I get distracted easily and haven't kept up on my modding informationalizing, so here's my question...

What are some possible ways to create item sets?

If you've played action rpgs like Dungeon SiegeII or Titan quest (not much of an rpg'er so those are the only examples I can think of) you know what I'm talking about. Alone, a set item is not always the strongest item you can be using, but if another item of the same set is equipped then bonus stats are applied to the items, which can be increased by adding more items of the set.

How would a bonus be applied if multiple set items were equipped?

How would it be possible to apply bonuses only for a certain character?
Say, the PC wears "Bao's toolbelt" "Bao's brazing lenses" and "Bao's spark deterent apron" and recieves no bonus, but the bonus is applied when equipped on Bao Dur?

How would it be possible to make an item set contained in a single item?
(maybe a complete collection of individual set items could be melded to produce a less flexible "multi-item" with a slight increase to set bonuses)
You would see an item in your inventory labeled "Bao Dur's Assemblage of Fix" and when equipped it will fill multiple item slots, replacing the "CNS strength enhancer with the "toolbelt", the "band of forceyness" with the "lenses" and the "Mandalorian bridesmaid dress" with the "apron",
all in one click?

Could these items be assembled by finding "lightsaber parts" which (with a small payment to a certified blacksmith, or plot related choice [Do you want to face less enemies or accepts this trinket?]) could be identified as belonging to an assemblable set item?

What are some possible ways to create item sets?
(snip)
How would a bonus be applied if multiple set items were equipped?


Since the KotOR engine does not support dynamic manipulation of item properties or Equip/Unequip event hooks (unlike NWN) you could handle it through a script that runs continually and checks what's present in the character's equipment slots. If the equipped items match the set items it could either apply effects with the desired boosts to the character, or put a creature hide in their invisible hide equipment slot that has the extra properties the set should grant. The hide solution is easier to manage, but requries some care since some characters (HK47 Canderous) already have their own creature hides, and thus would require special cases that merge the properties of their hide with the ones the set should provide.



How would it be possible to apply bonuses only for a certain character?
Say, the PC wears "Bao's toolbelt" "Bao's brazing lenses" and "Bao's spark deterent apron" and recieves no bonus, but the bonus is applied when equipped on Bao Dur?


If you use the above mentioned scripted approach you can check the tag of the character as well and only grant the hide with set bonuses if it's (one of) the character(s) you want to be able to use the set.



How would it be possible to make an item set contained in a single item?
(maybe a complete collection of individual set items could be melded to produce a less flexible "multi-item" with a slight increase to set bonuses)


You can use a workbench approach for this: a dialog with scripts that checks if you have the required items and then removes those items and spawns a new "combo-item" in their place. Of you could make a "tool" item that when activated does the same.


You would see an item in your inventory labeled "Bao Dur's Assemblage of Fix" and when equipped it will fill multiple item slots, replacing the "CNS strength enhancer with the "toolbelt", the "band of forceyness" with the "lenses" and the "Mandalorian bridesmaid dress" with the "apron",
all in one click?


This is more problematic though, an item can only occupy a single inventory slot, the only exception is weapons that can occupy both "hand" slots in case of dualbladed weapons. You could lock the relevant inventory slots and spawn items into them when an item is equipped, but that would require some appearance type juggling, which, while possible is a fair bit of work since you'd need to duplicate the appearance.2da lines for the character in question to provide a slot-locked version which the script can switch them to.

So the solid multi-item probably isn't feasible without a lot of changes that may make other modifications complicated?

If a script is run continuously to check for equipped items, do you think it would impact performance in high content environments or on low end pcs?

If a script is run continuously to check for equipped items, do you think it would impact performance in high content environments or on low end pcs?

If it only runs on active party members and you write the conditional checks to that as little of the code runs as possible each time I don't think it will have any noticable impact if you put it in a heartbeat script or a script that runs recursively.