Modding

[C2B]

Coming across this post on SA

 

http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthrea...5#post392929729

 

I wonderd if anyone with sufficent skill already tried to look around in the files?

 

Also I found this funny

 

Also there is a test level called chicken island. I must play it!

 

 

File Extractor

 

http://forum.xentax.com/viewtopic.php?f=10&t=6743

Edited June 23, 2011 by C2B

[C2B]

Post by Hank Morgan on SA

 

http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthrea...ber=35#lastpost

 

 

Firstly you don't have to recompile the modified data into a fresh oaf file. If you have the files extracted just copy your modified file to [Dungeon Siege directory]\data\[path to file].

For example the movement profiles file controls the player and npc movement and speed. So if you modified that file then save it to data\globals\movement_profiles it will override the version in the data file. There seems to be plenty of editable data there and a lot of it is in xml format. For instance it may be possible to edit the character classes to make custom classes or change the existing ones.

[Tigranes]

Yep, I was looking round the files yesterday and thought we really need to unpack the .oaf. This sounds great.

 

My first mod coming up: triple movement speed for all!

[AnjyBelle]

Yep, I was looking round the files yesterday and thought we really need to unpack the .oaf. This sounds great.

 

My first mod coming up: triple movement speed for all!

 

 

That would result in a close to invisible mob, 'cause the baddies would then move with lightning speed.

So, if a mod lets my character move as fast as the approaching mob in the unmodded game, I'd be content.

[Unreal Warfare]

This game needs some modding tools for definite.

[Tigranes]

OK, looking around the oaf files:

 

global\ai\attack_scaling.xml

My guess is that this has something to do with either the difficulties, levels, or something, but can't figure it out. You have 3 sets of AttackScale values - MinValue, MaxValue and TimeScale - e.g. 1-5 value = 1.2 timescale.

 

global\ai_profiles\ai_profiles.xml

Appears to control the AI behaviour for every enemy time - e.g. the archon_jackal_30's characteristic behaviour comes from its rush_attack package, it seems. There also seem to be priorities on target selection such as AttackingMe/Leader/Ally, etc. Also includes bosses like Rajani and companions (including 'companion_mirror', probably Reinhardt's mirror form).

 

global\camera\top_down_camera.xml

unfortunately, the only real value of note is 'mp_high_camera', which is set as 'true' in all of them. I've just tried setting them all as false, but... maybe I need to try co-op with someone?

 

global\class_templates\level_up_table.xml

Contains the number of ability, proficiency and talent points you get per level - an easy way to cheat/debug characters.

 

global\console_scripts\...

There seem to be some interesting console scripts, though I don't know how you'd fire them, in-game or otherwise. You can turn your characters into a certain level with equipment, make them a 'bad_ass' (literally), or, most interestingly, there seems to be a solo script that removes all the companions.

 

global\game_modes\survival.xml

Appears to indicate code for an Arena mode, featuring various Lescanzi, Skeleton and Vodyanoi enemies, but not much else.

 

global\movement_profiles\movement_profiles.xml

Can edit everything's run/sprint/walk/strafe speeds, etc. I've just tried increasing everything's run/sprint speeds by 2 and combat pace gets a lot more hectic - everything feels like it's running a bit harder.

 

Will keep fiddling. Trying to currently work out how the Dapper Old Gent battle uses a different, wider zoom camera - it's not tied to the cell itself, which has a DefaultZoom value of 1 like everywhere else (changing it does nothing). Perhaps scripted to the actual battle event.

[Chasted]

Yep, I was looking round the files yesterday and thought we really need to unpack the .oaf. This sounds great.

 

My first mod coming up: triple movement speed for all!

 

If it's an out of combat only thing, I dig it.

[LadyCrimson]

@Tigranes - you are awesome. I really have to install xml on this PC.

 

@C2B - There's actual chicken island level files? I know there are sound files with that title, but they are all very much lip test readings or something, with very distorted/cadenced vocalizations and the same 'testing 1-2-3' sort of line. I figured they were left over tests that were left in like they often are. I doubt they'd have anything to do with an actual game level. I've only looked at the sound files tho, not all the other types. There are .dds files too, which means it might (emphasis on might) be possible to mod armor textures & stuff. But not me unfortunately. Not my forte.

Edited June 30, 2011 by LadyCrimson

[hopfrog16]

The original game had a chicken level, and an easter island level. To get to either one you had to do some cryptic things before hand...

 

For the chicken level you needed (if I remember correctly) the knife you started with, some kind of journal, and the eye of a fury...

 

For easter island you had to run across an endless desert in a specific direction (otherwise the desert just repeated itself) or go through the backdoor through a tower hidden in some vast woods, then pass through an underground cave area to find it....

 

In fact, a hidden level in a DS game is kind of traditional, since DS1, it's expansion, and DS2 (I don't think DS2's expansion had one, though) all had one. Maybe there is some similar kind of hidden level in the game that people just haven't found the entrance to yet... Wouldn't that be awesome?

[C2B]

@C2B - There's actual chicken island level files? I know there are sound files with that title, but they are all very much lip test readings or something, with very distorted/cadenced vocalizations and the same 'testing 1-2-3' sort of line. I figured they were left over tests that were left in like they often are. I doubt they'd have anything to do with an actual game level. I've only looked at the sound files tho, not all the other types. There are .dds files too, which means it might (emphasis on might) be possible to mod armor textures & stuff. But not me unfortunately. Not my forte.

 

No idea. Just quoting Hank Morgan.

[LadyCrimson]

@hopfrog - yeah, I remember the chicken levels & stuff. And DS2 had that "developer level", I don't remember what they called it, where you fought boss simulacrums of your own chrs & then went into a developer npc area or something. Pillow fighting, the bucket helmet, heh.

