Silver_fox

Mind you, it's just a lot of words. I was taught to write the instructions in a way so that even the most random man could understand them, that's all. In practice, it's 3 minutes work per pic for me. Uploading them to the wiki actually takes longer. But then again, I'm an accomplished Photoshop user... maybe for other people it really does not look like something simple and fast to do. On other hand, just running the game with old interface and 1280 width takes care of the size for narrow items. Then using Flood Fill on the background to make it uniform. And saving with proper settings. That would pretty much do the trick, not exactly with the same quality, but good enough. I don't like it because Flood fill tends to eat font details and you end up with a framed pic that you then frame again for the wiki page. And GIF compression tends to be slightly worse for such pics. I usually get them down to 6-10 KB, with Flood Fill it's twice the amount. But it's a faster way to get a GIF with uniform BG.

It depends on the PNG setting. If you save as PNG-8, the result is about the same size as GIF. PNG-24 can have large file size, so the wiki uses it only for small icons. But if your files are about 25kb they are fine.

Currently, the wiki has the following standart (sort of) for the item stat pictures: Picture width of 450px GIF file format with as small amount of colours as can be without the picture looking very bad Blue color scheme for the Fallen Angel and I&B items, black for the CM ones. To ensure these points, some editing should be made. Read on for the full (and quite excessive) instruction for making good-looking stat pics. Step 1: Taking Screenshots. Of course, before you start editing the picture, you need to take it. There are few things you can do to make the subsequent editing easier and ensure the quality of the outcome: If you're picturing an item from the original game, it's best to return at least part of the old interface. Go to the "Sacred 2 - Fallen Angel\pak" folder, open the "skin.zip" archive and extract the "data\frames" folder to the "pak" directory. You can extract the entirety of the archive and revert all interface to I&B state, but it's not required for making item pics. Launch the game at 1280x1024 (or 1280x800, if that's your display's limit). This ensures that the item stats in tooltips would be dispalyed at suitable scale for turning them into 450px pictures. You can take the screenshots with bigger resolution and then resize them in the graphic editor, but it might make fonts very thin or blurry. Take the screenshots in the clean chest, where no other items are underneath the item tooltip. It would make editing the background out much easier. Step 2: Editing Pictures. I'm a Photoshop user, so I describe the work flow in PS CS2. However, the editing process is simple and can be done in Gimp with equal ease. Maybe the hot keys would be different though. Open the screenshot you've taken and a template background file approptiate for the item. The templates I'm using can be grabbed HERE - included are the files for Fallen Angel and CM items of 1 and 2 square width in the inventory. Select the stats, CNTRL+C, CNTRL+V. You'd get the stats in new layer without other things interfering. Use Magic Wand (Tolerance 10, all other options off) on the empty space. Either hit DELETE, or Inverse Selection + Copy (CNTRL+SHIFT+I, CNTRL+C). In Photoshop "Inverse Selection + Copy" combination gives better result in preservation of font quality, but it might be different in Gimp. Paste or drag the stats to the template. Skip this step for one-square-width items. Align the text with a line I keep as a ruler. Select the text left of the Damage bar and drag it along the ruler line to the left (for about 2 dashes). Deselect. This is because 450px is the in-game width for items with narrow icons but it's better if double-width ones have the same picute size. Move the stats to put the name where the background tells you to. Uncheck the visibility of the Item Name and Ruler layers in the Layer list. Optional. Replace the sockets on the item with the ones from the selection below. It's not mandatory, but sometimes the transparency of in-game windows makes the sockets on the screenshot look pretty checkered and not compress well. If the sockets on your screenshot look good, just skip this step. Select an icon in the original screenshot, drag in into template and fit in the corner. Flatten Image, select and copy the area of your stats. Make new picture (the editor usually automatically sets it the size of clipboard, or select "Clipboard" preset if needed). Paste your stats. Step 3: Saving Pictures. Use "Save for Web" option. Select filetype as GIF. Set GIF options as: Selective palette, No Dither, No Transparency, No Interlace. Surprising, but it gives both the best look and the smallest filesize. Experiment with the number of colours. Set it as the minimum at which the sockets look good and all modifiers are of proper color. usually it's 16 for set bonuses, 32 for jewellery, 64 for socketed items. Some specimens with a lot of differently colored modifiers can require 128. Press save, enter the name and you're done. It all is actually very fast to do. This guide is long only because I tend to over-explain things when I write guides. Though I hope that everybody would be able to understand it even without special knowledge of the graphic editors.

