Larian Studios Forums Divinity: Original Sin 2 - The Modding Dungeon Divinity - Original Sin 2 - Modding General - D:OS2 ModdingTool - Discussions/Suggestions

It would also be great if you could resize a terrain.

PLUGIN SUPPORT

I'm not sure this has been suggested before, but in the Neverwinter Nights 2 editor you can add plugins to the editor that expand the functionality beyond the original design. This is massively powerful as it allows the fans to mod the modding tools.

There is no way you will be able to add all the functionality that the fans would want, but by adding plugin support you don't have too. They will gleefully do it for you.

Okay here's part of my big list:

1. Translated String Keys -

They are extremely easy to accidentally overwrite and there is no undo function.


Journal entries, the quest log, and corresponding TSK entries are a huge pain to deal with. Perhaps some sort of plugin could be made for the TSK which can auto populate the quest log file based on the TSK names under "Journal".




2. Keyword Editor stuff:

The "Recent Files" list does not persist when you close the window.

Conditions and Speaker entries - The first character in a dialog based on the call StartTwoSpeakerDialog is defined as character 0 for the purpose of conditions. But every where else it's referenced it's called 1, specifically the speaker entry list.


The call StartFiveSpeakerDialog works, but the keyword editor only supports 4 speakers.


Suggestion: Have an option to automatically generate local flag conditions for each node based on the name of the node so that they do not appear again after picking them. Obviously this would not be appropriate for all dialogs so it would need to be an option.




3. Interface Issues:

All menus that use the "red pin" functionality to populate entries between interfaces are incredibly annoying.


Some sidebar/script entries are drop lists, others are typed in. I think they should all be drop lists. Example: Alignment field on the sidebar grabs the list from the alignments file displays that drop list. Same for Treasure tables.


Stats entries - It does have a nice drop list, but without actually knowing what each stat selection does it's pretty useless. There should be a way to see what the stats are without whipping out the excel files.

Have a reference with the names of talents, abilities attributes, and skills. Along the same lines as stat entries, when you need to reference an ability in a call it's a huge pain because some of the under the hood names you guys use don't line up with the display name. Changing the under the hood name might be too much of a problem but just post a translation guide


Books - When you open a book, the first left hand page is always empty. Maybe realistic but it's annoying when you want to display two pages. There's no way to be sure the player will actually flip to the second page.

DisplayName - Can you make it so accent marks like á display properly when you mouse over characters and items? These work for books and journal files but not much else.

Make the editor remember your settings such as where certain pannels are located and what size they are. Add a reset to default option for when you break it.




4. Issues with various calls

Cameras and "CameraActivate" - This is a really neat call for creating scenes in mods, but the functionality is massively limited by it being timed only. A call that is also switchable and can use cameras would be great.

CharacterFreeze and playing animations for the Player character -
Getting the PCs to play animations via a call is a huge hassle.




5. Atmosphere and lighting.

I assume you guys know about atmosphere settings not changing if the player character isn't moving.


Add the ability to make light sources on the lightbulb panel global so you can set them on and off stage.




6. Modding specific functionality -

Ability to rename levels and the mod itself. Perhaps some sort of batch file could rename all the objects? I've seen the files and know it's a pain.



7. The instance painter.

This tool is really slick for creating maps fast, but it doesn't paint on the AI grid so it's not that useful.





Just a few questions I have:

What the hell does CheckoutSelectedObject() do?

What the hell does "Render Channel" do in the sidebar?


World Map renderer - how did you guys make all the roofs invisible? did you just move them off screen and take the picture?


Is there any functional reason for unchecking "stub" in the keyword editor?



**Obviously some of this might be invalid now since I'm working on the last published editor.





I think you can do this it's just a pain (common theme :P).
Story Editor>Reload story + cntl + r. The former resets globals, the latter resets everything else.

Well not EVERYTHING, as previously mentioned reload stats doesn't work.

I know you plan to have a much more robust tool set, but look at Sword Coast Legends
Their tool set is real user friendly.

So don't know if we can get something similar with everything you plan to include.

