Editing Items Using KotOR Tool - Tutorial

[Achilles]

Editing Items Using KotOR Tool

 

Forward: Thanks to the efforts of Fred Tetra, it is now easier than ever to create custom items. Projects that used to require a working knowledge of GFF editing can now be accomplished using drop down menus. Truly an amazing feat! However, just like the teacher that wouldn’t let you use a calculator in math class for fear that you wouldn’t actually learn how to do math, having this tool will not automatically make modding easy for you. You will still need to have a working knowledge of how the files interact with each other and with the game. If you have not done so before, I recommend making at least one item “the hard way” to help strengthen your knowledge of item editing. Detailed walkthroughs on how do this can be found here:

 

http://www.lucasforums.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=129450

http://www.lucasforums.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=130491

 

You should feel free to forego this, however it may require a little bit more experimentation with the drop-down menus to figure out what everything means.

 

 

Step 1: Locate the file that you want to edit.

 

Almost every item that is used in the game can be found in the Template file. To get to the game Templates, open KT, and then expand BIFs>templates.bif>Blueprint, Item.

 

I would highly recommend using a file reference to help decipher item labels. The resource that I use can be found at http://www.goldensun-syndicate.net/kotor/codeFAQ.txt

 

 

Step 2: Open the file

 

Double click on the file that you would like to edit. For example, to open the file for the blue Lightsaber, double click on g_w_lghtsbr01. The native UTI Editor should open.

 

 

Step 3: Edit the properties

 

 

3.a - The UTI Editor window has four tabs. The first tab contains general information about the item. A short description of each field follows:

 

 

TemplateResRef – the template reference for the item that you are modding. The game uses this field, along with Tag to determine what your item is. Creating a unique item (i.e. a custom armor with skin, enhancements, etc) will require that changes are made to both TemplateResRef and Tag. Such a project requires model file editing and is outside the scope of this tutorial. A brief description of how to do this can be found in the X link in the Foreword.

 

Tag – see TemplateResRef.

 

Baseitem – The item type that the item is based on. Pretty self-explanatory.

 

Cost – how many credits your item will cost in-game

 

Additional Cost - ? (I rarely modify item cost as part of a mod)

 

Palette ID - ?

 

Plot Item – Some items in the game are considered Plot Items. In other words, your interactions with the item are critical to the story. For instance, recovering the Sith Lightsaber from Sith Statue in the tomb of Naga Sadow causes Uthar and Yuthura to spawn when you return to the acid pool. Failure to recover this plot item keeps the story from moving on.

 

Stolen - ?

 

Charges – Refers to multiple use items such as forearm shields.

 

Stack Size - ?

 

Model Variation – This tells the game what your item looks like. In the case of this example Model Variation 1 represents the blue Lightsaber. 2 represents red, 3 is green and so on. Hence, why the code for the blue Lightsaber is g_w_lghtsbr01 and the code for the red Lightsaber is g_w_lghtsbr02, et cetera.

 

*Note: Items such as armor, robes, and clothing will utilize Body Variation and Texture Variation to achieve the same effect. You will have to experiment (and use the aforementioned file reference) to become familiar with this type of item modding.

 

 

 

3.b - The next tab (Properties), contains the actual properties assigned to the item. When clicking on this tab for a Lightsaber, you’ll see all of the existing upgrade properties that are already coded into the item. Again, the fields that you see here will be difficult to comprehend unless you are familiar with GFF editing. You can either use the second link above to get a crash course in item editing or you can experiment with this tool until it starts to make sense.

 

To create a new property, scroll to the bottom of the property list and double click on the row with the asterisk (*) in it. The Item Property Window should now appear with the following areas:

 

Property Name – hopefully this is pretty self explanatory. Please note that many of the items in this drop-down are not used in this game (example: Light, Mighty, Special Walk, etc.). Unfortunately, there is no easy way to explain what each of these properties do. Experiment and learn =)

 

Subtype – some properties require the use of a subtype. For instance, the Property “Damage Bonus” will require that you specify what type of damage is being enhanced. Examples include Energy, Fire, Acid, Ion, etc.

 

Value – Some property edits will require that you specify the magnitude of the enhancement/penalty. Using the previous example, you will need to specify how much of a damage bonus to apply (+1, 1d3, etc).

 

% Chance of Appearance – Basically, how likely is your mod to appear. I can’t imagine why anyone would change this to something other than 100.

 

Param1 – You are only going to need this sometimes. Odd are that if the drop down becomes available, you will be able to figure out what you need to do with it by expanding it =)

 

Param2 - ? (I imagine this will be the same case as Param1).

