-
Hi all,
It's been a very long time since I've been here - a year or more most likely, but I've found myself enjoying TL2 again. With that of course I've been having fun mucking around in GUTS. I've got an idea for a simple mod that I think I'd actually have the skills to pull off
I love the idea of a wild serker running around with a menagerie of summoned creatures to help him, a bit like what the d2 druid could do. I just don't like how the TL2 summon spells are all "necromancery" with zombies and skeles etc. So I want to make a set of more "Wild" themed summon spells that are as mostly cosmetic as possible so as not to become OP.
So a few questions about summon spell scrolls:
Let's say I want to change summon blood golem for example so it summons a frost wolf, but still retains roughly the same damage values/effects.
Progress so far:
I've managed to be able to change the spell name and description that appears once you have learnt the spell, but I can't seem to change how the scroll itself appears when it first drops. Not a big deal i guess, but looks a bit dodgy if i end up putting it on steam.
I tried cloning the skill in the skill editor and item in the item editor then renaming it to Summon Frost Wolf, but then no matter what I did it didn't change or said "unknown item". I'm guessing it won't be able to drop unless it has a name right? Is it something to do me needing to add the new spell somewhere (spawn classes?) so that the game knows what it is?
Another issue, or at least what appears to be an issue is changing what monster the spell spawns. Under "unit spawner" in the blood zombie skill layout I found if I changed "RESOURCE" to WOLF_ICE it summons an ice wolf instead. I just wanted to check though, is resource just concerned with models and animations etc, or are there damage values and monster levels tied to it as well? It just seemed when I tested it using icewolf as the resource it was doing way more damage than it should have. It seemed like it was doing the damage over time that blood golem does as well as the damage that an icewolf usually does. It's not a big deal for me if the wolf is faster moving than the original blood zombie (but it'd be cool if i could slow it down), but I'd love to keep the damage it does as close to Vanilla as possible.
Sorry about the long post. I guess i just wanted ppl to know that I'm keen to understand how it all works and not have the mod made for me
Any tips or general pointers in the right direction would be very much appreciated 
-
-
Hi Aherin! Nice idea for a 'serker-summoner!
This won;t answer all your questions, but for this one...Under "unit spawner" in the blood zombie skill layout I found if I changed "RESOURCE" to WOLF_ICE it summons an ice wolf instead. I just wanted to check though, is resource just concerned with models and animations etc, or are there damage values and monster levels tied to it as well? It just seemed when I tested it using icewolf as the resource it was doing way more damage than it should have. It seemed like it was doing the damage over time that blood golem does as well as the damage that an icewolf usually does. It's not a big deal for me if the wolf is faster moving than the original blood zombie (but it'd be cool if i could slow it down), but I'd love to keep the damage it does as close to Vanilla as possible.
Yes the RESOURCE you summon is a complete UNIT entity with stats and damage and affixes and everything! I would suggest you make your own RESOURCE UNITS by cloning some existing monster units and changing their settings (in their unit .DAT) to fit your mod.
Keep working on this please! I like the concept! -
-
Thanks for the reply Phanjam. Your positive, inspiring and helpful posts are always very much appreciated man Makes a massive difference.
Ahh ok so I thought it could be something like that for resources. I'll have a hunt around.
Cheers!
-
-
aha Thanks for the tip Phanjam. Got it working now
The other issues I was having seemed to sort themselves out when I closed the item and skill editors after making changes and saving then opening them again.
Now to start cooking up some alternative summon spells!
-
-
-
Gday
I ended up making 3 summon spell replacements. With this you'll be able to run around with your own frost wolf (from blood zombie), some stationary sturm deathflingers (from summon archers) and your own sturm warmaker (instead of skeleton warrior).
It'd be cool to make another set for the engineer and embermage if I had the time Ha the engi could have a set of gun turrets instead of archers....
Anyway it was good fun learning and thanks again for your help!
