How to put new found schematics in the proper disciplines

I know a lot of people have been disappointed and frustrated that whenever they create a new learned schematic, it seems that it always goes into herbology rather than the preferred discipline. It seems ridiculous that making a schematic for a smithy or mechanical discipline item will show up under the herbology tab, and as far as I know, the solution to this problem has been unknown for 7 years. However, I think I've completely uncovered the solution to this intractable problem.

I believe that I may have posted on this site about this problem around the time I joined. Many much more experienced people have also posted on this topic as well, even before me:

http://terra-arcanum.com/phpBB/viewtopi ... =herbology
http://terra-arcanum.com/phpBB/viewtopi ... =schematic

Here's my analysis and conclusions. Note that this requires proto editing, and this is by no means a guide to proto editing in general. I will help with any questions, but I haven't tried to teach the basics here. If you have already proto edited with arcanum, though, hopefully this shouldn't be difficult to understand and use. I'd also like to point out that I'm no expert myself, and I'd love to help out if people want to post more general proto questions in a different thread that are unrelated to this topic.

team a's Guide to Found Schematic Disciplines

When a player learns any schematic whatsoever, the game first checks the item being created to determine which discipline the schematic should be filed under for the interface. Each item has its "tech discipline" not hard coded into the game engine, but in its proto, one that had so far been unidentified. This is why any proto, no matter what the components, will always end up in the same discipline if it is the created item.* Also, this determines the complexity of a schematic when the same item is one of the components: the icon representing the skill required is indicated by the tech discipline that its proto is coded with, while the amount of skill in that discipline is determined by its magic/tech aptitude.

The offset I am referring to is 0x194 (length:4) while the magic/tech aptitude is 0x190. Some protos, espeically weapons, have added strings above this address, and thus everything is pushed down, so the address can be further down. Look for something identifiable, such as weapon weight or damage, and count from this using a comprehensive proto doc (like the translated russian one). However, 0x194 should work for all generic items, and probably most weapons. The relevant values for this offset are: 0 herbology, 1 chemistry, 2 electrical, 3 explosives, 4 gunsmithy, 5 mechanical, 6 smithy, 7 therapeutics. Note that you really only have to change the value at 0x194, and just leave 0x195-0x197 blank.

Some items do not have a value for this string (I am unsure of my proto terminology), and thus have 00 00 00 00 at this offset. I think the consequences are clear: THIS MAKES THEM CODED FOR HERBOLOGY. That's why everything ends up in herbology all the time: it was never bothered to be coded as either a component or an end result of a schematic. Note that there are some items that are not part of schematics in the stock game that have a discipline coded in their proto, such as the machined hammer and machined gauntlets (which are smithy?). This might be because they were created by the designers by just copying a different proto and making a few changes to produce the new item, or because they at one time were planned as part of schematics, which makes sense for both of these items. Note that everything that has a little icon when a component has its tech discipline coded, and some components that do not have an icon but still have tech discipline (such as liquid soap) - I'll explain this in a minute.

The tech discipline string does not seem to affect anything but schematics. It does not affect whether or not an item is magic/tech, so an item with a smithy tech discipline but 0 magic/tech can be used by anybody without critical failure, but still be built under the smithy tab. for items that you want to use for multiple disciplines without having to use a different skill for each - i.e. you want to use large pipe (6117) for elephant gun (gunsmithy) and a new mace you are making (smithy makes sense, right?), then make it 0 tech aptitude (you don't need to make sure mages have critical failures while using it, right?) and just put it under the discipline you want it to be built with. If you never want it to be constructed, leave at 0, but if you want to make a large pipe out of a small pipe and sheet metal, set it to 6. (note that large pipe is already neutral with tech, but it was the only example I could think of. I didn't check, but I bet the designers set it to gunsmithy). I believe this means that magic items can be constructed (although you'd have to offer an excuse for doing so) under whatever discipline you want, and it won't affect their actual in-game use. If you want to use them as a component and require skill in a certain discipline, though, this will (probably) mess them up because you have to change their magic/tech value.

 

Nice work, team a!

One of these years I hope to understand what all that means, but mucho kudos for figuring this out just the same.