Explain it to me like I'm 9: modifying item names and descriptions

Gadren

Yesterday I downloaded Nearinfinity for the first time, after years of using EEkeeper, to make some tweaks.
Among those tweaks were a couple of item tweaks. I was able to change the mechanics easily enough, but apparently editing the names and descriptions for any item means editing dialog.tlk. From what I've found on thee forums, the only way of doing that is using "WEIDU" which I'm not familiar with. All the threads I've found were hard to follow due to old accounts being deleted along with all their comments.

Please, could someone walk me through, step-by-step, what I need to do to change the name and description of an item, including where to get "WEIDU" from? I'll give you a dollar.

Please, assume I know nothing in your explanation.

sarevok57

you can actually do it with near infinity ( just make sure to have a back up of the original talk file in case bad things happen )

the reason why it is suggested to not use near infinity to edit the talk file is that sometimes near infinity can corrupt it

but as long as you have a copy of the original you can always go back to it

i used near infinity to add over 1200 lines of new string references and only had it corrupt once ( and that was near the beginning ) but because i had back ups, everything was all good after that one time

so if you want to use infinity i say go for it

but if you are not convinced and really want to use WEIDU then that is outside my realm because i have no clue how to use that

Gadren

sarevok57 wrote: »

you can actually do it with near infinity ( just make sure to have a back up of the original talk file in case bad things happen )

the reason why it is suggested to not use near infinity to edit the talk file is that sometimes near infinity can corrupt it

but as long as you have a copy of the original you can always go back to it

i used near infinity to add over 1200 lines of new string references and only had it corrupt once ( and that was near the beginning ) but because i had back ups, everything was all good after that one time

so if you want to use infinity i say go for it

but if you are not convinced and really want to use WEIDU then that is outside my realm because i have no clue how to use that

well the reason I looked into it in the first place was that NI tells me that ""lang/en_US/dialog.tlk" is located within a write-protected archive. Do you want to export it do another location instead?" No means my changes aren't saved, and yes doesn't seem to actually accomplish anything.

So I have no idea what to do to edit the item names an descriptions. It's a pretty minor thing, I guess, because I can edit literally everything else just fine. I can turn a longsword +1 into a longsword +1000 without any complaint from the program, but try and name it "longsword +1000" and it slaps me down.

Caedwyr

The main reason to use Weidu is if you want to share your text edits with others. Back in the very old days, the earliest mods would include a copy of dialog.tlk. Unfortunately, since each dialog.tlk overwrites others, it meant that you could only have one mod installed at a time. Weidu was developed to allow mods to append dialog.tlk (and also append other things like area scripts, etc.) rather than overwrite it.

If you are only making the changes for your own game then editing in NI probably will work. However there's a number of good beginner tutorials out there for how to go about making a basic weidu mod, so if you are interested in sharing your changes with others it is probably worthwhile to take a look.

sarevok57

Gadren wrote: »

sarevok57 wrote: »

you can actually do it with near infinity ( just make sure to have a back up of the original talk file in case bad things happen )

the reason why it is suggested to not use near infinity to edit the talk file is that sometimes near infinity can corrupt it

but as long as you have a copy of the original you can always go back to it

i used near infinity to add over 1200 lines of new string references and only had it corrupt once ( and that was near the beginning ) but because i had back ups, everything was all good after that one time

so if you want to use infinity i say go for it

but if you are not convinced and really want to use WEIDU then that is outside my realm because i have no clue how to use that

well the reason I looked into it in the first place was that NI tells me that ""lang/en_US/dialog.tlk" is located within a write-protected archive. Do you want to export it do another location instead?" No means my changes aren't saved, and yes doesn't seem to actually accomplish anything.

So I have no idea what to do to edit the item names an descriptions. It's a pretty minor thing, I guess, because I can edit literally everything else just fine. I can turn a longsword +1 into a longsword +1000 without any complaint from the program, but try and name it "longsword +1000" and it slaps me down.

how are you trying to edit the talk file through NI?

for me, all you need to do is go to "edit" and then select "string table" then add the strings you wish and then click save and i had no problems

Gadren

Some of these items I've made are cool enough that I'd like to share them, if I can figure out how. I'll use the following as an example:
Using the Shadowed Spear as a template, I made a Quartertaff of Wonder for wildmages that only does 1d1 damage but every time you hit, it casts one or more random spells (mostly attacks spells against the target).

