Question from new modder - changing gear stats / set bonuses

[teresatiger]

Hi, I'm trying to learn how to create a few little mods for personal use, and I've never done this before. No idea what I'm doing, just looking through all of the uncooked files right now to get a sense of where things are and what the code looks like. There are 6 particular things that I would like to do:

 

1. Change basic gear stats (for instance, add a Freeze % stat to a sword that doesn't normally have it, or add attack power or vitality to signs-based armor. It looks pretty easy and I don't think I'll have a problem with that.

 

2. Increase the weight limit of the Zerrikanian saddlebags. I'm looking through the def_item_horse.xml file but can't figure out exactly what needs to be changed to do that. I have the Ofieri saddlebags, which have an insanely high weight limit, but I think the Zerrikanian ones look nicer. Unfortunately, I can't see how to make that change for those particular bags.

 

3. Change fist fight stats, if possible. Basically, I would like to completely nerf the fist fight power of NPCs and give Geralt fists of total destruction. I've played through all of the fist fights the first time around and enjoyed them, but would like to just go with a quick knockout session for NG+, especially during those scenes where you're ambushed and forced into a fist fight. Looking at def_item_weapons.xml, I see a section with things like NPC / Geralt / Geralt Fistfight / Lightning / Fire fist stats, with related settings like <BludgeoningDamage type="base" min="50" /> but am not really sure what it all means. Is there a simple way to make NPC punches have almost no power, while giving Geralt's punches massive power? What are the lightning and fire options for?

 

4. Swap around the witcher gear set bonuses. I've already tweaked one of the ws files to allow for one piece of grandmaster gear to activate the bonus, because I like mixing and matching too much to ever have him wear a single armor set. However, I'm not sure what xml files to look at for the grandmaster set bonuses. I installed a Nexus mod to replace the grandmaster wolf bonuses with the griffin ones, but I would like to be able to do a few similar swaps on my own.

 

5. Apply witcher set bonuses to their mastercrafted gear versions. Again, I'm still looking through the xml files but am not quite sure how to set that up.

 

6. Lastly, and I don't know if this is even possible - or if it is, it may be beyond my own abilities - but I would love to apply witcher set bonuses (or, even better, create unique set bonuses) for non-witcher gear. I mix and match all of Geralt's gear and one of my favorite outfits is a modded (red colored, high resistance) Temerian Armor with Sezon Burz pants, Mastercrafted Wolven Boots, and the gauntlets I wear throughout the game are always the mastercrafted feline ones. Is there any way to, say, have the Griffin grandmaster yrden bonus activate when wearing those 4 particular items? Is there a way to create original bonuses for such a set, like wearing those 4 specific pieces would activate an instant kill % chance? Or would that be way too complicated for a total newbie?

 

Thanks so much for any help or advice!