Making editors

[Drake the Dragonheart]

I have been trying to find either an item editor or character/hero editor that also does items/inventory for Divinity 2: Ego Draconis
My search across the infrawebs for such came up empty. Apparently it just doesn't exist (yet) so I it looks like I would have to create one.

Problem is, I have pretty much zero programming skill/knowledge. But I figure this would be as good a way as any to change that. Ok yes I am doing partly because I am a bit of a megalomanaic when it comes to certain games, namely fantasy RPG's but it is only with games.Example, if you give me a skill tree, I am going to want to max it out. This leads me to putting points into everything, and having it all at a low level, being a sort of jack of all trades, but excelling at none. If the stats have maxes, you can bet I am going to want to get max them out or get as close as possible. But also I would like to acquire knowledge/improve my skill in that area. Thing is I find computers infuriating, even as much as I use mine. That may have to do with mine being old as it is from 2005, so in computer terms it is ancient. Needless to say for this reason I have never considered any sort of career dealing with computers and such, as that infuration that mine causes me worries me I would turn technocidal. (I don't care it that isn't a word, that's not the bloody point!)

But to get back to the subject, how are editors and such made? Is there a specific program used? Funny thought. A program used to create another program which essentially modifies on a small level a specific part of another much larger program.
This is going to require at least some understanding of programing language, isn't it? If yes, was afraid so. Is that something you have to go to school for, or could I just go to my local library? Don't know if my library would have books of that nature.

 

[Smooth Operator]

Well I had a quick look around and sadly it seems this game is not mod-able, it is quite odd because it's based on the ancient Gamebyro engine that is featured in TES and Fallout games which are all super mod-able and have tons of tools readily available.
I guess they locked it down so content would come exclusively from them, in this case there is sadly nothing anyone outside the company can really do about it, unless you find someone to decipher their data structures.

But with games that are open you usually pick up tools similar to what the devs used to create the content in the first place, then unpack the data structures, find the parts you want to edit use a proper editor for them, make the changes and pack it all up again for testing... realize everything broke and go back to the start.
You could write you own but I wouldn't advise it to anyone but the most dedicated programmers, because editors are some of the most intense and boring things to make.

And if you want to dip your toes in programming you can really get the information anywhere these days, hell 90% of what you need is surely to be found on youtube.

 

[RhombusHatesYou]

Well I had a quick look around and sadly it seems this game is not mod-able

You're talking silliness. It's mod-able just that there are no all-in-one dedicated modding or editor tools for it.

 

[Esotera]

Your best bet is to study whatever files are used to store the inventory, and figure out what the format is. Then you can potentially write a program that writes files in a similar way (or alternatively, just do it by hand, which would probably be easier if you're starting out).

Maybe try a game with a decent modding community first?

 

[Smooth Operator]

You're talking silliness. It's mod-able just that there are no all-in-one dedicated modding or editor tools for it.

Yes completely modable for people who know the games internal file structure, which would be the development staff exclusively ...

 

[Drake the Dragonheart]

Someone suggested a game with a strong modding community. Well it so happens I have Torchlight on steam, and TorchED, an editor and mod maker. In fact, I have so many mods running on the game it is almost like I have an expansion pack

 

[DoPo]

Someone suggested a game with a strong modding community. Well it so happens I have Torchlight on steam, and TorchED, an editor and mod maker. In fact, I have so many mods running on the game it is almost like I have an expansion pack

Yes, I'd also suggest Torchlight 2 - as far as I know, it's equally easy to mod and edit (should be pretty much the same as before anyway). I didn't have interest enough to look into it myself, but from what I've heard it's mostly XML...so, it's mostly just text. XML is not hard to read and understand even if you have little to no experience with it and if you swing by the modding section on the Runic forums, you're bound to find lots of people to give you pointers and advice where and how to start.

However, do note that the saves aren't in XML but some other format. However, there is a save editor for TL2 [http://clockworkcore.org/tl2rr.html], I'd suggest you politely ask the author (that would be Chton on the Runic forums) if he could give you some insight into how the save files are structured and then try editing them in a simple way.

 

[Catrixa]

I've partly written an OpenGL editor-type-thing before (think Maya, only infinitely lamer) and it'd probably be easier to start with a simple GUI first.

Also...

You're talking silliness. It's mod-able just that there are no all-in-one dedicated modding or editor tools for it.

Yes completely modable for people who know the games internal file structure, which would be the development staff exclusively ...

kinda this, kinda not, depending on their files. With enough time, a hex editor, and a love of puzzles that borders on obsessive, you can decode any non-encrypted proprietary filetype. To make an editor for a game (note: I have not worked on any sort of game editor, so this is coming from personal experience with old school projects that could have maybe perhaps become game editors someday), I imagine you'd need to first decode all of the assets, then write a user interface that interprets them, allows you to manipulate them (I don't know the game, but 3D is one axis and a lot of math harder than 2D), and will correctly write them to a format the game will interpret. Honestly, it would probably be easier to learn the filetype, make some data (models, stats, whatever), then just edit an existing file (or duplicate one). Unless you really want to help other people do it, then I'd say go ahead and make an editor.

