marc1967's mods for Co8 8.1.0.

Here is my mod for expanding the spell descriptions that appear in the message box when floating over a spell name in your character screen.

This is the format I ended up with:





All the changes are in one file, spell.mes, attached below. This will work with any clean installation of Co8 version 8.1. It will also work with Temple Plus, as of right now (more on that below). The orginal file I edited was from Co8 version 8.1.

To use the mod, just backup your existing spell.mes file in /data/mes, and move this one in. Pretty simple. Note, if you have self-modded spell.mes in some way, you can't do this.

If you check this out, let me know if anything needs fixing. Keep in mind I will make changes where obvious mistakes were made, or if I worded something awkwardly, but any major overhaul is more than I am up to right now.


Regarding Temple Plus...

Spoiler

I chose to include descriptions for spells that have been fixed in Temple Plus, as that has become the future of things. I did not want the complication of maintaining a separate version of spell.mes for 8.1 and also Temple Plus. So if you are running 8.1 without Temple Plus, a few of the spells may still not work, but the descriptions will say they do.

Eventually, I would like to incorporate this directly into Temple Plus. If I understand correctly, when you install Temple Plus, it leaves your current spell.mes untouched, and has a second file called spell_ext.mes that contains the changes unique to Temple Plus. Any lines in that file will take priority over the line in your existing spell.mes. Right now, spell_ext.mes is pretty small, I think there are about 20 lines. So, all but one of the spell descriptions in my version of spell.mes will be seen with OR without Temple Plus. But, in the future, if more changes are added to spell_ext.mes by Temple Plus modders, my changes would get lost in the shuffle.

So, putting them directly into the Temple Plus installation would be the best thing to do pretty soon. But for now, I wanted to release it here, and let anyone who wants to look it over do so.

Random notes, not necessary for using the mod.

Spoiler

1. The main goal was to get all the important stats conveniently visible, such as the casting time, targets, range, duration, saving throw, etc. I also tried to fit in as much as possible for the descriptive text, given the three lines of description that were available for each spell. Many were easy, but some were challenging, when I had to condense 300 words of spell description in the PHB into 3 lines. I did my best.

2. Font - The descrptions are formatted and spaced out using the default font in Co8 verion 8.1, which I believe is called Priory 12. Using a different font may make it look screwed up.

3. I did not include the Name of the spell, Class, or Spell Level for each spell, as this information is apparent while floating over the spell name. It would have been nice to have, but space was needed for more important things.

4. In most cases I kept to the format shown above, but sometimes had to break away to include more descriptive text where it was needed to fully explain a spell with many aspects, such as "Protection from Evil".

5. I tried to be consistent with the terminology, but space considerations would often force the need for abbreviations. So, in some places you might see "1d6 points of fire damage per caster level", while in another entry it might say "1d6 fire dam/level". This bugged me, but was necessary.

This is the original posting, suggesting the mod.

Spoiler

I have quite a few mods I've made for my own use, and before I polish them up and submit them I'd like to know if they are even wanted/needed:

Here's the first: I've expanded the spell information for the help box (or whatever it is called) when you float over the spell name in your spellbook. I find I am always needing to look up a duration, whether a spell is Personal or Target, or whether bless is a 'luck' or 'morale' bonus, and other things like that. It's much more convenient while you are there to just float over the name then to open the help system. I do this all the time during combat, while selecting spells for the day, and also when leveling up.

I've only done a few levels of cleric so far, but it should be pretty easy after a short time to finish the rest. Here's the before and after:



Let me know if the formatting seems OK. I tried to keep the original spell description to 2 lines, and only add info if it is really important (like Divine Favor being a luck bonus), and always have the casting time, range, target, duration, and save/SR if it is relevant to that spell. It's not meant to be an exhaustive description, just a quick peek at the important details of the spell while in your spellbook.

 

Really? So 8.1.0 could be the end of the line? I can assume then that there is no "next" version on the horizon then at all. If so, I guess I'll slow down my efforts at getting any mods in before some sort of deadline, and get back to my own little catastrophe I'm putting together.

I'll probably submit the spell info mod I suggested above, as I am pretty far into it, but hold off on anything else. It would be a shame if all of Rudy's stuff never made it in.

 

Pretty sad thing to read...

 

Remember, TemplePlus exists and is in active development. When you finish your expanded descriptions, make a post there with a link to your stuff!

 

Yes! I'll have it up today.

This project was about 95% done 3 years ago, but the ongoing fixes at Temple Plus along with clearing up the broken spells (both still a work in progress), made me wait things out and set it aside. Also my entire family has spent the last year relocating from the east coast to middle America; three households and 50 years of stuff to purge, pack, and then unpack. It was actually a blessing given the events of 2020.

 

I rewrote the first post of this thread to include the mod. See the part there under "Regarding Temple Plus", where I talk about that. Basically I started with the 8.1 spell.mes, but the descriptions include temple+ fixes. I explain it better up there.

 

Very nice!

I have one q though: do you think casting time is necessary? I'm guessing 90% of the time it's 1 std action. Wouldn't it be better to just list the exceptions and save a line?

 

That looks great! I can try to help if you need any help getting it into Temple+. The other mod sounds nice to me also.

 

Thankee!

This seems like it should come standard on T+!

I'd rather have the cast time explicitly listed so people know what it is.

 

The line with the casting time already has threes lines of info from the PHB piled up on it: Casting time, School, and Components. So I squished in as much as possible there already. I would have also liked to expand the school description to give the whole thing, so instead of just Enchantment, it would be...

Enchantment (Compulsion) [Language-Dependent, Mind-Affecting]

But again, space restrictions.

If there's a consensus that some sweeping change is needed that would effect all 300+ descriptions, I could in time get it done in time. For now, I'd like to keep the existing format which I put a lot of thought into, and fix any egregious errors or any poorly worded descriptions on my part.