A noobish question

[komrade]

Hello there,

I want to make a mod for diablo 2 1.11 for mac os x wich does only one simple thing - highlighting the runes as one presses alt in purple/red/gold whatsoever color, so that they are easier to see among big drops, i.e. from a chest. Please help me, tell me wich tools i need and what/where needs to be changed...
Many thanks in advance,

komrade

[Ulmo]

You have to add color codes in expansionstring.tbl and patchstring.tbl.

[komrade]

oh, thanks man...
i see Tuor talking to Ulmo at your avatar... another tolkien fan - nice..

but, since i am completely new to diablo 2 modding, i'm asking you:

- shall i extract this .tbl files from some mpq files? wich ones? will the mpq extractor for 1.11 do the job?

- how do i change this color code, how does it look like? what are the values? do i do this with a normal text editor?

-how do i put the files back to the mpq files (if they are to be extracted from some), how do i make the mod work? and if i want to share it with other ppl, how it will work for them...

please help me, or direct me to some topic or site where i can read about how to do these things. thanks once again.


EDIT:
i found these files in expansion data mpq, extracted and viewed them with the mpq editor... but i don't see any keys refering to color i can change?

[Myhrginoc]

These codes should give you control over color. You may need to end each string with the light grey color code to switch back to the default on complex strings.

ÿc0 - Light Gray (Item Descriptions)
ÿc1 - Red
ÿc2 - Bright Green (Set Items)
ÿc3 - Blue (Magic Items)
ÿc4 - Gold (Unique Items)
ÿc5 - Dark Gray (Socketed/Ethereal Items)
ÿc6 - Transparent (Text Doesn't Show)
ÿc7 - Tan
ÿc8 - Orange (Crafted Items)
ÿc9 - Yellow (Rare Items)
ÿc: - Dark Green
ÿc; - Purple
ÿc/ - White (Brighter than Light Gray)

The first two symbols are ASCII-0195 followed by ASCII-0191. I don't know how those are typed in on Macs, on Windows keyboards you hold the ALT key down and type the four numbers.

[komrade]

thanks!

and how would the string for the colour of a particular rune would look?
should i add the same things in both tbl files? and how do i put the updated files back in the mpq file?

[Myhrginoc]

You would put the color code ahead of the rune name, e.g. for purple Shael you would have ÿc;Shael for the string content, but for a purple item identifier you would have ÿc;Shael Rune.

I don't know about the Mac mpq utility by Souricette, since I use Windows myself. But you probably can pack the tbl files just like you pack the txt files. Strings go to data\local\LNG\* (where * is the language of your tbl content, like FRE or ENG or GER). The mpq datafiles in our File Center will give you a complete list of files and where they go.

[komrade]

first - thanks a lot for answering, man!

now, i'm not sure if i got right what you said:

- in expansionstring.tbl i shall add a string named ShaelColor wich has the content ÿc;Shael before the shael rune string in ordred to make it appear purple in the game.

- what is this item identifier string, and where does it go to? what about the patchstring.tbl file, what shall be added there?

excuse me for asking so much but it is the first ever time i attend to do something about diablo 2 modding...

[Myhrginoc]

You don't want to add strings, you want to change the existing strings. D2 won't know to look for a string key "ShaelColor" unless you change other files as well. Second, never insert a string in a tbl file or you'll clobber the game references that are by position (not all strings use the string keys, it's messy from a code standpoint). You would need to start over with clean tbl files.

In ExpansionString.tbl, look for the 66 rune strings, then edit the descriptions by inserting the color codes ahead of the existing text. Save when complete, and open PatchString.tbl. A few runes have changed in this file, so you need to edit their descriptions too. (You could start with PatchString and then do ExpansionString, if you note the ones in the later file and don't changed them in the earlier file. But you still need to do the rest of the names in the earlier file.)

For the full meal deal, you might download the Beginner's Guide, see links in my sig. The tools and screenshots are from the Windows version, but 99% of the information about modding the game is the same for macs.

[komrade]

thank you very much! will do, when i'm ready will post here... thanks!