And most of this stuff you can look up online. In order to make heads or tails of a filetype, for example, you'll probably need to read a bunch of specs for similar filetypes (if it's proprietary), then try to interpret where the data is going. To write a GUI to handle your assets, you'll need a language (I used C++) and a graphics API (will affect what language you can use). If that game uses DirectX or OpenGL, you'll be set on tutorials for installation, at least.

 

[lechat]

your best bet is prolly cheat engine. most of the time depending on how the game is coded it won't do anything for inventory related stuff but if there is any sort of variable such as money or skill points 99% of the time you can easily find that value and change it to what you want

 

[Stryc9]

Someone suggested a game with a strong modding community. Well it so happens I have Torchlight on steam, and TorchED, an editor and mod maker. In fact, I have so many mods running on the game it is almost like I have an expansion pack

Yes, I'd also suggest Torchlight 2 - as far as I know, it's equally easy to mod and edit (should be pretty much the same as before anyway). I didn't have interest enough to look into it myself, but from what I've heard it's mostly XML...so, it's mostly just text. XML is not hard to read and understand even if you have little to no experience with it and if you swing by the modding section on the Runic forums, you're bound to find lots of people to give you pointers and advice where and how to start.

However, do note that the saves aren't in XML but some other format. However, there is a save editor for TL2 [http://clockworkcore.org/tl2rr.html], I'd suggest you politely ask the author (that would be Chton on the Runic forums) if he could give you some insight into how the save files are structured and then try editing them in a simple way.

The official Torchlight 2 mod tools aren't out yet. All the mods that have been created for TL2 so far are either created by third party tools or straight up tearing into the game files with other tools.

 

[DoPo]

Someone suggested a game with a strong modding community. Well it so happens I have Torchlight on steam, and TorchED, an editor and mod maker. In fact, I have so many mods running on the game it is almost like I have an expansion pack

Yes, I'd also suggest Torchlight 2 - as far as I know, it's equally easy to mod and edit (should be pretty much the same as before anyway). I didn't have interest enough to look into it myself, but from what I've heard it's mostly XML...so, it's mostly just text. XML is not hard to read and understand even if you have little to no experience with it and if you swing by the modding section on the Runic forums, you're bound to find lots of people to give you pointers and advice where and how to start.

However, do note that the saves aren't in XML but some other format. However, there is a save editor for TL2 [http://clockworkcore.org/tl2rr.html], I'd suggest you politely ask the author (that would be Chton on the Runic forums) if he could give you some insight into how the save files are structured and then try editing them in a simple way.

The official Torchlight 2 mod tools aren't out yet. All the mods that have been created for TL2 so far are either created by third party tools or straight up tearing into the game files with other tools.

Well, GUTS would just be a pretty GUI on top of what people already do, since making mods is tearing into the game files. OK, that's not all that the mod tools would offer - Runic have also done tutorials, so anybody can pick them up and also last I heard they were working on a mod management system, so you could sync mods with whatever game you join in.

But the modding itself is still editing files. Which is what editing saves would also be - otherwise why would you make an editor if there already is one? OP wants to know how to do this kind of thing, and this is a good start, I thought - playing around with XML and plain text (more or less) before moving on to binary data.

 

[Stryc9]

*Snip*

Well, GUTS would just be a pretty GUI on top of what people already do, since making mods is tearing into the game files. OK, that's not all that the mod tools would offer - Runic have also done tutorials, so anybody can pick them up and also last I heard they were working on a mod management system, so you could sync mods with whatever game you join in.

But the modding itself is still editing files. Which is what editing saves would also be - otherwise why would you make an editor if there already is one? OP wants to know how to do this kind of thing, and this is a good start, I thought - playing around with XML and plain text (more or less) before moving on to binary data.

Yes, but for some people having the pretty GUI to work with is a lot easier than tinker with the raw files themselves, certainly was way easier when I was doing that sort of thing. What I think the OP was really asking was where to start on making his modding tool for his game of choice because there aren't any currently available which is a whole other kettle of fish entirely.

 

[Twilight_guy]

I'd suggest not starting out coding by trying to make an editor. Editors are a pain in the rear and usually involve lots of GUI work that is superfluous if you're only goal is to modify certain values and you aren't distributing your product. If modding tools don't exist then actually making it work probably involves instigating the system files (potentially involving using a hex editor to read binary files) and doing very technical work to see what's what. It's not a simple project and not one that I'd suggest for anyone with 0 experience. If you can, find someone who's done something similar or can do the technical (that's not usually possible with small projects but its worth a shot) to help you out. I'm not going to say that you shouldn't try to do this, but just know that's its not going to be easy and its going to be a very sever crash course that probably won't work out as you intended.

 

[tautologico]

For a first learning experience I'd suggest, as other people have said, to try a more moddable game and try your hand at it. You could also look at UDK (the free version of the Unreal Engine) or Source SDK modding.

If you really want to learn how to create an editor like that, you will definitely need to learn programming. Creating a complete editor with GUI from scratch when you don't know a thing about programming can be a bit daunting, though. If you're comfortable using command line tools (as in the Windows command prompt) it may be easier to do a useful program without having a lot of work to create the interface. You'd have to either find documentation about the game files or find by yourself how they're structured, which can be easy or hard depending on the case.

So yeah, it's easier to start with a more moddable game, unless you have friends who know how to program and could help you with it, at least by pointing you in the right direction whenever you need guidance. Learning to program is really fun though