Hi

I've made a few changes to the MAGIC.DEF file to correct a couple of errors. I've uploaded it to: http://slushpool.fortunecity.com.

This 2.1 kb file fixes the mixed-up Leaping %it and %it of Venom Spitting. The effects of these items have been exchanged: Leaping now casts Levitate when used, and Venom Spitting enhances skill Dragonish. I have also changed the effect of Cursing %it to cast Paralysis on strike to avoid the duplicate effect of cast Toxic Cloud.

I'm working on some other things, mostly larger fixes at the moment involving faction.txt and some graphics. Still planning an engaging quest pack.

If you are interested in hacking on Daggerfall: I have some useful information not posted yet, thoughts on how to fix certain bugs, and if you have ideas of your own that you want to work on it would be great to not duplicate our efforts.

Just posted a fix for the Wayrest Dark Elves. Now Barenziah, Helseth, Karethys, and Morgiah all look like Dark Elves.

This builds on Andy Polis' work in AndyFall -- which included fixed faces for Barenziah and Morgiah; and textures for Barenziah, Helseth, and Morgiah.
I added fixed faces for Helseth and Karethys; and a texture for Karethys.

Available at the site in my sig, and uesp.net

I just cannot support this. The %it of Venom Spitting that somehow casts Levitation is one of my favorite "features" simply for the very odd mental image it produces.

I like it when people mod Daggerfall.

Here's another fix:

Ebony Blade
-- Fixes the the inventory screen graphics for the Ebony Blade.

In 213 equipping the Blade with another item would cause the PC to hold both items in the same hand. Also, the Blade would be coloured as per the metal tied to the PC's level, ie it would often not look like ebony.

Although AndyFall corrected the equipped hand bug, it made the Blade appear tiny when it was unequipped in the inventory, and the colouring bug remained.

This patch fixes all of these problems.

Available to download and see a http://slushpool.fortunecity.com/ebonyblade.html at my site.

Python, are you also able to change the appearance of clothing, too?

Yes, the way clothing is handled is very well understood. There are a couple of websites still online from around the time the game was released that explain it almost completely:
http://www.svatopluk.com/crackpot/ and the http://reocities.com/TimesSquare/labyrinth/2200/clothes.htm.

Wow, I found that back in 1998 and haven't been able to find those clothing mods since. Thanks, Python!
What I think would be so awesome is to somehow go into the game and add in your own 2D objects. Or even better, though probably harder, is to make it so that the objects you drop actually appear as that actual object. Like if you drop an amulet or a scarab, it shows up as a 2D picture of it where you placed it. Would that be hard to implement?

You could do this, but it would probably mean over-writing something that already exists. There are a lot of graphics that went unused that could be replaced.



Without having looked into it, my guess is that it would be difficult/impossible. When the player drops items, I think the game engine selects an image at random from one particular texture file and uses that no matter what you've dropped.

I have thought about working on this, but decided against it. Many times the player would be dropping more than one item. Spawning a separate image for each item wouldn't work in Daggerfall. Consider what happens when you have multiple corpses piled up in one spot. Even checking what the player is dropping and using a graphic that contains an example from every item type would have heaps of combinations and need a graphic for each and still not really show what the player dropped.

AFAIK, the only times you can see an item as a 2D image other than in the inventory screen is when it was placed in the game by a quest.

I've posted another fix at http://slushpool.fortunecity.com/llugwych.html. This one is for Castle Llugwych.

Cool stuff Python!

I've been reading the TEMPLATE doc and the quest source a bit recently, and trying to figure out what's available for getting a quest started. It looks like all the options are hard-coded into the engine. The main quest is automatically started at the beginning of the game, and moved along by the engine itself, the Thieves and DB questlines are triggered by hard-coded events, but everything else appears to be randomly provided by two mechanisms: pre-designated quest providers you can ask for one, and statically placed merchants and nobles who will offer them when you talk to them. I.e. all the quest starters are already there, and you can't add more.