 

Upgrade (required to activate) – Select this only if you want your mod to appear when an upgrade is added to your item. I would not recommend trying to add an armor upgrade type to a weapon or vice versa. I haven’t tried it myself, but I imagine that it wouldn’t work anyways.

 

When you are finished with a property edit, click the Add button. Repeat the process to your heart’s content.

 

 

3.c – The Description tab will be used to help edit the item name, add a unique history to the item, or what have you.

 

Name – self-explanatory

 

Unidentified Description – an area for you to add your own description to the item. This will appear in the inventory screen when your item is selected.

 

*Note: Do not try to format this area, as carriage returns (aka “using the Enter key”) will appear as little white boxes in-game. This will not harm your mod, but can be quite an annoyance =)

 

Identified - ? (I think this causes the games default description to override your own)

 

Identified Description – the game’s default description for that item.

 

 

3.d– The Comments tab is self-explanatory. Use this area for notes to yourself or others who might be modding this file. (p.s. I’ve never used this).

 

 

 

Step 4: Save the file

 

Save the file with a unique name. Saving this file with its original name (g_w_lghtsbr01) will cause the game to over write ever other instance of that file within the game (assuming that your file is in the Override folder). This means that if you save your mod as g_w_lghtsbr01 and place it in your Override folder, then every blue Lightsaber in the game will have additional properties that you created.

 

Please note that the name you assign to your file will also be the cheat code that you will use to get the item in-game. For instance, if you name the file “my_saber.uti”, then you will use “giveitem my_saber” to get the Lightsaber in-game.

 

 

Step 5: Place the file in your Override folder

 

The Override folder can be found in C:\Program Files\LucasArts\SWKotOR or whichever directory you originally installed the game in.

 

 

Step 6: Use the mod

 

Start up a game, enter the console, and use the giveitem command to get your mod. Enjoy!

[Mav]

you must really like making these tutorials achillies, but nice work I'll give it a full read-through later on and check things;), hopefully this will cut back requests a little bit.

[Achilles]

Originally posted by maverick187

you must really like making these tutorials achillies, but nice work I'll give it a full read-through later on and check things;), hopefully this will cut back requests a little bit.

 

I like helping people. I know how intimidated I was when I started and I'd like to make things easier for the newer members of the board if I can.

[Rogue9dlb]

Stupid qestion:

How do I edit an item file already in my Overrides file?

[Darth333]

Originally posted by Rogue9dlb

Stupid qestion:

How do I edit an item file already in my Overrides file?

Use a GFFeditor - look at the Guide for the Newbie in the stickies to get the link for download - it will look different but the fields will have the same name.

[Jackel]

Originally posted by Achillies

Stolen - ?

Left over from NWN i believe

Originally posted by Achillies

Stack Size - ?

Hot many in the stack. Again left over from NWN. Ie how many are put in to your inventory when you take it off a bad guy. In NWN (and other Bio games) you could buy stacks of arrows and you recieved 20 arrows in a stack. Also meant when you have a stack of 20 any more you pick up will be put in a new stack.

 

Pretty much ignorable. Items already have a 1 in the stack size anyway so leave it as it is.

 

Darth333 :You can edit items in your override with KOTOR tool if they havent got any things different to the baseitems , ie they are not baseitems 96 seeing that causes a crash.

[Darth333]

Originally posted by Jackel

Darth333 :You can edit items in your override with KOTOR tool if they havent got any things different to the baseitems , ie they are not baseitems 96 seeing that causes a crash.

 

Thanks! good to know: i never used that feature, i do almost everything with gff.

 

And about the leftovers from nwn, they are all over the place. Here is a sample of what i found i nwscript.nss:

int POLYMORPH_TYPE_TROLL                 
int POLYMORPH_TYPE_UMBER_HULK            
int POLYMORPH_TYPE_PIXIE                 
int POLYMORPH_TYPE_ZOMBIE 

:D

[RedHawke]

^^^^

It's not just new baseitem.2da lines but new appearance.2da lines as well... Any custom discuise property and KOTOR Tool's Item Editor also has issues with them. Just an F.Y.I.

 

I also do most of my stuff with a GFF Editor!

[Achilles]

Originally posted by RedHawke

I also do most of my stuff with a GFF Editor!

 

I'm a huge fan of GFF editor also, however I'm finding that using KT for something and GFF editior for others is really beneficial.

 

Hey Moderator Darth333, what are the chances of getting this thread added to the modding sticky? I didn't want to ask, but I hate seeing my attempt to help get buried

[nacho35]

Nice tutorial Achillies. I have been using any/all tutorials I can find lately.

