Larian Studios Forums Divinity - Original Sin Divinity Original Sin - Mods Modding the Enhanced Edition

Hi, I just got into modding DOS: EE and I have a bunch of questions. I've been trying to follow some tutorials, but most of them seem to be for the original (edit: I didn't realize that the editor was released only 9 days). I also have some other general modding questions.

My plan is to add all of the abilities that were removed from DOS back into DOS: EE. Please bear with me, there's a lot of text and rambling ahead.

1. I've been trying to follow this tutorial, but I've hit a few snags.

The guide says I should make an *.lsb file with the name of my ability in my mod's RootTemplate folder. Whenever I do this and then start the EE Engine and load my mod, the engine crashes. So I got rid of the *.lsb file I made and continued the tutorial, and there's a part where it says to use the TranslatedStringKey button in the editor to make an *.lsb file. I do that, and I save the *.lsb file, but it ends up in the localization folder instead of my mod folder. Am I supposed to move the lsb file to Data\Public\EERemovedAbilitiesMod_bdb511b5-63f9-474f-a666-54aa495d0d6e\RootTemplates\, or do I leave it? Or do I have to make an *.lsf file instead?

2. Skipping that part of the guide, I tried to make a new template for the Summon Bloodswarm ability with the Create Object Wizard.

In the "Select lsb" part of the CreateObjectWizard, I get an error message when I create a new one, but then I can select the new *.lsb with no trouble.

When I tried making a new template from the Summon Spider ability, I kept getting a "Filename has invalid extension" error, even if I changed the extension to lsb. I did change the path to C:/Program Files (x86)/Steam/steamapps/common/Divinity Original Sin Enhanced Edition/Data/Public/EERemovedAbilitiesMod_bdb511b5-63f9-474f-a666-54aa495d0d6e/RootTemplates.

3. The guide recommends editing *.txt files, but I've been using the *.xlsm files and the "Generate All" macro to make changes. Am I supposed to get rid of everything from those files except for what I'm going to be adding to the game? I remember reading somewhere that you didn't have to include every single ability/object/etc. because those would overwrite any changes made by patches. Is this accurate? Would the macro in All.xlsm still work if I only included a few things in the SkillData.xlsm file?

4. Assuming I eventually figure out how to get all the abilities and skillbooks into the game, what's a good way to test everything?

5. If I finished everything, would I move the mod to the Mods folder in Divinity Original Sin Enhanced Edition\Data\ or would it go in the Documents\Larian Studios\Divinity Original Sin Enhanced Edition\Mods folder? Or would it not matter?

I'll probably have more questions in the future. If you made it this far, thanks!

Someone else is gonna have to answer the skill questions cause I know exactly nothing about that.

Though one thing I think is wrong about the guide is creating the *.lsb file outside of the editor. I'm pretty sure you can (and should) do that inside the editor using the resource manager.

On to the part I do know something about. So for your #2 problem this is related to creating an lsb in the resource manager that I just mentioned. I'm away from my editor at the moment so I can't make fancy screen shots for you but hopefully you'll be able to find the buttons. This is an image from another tutorial of mine that is pretty close:
http://i335.photobucket.com/albums/m468/SniperHF/StateMangerTutorial/Create%20Package.png

To make a new template, first you must use the resource manager and add a package to your mod. You can put it in the folder you described. In the resource manager on the top left is that button.

Then once you have the package created go into the root templates window and add a a template to that package. I believe the "select LSB" thing is #4 on the screen? That's unnecessary. You do need to pick the filepath though under "properties". Point that toward the package you created before in the resource manager.

If you still can't get it I can make a proper tutorial once I have access to my editor again.



For #3.
You shouldn't need to remove entries from the XLSM files. The only way the XLSM files would overwrite changes from patches is if you were using old XLSM files. I just add new lines at the end of each file for my stuff. Or where appropriate under the different headings. Also make sure you have the stats folder in the right location.


#4 and #5. - Testing and getting the mod to work.
So if you want to add all the skills back to main, did you make your mod main dependent? If so then your mod should have all the levels and scripting for the campaign.

All you need to do is publish it which you can do from the top menu, you don't need to move any folders. Once you do that it will automatically create a .pak file in your mods folder under Documents\Larian Studios\.... But this is not necessary for testing, it's only necessary when/if you need to distribute your mod to other people. Your mod will be visible in the mod list just by having created it in the editor.

Also having that .pak file present in your mods folder will cause your mod to be read-only until you remove it. So again, only do that once you are ready to distribute it and then remove the .pak file from the folder so you can go back to making changes.

Far as the nuts and bolts of testing, my suggestion would be to create your own test level within your main dependent mod. Just add new level, add a terrain, an AI seeder, 2 start points. Generate the AI grid. And there you go. Then you can place enemies and copies of your skill book and even test vendors to make sure your stuff shows up.

