Hi, I'm New and How to mod Daggerfall

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Consequence of Grace
Posts: 112
Joined: Fri Oct 05, 2018 4:06 am

Hi, I'm New and How to mod Daggerfall

Post by Consequence of Grace »

Hi, guys!

I am a HUGE TES fan! I’ve played Daggerfall since it was first released on CD and have been playing it a lot again recently. I am so totally psyched by this project! I followed DaggerXL for several years, but it seems to have been abandoned and now the site is riddled with spam bots. :cry:

But Unity seems to be much more complete than DaggerXL was. :)

I doubt very much there’s anything I can do to help, but I wonder if anyone can help me with some information on modding the game? Or point me in the right direction? My apologies if this has all been answered before. I'm sure some of it may already be QoL changes in the main project, but some is non-Vanilla Classic and in the realm of Modding.

Classes
Where does the game store data on the Standard Classes?
Is there any way this can be edited, EG for a Mod to fix errors etc?
And what tools could help me do this?

Races
Where does the game store data on the Standard Races, and could this be edited and modded?

Potion Maker
I’ve always liked Alchemy in TES games, but it’s pretty clunky in Daggerfall.

Is it possible to make Alchemical ingredients (not enchantable gems) stack like arrows? It’s such a pain having thousands of single items in my wagon and on my ship that all need their own click to move around.

Would it be possible to have Alchemist NPCs at all the Apothecary and Alchemist vendors so any character can use a Potion Maker if they provide a suitable fee plus the reagents and recipe?

Can Apothecaries and Alchemists be made to buy potions and recipes?

Is it possible to make the Potion Maker let us name “Potions of Unknown Power”?


Spells
I am particularly interested in the Magick system and Spell Maker. Is there any way this can be tweaked or modded? EG there are various bugs and glitches I’d like to fix.

Can the Spell Vendors, Spell Book and Spell Descriptions be made to show the School of Magick? The official manual has many errors and spells in multiple schools when they are really only in one. I have a spreadsheet of corrected data, but I’d like to get it into the game somehow.

Is it possible to change the School of Magick for a spell, EG if I wanted to make them more like Morrowind? Say, move Open from Mysticism to Alteration or Pacify from Thaumaturgy to Illusion?

Can we get better sorting of the Spell Book? EG sort alphabetically or by School?

When we buy a spell from a vendor, can that spell be removed from all Spell Vendor’s lists? And if we delete the spell from our Spell Book, it appears for sale again?

Lot's of spells have irrelevant stats in the Spell book description that have no effect. These are usually 1 + 1/1 levels when they should be N/A, N/A. Where is this stored and can it be changed?


Spell Maker
Dispel spells affect Caster Only unless purchased from the Mages' Guild. In the Spell Maker, we cannot make them Touch, Missile, Aura or Ranged AoE. Can this be done?

Some spells cost more to increase base variable, some cost more to increase level variable, others cost the same for either. This makes some spells very much more powerful at a much lower spell point cost than others. Does anyone know how or why it is like this and where the data would be stored?

Some spells have Hidden Variables. EG Identify, Lock, Pacify, Transfer and Drain have Duration Variables but the figures cannot be seen in the Spell Maker, but they can be increased and seen later in the Spell Book. Can the Spell Maker be made to show these?



Anyway, thanks for reading such a lengthy treatise! I really hope someone can help me with this, or point me to the right place!


Cheers!

:)

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Hazelnut
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Re: Hi, I'm New and How to mod Daggerfall

Post by Hazelnut »

Take a read of the modding tutorials and guides pinned in the modding forum as well as https://www.dfworkshop.net/projects/dag ... y/modding/

I suggest you take it slow and try small things until you get your head around stuff.

Race info is in RaceTemplate.cs and the classes are parsed from the Daggerfall CLASSxx.CFG files.

