Arcanum editor (background)

Is it possible to edit your background with some kind of editor?

 

During mid-game? It's not possible to change the reference number of the background that you have chosen (or at least I have not heard of a editor which allows that), but you can edit the description and effects (or switch them with those of another background) during mid-game and the game will recognize and apply those changes.

 

And how do you do that?

 

First of all, you would need to learn how to make custom backgrounds. Here is a good guide for that.

Assuming you would possess that knowledge: the guide advises you to create new backgrnd.mes, effects.mes and gameback.mes files, though that is inadvisable. Why? Thing is, putting those files in the appropriate folders means the game will use them instead of its own, meaning all descriptions, backgrounds and effects other than those made by you would no longer be present in the game. That being said, a better idea is to extract the original backgrnd.mes, effects.mes and gameback.mes files, edit them however you like and put those files in the appropriate folders instead.

To do so, you would need to undat the arcanumX.dat files (where X is a number, starting from the highest) from your Arcanum folder with a program such as DATBuilder to find and extract the currently used backgrnd.mes, effects.mes and gameback.mes files, edit them in the way you wish (altering/adding new effects in effects.mes or switching the effects & descriptions in backgrnd.mes with another background) and put those files into the mes/rules folders as the guide advises you to do.

 

Necroing another. Is there a way to extract or get at the game .mes files? I've used DATbuilder but while it unpacked some things, the .mes files weren't among them. It seems a safer attempt to create a background would be to use a copy of the game's original file rather than construct an entirely new one.

 

Hello. If I understood correctly, you just want to undat these files ?
I use the "dbmaker.exe" app, and it extracted averything correctly.

If you can't find it, I still have it on my computer.

 

I'll download and give it a try. I'll get back to you soon with an update. Thanks

 

Dbmaker for some reason did nothing for my directory... I do have the UAP patch installed. Would that effect it?

 

I don't know : I never tested on a UAP version.

If you can, try on Arcanum vanilla.
I guess you don't need the UAP .mes files.

 

I managed a work-around with another .mes file, but that only allows you to change the adjustments from the backgrounds, no the fluff itself. Which is the better part of the problem, to be sure. I'll continue to work to edit the background file itself.

By the way, does anyone know what the code is for the teacher's background? I can't find it in effect.mes (the file I mentioned above.) If I could grab that, I'd have my perfect (crunchwise) background.

 

You mean the one wich allow you to teach the aoorentice level to your followers ?
It's the 1051 in gameback.mes

{1051}{Enseignant
Vous avez le don d'enseigner. En vous exerçant, vous pouvez enseigner à vos compagnons le précédent niveau d'entraînement. Ainsi, en tant qu'expert, vous pouvez enseigner à vos compagnons le niveau d'apprenti, s'ils en sont capables. Cependant, puisque vous passez plus de temps avec chaque compagnon, vous en avez moins que la normale (-1 au nombre maximum de compagnons).}

For the effect.mes, it's
{510}{1051}
{511}{328}
{512}{}
{513}{400}
{514}{}

The effect 328 is "{328}{maxfollowers -1} // Educator background"

 

Hmm... can't find anything for those number designations in my effect.mes. I do have the UAP, so perhaps it's hidden or not directly stated? :?