 

I was actually wondering if there might be a "chicken" level in this game too...or if they'd planned on one but never put it in.

And yes, it would be awesome if there was, and someone finally found it.

[hopfrog16]

@hopfrog - yeah, I remember the chicken levels & stuff. And DS2 had that "developer level", I don't remember what they called it, where you fought boss simulacrums of your own chrs & then went into a developer npc area or something. Pillow fighting, the bucket helmet, heh.

 

I was actually wondering if there might be a "chicken" level in this game too...or if they'd planned on one but never put it in.

And yes, it would be awesome if there was, and someone finally found it.

 

I believe in DS2 we had the prairie dog level. The expansion for DS1 had the disco level.

 

To be honest, the disco level was the only thing I didn't like about that expansion. The pimp hat never looked quite right on my skeleton (half of the hat glitched down into his head) and the chicken orb spell was WAAAAY too over powered. =P

[LadyCrimson]

Oh, that's right...prairie dogs. I did do that too. It's been a long time.

DS1 was the game, I think, that started me on the habit of never selling/tossing starting gear, because you never know when it might have a use. haha

[lucasthedodger]

I'm playing as Lucas and I edited his hair using that tool from Something Awful's forums. It worked, so that has encouraged me to try more.

 

My idea is this: I'm going to extract environment textures, rocks and so on, and see if I can find matches in high resolution texture packs for other games. Offhand I can think of Oblivion, Fallout 3, and Torchlight- all games with similar environments and with high res texture packs already available.

 

Naturally I won't upload anything, since it's not my work. However I think it might be helpful to others if I post screenshots showing what a particular texture looks like in Dungeon Siege 3, and which texture pack it came from. Then interested parties can do the rest themselves.

 

The one bad thing about Dungeon Siege 3's file system is that it is not as clearly laid out as other games. A game like Fallout 3 has easy to find textures for everything you want to work on. It's obvious that making modding easy wasn't a priority for DS 3.

[LadyCrimson]

If you edit one of the XML files, do you have to recompile it back into the .oaf, or can you just dump it into the data_en folder (or some other folder) like an over-ride file?

Edited July 6, 2011 by LadyCrimson

[hopfrog16]

Damn... If this game gets a decent modding community, I might be tempted to buy it for the PC. That was my favorite thing about the first game. =O

[Tigranes]

You don't need to recompile your edited files to make it work - which will make modding really simple in that aspect. All you have to do is place the edited XML file in the correct place (e.g. data/global/world/blahblah), and the game will reflect the changes.

 

I haven't touched the files again but I'll try and puzzle out a few other things soon. My gut feeling is that the camera might be hardcoded, though. Which is weird, because surely there's a trigger somewhere for the dapper old gent fight. Hoping someone who actually knows something about coding will jump on it, but ah well.

[LadyCrimson]

Hoping someone who actually knows something about coding will jump on it, but ah well.

Yeah...some of the little things are easy to figure & alter, and they take effect without seeming to cause an issue (eg, number of proficiency pts you get per level or something) but when I tried to alter Anjali's Abilities to "require level 2" instead of lvl 5, lvl 10, lvl 20 etc (I changed no other number/definition), the Ability menu in-game went all bizarro - Jackal on the top row and the other two Ability rows becoming blank & saying "undefined", stuff like that . Hard to understand why changing that 1 bit would cause that, without knowing more how/why all those definition might be interconnected.

 

It'd take a lot of trial & error.

 

Looked at that top down camera.xml and agree...doesn't seem to be an obvious value to alter for major change. If there's a definition for 'high camera'='this distance' it must be elsewhere.

[LadyCrimson]

Under console_scripts there's a .txt file called cam_mp_lo.txt and cam_mp_hi.txt, where it mentions a camera debug page and gives a top-down mp-pitch with a number. Could be a camera distance/angle thing, but even if it is, like you (Tig) said earlier, not sure how you'd get it to work/change, if at all. Ah well, think I'll have a look at the .dds files for now...

Edited July 6, 2011 by LadyCrimson

[LadyCrimson]

Definitely need someone more savvy & patient than myself for any possible complex modding. You can easily alter weapon/texture stuff to suit your personal fancy (purple & blue grass, whoohoo!), and alter pacing for Mastery and points upon level ups (could skip points, for example, if you wanted progression to be slower). Probably even the damage of abilities/items with some trial & error tweaking.

But I don't see how you'd add a new item to the loot table, for instance...it's probably possible, but I lack patience to figure it out. Some designations are largely clear enough (like most of the Ability/buff coding), but many of the prefix/codes in the XML's just looks like random nonsense to me.

 

At least I can make some chrs. for testing stuff w/out having to play the entire game.

Edited July 6, 2011 by LadyCrimson

[Sabotin]

Anyone has anything to open .dlg files?

[LadyCrimson]

Not yet...do you know what they're for? Scripting for making the lines fire off I'd guess? Because a lot of them have similar/same titles as the ogg files.

[LadyCrimson]

Btw, if you're curious about the "chicken island" sound files, most of them sound like this. Same essential testing lines for each one.

[KillerGremal]

Btw, if you're curious about the "chicken island" sound files, most of them sound like this. Same essential testing lines for each one.

Well, thanks - i've expected some music/acoustic but this really sounds terrible or even broken...

 

In this context i've noted that this MP3 file has been encoded with Lame 3.82 (made ~10 years ago), so either somebody should definitely update his Lame codec now or this is a relict from the Black Isle Studios resp. Icewind Dale...!?