-
-
hey Aherin,
that looks pretty good to me!
for the Embermage:
what do you think about act 3 monsters? the spores and shrooms popped up in my head... or the frosty guys from act 1 behind the town..
good work -
-
Cheers mate
Ah yeah that could be cool. I'm playing through the game again atm so I should make some notes.. -
-
-
Haha loooks like you've been bitten by the modding bug
Nice work! U ok on making new icons, or did you need some help? -
-
Heheh yeah I really enjoyed getting into it
I did have a go doing a simple recolour of the texture sheet for the spell icons but I couldn't seem to make the game recognise it. Thanks for offering your help man, I know you're a bit of an expert at making new icons.
doudley was talking about doing something nifty where a different creature was summoned depending on the class you were playing. So some new icons for that would be a really good idea. -
-
Quote from: Aherin
I did have a go doing a simple recolour of the texture sheet for the spell icons but I couldn't seem to make the game recognise it. Thanks for offering your help...
NP that's what this site was set up for
On the recolor, I assume you copied, edited then saved the "spell.dds" file with a new name? Aside from the artwork stuff, you need to set up a new .IMAGESET file to get the art into the game. Which part do you think is causing the trouble?Quote from: Aherindoudley was talking about doing something nifty where a different creature was summoned depending on the class you were playing. So some new icons for that would be a really good idea.
Yup I would say @doudley is a wizard with crafting skills. I don't really know how he will make it work, but I'm sure he knows what he's doing I'd love to learn about it too
-
-
Quote
I assume you copied, edited then saved the "spell.dds" file with a new name?
Yeah that's exactly what I didQuoteyou need to set up a new .IMAGESET file to get the art into the game
And that's exactly what I didn't do hehe.
As for what doudley is suggesting, I decided to keep it simple how it is now. He did send me a blank spell icon .png file template for each kind of spell for me to use. If I convert those to dds format will the game recognise them as a single icon, or will i have to put them all together on one big sheet? Sorry if that's a stupid question. Heh just got no idea how it works. -
-
Hey NP! The only icons the game will know to use are those it reads from the .IMAGESET files in the game and in mods. All IMAGESET files do is hold X and Y coordinate info of where to pick-up a single icon in an image file that contains many icons. It just kinda neatens things up for using icons.
So editing the original image file like you did is the right start; you just need to pair it up with an edited .IMAGESET file as well.
I'll put up a more detailed explanation for editing the .IMAGESET when I get home
EDIT
Okay here's that mini-tut...
As mentioned an IMAGESET file just tells the game what to pick up from an image file to use as an icon. So the important bits of info in there are...
1. the IMAGESET NAME,
2. which IMAGE FILE to look in to,
3. the IMAGE NAME for each icon on the image file and
4. for each IMAGE NAME, the X and Y coordinates on the IMAGE FILE where the art is for that icon.
These are contained in the .IMAGESET file like this...
Obviously, the IMAGESET NAME, IMAGE FILE and IMAGE NAMEs all need to be unique to the icon set you are presenting to the game (you'd think not being able to find an icon is a minor thing, but it can actually cause the game to crash ), so go ahead and change those values for your new IMAGESET file.
For the X and Y coordinates I recommend (based on many hours of trying to make my own coordinates work and failing) to just clone an existing IMAGESET file and to not monkey around with the X and Y coordinates! This way you're sure it WILL work with the IMAGE FILE it's pointing at.
Extra info about coordinates
So if you've cloned the IMAGESET file then you also want to clone the IMAGE FILE it's pointing at, so that you preserve the layout of the artworks on the image. You can edit to your heart's content but you have to stay within the layout-box for each icon.
Finally save your edited image file as a .DDS using whatever compression (DXT1 through DXT5) was set for the original image you cloned.
And you should be good to go! -
-
Hey man, I read this I have come to give you guys an easier solution...
Use the TextureSheeter.exe in guts, with this you can take a folder full of individual icon files, or UI files or whatever, and I'll make the sheet and create the apropiate imageset file (using the file names and dimensions). If I recall correctly is under the "View" menu button on the toolbar.
The only issue is that you have to export the image as PNG since the DDS converter won't work for some reason. -