The second shield looks very very good. I wonder if it is possible to have a non-transparent round element in the middle ot the shield that would look like a shield emitter, or the transparency flag is applied to either entire texture or none at all. though maybe it just won't look good... Anyway, the second version makes for a spectacular design that would look quite good with different types of things. It's not exactly medieval and you can't tell whether it is magical or hi-tech creation, but either interpretation fits with the Seraphim, High Elf and the general atmosphere of the game.

Sadly, this is just impossible to do. The button captions are encoded inside the global.res file that contains all in-game texts. This file can not be edited without special tools that never were released to the general public. Replacing CM version of this file with the original one would return the button captions, but all texts added in CM patch (quest texts, item names etc.) would disappear. Activating the Closed Net button that was removed in CM is possible by extracting the contents of skin-xml.zip, but since the server is down anyway there is no point in doing so.

File Name: All Seraphim Unique Armor File Submitter: Silver_fox File Submitted: 27 Mar 2014 File Category: Ice & Blood Seraphim Items These chests contains all Seraphim Uniques present in Sacred 2 with Ice and Blood Add-on. The set items and new items from the Community Patch are NOT included. These chests contain: Helmet of Insanity Scribe Bracers ot Atherton Muadib's Visions Aelfren's Corsage Bodhie's Resistance Aelfren's Girdle Bodhie's Vestment Bodhie's Promise Divine Armor Angel's Wings The Bulwark Blade Breaker The information below applies to all items. Item levels: Silver difficulty: Levels 20, 35, 50 Gold difficulty: Levels 65, 80, 95, Platinum difficulty: Levels 110, 125, 140, Niob difficulty: Levels 155, 170, 185, 200 NOTE: Due to the fact that the chests contain mixed items that have different level jump in game, some items can be of slightly higher levels than listed above. For example level 205 instead of 200. Instructions: The chest files should be extracted from this archive and copied from the respective folders to the savegame folder. Only one of the chests can be installed at the time. The location of the savegame folder is given below. For Windows XP: C:\Documents and Settings\<userID>\My Documents\Saved Games\Ascaron Entertainment\Sacred 2 For Windows Vista and Windows 7: C:\Users\<userID>\Saved Games\Ascaron Entertainment\Sacred 2 Be sure to back up your existing chest.sacred2chest file before doing anything! Installing any of these files will overwrite your Shared tab in your player chest. Click here to download this file

>"...I don't think that this effect fits a shield - if it would be used then I don't recommend a frame around it. And rather have it light inside & fading outwards..." I agree with you. The shield would look better if designed like the one form Sacred 1 - a glow generator in the centre and fading shield outside. I linked that issue not because I like what was done here, but because it is good to see what mistakes other people did before, so as not to try those things again. >"Do you have an example / screenshot?" I believe that Yoshio meant one of these shields: I guess he wanted to use the first one, but the second one can also fit.

I'm not sure whether or not it would be of help, but LT's attempts on creating an "Energy Field" shield are still on Mantis. He and Czevak discussed the possibility of using the texture effect of seraphim's Ancient Wings for the shield. It did not end all that well (not all that bad either), but may at least give some ideas of what works and what does not. It's the Lichtschild der Sophia issue.

No, fonts are not a part of this package. The game uses the fonts installed in the system font folder (For XP it is C:\WINDOWS\Fonts). The particular fonts that show up in game are listed in the script file "ListFontGroups.xml" that can be found in "Sacred 2 - Fallen Angel\locale\en_UK" folder (for english version, but other versions have similar location). This file, once you open it for editing (regular Windows Notepad would do for this) looks like this: <suixml version="0.0.1.0"> <!-- the Name-Attribute must be the internal font name --> <Fonts> <Font Name="ZabriskieScript-Bold" File="ZabriskieScript-Bold.ttf"/> <Font Name="AntiquaSSK" File="AntqSSK.ttf"/> </Fonts> <!-- here you can use symbolic/aliased names for fonts --> <FontGroups> <FontGroup Name="CaptionFontGroup"> "ZabriskieScript-Bold" </FontGroup> <FontGroup Name="TextFontGroup"> "AntiquaSSK" </FontGroup> </FontGroups> </suixml> If you want to change the font, find the one you'd like to use in the system font foder and list its name in the first section, between "Fonts" tags. Then use the name you assigned in the second section, between "FontGroups" tags. Here the one under "CaptionFontGroup" is the font used in the main menu, and quest dialogue captions, and the one under "TextFontGroup" is the font used for all regulat texts, like dialogues, logbook, item stats etc. For example, if you want the game to use the Times New Roman font for every text, the code would look like this: <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?> - <suixml version="0.0.1.0"> - <!-- the Name-Attribute must be the internal font name --> - <Fonts> <Font Name="Times" File="Times.ttf" /> </Fonts> - <!-- here you can use symbolic/aliased names for fonts --> - <FontGroups> <FontGroup Name="CaptionFontGroup">"Times"</FontGroup> <FontGroup Name="TextFontGroup">"Times"</FontGroup> </FontGroups> </suixml>

