Modding Borderlands (links, tips)

[mmosu]

That's  a weird one Art, not really sure what's going on there.  Nothing jumps out at me with the process you're using or with the Willowtree code you provided.  Keep me posted on how it's going and if there are any other issues or details that come to light.

[Art Blade]

it had to do with the patch -- currently 1.41 for PC.

I have split off the discussion that had been here to create a Patches topic. Now we can go back to Modding :)

[Art Blade]

Playing around with WillowTree and Gearcalc, I noticed that sometimes the PC game wouldn't load the savegame anymore (crashed) despite all code being correct.

At first I thought I might have committed an error somewhere else using WT, but I couldn't see why or how. So I compared the original savegame size with the freshly modded savegame and oh wonder.. size differed noticeably. For instance, a recent savegame had like 33k while the same modded savegame only had 24k after adding  something to the inventory.

So I had the idea to load my savegame and save it unchanged using WT. The same size difference yet the game accepted the savegame. So I then modded the new small savegame and oh wonder, it worked. I can't see any difference in game, apparently nothing is really missing.. Skill tree, money, gear, missions.. all look the same.

So if you notice problems with a savegame, maybe this helps :)

Also, I noticed that if you change the quality (when there is no level specified) of items such as grenade mods, the quality is responsible for the XP level required. I found out that the function "edit levels" (of all items, or of all weapons) solves all problems.

If you have low level guns or too high level items, doesn't matter, just change the level of the entire set in one go and save.. this is great after you levelled up, you can adjust all your gear to your current level. :)

[Art Blade]

My first construct that's not for weapons or shields. Here you go :)
Add (import) it under items in WT. Don't forget to adjust the level for your character, this is for lvl21.

SNIPER class mod for Mordecai
..-- a class mod that hits it --..

includes sniper ammo regeneration  ;D

gd_itemgrades.Gear.ItemGrade_Gear_ComDeck_Mordecai
gd_CommandDecks.A_Item.Item_CommandDeck_Mordecai
gd_CommandDecks.Body_Mordecai.Mordecai_Sniper
gd_CommandDecks.LeftSide.leftside6c
gd_CommandDecks.RightSide.rightside6
gd_CommandDecks.ManufacturerMaterials.Material_Hyperion_3
gd_manufacturers.Manufacturers.Hyperion
gd_CommandDecks.Prefix.Prefix_Mordecai_Sniper
gd_CommandDecks.Title.Title_ComDeckMordecai
1
5
0
23

And here my shield:

Impenetrable Panacea Shield
-- massive shield with very fast shield regeneration --
fast health regeneration
-- no more need for med packs ;D --

gd_itemgrades.Gear.ItemGrade_Gear_Shield
gd_shields.A_Item.Item_Shield
gd_shields.Body.body3b_power
gd_shields.LeftSide.leftside4
gd_shields.RightSide.rightside4
gd_shields.ManufacturerMaterials.Material_Tediore_3
gd_manufacturers.Manufacturers.tediore
gd_shields.Prefix.Prefix_Max4_Impenetrable
gd_shields.Title.Title_Tediore3_PanaceaShield
1
5
1
23

[Art Blade]

And here is the correspondent class mod: (don't forget to adjust the level, this is for lvl 21)

Gunslinger class mod  for Mordecai
trigger happy pistol shooting with
pistol ammo regeneration

;D

gd_itemgrades.Gear.ItemGrade_Gear_ComDeck_Mordecai
gd_CommandDecks.A_Item.Item_CommandDeck_Mordecai
gd_CommandDecks.Body_Mordecai.Mordecai_Gunslinger
gd_CommandDecks.LeftSide.leftside6c
gd_CommandDecks.RightSide.rightside6
gd_CommandDecks.ManufacturerMaterials.Material_Vladof_3
gd_manufacturers.Manufacturers.Vladof
gd_CommandDecks.Prefix.Prefix_Mordecai_Gunslinger
gd_CommandDecks.Title.Title_ComDeckMordecai
1
5
0
23

[mmosu]

 ???
Wow Art, you've been busy  :-X
Looks like you've got the hang of things.  I myself have also had problems changing things like character level, weapons proficiencies, etc., and so I limit to modding weapons and items.  The good thing is you're tinkering around so much that when your uncensored copy arrives, you'll have a much deeper understanding of how the game works than someone who would be starting cold from the very beginning.

[Art Blade]

:)

I liked your "  ??? " LOL  ^+-+

That's what you get when the scholar surprises his teacher  :-()

Well. Unfortunately WillowTree currently only supports weapons and shields but there are many things to tinker with that you can see in WT just as well. Problems with savegames and undocumented features (as in how to create a "class mod") don't make it any easier and that means that there may be different solutions with a better result, but mine at least w@&k nicely and as expected :)

by the way, the 1.41 patch limits almost everything it seems, you can apparently only play if the stuff you created is a legit construct. Anything else apparently doesn't w@&k.

