Modding potential in Sacred 2

[Bondbug 32]

With apologies to Gogo and hoping for comment from Pesmontis among others.

 

Put me down not as totally incompetent but as hopelessly out of date. I developped exercises for computer literacy, 20-25 years ago with the old Mac Classics, and developping costing spreadsheets for various business needs. I have spent months and months doing quite complex mods using the design facilities with the original NeverwinterNights (a complete 8 region game with its own storyline, entered from the final exit of the game's introductory sequences), with Morrowind and Oblivion (buildings all over the place including a farm village with pub and stable of horses available for use, just for the sheer pleasure of getting them to work!!) even layouts for such as Settlers2 and Colonization. None of this involved over complex professional level programming. With Morrowind and Oblivion there is TES. With NWN there was superb design set up (“Building your own adventures”) and support including detailed tutorials and a scripting programme (was it Lilac Soul or some such) where you told it what you were trying to achieve and it gave you the details to copy and paste into your script.

In some of these you placed a door, cave entrance or portal of some kind into the game landscape, and from there entered your own world, with your own NPSs and “Partners”. Anyone could do this for off-line use.

What I have seen on offer here seem to be bits of scripting for inserting into various game files, to control the 3^rd party viewpoints or leave the clothes off the female chars. Done by people with the professional knowledge to understand and manipulate the programming for people who do not wish to, or are incapable of, modding themselve.

So basically I am interested to know what modding in Sacred 2 has to offer for people like myself who do not have the same programming skills as the “boffins” but are interested in more active modding of the NWN Morrowind and Oblivion type. Probably for off-line use, as old gadgees like myself are happy to play off-line in whatever time is available.

Modding is/was very active in these games and has in some cases been successful in keeping a game alive long after its normal life span. Obviously some control would be needed over what might be offered for download, but it would be interesting to be able to place a portal of some sort through which we could go into a layout or story line of our own making. Just for the pleasure of getting it to work and improving our understanding of the game.

Er .... did anyone understand all that? TES for Sacred anyone?

[Flix 5,116]

So basically I am interested to know what modding in Sacred 2 has to offer for people like myself who do not have the same programming skills as the “boffins” but are interested in more active modding of the NWN Morrowind and Oblivion type.

...

Er .... did anyone understand all that? TES for Sacred anyone?

 

I feel like I could write a truly monolithic post about the history and scope of Sacred 2 modding at this point, as I've been up to my ears in it for 3 years now. But I'll keep it short and expand it if necessary.

 

The language in the Sacred 2 scripts is easy to understand, as is the structure of the game folders. I don't have any training or experience in programming and I learned to feel very at ease with them after a few months (at first it was a tad nightmarish though). There is a List of Mods and Modding Guides on the Wiki. Although the modding tutorials might be somewhat limited in scope compared to the actual mods. I'll link some actual mods below because I learned by example (and from some tutors like Pesmontis, Silver Fox, Czevak and Marcuswob).

 

There are no tools to make editing these things easier, with the exception of the program s2rw.exe which decodes the game texts, and can re-encode them after editing. If the lack of an easy-to-use modding toolset is a deal-breaker, it's probably not worth continuing on.

 

 

Item editing - totally possible, as the Community Patch and the Community Items Mod (now integrated into the the former) bear out. All existing items can be tweaked, you can add new items and sets, even new types can be added.

 

Creature editing - again totally possible. The best examples are probably Diablo 2 Fallen and Elite Mounts. Change old creatures, add new attacks and enemy spells, add brand new monsters and bosses, etc.

 

Spell editing - very easy to do once you understand spells.txt. Llama's Mod, Enhanced Spells, Age of Heroes, Diablo 2 Fallen all change spells.

 

Balance editing - almost entirely done in a single, easy to understand script: balance.txt. You can get some dramatic changes from editing it (Modifying balance.txt).

 

Quest editing is possible. Old quests can be changed, new quests can be added. New quests can have new quest-givers, quest items, quest targets (enemies), new rewards, quest text, even voiced audio (maybe), the whole package basically. It's only been done by the CM Patch authors though, as quest scripts are dreadfully complicated. Marcus and czevak have had success with them though, and seem to understand those scripts quite well. So far I've tweaked some existing quests but failed to add new ones.

 

Map editing seems to be off the table. Making new regions, new dungeons, hell even new buildings or world objects like statues or portals, has been completely impossible for me, and I've not seen it done by any modders that came before me.

 

Then of course there are more simple mods like texture editing, model swaps, music changes, camera changes, which you mentioned above. Stripping down the females remains the most popular mod ~sigh~

 

 

I wish Sacred 2 had come with a modding toolset like so many other games. But I have to remember it was mainly meant to be an online game, and that means no cheating. Even mentioning mods was banned on the official forums. Now though, as you say, I think many game developers realize modding increases the attraction and extends the life of games.

 

Pesmontis is still active and about. He has helped me tremendously with Diablo 2 Fallen. Most other modders have generally chilled out or retired. I'll be happy to discuss it further with you though, if you have any questions.

[Dragon Brother 619]

I think Flix has summarised details quite well for you Bondbug.

 

As he says, for the most part it is quite straight forward (except for modifying the map), given all files are in unencrypted text except for the global.res file which can be decrypted with the tool he linked.

