Creating a new schematic - thorougly bewildered

I'm trying to create a new item, and its schematic, and I'm quite completely lost. What I would like to do is make something akin to the Healing Jacket, but out of a smoking jacket instead of a suit of leather armor. The idea is to give the Gentleman Adventurer a suit of stylish clothes that are electrically enhanced to deflect bullets and give some extra pep to the constitution.

I've added lines to schematics.mes and schematic_text.me, but after that I'm stumped. I've read the documents explaining how to hex-edit protos, but I'm just not processing the information.

Would anyone be willing to give me a shove in the right direction?

 

OK, I think I've created an item, but I'm not sure. I used the World Editor to make a smoking jacket with the Healing Jacket's various properties, and saved it. Now how do I connect the schematic to this item, and then drop it into a custom background so a new character will have it in his inventory?

EDIT: I think the problem is in turning the .mob file into a .pro file. How the heck do I do that?

EDIT - EDIT: OK, I've managed to insert the schematic, get it into a new character's inventory, and it claims to be the new schematic... but when I learn it, I learn how to make Electro Armor. And when I place the item itself in the new character's inventory, it is renamed appropriately, but is otherwise the same as the smoking jacket. :-? I've even tried copying the .mob files atop the new .pro files, with no change.

 

Heh... well, I think I have. I've edited all the .mes files, I've created the item and its schematic in WorldEd, but I can't seem to get the item into the game. How do I get the game to use the new stats from WorldEd for this item?

What I'm trying to make is an Electro-Etheric Jacket (uses the smoking jacket graphic) and a schematic for the same. What I've managed to do is insert a smoking jacket which says it's an Electro-Etheric Jacket when I mouse over it, but which has standard smoking jacket stats, and a schematic which says Electro-Etheric Jacket but which is really Electro Armor.

How do I bridge the gap?

 

Spontz, first off, let me say welcome to the forum.

Also, I've held off on posting in this thread because I don't know squat about making a completely new item like you are - however - a fellow named Darkform seemed to have figured it out as he created a Mechasuit that does use schematics.

Here's the thread and the link still works:

http://terra-arcanum.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=14753

Perhaps studying how he did his Mechasuit will give you the answer you're looking for.

 

Thanks... unfortunately, it doesn't tell me how he got the .pro files to work.

If I copy two proto files, then hex-edit the bits that control the names, I can insert renamed items with the original stats into the game. If I copy the contents of the .mob files created by WorldEd and paste that into the .pro files, overwriting as necessary, the game crashes when I get to the character-creation shop.

I'd be willing to settle for just adding one of these jackets into the game, if I can't get the schematic to work, but I can't even puzzle out that much.

 

That's not too difficult.

Using the 1.0.7.4 WorldEd, if you haven't done so, create a link to your desktop. Right click on the icon, and select prperties. Where it says Target add: (spacebar) -unassigned. (no period) Click OK and exit.

Start WorldEd from the icon and wait until it asks Select Module. Choose Arcanum. It'll take a while to unpack the DAT, so go find something to do for at least 30 minutes - maybe longer.

After it has opened the DAT, you'll see a grassy area - you don't want this.
In the top bar, select File, then open. You'll get a pop-up asking if you want to save the changes to Untitled - answer no. This'll bring up a map list menu. To keep things as simple as possible, we'll place your jacket inside an area rather than the main map, so choose someplace like the Crash Site Cave, Bessie Toone Mine, or even the Shrouded Hills Panarrii Temple.

When the map you choose comes up, you use the arrows on the number pad to move around the scene. Pick a spot you want the jacket to be found.

On the left side of the screen is some tabs - one of them says Items. Select it, then click on the letter A. You'll now see a listing for Barbarian Armour and an arrow for a drop-down. Click on the drop-down.

At the bottom should be unassigned armour. Select it. Below the sample picture of Machined Platemail is a button named Select. That'll bring up the choices. On page two is the Regenerative Armour. Click on the size you want then click OK. First up is medium.

Place the armour where you want it, then right-click on the chain-mail picture in the scene. (You'll understand when you see it.) Choose Edit from the pop-up menu.

