An Item Mod Request for BG2: EE The Black Pits content

Mothor

Hi, I was wondering if some skilled modder might possible provide a tweak for couple of items in BG2 EE The Black Pits that cannot be obtained and used normally.

It always saddened me how after going through so many powerful opponents the player never gets some new unique and at least somewhat powerful equipment. Like I finally beat the Winged and I get nothing noteworthy for all my efforts.

I saw then that the WInged got some items that can be acquired through a cheat console (Dark Justice and the Winged's Gauntlet) but even then only one of those items (Dark Justice) can be used by a character who meets those requirements. For the other not even the Thief's Use any Item works.

So I'm curious if it would be possible to BOTH make her drop said items AND make it possible to equip both of them? Like making so that the gauntlet can just like the sword be equipped by a character with a lawful alignment? Also (if possible) make it so that when Dark Justice is equipped it actually looks like the character is holding a Two handed sword (like described) and not a longsword.

I've got no talent for modding at all so maybe someone could make a patch/tweak/mod to make it possible.

Thanks in advance!

Mothor

No one is interested?

Might it be possible then to release some file that allows to equip any item (including those that are restricted to specific characters) or/and one that gives Dark Justice a proper appearance (a two handed sword instead of a one handed one)?

I could then simply complete the quest and use a cheat console to create those weapons afterwards as a reward. Would be nice to have the sword act properly though, as well as being to equip the gauntlet in the first place.

Arunsun

Hi mate, I only have a heavily modded install of BG2 right now so I can't really edit the files for you and hope that they work properly. I can guide you through that though, as there's nothing really complicated:
Download Near Infinity (it's an editor for Infinity Engine games like BG) from here: https://github.com/Argent77/NearInfinity/releases/tag/v2.2-20220408-1
Extract the JAR file into your game folder and run it. It will open a window that will look like that:

Once you are there, you will be able to edit the game files as you want. To achieve what you want to do:

• To make the items droppable: under "CRE", open the one called OHBWING.CRE. Scroll almost all the way down to the rows that say "Item" and open the one that says Item: OHBWING.ITM, click the flags row, untick "Undroppable", exit that window and hit the save button at the bottom of your screen. Repeat for the one that says OHBGLOV1.ITM
• To make the gloves equippable: under "ITM" open the one called OHBGLOV1.ITM. Click on the last row ( Effect 4: Restrict Item) and hit the "Remove" Button at the end of your screen, then hit the save button
• To make the two handed sword behave properly: still under "ITM", open the one called OHBWING.ITM. Under the "Unusable by" row, tick Cleric, Cleric-Mage, Mage, Mage-Thief, Monk, Druid. Under the Unusable by (2/4) tick Beastmaster. Hit the save button
• Optionally, there is a last cosmetic change you can do on the sword, which is changing the Equipped Appearance to S2 - Two Handed Sword. You will also need to copy MASLG2S1.BAM to MASLG2S2.BAM. The first step makes it so the sword looks like an actual two handed sword when a player character equips it. The second makes it so it still appears in The Winged's hand when she's using it. This is purely cosmetic though, mechanically you can stick to the previous step, with the only downside that the sword will look like a one handed sword (but still behave as a two handed one) when you equip it.

Mothor

Arunsun wrote: »

Hi mate, I only have a heavily modded install of BG2 right now so I can't really edit the files for you and hope that they work properly. I can guide you through that though, as there's nothing really complicated:
Download Near Infinity (it's an editor for Infinity Engine games like BG) from here: https://github.com/Argent77/NearInfinity/releases/tag/v2.2-20220408-1
Extract the JAR file into your game folder and run it. It will open a window that will look like that:

Once you are there, you will be able to edit the game files as you want. To achieve what you want to do:

• To make the items droppable: under "CRE", open the one called OHBWING.CRE. Scroll almost all the way down to the rows that say "Item" and open the one that says Item: OHBWING.ITM, click the flags row, untick "Undroppable", exit that window and hit the save button at the bottom of your screen. Repeat for the one that says OHBGLOV1.ITM
• To make the gloves equippable: under "ITM" open the one called OHBGLOV1.ITM. Click on the last row ( Effect 4: Restrict Item) and hit the "Remove" Button at the end of your screen, then hit the save button
• To make the two handed sword behave properly: still under "ITM", open the one called OHBWING.ITM. Under the "Unusable by" row, tick Cleric, Cleric-Mage, Mage, Mage-Thief, Monk, Druid. Under the Unusable by (2/4) tick Beastmaster. Hit the save button
• Optionally, there is a last cosmetic change you can do on the sword, which is changing the Equipped Appearance to S2 - Two Handed Sword. You will also need to copy MASLG2S1.BAM to MASLG2S2.BAM. The first step makes it so the sword looks like an actual two handed sword when a player character equips it. The second makes it so it still appears in The Winged's hand when she's using it. This is purely cosmetic though, mechanically you can stick to the previous step, with the only downside that the sword will look like a one handed sword (but still behave as a two handed one) when you equip it.

Wow...thanks a lot for writing such a detailed guide for me!

I'm quite poor with handling technical stuff but I might be able to figure it out with such a guide.

Much appraciated.

jmerry

The guide missed a step.

- In order to make the gloves usable by anyone other than The Winged, additionally open up the file item_use.2DA and remove the row starting with "OHBGLOV1 THE_WINGED".

NPC-specific items listed in that file can only be used by the NPC, and not even UAI can bypass that.

In the BP2 plot, you can actually acquire the gloves before the final battle as part of your efforts to weaken the Planar Hunters. If you do, while you can't use the gloves normally, the Winged doesn't get to use them either.

Mothor

jmerry wrote: »

The guide missed a step.

- In order to make the gloves usable by anyone other than The Winged, additionally open up the file item_use.2DA and remove the row starting with "OHBGLOV1 THE_WINGED".

NPC-specific items listed in that file can only be used by the NPC, and not even UAI can bypass that.

In the BP2 plot, you can actually acquire the gloves before the final battle as part of your efforts to weaken the Planar Hunters. If you do, while you can't use the gloves normally, the Winged doesn't get to use them either.

I need to remove the whole row including the numbers (9382 2 88261) that follow "OHBGLOV1 THE_WINGED , right?

I used WordPad to open in by the way. Is it suitable for such task?

Mothor

Arunsun wrote: »

[*] Optionally, there is a last cosmetic change you can do on the sword, which is changing the Equipped Appearance to S2 - Two Handed Sword. You will also need to copy MASLG2S1.BAM to MASLG2S2.BAM. The first step makes it so the sword looks like an actual two handed sword when a player character equips it. The second makes it so it still appears in The Winged's hand when she's using it. This is purely cosmetic though, mechanically you can stick to the previous step, with the only downside that the sword will look like a one handed sword (but still behave as a two handed one) when you equip it.
[/list]

Hmmm, where do I find MASLG2S1.BAM and MASLG2S2.BAM? I cannot find them in the override and I have trouble finding them in Near Infinity.

jmerry

Any text editor can handle 2DA files ... but if they aren't already in the override, they're compressed in a .bif archive somewhere. You need a copy in the override before the text editor can do anything with it, and Near Infinity is the best tool for doing that. You can also edit the 2DA in NI while you're at it ... so at that point, you don't need the text editor.
And yes, you want to remove the whole row. Removing just some of the entries would effectively break the format and cause later rows to be interpreted wrong by the game, leading to weird bugs.

There are over 17000 BAMs in BG2EE. Fortunately, NI lists them in alphabetical order. Just go to the BAM tab and scroll down until you get to the many MAs ... or maybe back up if you overshoot.