 

I've never done much more than play around with some of the different files, but managed to pick it up relatively easily, so if you have some experience with then you should be able to pick up it up, but just be aware that there are no editors so a large part of learning will be becoming familiar with the file structures.

 

But Flix would definitely be a great person to bounce ideas off given the wealth of knowledge I'm sure he has amassed in creating the Diablo 2 mod and all the others he continues to update for compatibility.

 

I hope you succeed in your endeavours, I know every time Flix releases a new update I'm tempted to reinstall the game and play with it all again, so I can understand the appeal!

[Bondbug 32]

As you said Dragon Brother; Flix has come up with precisely what I was looking for, and beautifully set out (unlike my usually long winded and round about style)

 

Many thanks.

 

Oh by the way Flix, it was the undressed mod I was trying. I got it installed and working (quite nice sort of bikinis), but for some reason the pre-programmed heroes are no longer on offer, and I wanted to compare their development with choices that I, in my ignorance, have made. Any idea why this may be?

[Bondbug 32]

I have studied the info and advice above and the List of Mods and Modding Guides, and made several alterations to my interface (?)

Just one more question if I may. Is it possible to edit the size of the panels for Inventory, Attributes & Skills, and Combat Arts, specially the Inventory?

[Flix 5,116]

I have studied the info and advice above and the List of Mods and Modding Guides, and made several alterations to my interface (?)

Just one more question if I may. Is it possible to edit the size of the panels for Inventory, Attributes & Skills, and Combat Arts, specially the Inventory?

 

You might want to try activating the option "UI Scaling" in the options menu.

 

There's also a way to resize the windows, but it won't increase the size of the panel's contents, just the border.

[Bondbug 32]

OK Flix. I activated the "UI Scaling" option. What exactly does it do?

I am spoilt by Lotro where you can open a great long list of UI items you can adjust.

[Flix 5,116]

OK Flix. I activated the "UI Scaling" option. What exactly does it do?

 

It scales up the user interface according to the game's resolution.

 

Here's how it looks on my system before and after enabling UI scaling:

Before

 

After

[Bondbug 32]

That "after" shot is much more like. What resolution have you there?

I have tried from 1074 x 768 to 1366 x 768, which are the limits offered in "options", and although the size of the screen changes accordingly, the 3 boxes are the same size each time. Is this fault of laptop?

Edited November 23, 2016 by Bondbug

[Flix 5,116]

Ok. I think it will only benefit users with larger resolutions, like mine is 1920x1200. For your screen size, I think the "scaled" version of the interface is identical to the default size. I think you may be stuck with the default panel size.

 

There is a way to increase font size, if legibility is an issue. But it won't make icons or anything like that bigger.

[Bondbug 32]

OK, I find that I have 1920x1080 on the PC. I will try that when I can, but it is still making trouble over that driver it can't find. I will sorth that then try the larger res.

[Bondbug 32]

I have had a great week trying out the Diablo Mod. While I find some elements I like, there are others I prefer in Sacred2 vanilla. So my question is ...is there any simple way of switching between the two versions, or is it a case of one or the other and stick with it. For instance I have always hated the seraphim (sorry folks) and much prefer the Diablo alternative, but there is one char on Sacred 2 that can call up as help whatever type whose head she has equipped, which I think is a brilliant idea, and I would play her on Sacred 2.

Not a desperate problem as I have the game working on two separate partitions, but I wondered if there was a simpler way of switching from one to the other.

Like it buttered on both sides.

[Flix 5,116]

Thanks for the compliments on the mod.

 

 

So my question is ...is there any simple way of switching between the two versions, or is it a case of one or the other and stick with it.

 

I've never understood this request. All you do is run the generic mod enabler and click "disable." I can't imagine disabling/enabling a mod being any simpler.

[Gilberticus 374]

Thanks for the compliments on the mod.

 

 

So my question is ...is there any simple way of switching between the two versions, or is it a case of one or the other and stick with it.

 

I've never understood this request. All you do is run the generic mod enabler and click "disable." I can't imagine disabling/enabling a mod being any simpler.

This is a much belated thank you, but thanks for telling us all about GME, Flix. Any simpler, and you'd be coming to everyone's house yourself to install mods

[Bondbug 32]

Thanks yet again Flix. I can see now that I am being far too ponderous, and that, I think, all can be done much more simply. I think too, that I need to keep a copy of mods I have done to balance.txt and creatureinfo.txt on the desktop for re-use when I disable and reinstall the Diablo Mod, and that I need to be clear in "saves" which chars are for Sacred2 and which for the Diablo mod. But that is something I can cope with.

Thanks for your help and patience

 

PS I was called away before I could finish. I wanted to emphasize, now that the old grey matter has got that far, just how simple that magic GME gadget makes the whole operation.

Edited December 2, 2016 by Bondbug

[Flix 5,116]

One trick you can do with the save games is keep two (or more) save folders. Put a suffix on the one you're currently NOT using, like "Sacred 2-D2F" or "Sacred 2-Normal". Then just remove the suffix when you want to play those characters, so the "real" save folder is just named "Sacred 2".

[Bondbug 32]

Good idea. Thanks.