Left-click on the little picture of the jacket and you'll see a selection of other items. Scroll through the pages until you find what you want the jacket to look like and click on it. Now look at the top of the edit page and click OK. You've just reset it's appearance in the game.

Click the Save button in the upper left corner of the screen. When the black letter turn grey, go to File, then Exit. WorldEd will begin repacking the DAT - which takes as long as it did to unpack it.

When it's finished, start a new game and enjoy your results.

 

Thank you! This is what I was missing. My jacket was just lying on the ground in the default grassy area.

 

I finally got a chance to try this... and it isn't working. WorldEd just starts right up when I choose the Arcanum module. There's no unpacking of anything, and when I go to Open Map, there's nothing to open. I've read through the various tutorials, and if this is mentioned I keep missing it. Even unpacking the first three .dat files didn't help (I'm afraid to unpack Arcanum4.dat onward, because the capitalization scheme is different and they contain many duplicate files -- I think they may be add-ons from the unofficial patch, and I'm not sure what the over-writing will do).

How do I convince WorldEd to do its job properly?

 

I'm not sure why you're having this problem, so let's go around it.

The tutorials were written for the 1.0.7.0 version of WorldEd. It works with unpacked DATs. You can find a copy of it here:
http://www.terra-arcanum.com/downloads/arcanum/tools/WorldEd_en_1070.zip

Rename your 1.0.7.4 version with something like an X in front of the name and download the older one into the same folder. You'll find that the desktop link still works this way.

Also - The DAT with the maps is the Sierra/Arcanum/Modules/Arcanum.dat.

Make yourself a folder named Arcanum.patch1 in the modules section and unpack the Arcanum.dat into it. Be sure to include all the paths inside the DAT. It'll take almost an hour to open and unpack, so be patient.

Access the map you want to use with the 1.0.7.0 WorldEd and the game will recognise your changes. You can repack if you want, or just continue to leave it as-is for future changes.

If you do decide to have WorldEd compress the patch1, the finished compressed DAT will have .dat grafted onto the end of the filename. Rename or remove the uncompressed folder, then remove the .dat from the Arcanum.patch1 DAT and enjoy.

 

The unpacking is now in progress.

I must say, I'm amazed by the level of activity on these forums, and the polite and very complete assistance you're willing to give someone who only wants to make a small modification to a rather out-of-date game. Thank you very much, indeed!

 

Egad... it never ends. I can access all the maps now, but while I can create an edited item with the description I've made and the stats I want, I can't connect it to a schematic.

Oh well, all I wanted was one of these, anyway. I'll call it a prototype and stick it in ShopMap.

Thanks again!

 

I think I can help you, Spontz.

First, you have to decide if you do actually want to make a schematic that creates your item. If you just want the item itself, you can create it in WorldEd with no hex editing or changing any of the Arcanum?.dat files in your root Arcanum directory. If you want to make a schematic so that the item can be created, and is available in all sizes and in all modules, that's 10x more work but I'm willing to help. There are probably many more than one individuals who want to learn how to do this anyway.

As far as I know, it's not possible to change a .mob into a .pro file. They contain some of the same data, but a .mob file references a .pro file and only records the differences, rather than providing information for an item from scratch. If you want to make just one or a few copies of your item, you only need the .mob files, which worlded creates for you every time you make an item. If you want to make the schematic, you're going to need to copy an existing .pro file (preferably the one that's most like the item you want, i.e. smoking jacket, the medium-sized one) and use a hex editor to change the stats, description, etc. to what you want.

If you decide to create the one instance of your item using worlded (i.e. a .mob file), I can also help get it to work, and explain how to share it so that others can use it.

Let me know if you still want to work on this, and whether what you've created is working or not, and I'll continue.

 

Thanks, but at the moment the only thing I could think of to do with new schematics would be to make more powerful items, which is beyond unnecessary. I have the one item I wanted -- I made it in WorldEd and dropped it in the crash site cave (um, the force of the crash blew it off the PC's body and, um... into a cave... pardon me, the postman is here, and he'd like to deliver a letter-bomb from Isaac Newton).

Thank you very much for the offer, though.