No, it won't look out of place, but... well, you remember that picture you posted of an Elf with a Troll shield (now that's the one that should have been called "Unyielding Wall"). With the real Riot Shield she would look only slightly better. As for what I wanted, I wanted to discuss the idea and see what the community can think of in regard to the shields. My own thoughts were about something that is classified as a shield but does not look exactly like one - like an armband, or a heavy gauntlet, or a throwing dagger in a shealth, or a shoulder holster (guess this one is not doable). Though maybe just a shield texture that does not look incredibly medieval can be created. Maybe a tech-looking "Energy shield" - a semi-transparent energy field in a frame, is a good idea, though I know that LazyTomcat attempted it and ran into trouble with texturing the back side of the shield. Something akin to this Sacred 1 shield design looks like a good match at least to all T-energy weapons: Anyway, it was just a thought, not something that has to be done. If no ideas for a specific designs would appear - the game now has a lot of good shields and nobody would complain if you won't implement more.

I forgot about the Inquisitor's weapon and armor selection for some reason. Well, on the bright side - there is no need to be concerned about his flowing robes if we decide to model an arm-protector-like shield. As for looking strange with handguns - the modern clothes designs that Pesmontis made for the Elf (Range Array and the one that is a part of CM) look better with pistols than with pretty much everything else.

Look at the downloads section - the file was approved recently.

File Name: All High Elf Unique Armor File Submitter: Silver_fox File Submitted: 26 Mar 2014 File Category: Ice & Blood High Elf Items These chests contains all High Elf Uniques present in Sacred 2 with Ice and Blood Add-on. The set items and new items from the Community Patch are NOT included. These chests contain: Tiara of Ardal Helmet of Insanity Co'Nahn's Chestguard Dwarvensilver Tunic Nishinku's Bracers The Impervious Finrohil's Agility Omegranas Rendal's Ruse Version 2 also contains Scribe Bracers of Atherton The information below applies to all items. Item levels: Silver difficulty: Levels 20, 25, 35, 50 Gold difficulty: Levels 65, 80, 95, 110 Platinum difficulty: Levels 125, 140, 155 Niob difficulty: Levels 170, 185, 200 NOTE: Due to the fact that the chests contain mixed items that have different level jump in game, some items can be of slightly higher levels than listed above. For example level 205 instead of 200. Instructions: The chest files should be extracted from this archive and copied from the respective folders to the savegame folder. Only one of the chests can be installed at the time. The location of the savegame folder is given below. For Windows XP: C:\Documents and Settings\<userID>\My Documents\Saved Games\Ascaron Entertainment\Sacred 2 For Windows Vista and Windows 7: C:\Users\<userID>\Saved Games\Ascaron Entertainment\Sacred 2 Be sure to back up your existing chest.sacred2chest file before doing anything! Installing any of these files will overwrite your Shared tab in your player chest. Click here to download this file

SacredWiki. Look for the bright yellow link at the top of the forum page and you'll find it. Alternatively, Click here to seee the listing of High Elf Uniques

OK, guys, the chests with all High Elf Unique Armor were created and uploaded. Once one of the moderators approves the file, everybody who wants any of these items would be able to download them. I collected all 8 items listed on the High Elf unique page of the wiki + Helmet of Insanity, which has versions for all characters.

>"In other words, to butcher a quote, I'll stop talking about modding when they pry the keyboard from my cold dead hands." Yes, of course. Especially considering that DarkMatters always welcomed mods and modding guides. I'm sorry if I sounded offensive of unpelasant, I did not mean to insult you, I swear. It's just that one day in the past gogo warned me against discussing everything that can be considered cheat or exploit, and with some modding tricks the line is so thin I'm not sure when we cross it.