[mmosu]

Yeah, I had heard that would be the case, so I "religitimized" my loadout prior to the release of DLC4.  Didn't want my crap getting deleted  8)

[Art Blade]

I just thought about how to create a mod that isn't documented yet, like those class mods.

- copy a savegame
- load it in BL and drop all the stuff so the inventory is basically empty
- exit BL so you have a savegame with loads of room for items
- load it in WT
- import a class mod as in the example given in my previous post
- duplicate it inside WT
- start changing the duplications so they become individual mods:

- change the material (as in 1, 2, 3)
- change the left/right elements
- change the manufacturer

This means that if you know one manufacturer does produce a class mod, see example above, that you can change those "left" and "right" attributes and combine them. Usually the highest numbers are the most expensive and rarest ones. In practical terms, those are at the end of the entry lists.

Might take a while to find out what is what, maybe I'll do some of that sometime :)

[Art Blade]

what really bugs me is that you never know if BL will accept changes made to the savegame. >:((

More than once I did everything right yet the game crashed.  ????

Not even load&save (unaltered) via WT helped. So all you can do is play a little, save and exit, and try with that new savegame again.   :-\\

[mmosu]

Ah, I see, dupe your class mod over and over with minor changes to figure out what the effects are - good thinking  :-X  It's too bad GearCalc was never expanded to include class mods, would have negated the need for all that w@&k Art.  I doubt we'll see another version update to GearCalc or Willowtree now though, with modding now reduced to "constructing" in the last patch.  All we can hope for now is that they include a "workbench" function in Borderlands 2 so we can build stuff without needing to use so many different programs :-X 

[Art Blade]

We can never know if they're actually stopping development. It's still a beta11 and not that old.. there are always games and gamers that stick together, meaning that they'd stick to BL even if BL2 comes out.

However, modding with WillowTree requires patience.

For so many times I was unable to mod the slightest bit, not even a level upgrade, without crashing BL. I continued playing and saving and eventually the very same changes I tried to apply earlier suddenly worked.

So here is how you can mod freely:

- always make copies during your game progress.
- find a savegame that actually allows modding (alter only one thing and see if it works in BL)
- before  testing, make a copy of the freshly modded savegame
- continue modding the same savegame (not a new one created by BL) and keep making backups
- if your modding failed, fall back to the last copy you successfully modded.
- all modding done? Backup the savegame and play the game :)
- rinse and repeat.

[Art Blade]

hehe, just reached lvl24 and only the third savegame after levelling up allowed modding  ::) :-()

[PZ]

Leave it to Art to do the in depth research  :-X  ;)

[Art Blade]

Teehee :-()


Looks like modding a savegame means you shouldn't try to add too many things.. there is no logic / pattern I can detect so far. Sometimes I can add two weapons, sometimes I can change the level of all items, sometimes nothing at all.

Trial and error is the way.. and patience.  ;)

[Art Blade]

Here a special Revolver:

AX300 Pearl Chimera

Apart from packing a punch (lvl24: 386 damage plus 4x elemental with a two rounds mag) its accuracy of 96,4% is quite high.

The best bit is A beast of many forms -- Fire, Lightning and Poison

Each shot randomly dishes out one of those elemental damages x 4!  :-()

gd_itemgrades.Weapons.ItemGrade_Weapon_RevolverPistol
gd_manufacturers.Manufacturers.Atlas
gd_weap_revolver_pistol.A_Weapon.WeaponType_revolver_pistol
gd_weap_revolver_pistol.Body.body5
gd_weap_revolver_pistol.Grip.grip5
gd_weap_revolver_pistol.mag.mag5
gd_weap_revolver_pistol.Barrel.barrel5
gd_weap_revolver_pistol.Sight.sight5
gd_weap_revolver_pistol.Stock.stock3
None
gd_weap_revolver_pistol.acc.acc5_Atlas_Chimera
gd_weap_shared_materialparts.ManufacturerMaterials.Material_Atlas_3
gd_weap_shared_materialparts.Prefix.Prefix_Atlas2_Pearl
gd_weap_revolver_pistol.Title.TitleM_Atlas1_Chimera
1
5
0
26

[mmosu]

The chimera accessory was a favorite of modders back in the glory days when you could do whatever you wanted - it allowed production of some terrifying, death spewing elemental weapons.  All that is firmly in the past now though, C'est la vie  :(

As far as all the issues you're having with the mods Art, I never experienced anything like that on console.  It sounds like the process is a bit more complicated on PC.  I guess the silver lining is you don't have to physically go back and forth with a flash drive every time you want to change something  :-()

[Art Blade]

I hope that things get better.. it isn't exactly fun to mod having to deal with those issues.

