Editing Items Using KotOR Tool
Forward: Thanks to the efforts of Fred Tetra, it is now easier than ever to create custom items. Projects that used to require a working knowledge of GFF editing can now be accomplished using drop down menus. Truly an amazing feat! However, just like the teacher that wouldn’t let you use a calculator in math class for fear that you wouldn’t actually learn how to do math, having this tool will not automatically make modding easy for you. You will still need to have a working knowledge of how the files interact with each other and with the game. If you have not done so before, I recommend making at least one item “the hard way” to help strengthen your knowledge of item editing. Detailed walkthroughs on how do this can be found here:
http://www.lucasforums.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=129450)
http://www.lucasforums.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=130491)
You should feel free to forego this, however it may require a little bit more experimentation with the drop-down menus to figure out what everything means.
Step 1: Locate the file that you want to edit.
Almost every item that is used in the game can be found in the Template file. To get to the game Templates, open KT, and then expand BIFs>templates.bif>Blueprint, Item.
I would highly recommend using a file reference to help decipher item labels. The resource that I use can be found at
http://www.goldensun-syndicate.net/kotor/codeFAQ.txt)
Step 2: Open the file
Double click on the file that you would like to edit. For example, to open the file for the blue Lightsaber, double click on g_w_lghtsbr01. The native UTI Editor should open.
Step 3: Edit the properties
3.a - The UTI Editor window has four tabs. The first tab contains general information about the item. A short description of each field follows:
TemplateResRef – the template reference for the item that you are modding. The game uses this field, along with Tag to determine what your item is. Creating a unique item (i.e. a custom armor with skin, enhancements, etc) will require that changes are made to both TemplateResRef and Tag. Such a project requires model file editing and is outside the scope of this tutorial. A brief description of how to do this can be found in the X link in the Foreword.
Tag – see TemplateResRef.
Baseitem – The item type that the item is based on. Pretty self-explanatory.
Cost – how many credits your item will cost in-game
Additional Cost - ? (I rarely modify item cost as part of a mod)
Palette ID - ?
Plot Item – Some items in the game are considered Plot Items. In other words, your interactions with the item are critical to the story. For instance, recovering the Sith Lightsaber from Sith Statue in the tomb of Naga Sadow causes Uthar and Yuthura to spawn when you return to the acid pool. Failure to recover this plot item keeps the story from moving on.
Stolen - ?
Charges – Refers to multiple use items such as forearm shields.
Stack Size - ?
Model Variation – This tells the game what your item looks like. In the case of this example Model Variation 1 represents the blue Lightsaber. 2 represents red, 3 is green and so on. Hence, why the code for the blue Lightsaber is g_w_lghtsbr01 and the code for the red Lightsaber is g_w_lghtsbr02, et cetera.
*Note: Items such as armor, robes, and clothing will utilize Body Variation and Texture Variation to achieve the same effect. You will have to experiment (and use the aforementioned file reference) to become familiar with this type of item modding.
3.b - The next tab (Properties), contains the actual properties assigned to the item. When clicking on this tab for a Lightsaber, you’ll see all of the existing upgrade properties that are already coded into the item. Again, the fields that you see here will be difficult to comprehend unless you are familiar with GFF editing. You can either use the second link above to get a crash course in item editing or you can experiment with this tool until it starts to make sense.
To create a new property, scroll to the bottom of the property list and double click on the row with the asterisk (*) in it. The Item Property Window should now appear with the following areas:
Property Name – hopefully this is pretty self explanatory. Please note that many of the items in this drop-down are not used in this game (example: Light, Mighty, Special Walk, etc.). Unfortunately, there is no easy way to explain what each of these properties do. Experiment and learn =)
Subtype – some properties require the use of a subtype. For instance, the Property “Damage Bonus” will require that you specify what type of damage is being enhanced. Examples include Energy, Fire, Acid, Ion, etc.
Value – Some property edits will require that you specify the magnitude of the enhancement/penalty. Using the previous example, you will need to specify how much of a damage bonus to apply (+1, 1d3, etc).
% Chance of Appearance – Basically, how likely is your mod to appear. I can’t imagine why anyone would change this to something other than 100.
Param1 – You are only going to need this sometimes. Odd are that if the drop down becomes available, you will be able to figure out what you need to do with it by expanding it =)
Param2 - ? (I imagine this will be the same case as Param1).
Upgrade (required to activate) – Select this only if you want your mod to appear when an upgrade is added to your item. I would not recommend trying to add an armor upgrade type to a weapon or vice versa. I haven’t tried it myself, but I imagine that it wouldn’t work anyways.
When you are finished with a property edit, click the Add button. Repeat the process to your heart’s content.
3.c – The Description tab will be used to help edit the item name, add a unique history to the item, or what have you.
Name – self-explanatory
Unidentified Description – an area for you to add your own description to the item. This will appear in the inventory screen when your item is selected.
*Note: Do not try to format this area, as carriage returns (aka “using the Enter key”) will appear as little white boxes in-game. This will not harm your mod, but can be quite an annoyance =)
Identified - ? (I think this causes the games default description to override your own)
Identified Description – the game’s default description for that item.
3.d– The Comments tab is self-explanatory. Use this area for notes to yourself or others who might be modding this file. (p.s. I’ve never used this).
Step 4: Save the file
Save the file with a unique name. Saving this file with its original name (g_w_lghtsbr01) will cause the game to over write ever other instance of that file within the game (assuming that your file is in the Override folder). This means that if you save your mod as g_w_lghtsbr01 and place it in your Override folder, then every blue Lightsaber in the game will have additional properties that you created.
Please note that the name you assign to your file will also be the cheat code that you will use to get the item in-game. For instance, if you name the file “my_saber.uti”, then you will use “giveitem my_saber” to get the Lightsaber in-game.
Step 5: Place the file in your Override folder
The Override folder can be found in C:\Program Files\LucasArts\SWKotOR or whichever directory you originally installed the game in.
Step 6: Use the mod
Start up a game, enter the console, and use the giveitem command to get your mod. Enjoy!