Is there an inventory editor for Arcanum?

I decided I wanted to give Arcanum another row, but I really don't like how you start out. I'd like to be able, for instance to play a discharged soldier with a rifle and enough bullets to make it worthwihile.

So I need an editor or the ability to start out with more money? Any help?

 

There is a somewhat easy way to do this. Assuming you're playing the stock, patched game, download and unpack this:

http://www.terra-arcanum.com/downloads/arcanum/doa/backgrounds.zip

Follow the directions in the installation.txt.

This adds a number of backgrounds to choose from and is not hard to customise.

You mentioned a rifle and bullets - OK.
Pick a background that's easy to remember. I'll use Army Training as an example.

In the Gameback.mes the listing for Army Training is 1026.
Go to the background.mes and you'll see listings like this:

{260}{1026}
{261}{112}
{262}{HUF HUM DWF DWM ELF ELM GNF GNM HAF HAM HEF HEM HOF HOM}
{263}{400}
{264}{}

As you can see, the line marked {260} has {1026} after it. There's your match.
Line 261 corresponds to line 112 in the effect.mes, but we're not working with that here.
Line 262 lists all the different races that can use this background.
Line 263 determines how much gold you start with.
Line 264 is the one you want.
By adding the number 6108 to the empty brackets in line 264, you now start with a rifle. The addition of number 7039 will add 10 bullets to the list. Each additional listing of 7039 will add 10 more.

So to make the Army Training PC start with 400 gold, a rifle, and twenty bullets, make the entry look like this:

{260}{1026}
{261}{112}
{262}{HUF HUM DWF DWM ELF ELM GNF GNM HAF HAM HEF HEM HOF HOM}
{263}{400}
{264}{6108 7039 7039}

You can alter the reading in the Gameback.mes to reflect your changes.
If you wish to explore further modifications and/or new backgrounds, download the Create Backgrounds tutorial and study it.

http://www.terra-arcanum.com/downloads/arcanum/doa/CreateBackgrounds.zip

Now, having typed all this - If you are playing a hacked game like Car-Arcanum or Arcanum:WIP, then you are out of luck doing it this way.
You'll need to unpack the Arcanum5.dat to get to the files you'll need. Then these instructions will apply.

Hope this helps.

 

Actually that helped a lot! Thanks. Do have another question for anyone that wants to answer:

How do I modify items, especailly weapons?
Say I want to give the Large Bore Rifle the 30-30 damage it gives in Car Arcanum, how would I go about doing it?

 

Well, even though the various effect listings covers a thousand other items, the Large Bore Rifle wasn't one of them.
This means you'll either have to learn modding and manually set the rifle for a higher damage, or learn hex-editing to do so.

I think Chris went with the hex-edit to achieve this.

I thought just hit me - if you have Car-Arcanum available, you could unpack the .patch1 file, get into the proto folder and extract the 006147 - Weapon.pro.
Maybe - (BIG! if) - adding it to the data/proto file would give you the same damage level as you seen in Car-Arcanum. One thing - add this file after you start a game and before you get the rifle. Otherwise there's a chance the proto could be over-written.

Edit: Some weapons do have special effects listed in the item_effects.mes, effect.mes, and even the SpellList.mes (grenades mostly). Most of these will require a bit of studying before trying to modify.

 

rroyo,
YOu've been a big help. I was wondering if there was someone I could ask some (probably) banal questions about modding? For instance, the Worldmaker program doesn't have the arcanum mod availible to laod and when I do create a new mod to play with I can't find the Vendigrothian Large Bore Rifle, or the Staff of K'an T'au or anything else I want to place, much less modify. So what gives? Or who should I ask?

 

I'll help any way I can and what I don't know someone else will probably jump in with.

If you're using the 1.0.7.4 WorldEd, it's made to work with packed DATs and will unpack the Arcanum.dat, but that takes about an hour to do so.
(It's been a couple years since I last used the 1.0.7.4. and I forget the sequence.)

However - the 1.0.7.0 version is made to work with unpacked DATs.
Once you've unpacked the Arcanum.dat into an appropriately named folder; when you open WorldEd, you'll have a listing of choices. Choose the one you want to work on - say, Arcanum.dat (The unpacked one). What comes up next is a field of grass with the word "untitled" on the top bar. Go to File, choose Open, then select the map you want to work on.
Do what you want to, save often - AND! make back up copies!!! - and when you're finished for the day, you can test your efforts without having to repack the DAT.
Now when you've decided that you're completely done, select the Compress Module listing from File and WorldEd will pack everything in the - for example - MyArcanum.dat into a nice compressed DAT.

I hope this is what you were asking for.

As for the gun and staff you mentioned - as well as a few dozen other items, these are called unassigned items in the game. And here's how you get to them:

If you haven't done so already, create a desktop link for your WorldEd.
Right-click on the desktop icon and choose Properties.
In the target line, add (space)-unassigned immediately after WorldEd.exe.
By (space) I mean hit the spacebar.
Then click OK, fire up WorldEd and explore the new items.

 

Definitely make sure you use worlded 1074. You can get it from the downloads section here:

http://www.terra-arcanum.com/downloads/ ... n_1070.zip

I'm not certain, but I think troika made worlded not recognize the arcanum or vormantown modules, but the copy you can get here will be able to recognize them, unlike the one you probably have here. Also, recognize that if you mod arcanum, you're probably going to make permanent changes, and the files are too big to share with anyone unless you go about it by a special process. So, back up your arcanum.dat and have some fun with worlded, and if you have problems you can always put the stock version back. ALso note that you're probably going to have to undat arcanum or any other mod made by someone else before editing it in worlded; worlded 1070 (which you should use) can't recognize packed .dat files, only the folders that compose them.

As for learning about modding, do yourself a favor and learn from Amtut, available in the resources section of terra-arcanum downloads. It starts out pretty simple and explains just about everything. If you get stuck, most people here are familiar with amtut and can help you out.

I'd also suggest starting small when you make a mod - make something you can actually complete within a month or so, or just fool around a bit until you're more comfortable. I think I speak for both rroyo and myself when I say that it's really annoying to have to go back and edit all the stuff you did when you first started modding.

...!!!

rroyo, you just made my LIFE!!