[Art Blade]

Interesting.

Now that I've got the regular (uncut, uncensored) version, I apparently can mod a savegame to my heart's content and the game just uses it.

I picked a random (new) savegame and deleted excrescent XP points on the first data sheet because I have already maxed out all three skill trees, so levelling up gives me a blinking sign with my current unused XP points above the action icon down left on the screen. Unnecessary and nerving. The game accepted it.

Then I levelled all items and all weapons at once, made some quality changes to a few weapons, and replaced an existing weapon with a newly modded one (legit construct). Then I made changes to a class mod. And then I saved it with WT.

The game worked and accepted all changes immediately  :) :-X

[mmosu]

Now that's what I'm talking about  :-X
Sounds a lot more like the modding experience I'm used to. 

[Art Blade]

One of my most helpful weapons (a shotgun) for you:

It was lvl 24 so it will differ from other levels. However, no matter which level you design it for, it will be extremely useful because it regenerates ammo, packs 7x damage plus 2x corrosive (acid) damage and has 12 shells in its mag. On top it is rather accurate.. so practically there's nothing that can stand in its way  :)

DEF1200-B Hunter's Defender
------------------------------
DAMAGE:           55.15 x 7
CLIP SIZE:        12.00
FIRE RATE:        0.96
SPREAD:           3.25
RECOIL:           3.81
COST:             $67,943
RARITY:           84 (Dark Orange)
ACCURACY MINIMUM: 0.70
ACCURACY MAXIMUM: 7.50
CRITICAL DMG:     +100%
RELOAD:           4.80 sec.
TECH LEVEL:       9.00
TECH POOL:        36.00
ZOOM FOV:         13.5
DPS:              287.56
AMMO REGEN:       17
BURST COUNT:      0.00


***

gd_itemgrades.Weapons.ItemGrade_Weapon_CombatShotgun
gd_manufacturers.Manufacturers.tediore
gd_weap_combat_shotgun.A_Weapon.WeaponType_combat_shotgun
gd_weap_combat_shotgun.Body.body3_Tediore_Defender
gd_weap_combat_shotgun.Grip.grip1
gd_weap_combat_shotgun.mag.mag2
gd_weap_combat_shotgun.Barrel.barrel5
gd_weap_combat_shotgun.Sight.sight5
gd_weap_combat_shotgun.Stock.stock3
None
gd_weap_combat_shotgun.acc.acc3_Corrosive
gd_weap_shared_materialparts.ManufacturerMaterials.Material_Tediore_3
gd_weap_combat_shotgun.Prefix.Prefix_Spread1_Hunters
gd_weap_combat_shotgun.Title.TitleM_Tediore1_Defender
1
5
0
26

[mmosu]

Ooooooooo, that's a nice one  :-X
I never played around much with Tediore's, but ammo regen + corrosive and a hunter's prefix to boot - it sounds rather handy!

[Art Blade]

that weapon and the chimera pistol are my absolute favourites. With those alone I can almost master anything that comes up, but I like to snipe, too.. so just for diversity I use other weapons.

Give it a try and let me know what you think of it in game :)

[Art Blade]

By the way, the best shield (WeeWee) is one I found on a boss (a little guy in a cave) -- I improved the materials and it is a blast. The trick is, it regenerates so fast that it takes only moments until the recharge kicks in and then it recharges within like a few seconds. And it gives you a health increase while wearing it. With my fragile Mordecai I need that shield badly. If I get hit badly, running away already is sufficient to recharge it  :)

gd_customitems.Items.CustomItem_Shield_KingWeeWee
gd_shields.A_Item.Item_Shield
gd_shields.Body.body2
gd_shields.LeftSide.leftside4
gd_shields.RightSide.rightside4
gd_shields.UniqueParts.Shield_WeeWee_Material
gd_manufacturers.Manufacturers.Pangolin
gd_shields.Prefix.Prefix_none
gd_shields.Title.Title_U_WeeWeesSuperBooster
1
5
0
36

[mmosu]

Ah, a wee wee super booster!  I saw a modded one a long time ago that was rediculous - they had crossed manufacturer materials (Pangolin I'm pretty sure) in order to get the capacity way up and retained the fast recharge and health boost of the super booster.  It was a blatant mod though, we're talking version 1.0 stuff. 
I will cut and paste that shotgun though, thanks Art  :-X