>"...They had always been in the offer of the merchant and in addition they also had been quite powerful, at least to my understanding..." It's a common trick that Bargaining skill plays at you. Low level shoppers have good chance to get the most rare items if they keep Bargaining at level, but high level shoppers can't achieve such results. The swordstaves are scripted as tier 12 items, which is the best and the most rare shoppable tier. Shoppers of level 50 and below can see them quite often (as I know from my experiments with level 35 HE shopper), shoppers about level 80-90 struggle to find them despite high Bargaining level, and at level 140 you fail to see them no matter what you do. Refer to Antitrust's Guide about Bargaining to understand how it works. >"...All of them always had at least one socket, mostly gold, one damage modifier socket and quite some of them had attributes like +x to all attributes and with +x I do mean numbers like +7. Furhtermore, I don't know if it had been designed that way, all of them only had been available with fire damage..." Sadly, the fire damage is the only one currently available. The dominant damage type for lightsabers is connected to the item type and to the appearance. Right now we can create only red swordstaves (the color is a property of the model and they can't be retextured in the blade area, so unless more models would be created it would stay this way), so they all have fire damage. As for the sockets and modifiers: The regular metal two-handed swords and axes usually have four modifiers - one coming from the weapon type and 3 random ones. Swordstaves have 1 weapon type modifier, one socket and 2 random modifiers. It's balanced, they just have one high-quality bonus bonus fixed as high-quality socket. "All skills +x" modifier can roll on all two-handed weapons and actually that x is great for all of them. Looking into technical stuff, we can see this modifier appear in the following bonus groups (I'm listing only two-handers for comparison): id = 281, name = "BGW_hafted2h_normal" -- axes and hammers amount for rare - 1650 id = 25, name = "BGW_sword2h_normal" -- regular metal swords amount for rare - 1700 id = 572, name = "BGW_pole_normal" -- halberds and poles amount for rare - 1350 id = 1104, name = "BGW_off_saberstaff_rare " -- dual-bladed lightsabers amount for rare - 1650 Note that for the original weapons this modifier appears in "normal" bonusgroup and not in the "rare" one, which means that these items can roll another gold and yellow quality modifiers at the same time as +All Skills. Besides, "All Skills" and "All CAs" are the best swordstaves can possibly roll. All other modifiers they have are somewhat weaker. >"...So, when comparing these to seemingly similar weapons, I do feel that the new twobladed light sabre staffs do excel the normal light sabre in all points, which I do feel, is a bit sad..." To compare them to similar weapon, you should compare them to other two-handed weapons, and here they are about equal. They do excel one-handed lightsabers in the same way as regular two-handed swords excel one-handed. The game always gives two-handers better amounts of modifiers because they take both hand slots, so these modifiers are all you get. >"...Like a riot shield?.." I thought about this, but I'm not sure if it would fit in Ancaria. Maybe a seraphim would look OK with it, but a little Elf or a robed Inquisitor would look strange with such shield type. >"...dagger + sheath for example... arm guard..." It would be quite cool in my opinion. If, of course, it can be done to look Ok with most armor. As far as I know, most armors in game are pretty skin-tight in the elbow area, Elf's Raven set, seraphim's Ancient and Inquisitor's robes being an exception.

Truth to tell, it's not hard at all to make a version of this mod fully compatible with the latest CM patch. All it takes is copying his changed entries from surface.txt and itemtype.txt files he packaged with the mod into the ones from CM v140. Then packaging the mod with new files. However, it would mean editing someone else's work in a way, and I'm not sure if this is allowed.

I'm afraid that doing the level increase 6 or 7 times won't be enough to get all levels of the uniques, more like 10-12. I can do 6-7 with my current characters, without the necessity to create a special one or edit character level, that's why I asked if it would be enough. Of course I understand the editing possibility. I guess I'll do it for High Elf's uniques, as I'm currently testing unique items anyway. I'm not sure if what you've just did is allowed by forum rules. I told people about spawning items through the quest rewards only in personal messages, because some other forums consider open discussion of such tricks just as bad as openly hosting MegaDev cheatbase and Character Editor. I'm not sure what policy DarkMatters has for this case.

>"I do like to have jewelry socketed to gain increased attack speed." The mechanics of the game limits the maximum of Attack Speed the character can have with a weapon class. Once you've hit the limit, the innate properties of the weapons come into play. With the same attack speed Blowpipes fire much faster and manage to have better damage per second than slower albeit powerful bows. Bows need to have interesting modifiers on them to be considered as a weapon of choice. It's about the same with the Throwing Daggers - they have the same projectile trajectory as Throwing Stars, but have a bit different (worse) selection of modifiers. As a result, quite a few people use stars, but some forget that the daggers are in game at all. As we are talking about Ranged Weapons and Shields: Can we somehow design a shield that won't look ridiculous while equipped with a pistol? I'm not sure what kind of design it can have, maybe something minimalistic and not shield-like at all. Classical medieval shields of which the game has a plenty look so off with modern or sci-fi pistols, but leaving an empty hand slot is quite silly mechanics-wise.

I thought about making these chests too. Spawning items by their blueprints has only one big downside - they always drop near the character level, so you need to spend time and do it for quite a lot of different characters (and to have these characters). I can make a chest with levels 15-35-45-80-140-160-200. Would it be enough?

All this armor is in game right enough and was there before the CM patch. It is listed on the High Elf Uniques page of the wiki. The reason why Lujate's links are leading to nowhere is that the current forum software does not process wiki tags for pages with apostrophes in their names, or rather, processes them incorrectly.