BG - Durlag’s Books Should be Scrolls So they can be Copied/Stored

gugulug5000

In Durlag’s Tower, you encounter numerous books scattered around the floors that usually only have one line written in them. Since they are in books, they cannot be copied or stored in a scroll case, and it doesn’t make sense for Durlag to use an entire book to write one line of information.

Suggestion: Change the books to scrolls so they can be copied and stored (and so they make more sense).

filcat88

gugulug5000 said:

In Durlag’s Tower, you encounter numerous books scattered around the floors that usually only have one line written in them. Since they are in books, they cannot be copied or stored in a scroll case, and it doesn’t make sense for Durlag to use an entire book to write one line of information.

Suggestion: Change the books to scrolls so they can be copied and stored (and so they make more sense).

nice idea

Rotoiti

Agree with the suggestion to change the books to scrolls, so it's possible to copy them.

FWIW, it's possible to copy/paste into the journal. Though not possible to copy to the text on the screen.

To that end, I transcribed them all for my journal, so thought I'd share for anyone else. If I've made a mistake, or missed one, let me know.

Obviously, this technically counts as SPOILERS...

These are the ones from the 2nd level of the labyrinth:

Moved ne'er by rage and ne'er by anger,
Cold is the trait'rous doppelganger.

Too young to fight, except to fall,
Here died my son, young Fuernebol.

Oh, Kiel, Clan-prince of this dark tower,
You made your death, your finest hour.

Islanne, my wife, I love you still.
'Twas just your form they made me kill.

Soft walks the trait'rous doppelganger
Into my dear son's practice chamber.

Foul mimic of the mortal man,
'Twas in my shape they killed Islanne.

Taste My Fear

Face My Demons

Seek No Exit

Know No Refuge

Feel No Warmth

Dance With The Dead

Know My Madness

Here fell Kiel the Legion Killer

swit

the reason why 16 Durlag's Dusty Books are not storable is becasue they are categorized as 'Miscellaneous' rather than 'Book'. Books are accepted by "Scroll Case" just fine the same way as scrolls.

@gugulug5000, I'm interested in implementing your idea in this tweak mod if you don't mind: http://gibberlings3.net/forums/index.php?showtopic=27754

I think the same component could also analyse all items in game that uses "GBOOK01.BAM" ground icon and assign them 'Book' category if:
- item uses 'Miscellaneous' category
- item doesn't have any abilities or effects (in such case 'Miscellaneous' category is needed so that item can be placed in Quick Slot)
- item not listed in ITEMDIAL.2DA and ITEMSPEC.2DA

Can anyone think about potential compatibility issues by doing so? Seems safe to me since it only affects which stores can buy the item and if it can be stored in Book Case, but maybe I'm missing something.

bob_veng

sounds great to me!

swit

done, will be implemented in the next version of the above mentioned tweak mod. Also added scrolls for categorization.

Books/Scrolls categorization

This tweak automatically categorizes Book and Scroll item files to use appropriate category (if needed) in order to make them storable in Scroll Case (impossible if the item uses Miscellaneous category, which is often the case for Books and sometimes for Scrolls). Items referenced in ITEMDIAL.2DA, ITEMSPEC.2DA and Books with effects and/or abilities are excluded from categorization. Category detection is done by comparing default ground icons assigned to items (GBOOK01 for books, GSCRL01.BAM for scrolls).

The component also changes 16 'Dusty Books' scattered around the Durlag’s Tower floors, that usually only have one line written in them, into scrolls (with name changed to 'Dusty Page', appropriate Inventory, Ground, Description icons, weight and price assigned). This makes them copyable into Journal and I think makes a bit more sense - why would Durlag use an entire 2 pounds book to write one line of information?