The quests themselves have some annoying limits. There seems to be no way to use the Player Character's race or gender in a condition, so I can't have different dialog for those, or give a quest to only an Altmer, or a woman, although that information can be substituted into dialog. NPC names are either "randomly generated" or "selected from fixed list of known names" so I can't add a static name to use in a quest series.

Anyone know more?

To fully answer your questions, I think I'd need to give it more time than I have available right now. So some quick pointers:

The TEMPLATE documentation, while it's extensive it's not fully complete. Also, I've figured out some extra things too, nothing major, like how to summon the halt halt variety of guards. I haven't had time to update the files with this yet.

So download WEREFALL and look at how the quests are run in that. It's a proof of concept for adding a faction and quests. You can add more, it's just a bit complicated, but it's done in Werefall.

The options are all hard coded into the game, but you can be creative with them.

Yes, AFAIK there is no way to use the PC's race or gender.

You should be able to add new static named NPCs to the game. Look at faction.txt and maybe flats.cfg. To use the "athome" tag in TEMPLATE would probably not work without you actually placing your new NPC somewhere by editing BLOCKS.BSA and MAPS.BSA. I think telling the quest engine where to place them would work.

I just added an AutoHotKey script to my site. It did work when I last used it, see the plain-text file itself for more information. You'll probably need knowledge of AHK (or be willing to learn it) to get use out of it.

Just fixed the Br'itsa bug (http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Daggerfall:Br%27itsa). There are a few more NPCs that I know of who are a bit mixed up:
Lords Kilbar, Khane, and K'avar.
I'm going to hold off posting this one until I've cleaned them up too. There are probably more of these type of bugs that I don't know about. So if you've seen any suspicious looking characters, let me know

Seems like it's possible to set NPCs to speak only to either males/females. I haven't played with it yet so I'm not sure if it works with NPCs who offer quests.

Do divulge what you found so far. This could be the bootstrap for making the player character's gender available to quest logic.

I confirmed something I saw at http://www.svatopluk.com/daggerfall/secrets/kavar.stm about an NPC speaking only to females. I'm pretty sure that this is controlled by a flag in in the BLOCKS.BSA file. So you'd need to fire up a hex editor and locate the NPC's record in BLOCKS.BSA. It might be easiest to find Rholp-e by searching for Lord K'avar's faction number, otherwise you'll need to know which flat Rholp-e uses.

There is some good information here: http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Daggerfall_talk:BLOCKS.BSA about changing NPCs. Note that most NPCs don't seem have the 1200/3200 male/female flag as described. I think that is used only for unique named NPCs.

Posted the Br'itsa fix and bundled everything I've released so far into one download. Have a couple more things of my own nearly finished and am waiting on permission to include a couple of fixes by other people.

I found Rholp-e's BLOCKS.BSA entry (confirmed by swapping in a different flat) and it has

06 5C 22 00 00 02

I.e. her flat is #7 in TEXTURES.184 and she's a member of The prosttutes. The interesting bit is the "2200" inn place of the 1200/3200 expected. I now have to try changing her to regular 3200 to see if she'll talk to everyone, and find another test subject for the 2200 setting. I'll also try 0200 on a male to see if it's a bit flag and whether it means "talk to same six" or "talk to only females".

Also need to find where the game keeps static names for NPC's. Rholp-e does not appear in FACTION.TXT because she's not a faction, which I assume makes her unavailable as a specific questor at present, but I won't know for sure without a bit more research.


Later edit: change from 2200 to 3200 made no difference. Rholp-e will still not talk to males.

Pretty sure Rholp-e came out of namegen.dat, it's just the way they are generated is the same every time.

Python I'm a fan of everything you do

Are they're any mods that add magicka and fatigue regen like the later games?

Daggerfall already has those. You have to create a custom character and add the advantage that does what you want. You can even specify in which conditions your attributes will regenerate.

Daggerfall also lets you add disadvantages and create a character that has no regeneration so you can put more advantages in other places. I wish the later games would let you do this.

You have spell absorption and athleticism, but neither provide you with a constant regen in either magicka or fatigue.