Torchmodders

Mod Projects => Lord Nyriox's Playground => Topic started by: Lord Nyriox on June 12, 2018, 03:58:41 pm

Title: [SPAWNCLASS] Rapid Starting Equipment
Post by: Lord Nyriox on June 12, 2018, 03:58:41 pm

Rapid Starting Equipment

Several weeks ago, dissatisfied with the design of "Adventurers Starting Gear (https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=178029549)", I started looking for alternative methods to make equipment available at the beginning of the game. 

Spoiler (hover to show)

My initial search turned up nothing...as did the dozens of other searches I made on the topic.  Eventually, disgusted, I went on to other projects--which a few days ago, turned up the "Warglaives of Azzinoth (https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=157865068)" mod, which, as it turns out, injects an additional "hidden" quest (with a spawnclass), that completes on accepting the Destroyers "Warn the Town" quest in Act 1. 

Inspired by this method, I studied the game files, and quickly discovered that there is already a semi-hidden vanilla "start of game" quest, which also gets completed by talking to the Destroyer.  And so, with a tiny amount of work, I was able to reduce the impact of the "Warglaives" starting gear method to only 2 files, rather than 3. 

After a couple of quick checks, I can now confirm that this new method works perfectly to provide starting items to the player.  It is a perfect 1-click alternative to "Adventurer's Starting Gear", and can be easily extended for use in other mods.  And it only modifies 1 (semi-hidden) quest to do it! 

A sample starting-gear spawnclass (which I developed for @Kevin Boyle to use with his Titan class) is included as an example. 

Download link (MEGA folder):
https://mega.nz/#F!zBMVDR4J!aCK83G2q6DAC2MByYwUV1g (https://mega.nz/#F!zBMVDR4J!aCK83G2q6DAC2MByYwUV1g)

Title: Re: [SPAWNCLASS] Rapid Starting Equipment
Post by: Phanjam on June 12, 2018, 05:56:22 pm

Nice work LordNyriox! I need to learn about quests too, bcos thats really the path to "new content". Thanks for sharing!

Title: Re: [SPAWNCLASS] Rapid Starting Equipment
Post by: Kevin Boyle on June 12, 2018, 10:59:46 pm

Awesome mod!

LOVE it!

Thank you - much appreciation @Lord Nyriox!

Title: Re: [SPAWNCLASS] Rapid Starting Equipment
Post by: doudley on August 25, 2018, 08:26:18 pm

Quote from: Lord Nyriox on June 12, 2018, 03:58:41 pm

After a couple of quick checks, I can now confirm that this new method works perfectly to provide starting items to the player.  It is a perfect 1-click alternative to "Adventurer's Starting Gear", and can be easily extended for use in other mods.  And it only modifies 1 (semi-hidden) quest to do it!

So basically, every modder that wants this new method will only need the
A1-STARTOFGAME.DAT
with a reward
<STRING>TREASURECLASS:QUESTREWARD_STARTOFGAME
and a customspawnclass.dat with the
<STRING>NAME:QUESTREWARD_STARTOFGAME
Then all starting equipment/items would be conflict-free as long as no one will directly modify the NPC destroyer's function in echopass.

Amazing! Good job @Lord Nyriox !

Title: Re: [SPAWNCLASS] Rapid Starting Equipment
Post by: Lord Nyriox on August 25, 2018, 10:43:58 pm

Quote from: Phanjam on June 12, 2018, 05:56:22 pm

Nice work LordNyriox! I need to learn about quests too, bcos thats really the path to "new content". Thanks for sharing!

All I did was tweak the hidden "talk to the Destroyer" quest, to add a "TreasureClass" tag to it.  The quest is

Code: (PATH) [Select]

MEDIA/QUESTS/TL2MAINQUEST/ACT1/A1-STARTOFGAME.DATI assigned it a custom spawnclass called "QUESTREWARD_STARTOFGAME". 

Quote from: doudley on August 25, 2018, 08:26:18 pm

So basically, every modder that wants this new method will only need the

Spoiler (hover to show)

A1-STARTOFGAME.DAT
with a reward
<STRING>TREASURECLASS:QUESTREWARD_STARTOFGAME
and a customspawnclass.dat with the
<STRING>NAME:QUESTREWARD_STARTOFGAME

Then all starting equipment/items would be conflict-free as long as no one will directly modify the NPC destroyer's function in echopass.

Essentially, yes.  You can also change the XP, Gold, and/or Fame rewards while you are at it, in order to test high-level mechanics without using the console.

Most notably, however, because this one quest is completed without any dialog of its own, every single item that successfully rolls from this SpawnClass is provided all at once—directly into the player's inventory. 

A normal quest would force players to pick just one item, via the "quest completion" dialog.

Note that I am planning on eventually posting a finalized "reference implementation" (using a renamed variant of the "Adventurer's Starting Gear" SpawnClass), with some proper documentation. 

The currently posted source is an early draft, that I originally created for @Kevin Boyle's Titan armor project.  It includes some unrelated files, and therefore needs some cleanup. 

P.S.  Technically, you can use any SpawnClass name under the TreasureClass tag, but I chose the name "QUESTREWARD_STARTOFGAME" for consistency with equivalent vanilla SpawnClasses.