Ok, so I have been searching all night about 2da files, and I have not come up with anything.
I need a very detailed (but simplified) way to combine appearance 2da files to make mods compatible, I have some very nice mods but is restricted because of this. Someone please help.
I got as far as getting Fred's Kotor tools, I know how to open the 2da files, but I still do not know what to do. Please help!
Well, you have to open both of your "appearance.2da" lets say appearance1 and appearance2, search the rows added in both mods, so you copy/paste the rows of one of the mods (appearance2) into the other one(appearance1). with that you have a good appearance.2da.
After this there is still a problem. The creature files (UTC), characters, whatever, have the appearance set wich the row number, and not the appearance name, so you have to open the utc files of the mod with the appearance 2 (the one you put the rows into the other) and set the right appearance. If you don't do it, these characters will have the appaearance of the other mod.
Of course if your mods have the TSL patcher, there isn't any problem (or it shouldn't be any problem), and if you have one with the tsl patcher, and one without, put the appearance of the mod without in your override, and install the one with the TSL patcher after.
Well, you have to open both of your "appearance.2da" lets say appearance1 and appearance2, search the rows added in both mods, so you copy/paste the rows of one of the mods (appearance2) into the other one(appearance1). with that you have a good appearance.2da.
After this there is still a problem. The creature files (UTC), characters, whatever, have the appearance set wich the row number, and not the appearance name, so you have to open the utc files of the mod with the appearance 2 (the one you put the rows into the other) and set the right appearance. If you don't do it, these characters will have the appaearance of the other mod.
Of course if your mods have the TSL patcher, there isn't any problem (or it shouldn't be any problem), and if you have one with the tsl patcher, and one without, put the appearance of the mod without in your override, and install the one with the TSL patcher after.
How do I know which rows the mod added?
You open the appearance.2da of your mod (if it doesn't use the TSL patcher), you open the original appearane.2da of the game, you go to the end of both, ten you look the last row number of the original, and all the other rows after it would be your mod's appearances. Sometimes to make it compatible with other mods there are some useless rows, that are from other mods, so look the name of the appearance, for example, with the jabba palace mod, you will see "boba fett", "jabba the hut", and if you see "Dark maul", "count doku", "XXX" it's obious that these rows aren't part of the mod.
If you have a mod with the TSL patcher, you have to install the mod, then open the original appearance with the kotor tool, and compare.
You open the appearance.2da of your mod (if it doesn't use the TSL patcher), you open the original appearane.2da of the game, you go to the end of both, ten you look the last row number of the original, and all the other rows after it would be your mod's appearances. Sometimes to make it compatible with other mods there are some useless rows, that are from other mods, so look the name of the appearance, for example, with the jabba palace mod, you will see "boba fett", "jabba the hut", and if you see "Dark maul", "count doku", "XXX" it's obious that these rows aren't part of the mod.
If you have a mod with the TSL patcher, you have to install the mod, then open the original appearance with the kotor tool, and compare.
My game didn't come with the original Appearance .2da file.
that's impossible!
Look in the kotor tool:
http://img25.imageshack.us/img25/520/sanstitrerqp.jpg)
You have look there? x)
How was I supposed to know it was there?
Well, it seems you don't know the full functions of kotor tool ^^"
So:
With Kotor tools, you can open almost EVERY component of the game:
- you can open the characters: modify their stats, their name, their appearance, their equiped items, their droped items etc.
-Open the item files: modifu their damage, bonus stats, effects, like poison, stun, critical X2 etc etc
-Extract, the textures, the models, etc
You have a big content in the "BIFs" like almost all the items, some characters, The 2Da files and more... (with the 2Da you can change de XP rates, the effect of poisons, the appearances, the feats gained per lvl, or the force powers gainded per lvl, the lvl required for some power, and much more x),
Then after it you have the RIMs where you have all the modules in the game, so if you want to change some specific character or other, search the module in there, the item, placeable (cilinder), character, etc...
Then finally the ERFs where you have your custom modules (from mods), and the texture packs of everything
And dont touch the savegame part, it's a bad idea if you don't know well what you're doing x)
so you can have fun exploring all of that, but if you do it, put your corrent override in a safe place, and di it with a new one, like this if you mess up some files, you can just delete your override ^^
Hope i help :p
How was I supposed to know it was there?You weren't! We always want folks to figure it out on there own if possible. I think in this case what the fellas forgot is that a vanilla installation has no appearance.2da in the override folder, which is probably the only place you knew to look, thus your confusion. Totally understandable!
Unless an asset is modified by a modder, the asset generally lives inside a module, or character, etc...