On BG->EE item description conversion standards

[Sam.]

Thanks to K4thos, Thrown Hammers is nearly fully EE compatible. I have a question concerning the standard practices regarding BG to EE item description conversion, tho. Here's an example: The original description for the vanilla BG and IWD games was:

STATISTICS:

THAC0: +2
Damage: 2D4 + 2
Special:
 Returns to thrower
 Lightning Bolt 3 times per day
 Call Lightning 3 times per day
Equipped Ability: Electrical Resistance +20%
Damage type: crushing
Weight: 4
Speed Factor: 2
Proficiency Type: War Hammer
Type: 1-handed
Requires: 15 Strength
Not Usable By:
 Druid
 Mage
 Thief
 Monk

For the Enhanced Editions, I changed it to:

STATISTICS:

Equipped abilities:
- Electrical Resistance: +20%

Combat abilities:
– Returns to the wielder's hand when thrown

Charge abilities:
- Lightning Bolt three times per day
- Call Lightning three times per day

THAC0: +2
Damage: 2d4+2 (1d4+3 melee)
Damage type:  missile (crushing)
Speed Factor: 2
Proficiency Type: War Hammer
Type: One-handed
Requires:
 15 Strength

Weight: 4

What I am wondering is if, for the sake of consistency and ease-of-translation, I can take the EE description and simply tack on the "Usable By" info at the end for use in the vanilla games?

STATISTICS:

Equipped abilities:
- Electrical Resistance: +20%

Combat abilities:
– Returns to the wielder's hand when thrown

Charge abilities:
- Lightning Bolt three times per day
- Call Lightning three times per day

THAC0: +2
Damage: 2d4+2 (1d4+3 melee)
Damage type:  missile (crushing)
Speed Factor: 2
Proficiency Type: War Hammer
Type: One-handed
Requires:
 15 Strength

Weight: 4

Not Usable By:
 Druid
 Mage
 Thief
 Monk

Does this clash too heavily with vanilla conventions to be acceptable in the non-EE games?

[Avenger]

The usability string was always the last, so you are not forced to do anything, except cutting that for EE.

[agb1]

Copying the EE item description text and appending the restrictions block for the original games seems fine to me.

[lynx]

I agree, especially since the impact on most items (they're simpler) would be smaller.

[K4thos]

The usability string was always the last, so you are not forced to do anything, except cutting that for EE.

and you end up with description that screams (lazy) mod content. No thanks.

 

Copying the EE item description text and appending the restrictions block for the original games seems fine to me.

acceptable, considering that item descriptions in vanilla games are all over the place with tons of inconsistencies in formatting. In fact EE descriptions are very similar to description style used in vanilla ToB. Although I may be biased with this opinion since I no longer play vanilla games.

[Jarno Mikkola]

Copying the EE item description text and appending the restrictions block for the original games seems fine to me.

The question becomes, does this actually work as it's supposed to in the first place ? Nope, I am not talking about the final product, but the fact that you take text, add to it a text and finally that text is identical to another text.

 

Try and make a +1 bastard sword using this... do you get the dialog.tlk's lines that the original game used. Nope. Aka you end up extending the file instead of using the possible old ones, twice.

K4thos, how large is the EET's dialog.tlk right now ? (BG1EE+BG2EE)

[lynx]

It's trivial to set a strref with weidu.