Also, potion ingredients already stack in DFU. :)

Welcome to the forums!
See my mod code for examples of how to change various aspects of DFU: https://github.com/ajrb/dfunity-mods

Consequence of Grace
Posts: 112
Joined: Fri Oct 05, 2018 4:06 am

Re: Hi, I'm New and How to mod Daggerfall

Post by Consequence of Grace »

Hazelnut wrote: Sat Oct 20, 2018 8:52 pm the classes are parsed from the Daggerfall CLASSxx.CFG files.
Thanks, but there doesn't seem to be any way to edit CLASSxx.CFG files. The only editor I've ever found doesn't work in Win 7 or in DOSBox. :(


Cheers!

:)

Consequence of Grace
Posts: 112
Joined: Fri Oct 05, 2018 4:06 am

Re: Hi, I'm New and How to mod Daggerfall

Post by Consequence of Grace »

Hee hee! Your Archaeologist Guild is the sort of thing I need, but as an Alchemist's Guild! Nice to know it's possible to do.

Funnily enough, I tried making a Linguist/Cryptographer, based on Giles from Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Wesley from Angel. All nine languages, Short blade, Etiquette and Thaumaturgy! He should have been in your Achaeologist's Guild! LOL!

Sadly, it didn't work as well as my Morrowind Merchant, who bought and sold his way to fame and fortune!

:)

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Hazelnut
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Re: Hi, I'm New and How to mod Daggerfall

Post by Hazelnut »

Well the class files are parsed by ClassFile.cs so you could hex edit based on that knowledge. Someone else was talking about changing the preset classes on here at some point, not sure if they ever figured out how to make the changes. This does mean changing original data files, and I think it would be better if it were like any other DFU mod so I might take a look at adding the ability to override the class data files using json if someone is serious about utilising it. Be similar to the building override code I did.

Be cool to have a second guild mod, the discussion of one prior to me building moddable guild systems seems to have not gone anywhere. Hope my guide makes sense, let me know if you need help once you have designed the guild.
See my mod code for examples of how to change various aspects of DFU: https://github.com/ajrb/dfunity-mods

Narf the Mouse
Posts: 833
Joined: Mon Nov 30, 2015 6:32 pm

Re: Hi, I'm New and How to mod Daggerfall

Post by Narf the Mouse »

Consequence of Grace wrote: Sat Oct 20, 2018 9:37 pm Hee hee! Your Archaeologist Guild is the sort of thing I need, but as an Alchemist's Guild! Nice to know it's possible to do.

Funnily enough, I tried making a Linguist/Cryptographer, based on Giles from Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Wesley from Angel. All nine languages, Short blade, Etiquette and Thaumaturgy! He should have been in your Achaeologist's Guild! LOL!

Sadly, it didn't work as well as my Morrowind Merchant, who bought and sold his way to fame and fortune!

:)
To be honest, I found the idea of "The Mage's Guild" as a single organization that controlled all legal magic use within such a vast Empire, or even just the areas of Hammerfell and High Rock alone, to be... somewhat improbable. Given the disunity of the Empire, well, it just doesn't work.

Now, the idea of a Mage's Guild being something that must operate under a legal charter from the Empire and the city, town, or village in which it operates - That makes much more sense.

I think he mostly used a crossbow... OTOH, no crossbows.

How'd you manage that, in a game where max sale price to merchants is always <= actual price, and min purchase price from merchants is always >= actual price? Or is this something you can do with > 100 Mercantile?
Previous experience tells me it's very easy to misunderstand the tone, intent, or meaning of what I've posted. If you have questions, ask.

Consequence of Grace
Posts: 112
Joined: Fri Oct 05, 2018 4:06 am

Re: Hi, I'm New and How to mod Daggerfall

Post by Consequence of Grace »

Narf the Mouse wrote: Sun Oct 21, 2018 9:10 am How'd you manage that, in a game where max sale price to merchants is always <= actual price, and min purchase price from merchants is always >= actual price? Or is this something you can do with > 100 Mercantile?
Yeah, it often seems that as your Mercantile skill increases, the vendors offer worse prices. But in Morrowind you can haggle by changing the amount they offer or ask. Changing the selling or buying price by 1 gp in the right direction and making the sale is enough for the skill check to count towards level up of the skill. In Daggerfall, it all goes on under the hood, they offer a price and that's it. Accept or Decline.