Thanks a lot! With your advice about making a new resource, I was able to get the summon bloodswarm ability to show up and work in-game. Unfortunately, the editor crashes every time I load my module now, and I'm not sure if it's because of the new resource or the new root template I made. I'll have to check my steps again to see where I messed up, but this is a great start.

I had the issue with crashing editor after making the lsb too. I moved the .lsb from the Public/Yourmod/Contents folder to the Public/Yourmod/RootTemplates folder (make it if it doesn't exist) and that stopped the crashing.

Thanks, that fixed it.

Most of the abilities seem to be working, but a lot of them are missing their icons. Since I want to keep multiple versions of the same ability (ie. Farseer for both the Ranger and the Aerotheurge), I would prefer to add icons instead of replacing them if possible. Changing Ability_Skill_Status_Icons.lsx doesn't seem to do anything. It's not a deal breaker though, I could just use other icons.

Also, is TreasureTable.xlsm the thing I want to edit to add the books to the shops? I noticed that all of the items are prefixed with "I_", is that something I should have done when I was making my items, or would I just add that to the names of my items if I were to put them in the table?

Not sure about adding other icons. It's something I'd like to do for Scales too. I assume you've seen the various .dds icons files which you can use to see all the icons? As far as I'm aware, the talentsAndAbilities icons are unused in the PC version, so you can use those for some skills.

For the treasure table, you can just prefix I_ to specific items in the table, no need to define them that way originally (you'd just have to input I_I_SKILLBOOK_FarSeer in that case).

Thanks. The skill books are showing up in the shops now, but one problem I'm noticing is that the books don't have names, and their descriptions are from other skill books. I hope I didn't screw up when I was making the templates.

Another problem is that poison dart's skill book still lists the requirement as level 7 even though I changed it to 1 in itemdata.txt. Is there a full list of items I can extract so I can be sure I changed the right stuff?

Sorry for yet another bump, but I still haven't been able to find any solutions to my last post. Does anyone have an answer for me?

The tutorial you linked in the first post explains how to make the right display names. The references you use in the translatedStringKey thing is the entries from your skilldata:

data "DisplayName" "YourSkill"

and

data "Description" "HibernateDesc"

The "Ref" entries are just references, not actual data.

The level data for skillbooks is in object.txt in the data folder, though I'm not really sure why it would be level 7 if you changed it (Don't know what itemdata.txt is unless you made that txt file and are putting your entries in there.) Is your skillbook root template pointing to the right stats entry?

I'm confused. When I was first working on these, none of the skills had descriptions until I made entries with the TranslatedStringKey thing, so I didn't think that had anything to do with the items. Are the descriptions supposed to apply to both the skills and the books?

About ItemData.txt, I thought that since the tutorial had me make it the same way it had me make SkillData.txt, ItemData was also a file that the game normally uses and I just couldn't find it. I'll move all of my item entries to Object.xlsm and get rid of ItemData.txt, that should fix the level problem at least.

At this point I think I screwed up when I was making my root templates, so I'll have to try that again. Thank you for being patient with me, I'm so accustomed to the Unreal Engine that everything else confuses me more than it probably should.

Well it's fine that you have your skill/item entries in itemdata.txt and not skilldata.txt, it doesn't really matter that much. The items (the skillbooks for the skills) don't need descriptions, but they do need display names, but that should be part of the root template and shouldn't require a translated string key thing I don't think. Just make the root template, point the entries to the right stuff and it should be fine. I'm not sure if you're having issues with editing the root templates you've made or you have to create new ones if you have to change them, but that's an issue I've had.

I also don't think you really have to make new entries in the object data for the skillbooks; you can just point the root templates to a skillbook stat entry with whatever level requirement you want since that's basically all the information that's in those entries.

I moved the books over to Object.xlsm, compiled everything, and made new root templates, but the problem remains. All of the skills have display names in SkillData, and I made sure to give all of the root templates the proper display names and point them to the right book stat entries. I guess I'll try adding descriptions and stuff with the TranslatedStringKey window next.

You've attached the proper skill to the root templates you're making, right? Under "OnUseAction" in the root template? That attaches the skill and the skill description to the skillbook. The name should be part of the root template, but you might have to make an entry in the TranslatedStringKey for the object stat entry for treasure table drops.

Another thing is, are you copying the GUID of the root template to the object "link" in Stats/Generated/Links/Object.txt, or the "Root Template" section in the Object.xlsm? Just right click the root template in the root templates window and hit "Copy GUID to clipboard" and copy that string to the link entry for your skillbook to the xlsm or txt file.

It looks like it was the OnUseAction part that I was screwing up. Everything seems to be showing up now. Thanks so much for your help!