However, so far, while it works great mechanically for my current playthrough, it's still named Shadowed Spear because I can't change it. In NI, I open the item, and I click on Identified Name, then click on Edit down toward the bottom. (I don't see any "string table" to select...) When I click on Edit, it tells me to make sure I have a backup on dialog.tlk. I click ok (the only option), and it brings up a new window that has the stringref and some other attributes on the left, and on the right is a text box where "Shadow Spear +2" can be edited. I backspace over Shadow Spear and replace it with "Staff of Wonder". I click on save and it says ""lang/en_US/dialog.tlk" is located within a write-protected archive. Do you want to export it do another location instead?" Selecting "no" means my changes aren't saved, and "yes" lets me pick a folder, but doesn't seem to actually create anything there as far as I can tell...
In either case, the name of the item ultimately remains the same once I leave NI, keeping the name "Shadowed Spear" Instead of what I want to call it.
What am I doing wrong.

If you want to link me to any tutorials (that aren't missing chunks because of deleted accounts, and that are easy enough to understand for a beginner), PLEASE share with me.

sarevok57

i think i know why you are getting your problem;

you are trying to edit the string reference in the item properties itself and not the talk file itself, which is why it's not working, you want to have the string reference already made, instead of making it in the item property tab

so here is what you need to do;

when you open up NI you will see some options at the top; Game File Edit Search Tools Options Help

go to "Edit" and select "String Table"

then it will prompt you to have a back up

once open, take the slider at the top ( which will be close to Strref ) and slide it all the way to the end

then on the bottom you will see some buttons like; Sync entry, Add, Delete, Find... Revert... and so on

click on add, and then this will give you a fresh new string line

once you have this fresh new string linek make sure to click on "Flags" in the "Value" column and select ( Has text (0) ) so then it will actually show up in game

next in the Text: area you can type in Quartertaff of Wonder

now save it using the button on the bottom right, and remember what the Strref number is ( this is very important )

after all that is said and done, go back to your item properties and when you go to "Edit" the identified name line, go down to the StringRef box and put in that Strref number then press update ( beside it ) and then click save

and then voila, everything should work as normal

now with all this being said, this actually overwrites your talk file, so if you use any other mods that use that specific Strref reference number you may find some dialogue anomalies, this is where weidu comes in and makes it so you don't have your Strref interfere with other mod Strref, but when it comes to doing that, that is beyond my league unfortunately

Gadren

when I click save, I still get the ""lang/en_US/dialog.tlk" is located within a write-protected archive. Do you want to export it to another location instead?"

argent77

You didn't tell which game you're modding. From the error description it sounds like BG:EE with the SoD DLC (either from Steam or GOG).
In that case you have to use DLC Merger to prepare the game for modding. Download can be found in this topic: https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/71305/mod-dlc-merger-merge-steam-gog-sod-dlc-or-custom-dlcs-with-the-main-game/p1

Gadren

argent77 wrote: »

You didn't tell which game you're modding. From the error description it sounds like BG:EE with the SoD DLC (either from Steam or GOG).
In that case you have to use DLC Merger to prepare the game for modding. Download can be found in this topic: https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/71305/mod-dlc-merger-merge-steam-gog-sod-dlc-or-custom-dlcs-with-the-main-game/p1

My apologies. You guessed correctly. I'll try that out.

Gadren

It worked! You're a flippin genius, Argent77.

Caedwyr

Sorry for not coming back to this again. There's probably lots of other good tutorials out there on places like www.gibberlings3.net/forums or other places, but here's a good basic tutorial of how to make a weidu mod with your custom item that you can share with others.

http://www.shsforums.net/topic/55875-making-a-weidu-mod-with-your-custom-item/