How do I disable spell visual effects in Icewind Dale II?

[gmahadhika91]

Hi, I'm new here. Lately I'm replaying IWD2, and I found the thing that turns me off the most of this game in the past. I HATE how gears with permanent spells give your character a permanent glow like a streetlamp or something.

 

I'm using NearInfinity to modify the game. I've been successful in changing armor colors. But spells? Just not working. I've even deleted all the spell effect entries, and save it in the override folder, but the spell just stays the same. By spells I mean Bless and Haste.

Can someone help me with this? Am I doing something wrong or am I skipping an important step? Thanks in advance.

[Jarno Mikkola]

Well there are different cases, it depends on the item the ability is applied with.

The common case is, that the item/armor has an effect that applies the spell, in which case there's really nothing that can be done, unless you change the spell been applied by the item to one that doesn't apply the graphical/visual effect... or you can remove the effects from (all) spells in their .spl file.

To do the later, you have just to open the files and remove the effects from the Abilities of the spells. To do the former, you do that to a spell and then save the .spl file with different name and then change the .itm file to use the custom spell, in the apply effects -effect.

 

Hope this help... ask more if you didn't get it. But be specific( as in, give the item you wish to change, if you wish specific info/instructions). I would recommend the use of the DLTCEP in modifying these files.

[gmahadhika91]

Thank you for quick answer, good to know the modding community isn't dead yet.

I'm afraid I haven't got that far into modding Infinity Engine yet to understand what you are talking about. Besides, I already tried DLTCEP and i think it's more complicated than NearInfinity. The items I tried to modify are, to name a few, Vghotan's Band, Girdle of Beatification, and Golden Heart of [CHAR_NAME]. Heck, I don't mind if all those permanent spells effect removed from the game. Maybe exception for blur and invisibility though.

Can you give me proper instruction in modifying them? Thanks again.

EDIT: Ok I finally understand what you are talking about. I already did it, both of these methods. Still doesn't work. Please help.

[Jarno Mikkola]

Sorry for the rather late reply, had to check things.

The unfortunate thing with the Icewind Dale 2 engine is, the visual effects are tied to the spell opcodes, so when the item says it gives a Haste effect, it truly gives that as an effect, with the visuals and all, so to get around the visuals is a little more tricky than in BG2.

Now, you can get around it in most cases, like with the haste, you can actually make the haste's effect manifested to the item without the visuals... with utilizing different opcodes.

 

I would do this in DLTCEP v7.6d, as it has the option to add effects easier than the NI.

Run the DLTCEP in any folder, and push the Setup -button.

Make up a Setup name, mine is "huhaa" , select the Game type from the dropdown menu to be "Icewind Dale 2", this will set most of the needed ticks, then find the game folders with the file browser, the .dat file is in the folder that the DLTCEP came in. And then make sure the untick the Read only -tag. Then Save & Back.

 

After you have configured the DLTCEP, you already have a running program, you click on the Edit "Items" -> then "Load Item", and typically search with words, like Golden, it should find it at the third search. Then you double click it, which open the item file, now you go to the "Equipping Effects" tab, and then select the 4th effect, and push "Copy", and push the "Add" two times so the item has a couple more effect you can mess with, then I would suggest that you Paste the copied effect to each of the added effect, the reason for all of this is that the copy-pasting will allow you to easily add effects with the same containment values, then you just double click the first of those Haste effects, and the you edit it's "Effect opcode" to new ones without the need to do any other thing to most of the other values.

As the Haste spell adds +4 to the characters Armor Class, you change one of the Haste -opcodes to be the very first one aka Stat: "AC vs ..... [0]", then you edit the first parameter that should be named as AC Modifier value to be 4, and then you just exit from that window with the Exit button.

Another double click on the second Haste effect and you change that opcode to be the second, which is "Number of Attacks [1]", the first parameter should be 1, that's it, exit via the Exit button.

The last Haste effect is changed to use the Opcode 126 - Stat: Movement Modifier [126], and set the first parameter to be 10. This doubles the normal movement rate. After the exiting that effect, look that the structure should look something like this:

And then save the .itm file with the "Save Item As..." button, it gives you the default place to save the file onto, and so just "Save".

That's a half of a one of the items. As you still have the Free Action.

[gmahadhika91]

Thank you so much, it worked. Now I understand what you meant, spell like "Haste" and "Bless" is a package of multiple stats enhancing effects + the visual and they're inseperable right?
Still, I have 2 questions:

1. Girdle of Beatification still stacks with the actual Bless spell (and maybe the Haste spell stacks too, I don't know, haven't tried it), is there any way to get around this too? I don't think it should stack in the rule.
2. Freedom of Movement is a rule, not a quantity-based stat. We can't actually make a fake Freedom of Movement without the actual spell itself...is that true?

Thanks again.

[Jarno Mikkola]

Thank you so much, it worked. Now I understand what you meant, spell like "Haste" and "Bless" is a package of multiple stats enhancing effects + the visual and they're inseperable right?

Still, I have 2 questions:

1. Girdle of Beatification still stacks with the actual Bless spell (and maybe the Haste spell stacks too, I don't know, haven't tried it), is there any way to get around this too? I don't think it should stack in the rule.

2. Freedom of Movement is a rule, not a quantity-based stat. We can't actually make a fake Freedom of Movement without the actual spell itself...is that true?

Exactly. You are more than welcome ...

1. Ahh, I missed that, to fix that in the items, I would firstly open the Vghotan's Band item, then copy-paste the second equipping effect( "Protection: from Spells [206] 0x0 0x0 SPPR409" ), to the other items and edit the resource 1, aka the SPPR409 to be the targeted spell, in the case of Haste, it would be SPPR327 and Mass Haste SPWI305(so you need two effects)... note that you can use the Browse button to find the spells by their names, but there's always a chance that the game has hidden resources that you might not be able to find this way, as you only find the existing spells.

EDIT: you can also use the opcode #101, in where the parameter 2 is the opcode used in the original spell, so for haste, it would be 16.

 

2. This might be the unfortunate true... unless you go and immunize from the Haste & Slow spells, set the movement rate to 10, or 9 I am unsure of the exact,(aka set the parameter 2 to be one instead of the zero, in the Golden Heart of [CHAR_NAME] -item, I would go and set it to be 20)... and then there's the fact that some things might get unforeseen still, like the other items that you just coded above. As the movement rate has a tendency to get increased, and not set. And the totality of effects is subject to the item equipping order(so essentially the system is broken a bit).

 

I also wish to remind you that you can start more than one DLTCEP at ones, and this can allow easy copy pasting from one window to the other, so there's no copy pasting you cannot do.

[gmahadhika91]

That's it! By utilizing the Protection: from Spells code, we can simulate a fake Freedom of Movement! Just set the protection to spells like entangle, etc. right?

Thank you so much Mikkola.

[Jarno Mikkola]

That's it! By utilizing the Protection: from Spells code, we can simulate a fake Freedom of Movement! Just set the protection to spells like entangle, etc. right?

Indeed that too.

I am just pleased my help was enough.