to begin on a script for it. sorry that I cant really be any help, but I figured you at least deserved a reply ;) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nezroy Posted February 25, 2010 Share Posted February 25, 2010 Okay, I finally figured it out. Rewards are defined like 6 directories deep in what is essentially a 2DA file named rewards.xls. From there, I can sorta kinda see what's going on. My question is, how would you mod this? Would I actually want to replace rewards.xls? That seems rather drastic and very susceptible to code collision with other mods. Or would I be better off ignoring the plot/reward system altogether and just creating scripting that gives the Shaperate rewards directly? Qwinn 2DA files in DA:O can be "extended" without causing conflict. It's called "Multiple 2DA" or just M2DA, and you can read about it over here: http://social.bioware.com/wiki/datoolset/i..._game_via_M2DAs The learning curve for doing it is a bit steep, but once you get the hang of it it makes sense. I use a tool to work with the GDAs directly (2DAs and M2DAs get "compiled" down to GDAs), which simplifies the workflow and cuts out a whole bunch of steps. It's much easier in my opinion to do it that way, but others might find the Excel->2DA->compiled->GDA workflow easier for them. Anyway, the GDA tool is here: http://www.dragonagenexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=214 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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