Content creation: Items

Ronan · Post by **Ronan** » Mon Oct 02, 2006 4:10 am

Rusty is taking care of this now, see below.

Audark · Post by **Audark** » Mon Oct 02, 2006 5:03 am

ie, a +2 longsword would be: abm_w_ls_2en.
A masterwork katana would be: abm_w_kt_mw.

with you saying type is a two letter abbreviation, i believe these examples are false

if i I am not mistaken it would be

abm_wm_ls_2en
abm_wm_kt_mw

You wrote down the proper abbreviations in the introductory paragraph, just not in teh examples methinks

Blackwill · Post by **Blackwill** » Mon Oct 02, 2006 5:25 am

Another question is, how many mundane items of each do you want to have in the base mod? Would you want five different looking longswords, or just two, or one plus one for each major faction?

Joos · Post by **Joos** » Mon Oct 02, 2006 5:31 am

Blackwill wrote:Another question is, how many mundane items of each do you want to have in the base mod? Would you want five different looking longswords, or just two, or one plus one for each major faction?

The base mod should only have one of each, as a base reference. Different styles and colours is up for the local blacksmith, ie per the building DM. The base items should only be base reference for weight and cost, right?

Audark · Post by **Audark** » Mon Oct 02, 2006 5:55 am

That was not the impression I got when tlaking to Ronan, Joos, he welcomed more than one appearance when I spoke with him yesterday

Joos · Post by **Joos** » Mon Oct 02, 2006 9:06 pm

I was of the impression that the basemod should be as lean as possible. Whatever suits your fancy though, but a lean basemod seems the most logical step since none of the items that are generic ever were very popular with players. It's the server/store specific items that people want. So why put the effort there?

Ronan · Post by **Ronan** » Mon Oct 02, 2006 9:25 pm

Fixed the naming error, thanks for pointing that out.

Joos wrote:I was of the impression that the basemod should be as lean as possible. Whatever suits your fancy though, but a lean basemod seems the most logical step since none of the items that are generic ever were very popular with players. It's the server/store specific items that people want. So why put the effort there?

Well, the base mod creatures will use items, and it would be nice to have a few different appearances to choose from. Thats really the biggest reason, and of course the more options we can provide, the less reduntant work will be done on each server for creatures and things. PCs will still prefer one-off items, I'm sure.

I'll update this as I get a better idea of how to do things in the NWN2 toolset.

ç i p h é r · Post by **ç i p h é r** » Mon Oct 02, 2006 9:34 pm

Ronan, looks like we need to update the conventions thread, or remove it altogether if you've posted this info in the Wiki. I'm assuming 16 chars is no longer the limit on resrefs? If so, I definitely prefer the 2 character abbreviations you're using. Just firing up the toolset now for the first time.

Ronan · Post by **Ronan** » Mon Oct 02, 2006 9:38 pm

Yup, its 32 now. I didn't know what I should do with that thread since those were labeled as "suggestions" anyways. But your probably right, this should go in the wiki now.

Does anyone have any suggestions on how to improve these naming conventions before we move everything?

Ronan · Post by **Ronan** » Mon Oct 02, 2006 10:02 pm

Alright, Rusty has thought more about this than I have, and he is going to take over item management. I'll be doing creatures then, as thats something I've spent more time on anyways.

So, the above post is subject to change.

Joos · Post by **Joos** » Mon Oct 02, 2006 10:26 pm

Ronan wrote:Alright, Rusty has thought more about this than I have, and he is going to take over item management. I'll be doing creatures then, as thats something I've spent more time on anyways.

So, the above post is subject to change.

It would be good to have the reference item named so they always come up on the last line in the mod. The reason for this is:

1. When you open the mod to add some items, you know exactly where it is so you only scroll far down, and just pick the bottom one for your "new copy" rather than trying to find the base longsword among a hundred other longswords.
2. When a DM wants to quickly needs to pick some items from the chooser, he never accidently picks one of the base items by mistake.

Just my opinion.

Rusty · Post by **Rusty** » Mon Oct 02, 2006 11:10 pm

Current intent is to replace the OE 'Standard' palette with our ALFA Basemod palette, leaving the 'Custom' palette for each server, so this would not be a problem.

Rusty · Post by **Rusty** » Mon Oct 02, 2006 11:22 pm

Broadly, the item tags Ronan has suggested above are good. The only points to note are that weapon-type tags will be standardised before people start making them, and the armour tags will be considerably different, pending consideration of various .2da possibilities. Consequently, initial focus will be on weapons and wondrous items.

Rusty · Post by **Rusty** » Wed Oct 04, 2006 12:07 pm

I've updated the Wiki with the basics of the tag/resref system, which is not dissimilar from Ronan's outline, above.

I'd like to start with the simpler items (armour, in particular, is to wait), such as weapons, where we can be sure about what we are doing. I'd also like to make sure we avoid unnecessary duplication.

Oh, and you want to be emailing me, not Ronan, at rusticator99@yahoo.co.uk.

indio · Post by **indio** » Wed Oct 04, 2006 6:41 pm

This is all looking very encouraging. Can I suggest a tagging alteration?

Would it be possible to stick to the toolset categories as prefixes?

egs.
it_wp_bd_ls_NameofItem (Item_Weapon_Bladed_Long Sword_Name)
it_wp_bn__ms_Name (Item_Weapon_Blunt_Morningstar_Name)
it_ar_li_cs_name (Item_Armor_Light_Chain SHirt_Name
pl_bp_name (Placeable_Building Props_Name
cr_hu_or_Name (Creature_Humanoid_Orc_Name)

This way, finding resrefs amongst hundres of separate files (items, placeables, mpbs, scripts etc) is as simple as following the toolset categorisation hierarchy. Just an idea.