UMD help, PLEASE

[Legacy_Gavith]

               

    I really hope there is someone out-there who can help me. I started on a simple task: to give UMD to all classes through skill(hell I’d even take feat) access right now….please for the love if NeverWinter Nights, will anyone out there help me? Or knows how to help me, or had a friend who can help me?

   

    Thanks in advance for saving my sanity,

Gavith

               
               

               
            

[Legacy_gutwrench66kg]

               

Actually a very very simple fix.

 

A few questions though:

 

1) Are you just running single player modules and want this change? (mostly as a player)

 

or

 

2)Are you trying to host a module for others to play?

 

First things first: The utilities to do the job(s) (multiple ways that this job might get done, so I'll try to cover each one)

 

• NWhak - This installed with NWN.

 

NWhak is in your Neverwinter nights install folder, in a "utils" subdirectory.

 

on my computer it's

 

C:/Neverwinter Nights/ Neverwinter Nights/Utils

 

But I've got the NWN complete that came with both NWN1 and NWN2. Your install directory may differ.

 

• A text editor (Notepad, Wordpad, Textpad)

OR

• CODI Custom Content Helper (available on the vault)

 

and last, but not least

 

• NWexplorer (also available on the vault)

 

Regardless of our intent, we're going to have to edit some .2da files. We're going to extract the original ones, make a new copy of them, and save them elsewhere.

 

You can find the original files using NWexplorer. Once installed, it will locate the default directory for NWN. We're going to want to open

 

NWN:HotU Patch Data --> data\xp2patch.bif --> Game Data

 

You'll find a good # of files there, the first one you're going to want to export and then edit is skills.2da  click on it in the list on the left side of your screen, right click and choose "Export"

 

We can open this .2da file with a text editor like wordpad or notepad (the Codi Custom Content Helper will also work)

 

you'll find a list of columns and rows that reference all of the skills in game. On index #19, you'll see the entry for UseMagicDevice. The 8th column reads "AllClassesCanUse."  Where the row and column intersect, there should currently be a value of "0"

 

Change that 0 to a 1.

 

Save the file with your text editor, and put it a folder named "override" in your NWN install directory  (if you don't have one, make one, and then place the new version of skills.2da in there)

 

Voila, now every class can use the skill on your computer, though it will only count as a class skill (1 point per rank instead of 2) for those that already had it.

 

This is the simplest way to do it, but depending on what you're trying to do, there may be more steps involved and there are some potential side effects/complications if you're going to play on another server. I'll fill those in a little later, unless someone beats me to it.

               
               

               
            

[Legacy_MerricksDad]

               

If UMD == Use Magic Device then


Try this:

 

1) in the item: remove the use limitation for class

 

1b) if you use vanilla wands staves or wands (and treasure generation), write a script that programatically removes class use limitation properties on acquire.

 

2) create a new skill named Use Magic Device and allow all your classes to use it. Research what you can do with skills 2da if you don't already know. (or use the old one)

 

3) hook the spell at the item and run your UMD formula there. I'm sure somebody may have already done something like this for the public, but I don't personally know. You'll need to write a formula to downscale the level of the contained effect to that of the effective caster level of the person using UMD.

 

3b) Otherwise, if you don't like playing with the spell hook stuff, change the onuse script so that it runs the UMD formula first, then fires the proper spell script after success by reading the spell from a variable set on the item, or in a 2da file. I like 2da files. Of course this method is much harder to write, but gives you more control over the spell being cast, including the effective caster level calculation.

 

Mind you, I have not done this, so there may be small technicalities to it that I didn't explore.

 

There are a thousand other ways you could do it, but I think that is probably the easiest.

 

Just some notes:

 

1) Definitely make a NEW skill, don't overwrite one that exists which you think is junk (this gets around some other-server issues)

2) You might want to add a new feat requirement for UMD, add that to your items, and automatically grant it to your casters at level 1. This would simulate the lack of being able to UMD without training first. Research adding new feats.