Since GM Mode will be included into the game, is it possible to run machine learning over your campaign so you can select an area, put tags/inventory groups on it and automatically fill a house with assets?
Or create asset-filled area on the fly?

A strong GM mode that isn't a gimmicky game mode that gets boring after a couple hours is going to be quite something to pull off. They'll need systems that can let you create environments and generate dialogs and script quickly, or else what's the point of the GM mode if you basically have to create the campaign ahead of time and then just control monsters or something small like that.

To be honest, I think $150,000 is at least half of what they need to really do a GM mode justice, though some of the benefits for the GM will come from the mod support stretch goal, too. We'll see how it turns out, but Larian really has their work cut out for them.

One thing really needed for a GM mode is awesome, dynamic traps. Not just like, landmines. Those are boring, but slowly spinning waves of fire, rooms that change size, things that fire projectiles, etc. But to be really great, these things need to interact with combat well, so they stop and only briefly activate after everyone has completed their turn, so getting stuck in turn-based mode isn't insta-death if you're in the middle of a trap.

On the other hand, a "real" P&P campaign needs some preparation too :p

But yes, obviously it's going to be something tricky to pull off. I hope they'll be up to the challenge !

The Neverwinter Nights series did just fine without creating environments on the fly.

Maybe some scripts or plugins for procedural terrain/town/dungeon generation, so that we can get the next level or map out much quicker. Would be especially handy if we are using GM mode.

As long as they don't do like in Sword Coast Legends with random generated content ONLY. More options is always better than none. So procedural would be a nice plus, but please larian, make sure we can create things from scratch too.

Oh, definitely. I would prefer this as an addon or plugin. They plan on having a lot of stuff made from scratch anyway if the old editor is any hint.

yah I am leaning toward SCL's tool box interface not necessarily what they are doing with it.

Editor should have:

1) Ability to merge source files
- Example: you could merge two "more spells" mods and remove spell that are too similar
- you could fix mods which don't work together


2) Ability to make configuration menu for the mod if modder wants it.
- Example: "better loot" mod could have sliders for rare items drop probability

I would like to see:

1) Ability to have custom armor slots and armor types

1. For user-friendlyness try to look at games like little big planet, Mario Maker and Disney Infinity. These tools are made so simple a kid could use them. I'm not saying that the editor should be simplified to these extremes, but it's a nice source of inspiration when idiot-proofing the editor.

2. I also suggest an official mod manager. There is nothing that inspires mod makers more than seeing their mods being played by the community. An official mod manager with community updates, rating systems, download client and load order management would help bringing modding to the masses. For inpiration check out the nexus mod manager http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/modmanager/? or mod organizer http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/1334/? for skyrim.

3. An interactive beginner tutorial in the editor itself, where you get to make your own quest mod through objectives. It think it is key that this feature allows creativity by the user. For instance you start out by being asked to make a house with at least 4 wall, two chair, a table and a door. Then you make an npcs who with some dialog options, thats sends the npc to kill three creatures of their choice.. and so on... The important thing is that the player feel they are making something unique even though they are following a tutorial.

Thanks for Being so awesome to the community NorD!

+1 to plugin support!

Indeed. I'd welcome more friendly uses of the tool, probably to be associated with the GM mode. Though I would think those would operate outside of the editor.

But yeah make sure to keep all the powerful under the hood stuff included. Took me about 6 months, but I've got a pretty good handle on it now and I'd hate to lose the full range of options.

So long as they continue to release to us the editor that they use themselves, we should be safe there.

So along those lines, I will add a big request NOT to give us a simplified version just for the community, but rather please maintain the original goal of providing us with the editor that you yourselves use.

Serious Skeletons?

Maybe even a small village full of them. Well, "full".

I know I already said it, but can't help, just have to say it again... the capabilities are the most important fact. Every gameplay aspect should be able to be tinkered with.

The editor I would like to see is one that scales in complexity according to the user needs. If someone wants to create a very generic story with procedural generated stuff and not much depth in npc dialogues and stuff, he/she can do it with not much knowledge in computing. On the other hand, if someone wants to spend weeks micromanaging every aspect of his/her campaign with lots of twists and dialogues, custom content and scripting, he/she can as well. So everyone is happy.