[Jackel]

Originally posted by RedHawke

^^^^

It's not just new baseitem.2da lines but new appearance.2da lines as well... Any custom discuise property and KOTOR Tool's Item Editor also has issues with them. Just an F.Y.I.

 

I also do most of my stuff with a GFF Editor!

I have done most of my stuff up till my last item (Xanetia Armour) in GFF editor , though it must admit having 5 2da files open and havig to look each one up to find out what i wanted was a pain in the butt! Freds KT is far easier , and can make new items in a few mins, if you know what you want the bonuses to be of course.

[x8c4]

Hello to you, Achillies

 

You've made a nice tutorial

 

I will follow your advise 'not to reinvent the wheel'

[Achilles]

Originally posted by x8c4

Hello to you, Achillies

 

You've made a nice tutorial

 

I will follow your advise 'not to reinvent the wheel'

 

Glad I was able to help you avoid some work. Your message reminded me that I had been working on a website a while ago. I spent some time working on it tonight and got some of my stuff on it. Check it out for some of my tutorials and other stuff.

 

http://www.freewebs.com/achilles01/

[Darth Dex]

YOU ROCK!

[Jackel]

Originally posted by Darth333

Thanks! good to know: i never used that feature, i do almost everything with gff.

 

And about the leftovers from nwn, they are all over the place. Here is a sample of what i found i nwscript.nss:

int POLYMORPH_TYPE_TROLL                 
int POLYMORPH_TYPE_UMBER_HULK            
int POLYMORPH_TYPE_PIXIE                 
int POLYMORPH_TYPE_ZOMBIE 

:D

 

There is tonnes of NWN stuff left over , im amazed they didnt just load up the 2da files and delete everything then start putting in the KOTOR ones fresh to make sure there wasnt a pile of crap all over the place.

[Darth333]

Originally posted by Achillies

Hey Moderator Darth333, what are the chances of getting this thread added to the modding sticky? I didn't want to ask, but I hate seeing my attempt to help get buried

I've PMd T7 to give him the link to this thread and to your website so he can add them to his sticky " Do you want to mod sw-kotor"

[Achilles]

Originally posted by Darth333

I've PMd T7 to give him the link to this thread and to your website so he can add them to his sticky " Do you want to mod sw-kotor"

 

You're the best. Thanks!

[Rogue9dlb]

Thanks for the help. I found the editor in KT (looks a bit easier to use), but I couldn't edit items (gave me an error when I tried to save it), but GFFeditor worked.

[Achilles]

Originally posted by Rogue9dlb

Thanks for the help. I found the editor in KT (looks a bit easier to use), but I couldn't edit items (gave me an error when I tried to save it), but GFFeditor worked.

 

Wonder what caused the error. Glad to hear that you were able to get there using GFF Editor. Let me know if there's anything else I can do to help.

[Nobody999]

Okay, I have everything needed to use kotor tool *except* microsoftnet framework. Lets just say my downloading abilities are crippled and it's a bit bigger than I have any chance of getting, but I thought of something...

Is there a zipped version of the microsoft net framework anywhere, or can someone who has it zip it and e-mail it to me? Perhaps I could download it if it were smaller, due to zipping.

[Achilles]

Originally posted by Nobody999

Okay, I have everything needed to use kotor tool *except* microsoftnet framework. Lets just say my downloading abilities are crippled and it's a bit bigger than I have any chance of getting, but I thought of something...

Is there a zipped version of the microsoft net framework anywhere, or can someone who has it zip it and e-mail it to me? Perhaps I could download it if it were smaller, due to zipping.

 

I can give it a try tonight when I get home, but if the exe is already compressed, you might not get a whole lot out of zipping it.

[Shermed'Out]

Originally posted by Achillies

Editing Items Using KotOR Tool

Stack Size - ?

 

Stack size means how many you have of the item, like if you have 1 or 5 of the same item (since all identical items stack in Kotor)

[Darth333]

Originally posted by Shermed'Out

Stack size means how many you have of the item, like if you have 1 or 5 of the same item (since all identical items stack in Kotor)

In any event, refer to this document http://nwn.bioware.com/developers/Bioware_Aurora_Item_Format.doc

[whitguy]

Hi i like your hole walkthough thing but i want to be able to put one of the items i saved in a footlocker on korraban or something i mean i know how to place stuff in the game but i cant put my costum stuff in the game because when i go to inventory to put it in a footlocker or something and go to costum items nothing there please help me.

[whitguy]

i dont know how to cheat can you help