It was nearly 15 years ago but as I recall, in Morrowind, as my Mercantile skill increased they offered worse prices but I could change the offer by larger and larger amounts without them declining. So they'd offer lower but I'd haggle them back up. It was an Imperial born under the Sign of The Lady with very high PER and Luck scores at the start, and he always reduced the Merchant's Sell offer and increased the Buying price and soon had 100% Mercantile and Speechcraft. He also had basic Thief skills and a few Magick Schools that had spells mimicking Thief Skills. The idea was that he was a retired Adventurer Thief who realised it was safer and more lucrative to trade.

It started as an idea for the most rubbish class possible, but then I realised that a few tweaks might make it work. He made an absolute fortune travelling about buying and selling. And Morrowind has that glitch where if you buy all of an item, it gets replaced with twice the amount, or something.

I tried several versions, but I found this on my E:\ drive:

The Merchant
Class Background
The rich pickings of the newly pacified Imperial territories of Morrowind are a Utopian challenge for this character, the opportunity and dream of a lifetime. The Merchant is above all a skilled trader, excelling in buying and selling merchandise at the best possible price and supplying valuable items people want to buy. He is also an excellent diplomat and an expert in dealing with people of all backgrounds. As skilled in etiquette as he is in intimidation, the streetwise Merchant is not above bribery and corruption when it presents an opportunity for profit. "A deal is a deal" is his mantra, together with "Once you have their money, never give it back".

Neither truly Thief, nor Mage nor Warrior, he is deficient in combat and most magickal skills and disdains protective armour for his rich robes, but firmly believes that "There's one born every minute! And if they leave their valuables lying around unattended in some locked chest or other, they deserve to lose them!" While his poor combat and magickal skills put him at a disadvantage with the creatures and monsters of Morrowind, he can bribe, cajole and intimidate his way past most of the sentient races with ease. And if all else fails, he is not averse to punching them in the face.


Marcus Aurelius, Imperial Merchant
Star of the West, Voice of the Emperor
Speciality Stealth
Favoured PER & LUCK +10
The Lady, PER & END +25

STR 40
INT 40
WIL 30 (Sex -10)
AGI 30 (Race -10)
SPD 40
END 65 (Sign +25)
PER 85 (Race +10, Class +10, Sign +25)
LUC 50 (Class +10)
Health 40
Magicka 40
Fatigue 165

MAJOR
Mercantile
Speechcraft
Security
Sneak
Blunt

MINOR
Alchemy
Enchant
Armourer
Mysticism
Conjuration

Basically, he used Armourer to repair everything he found in dungeons before selling it, made potions etc to sell and used the spells for Soul gems etc. I seem to recall making one with Illusion and Light Armour as well.

Not sure how it would work in Daggerfall. Morrowind had the problem of limited vendor gold, hence Mudcrab and the little demon thing, Creeper. Daggerfall has no problem with vendor gold, but we cannot really haggle.

I am playing a standard Thief at the moment. She just got access to the Spell maker by casting Buoyancy every time she rested or traveled! Only 30 spell points, though. Annoying she can't use a cosh or a staff (no Blunt)! But the Burglar being allowed Chain and Plate but forbidden Leather armour is even more annoying! That's one reason why I want to fix the standard classes.

:D

Narf the Mouse
Posts: 833
Joined: Mon Nov 30, 2015 6:32 pm

Re: Hi, I'm New and How to mod Daggerfall

Post by Narf the Mouse »

Thank you. I did know about the haggle mechanics, and tend to be fairly good at them. My misapprehension was thinking you were playing a "pure" merchant, rather than an "adventuring and crafting" merchant. :)
Previous experience tells me it's very easy to misunderstand the tone, intent, or meaning of what I've posted. If you have questions, ask.

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