DoD Modding and Mod Installation Guide (Updated 6/5/2012)

OK it works! Thanks so much Null! And thanks FaxCeletis, now i know how to install mods! I love this game so much!

 

Is it possible to mod inventory space, or make an item with the ability to hold crafting ingredients? I am hopelessly spergy over items and crafting due to fear of death by missing out on important stuff and it drives me crazy that I can't just glance at the stuff I have quickly instead of having to toss it in and out of my pack constantly.

 

No, and no. Or rather, no, and yes but we know not how to make it stable right now.
And instead of fretting about that you can simply find a place to dump all the materials you don't need every time you enter a new floor, and leave half of your inventory here. Sure, it's tedious, but it works and right now items you leave on the ground are safe.

 

I don't really know what was that supposed to mean, but either stop spamming or learn to spell what you want to tell us, because that message isn't useful at all.

And to reply to it directly, as to be at least a little helpful - full inventory means that you need to get rid of at least 1 item stack to be able to grab any more items that differ from those you already have and can hold multiplies of, and low inventory space means you'll soon have to do the above, but it is not required yet.

And once again, please learn to post properly, there's no need to shout, and it really would help us in helping you if you formulated your thoughts properly instead of writing things like what I quoted right now. If you are unable to do so because English is not your first language, then simply ask if there's anyone willing to translate - maybe you'll get lucky.

 

There's no need to get so mad, all i was doing is trying to have a bit of fun. Y U NO LAUGH.

 

Funny requires understanding. Y U NO BE COMPREHENSIBLE?

 

I'm not mad (there's only 1 person in the world capable of making me mad, and that's my little sister, but there's a rather long story behind that), it's that there are proper places to write random things, and a guide thread, which is supposed to help people who aren't capable of quickly finding information on their own and thus shouldn't be cluttered with unrelated things, is not a proper place for that. Instead, you can do that in the "Off Topic" sub-forum, and unless you really go overboard, I doubt anybody would care.

And yes, I am aware of the hypocrisy that is posting an unrelated post to explain why posting them is bad. But I hope mods will forgive me for that.

 

I'm trying to start modding for DoD but I have alot of questions, where would be the best place to ask questions if I dont want to start a new thread for each one?

 

Most probably here, Xainiax, so fire away.

Other than that, you can try to message those who already made mods, or any other member of the forum who seems to be able to help, but it's probably a gamble.

 

Okay then, this is the list so far.
Is it possible to make a new crafting device?
Is it possible for a skill to change items into different items based on what the first item was? (example: replace the cheese grating mechanic with a spell or something)
Is it possible for a skill to award recipes like a bookcase?

Last one isn't a question but, I'm trying think of the best way to make a craftable resource generating device and so far I have only come up with two ideas for how to get it to work, but I don't know how to do either of them.
An item that will just use the same system as spores to change corpses into random reagents.
Or the ideal, but amazingly complex, idea, a wand-like item with infinite(or just alot) charges that will summon a stationary monster that you have to guard for a certain amount of time in order to make a random reagent appear.

 

Not really. It might be possible, but definitely not for someone who had just begun, as it's not something soft modding can be used to change.

No, and I don't think it will ever be possible, seeing the way skills and crafting works in this game.

I never really tried that, and I don't think it's possible with soft modding, especially not with the way skills work right now (they're not a one-time bonus, but something that is constantly there).

If you want my opinion, then making an equippable item that gives you a random crafting ingredient out of the list when you kill something will be the simplest way to achieve that, and probably the least prone to crash on you randomly. Other than that, if you really want to make a "broken" mod, then you can create a wand that gives you a random ingredient and has a lot of charges, or an item that gives you itself and one random ingredient when used.

 

I just decided yesterday afternoon to poke about and try and make my own light mod (just adding three ranged weapons, two recipes, and a skill tree). All works, the weapons work fine, the recipes operte correctly, except for when I level up the only symbol I see is the sword for the skill tree. The other six skill trees are completely missing and the individual abilities for swords are also missing. Anybody got an idea as to what may have happened here?

 

Can we see your code? Try pastebin.

 

yeah, that's almost certainly a really simple XML error liek a missing "/" or """.

 

I thought I got it about right, but I don't really know what I'm looking for, I just used the other ones as templates to create my own.
Here are the bits I added in, (presuming that skills breaking means the error is in skillDB):

Skill Tree

(Yes I know, I didn't want to make my own class of weapon and ammo so my guns count as crossbows and use bolts -.-)

Abilities

I'm sure there's something glaringly obvious in there that I'm missing, but I honestly cannot spot it.
As for the items etc. it references, I have put in all the images (albeit very quick placeholder ones for the time being) and the guns themselves work as I have trialled them in game.
It is just the skill I am having trouble with.

I've uploaded the full version in case I broke something else rather than my own skill tree.

 

Here you go, shokking, this should help you finding basic errors in the future:
XML Validator

And for now, there is a lack of a quotation mark here (marked):

 

Thanks a lot for the help! I added in those quotations to the skillDB.xml file. However, the skills are still broken, and I'm still not sure why.
I tried running the Skill Tree and Abilities for my added content on that Validator, as well as putting the Abilities for Swords through (seeing as only the Skill Tree bit comes up, but not the abilities, I thought perhaps that was broken.)
Most confusing...

EDIT: I think I might try copy-pasting the descriptions text I've done, but re-writing the bits themselves, in case it's just that copy is missing something. If it works, then it may just be this copy of the file or something similar.

 

No wonder it doesn't work. You've actually changed most other already existing trees' IDs just to put this in.
Take your skill tree out of it, change its ID to something that is currently not being used, and create a new file for it like for a proper mod; after that you can try again, and I'm certain you'll be much more successful.

 

I know I had shifted most other tree's IDs along one - this was simply to put the added content for weapons along with the other weapons' trees. I still had this issue before doing so - however I have nearly finished re-writing it using the id 35 as I did originally. I had hoped that as I shifted them along I would notice anything wrong - I didn't and it didn't just fail to help me correct the problem but probably complicated it a little bit too. Thanks.

EDIT: Another thing, not too important. When I trialled my weapons, they did "blasting" damage which I hadn't done. Is this due to high levels of other damage such as piercing? Also, if I wanted to, could I put blasting damage in my Abilities?

EDIT 2: Tried putting blasting damage in, it is successful. Tried using the id 34, still broken, tried using id 35, successful. Unsure why this is when there are only 33 skills in the game already. Only issue with skill tree now is that the image seems to be there when picking skill trees but when in game, the skill tree image vanishes again but all of the abilities are still there.

 

Alright then, it all seems to be working. Maybe a little bit rough around the edges (a revolver with 10 blasting damage only seems to hit 3-5 on a Sickly Diggle, might need to bump the damage up a little).
My placeholder graphics don't really fit into the game too well, so if anyone has some tips on that or (for whatever reason) wants to see a couple of them to see what I mean:
Makeshift Revolver
Iron Revolver
Steel Revolver
Some of the Skill Tree and Ability placeholders.

They're all just MS Paint or a quick cut-and-paste of some pre-existing game graphics.