Editing items/creatures

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So... I'm wanting to do a video LP through the whole series, but want to edit certain things within the game to give a slightly different flavour/outcome, e.g.:

change Viconia's class or Solaufein's portrait (simple - can do this with Shadow Keeper);

edit what items certain creatures have (e.g. create an extra Robe of Vecna, but given to a powerful lich such as Azamantes or Shangalar - again, easy with SK);

or edit something like the Girdle of Fortitude so it offers a permanent 18 Con rather than the activated bonus once every 8 hours (much trickier - will have to use something like NearInfinity).

It's the last one of those that I would love a bit of guidance with. E.g. what files would I need to back up in case of inadvertent mistakes that break the game, and would anybody have any idea how I would go about something such as the Girdle of Fortitude edit explained above?

Thanking you all in advance!

 

I personally thought that Infinity Engine Editor Pro by TeamBG was the easiest to use. You extract the item file with Infinity Explorer, edit it, and then drop it in the Overide folder.

The next easiest is DLTCEP, and NearInfinity can help with some things.

As for backups, back up your override folder. The editors won't let you overwrite the other game files, but anything installed by a [official] patch, expansion (Throne of Bhaal, Tales of the Sword Coast, Heart of Winter), or mod (which technically includes Baldurdash/G3 Fixpack) will be in your override folder and easily overwritten.

Note that this advice works for all Infinity Engine games, although not all the tools work with Icewind Dale II.

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You might want to check out this part of Sorcerer's Place to help you choose:
http://www.sorcerers.net/Games/IEmodding/index.php

 

After trying and failing to install it, I just read that IEEP is actually pretty old and mostly no longer supported. Have you had much trouble using it before?

I've managed to do simple things in NearInfinity such as editing the text of items or the images associated with them, but when it came to changing the effects I got a bit lost. If we take the Girdle of Fortitude example, I locate the item (code BELT09.ITM), open it up, and in the tab "View" it has on the right the box "Identified Description", underneath which are two boxes: "Abilities" and "Global effects". The GoF has no global effects but does have one ability noted in the box: "Magical (3)". I click "View/Edit" underneath the "Abilities" box and it opens up another window with several attributes and another box labelled "Effects", in which three effects are listed:

1. "Constitution bonus (10)"
2. "Display portrait icon (142)"
3. "Play 3D Effect (215)"

My guess is, the above three things are the effects that take place when the item is activated ingame: 1. the Con bonus takes place, 3. there's a magic swirly effect played in game, but the one I'm unsure about is 2. Display portrait icon. Is this the clickable icon that's displayed in the Use Item ability ingame?

If I wanted to change the girdle so it gives a permanent 18 Con, would I be right to change the Abilities to some sort of nothing/default, and then edit the Global Effects to give the bonus? I checked in BELT08.ITM (Girdle of Frost Giant Strength) and for Abilities it has "Default (0)" and Global effects "Strength bonus (44)". It seems that I ought to change the GoF so it also has "Default (0)" in its abilities instead of "Magical (3)", and so its global effect is a constitution bonus, then edit its global effect so it gives the correct value. Does all of the above seem like it's along the right lines?

Also thanks for the info on backing up, and for the speedy reply!

 

effect number 2 is displaying an icon on your character portrait to show you have a buff. like the little flexing red dude when you cast strength on yourself, or the flame icon when you have resistance from fire
if you're going to make it a permanent buff you might consider removing that icon
also remove the 3D swirly effect, because you don't have a use funstion anymore on the belt. well actually you could keep it, the line of code would never be used, but it's redundant

changing abilities from magical(3) to defaukt(0) does sound like the correct way to do it, especially if that's how it is on the STR belts

 

Great, thanks Isilion. I'll try it and see!

 

I had no trouble using IEEP with Windows 98SE and little difficulty after I finally upgraded that computer to XP Professional. I have not attempted to use it on anything newer.

However, as an IT professional, I can see a major potential problem using it to edit items directly in your override folder if User Annoyance Control (UAC) is turned on. You almost certainly will have to run IEEP as an administrator. On the other hand, it should work if you edit the files somewhere else and drop them in your override folder.

Sorry, the Infinity Engine games have been installed on my old Windows 98SE/XP dual-boot computer for the last 1d4+7 years, depending on the game and I never bothered to install them on the two succeeding computers (one of which is nonfunctional).

Damn, I just realized how old that system is now.


Anyways, IEEP may be old, but it works just fine for everything except Icewind Dale II. There are a few minor things it can't do, but it is still a very good tool. They did a VERY good job on that tool. Just as most people have a wide variety of hand tools in their toolbox, you can use it along with other tools for item editing and play to the strengths of each one. It's not that big, a megabyte at most, which is small by today's standards.