Leaveing code here in case Beamdog would like to implement some of this stuff officially:

//Durlag's Tower 'Dusty Book' tweak
ACTION_FOR_EACH file IN BOOK71 BOOK72 BOOK73 BOOK74 BOOK75 BOOK76 BOOK77 BOOK78 BOOK79 BOOK80 BOOK81 BOOK82 BOOK83 BOOK84 BOOK85 BOOK86 BEGIN
  COPY_EXISTING ~%file%.itm~ ~override~
    SAY NAME1 ~Dusty Page~ //@0 /*Dusty Page*/
    SAY NAME2 ~Dusty Page~ //@0 /*Dusty Page*/
    WRITE_SHORT 0x1c 11 //Scrolls
    WRITE_ASCII 0x3a ~IMISC8C~
    WRITE_ASCII 0x44 ~GSCRL01~
    WRITE_LONG 0x34 0
    WRITE_LONG 0x4c 0
    WRITE_ASCII 0x58 ~CMISC8C~
  BUT_ONLY
END

//Fixes for incorrectly assigned ground icons
ACTION_FOR_EACH file IN misc7e /*Fairy Dust*/ plot02h /*Deck of Cards*/ BEGIN
  ACTION_IF FILE_EXISTS_IN_GAME ~%file%.itm~ BEGIN
    COPY_EXISTING ~%file%.itm~ ~override~ //
      READ_ASCII 0x44 groundIcon
      PATCH_IF (~%groundIcon%~ STR_EQ ~GBOOK01~) BEGIN
        WRITE_ASCII 0x44 ~GSACK01~
      END
    BUT_ONLY
  END
END
ACTION_IF FILE_EXISTS_IN_GAME ~miscb2.itm~ BEGIN
  COPY_EXISTING ~miscb2.itm~ ~override~ //Golden Goblet of Life
    READ_ASCII 0x44 groundIcon
    PATCH_IF (~%groundIcon%~ STR_EQ ~GSCRL01~) BEGIN
      WRITE_ASCII 0x44 ~GPOTN01~
    END
  BUT_ONLY
END

//Books/Scrolls categorization
COPY_EXISTING_REGEXP GLOB ~^.+\.itm$~ ~override~
  READ_ASCII 0x44 groundIcon
  READ_SHORT 0x1c category
  PATCH_IF (~%groundIcon%~ STR_EQ ~GBOOK01~) BEGIN //Book ground icon
    READ_SHORT 0x68 abilities_num
    READ_SHORT 0x70 effects_num
    PATCH_IF ((category = 0 /*Miscellaneous*/) OR (category = 11 /*Scrolls*/)) AND (abilities_num = 0) AND (effects_num = 0) AND (NOT FILE_CONTAINS_EVALUATED (~ITEMDIAL.2DA~ ~^[ %TAB%]*%SOURCE_RES%[ %TAB%]~)) AND (NOT FILE_CONTAINS_EVALUATED (~ITEMSPEC.2DA~ ~^[ %TAB%]*%SOURCE_RES%[ %TAB%]~)) BEGIN
      WRITE_SHORT 0x1c 37 //Books
      PATCH_IF category = 0 BEGIN
        SPRINT type ~Miscellaneous~
      END ELSE BEGIN
        SPRINT type ~Scroll~
      END
      PATCH_PRINT ~Patching %SOURCE_FILE% category: %category% (%type%) => 37 (Book)~
    END
  END ELSE PATCH_IF (~%groundIcon%~ STR_EQ ~GSCRL01~) BEGIN //Scroll ground icon
    PATCH_IF ((category = 0 /*Miscellaneous*/) OR (category = 37 /*Books*/)) AND (NOT FILE_CONTAINS_EVALUATED (~ITEMDIAL.2DA~ ~^[ %TAB%]*%SOURCE_RES%[ %TAB%]~)) AND (NOT FILE_CONTAINS_EVALUATED (~ITEMSPEC.2DA~ ~^[ %TAB%]*%SOURCE_RES%[ %TAB%]~)) BEGIN
      WRITE_SHORT 0x1c 11 //Scrolls
      PATCH_IF category = 0 BEGIN
        SPRINT type ~Miscellaneous~
      END ELSE BEGIN
        SPRINT type ~Book~
      END
      PATCH_PRINT ~Patching %SOURCE_FILE% category: %category% (%type%) => 11 (Scroll)~
    END
  END
BUT_ONLY

gugulug5000

swit said:

@gugulug5000, I'm interested in implementing your idea in this tweak mod if you don't mind: http://gibberlings3.net/forums/index.php?showtopic=27754

Sounds good to me. Go for it. Seems like an easy thing for Beamdog to implement too.

EDIT: Just glancing over your mod, it looks pretty good to me. I may end up using it and I generally dislike using mods. Beamdog should incorporate a lot of those into the game.