Quest to add Item Descriptions

Here's a nice thread for adding better (okay any) Item descriptions into the game.

Right now, we know that

ToEE3.dat\ToEE3\mes\description.mes

contains a Number-->Name list


Here's where it gets tricky..

The documentation for Arcanum Modding states :
"You Want To Give A Description To An Object

A description is what the player see when he examines an object (if it is an NPC he hasn’t met or an item he hasn’t identified, he will get another description instead). To add a new description string that you can select in WorldEd, open mes/gamedesc.mes and add it to the end of the list. In the RARE case that you added a prototype, add that description to mes/description.mes."

The comments inside of
ToEE3.dat\mes\long_description.mes
mention about descriptions, but so does
ToEE3.dat\mes\item_effect.mes
and unfortunately, so does
ToEE.dat\mes\gamedesc.mes

 

There's also a way to add spell descriptions (hovering) into the game. The SpellList.mes file was made exactly for that purpose but it was never fully implemented. I wonder if there's a way we can turn it back on.

 

This is from the arcanum documentation
Descriptions (gamedesc.mes):

Gamedesc.mes is used to name objects in Arcanum.

When the file is opened, you will see this:

// Known or Unknown Descriptions

{30000}{}

When an item is laid down in World-Ed, the mod builder will have the option of giving it a unique name for both its Known and Unknown states. This is the file that it will draw from.

An item that is defined as Unidentified in World-Ed will display the name in the Unknown field in World-Ed, until it has been identified. Then it will display the name chosen for the Known field. Both fields draw from this message file.

Names must be numbered from 30000 and above. Previous numbers are used by the engine, and should not be tampered with.

An example:

{30020}{Strange Gun}
{30021}{cmoore’s Ultimate Gun of Death}

A gun places in World-Ed, and flagged as unidentified, can have the “Strange Gun†description in its Unknown field, and “ cmoore’s Ultimate Gun of Death†in its known field.

 

Most of the descriptions I car rip out of the SRD easily... I also can pull them directly from the books to populate these fields.

Here's the catch/bonus... Atari is the licensee of Wizards, so they can release the full blown text descriptions... Any mods that are made, that are NOT given to Troika to include into a patch may result in legal issues with WotC over 'distribution of closed content material'.

I know this, very clearly, as my company is a licensee of WotC for the e-Tools program (now we are, we didn't do the original, don't blame us for the mess that was/is e-Tools, we're working on it. )... I'm not saying don't do it, just be careful which path you trod...

*ponder*

It's possible, since my company is a licensee that any 'mods' for ToEE can be 'officially' hosted from our company site... Let me check into that possiblity... but for now I would recommend that you only take the descriptions for things from the SRD (many are the same as from the books, so there wouldn't be many changes to a 'full' version)... You can get the SRD descrioptions off of WotC's site (URL escapes me atm)....

But... as for my volunteer time... point me to the file with the ID's and I'll be more than happy to match up descriptions to the numbers... I'm more than a tad familiar with them. *wry*

btw - thanks for taking up the gauntlet to improve this game... while I'm not happy over the bugs, I am very impressed with the implementation of the rules of 3.5 in this game...

(edit/add) Oh, and don't bother to post on the Atari boards... it's frickin useless over there... I deal with enough *cough*customers*cough* that are dissatisfied on a daily basis as is. *sigh*

 

Alright edited toee3.dat\mes\tooltip_ui_strings.mes

on a hunch and successfully changed the MAX DEX BONUS word when highlighting apiece of armor to MAX DEXY BOnus.

What does this mean you ask?

Well the Max Desx bonus string was keyed (internal name) {120}. We may now be able to find where that armor rollover layout is created, and add in the reference to the long_description.

 

If this proves too difficult, how hard is it to add to the pseudo HTML help in the game. Even that would be a HUGE help...

 

That'd actually be pretty hard. We'd need to figure out how the help cursor sends messages, and do up a lot of stuff figuring out how to open text entries for it and all... a royal pain actually.

 

I would have thought that all of the pseudo-HTML files would be in the dat files somewhere, and that the help engine renders these files. I've tried searching for some text I saw in the help system ("begin with a small amount") on every file I've extracted to the temp directories, but I've yet to find it.

I'm searching every file now to see if I can find it...

 

see new root thread I'm about to post

 

the html-style help is stored in:

help.tab

No clue how it's linked.

 

There are descriptions for all the spells in the game from the hotlinks in the 20-sided die thing. It'd be cool if we could use that to describe items, eh?

Hell, we could use it to add the little stories they had in Baldur's Gate.

 

Hell, I don't see why we can't.

In fact, It'd probably be pretty easy, if not time consuming

That link text will work in any text output... it's a hard-coded function in the .exe.

hmmmm....

Time for me to go to bed

 

description.mes does not accept links to help,only plain text
(ie. {xxxx}{~Staff of Striking~[TAG_STAFF_STRIKING]} does nothing)
(I added new entry to help.tab first)


I'm currently adding description of all bonuses for weapons and armors, like "flaming longsword (+1d6 fire damage)" etc.
(All armors and most weapons are done)

I can put quite large descriptions there, but when the text is too long it, it will overflow and is hard to read.

 

Yeah, but how are we getting this data back out (once in the game)?

I haven't played much past Hommlet..
How are these descriptions used/seen ingame?

 

It is simple to put it back to game, just copy modified description.mes file into <your ToEE dir>\Data\mes folder (make if it doesn't exist)

Descriptions are seen in game same way as they're now, ie. if you find "magic longsword" and ID it , original description may say something like "flaming longsword", but my description says "flaming longsword ( +1d6 fire damage )".