Modding Borderlands (links, tips)

[mmosu]

Glad to see you're enjoying it!  There are a very few OWG regulars who play this game at all!
I have not started a Lilith build at all - just roland, brick and mordecai so far.  I've also just gotten in to modding also, so that has provided some new life into the game as well.  Keep me posted on how your character build turns out.   :-X

[Art Blade]

How do you mod a console game? Don't you need a PC and a savegame for that? (looking at your profile, there's no PC listed as gaming platform)

[mmosu]

There have been two PC programs written for modding Borderlands - Willowtree and GearCalc - that's how most modders (including me) do it.  Both programs are very intuitive and user friendly even for novices.  The save files can be transported to the PC from the gaming console via a USB drive and uploaded to Willowtree.  From there, GearCalc can be used to modify weapon and item codes and these can be ported over to Willowtree, which can insert them into the uploaded save file and dump it back to the USB drive.  It's actually very easy to do. 

Willowtree can be downloaded here

An online version of GearCalc can be found here

Both programs w@&k with either Xbox360, PS3, or PC save files.
Art, if anyone wants to get more in depth with this, might we want to split this topic?

[Art Blade]

Art, if anyone wants to get more in depth with this, might we want to split this topic?

LOL, before I got to that part I already had the same idea :) Right away, matey  ;)

And thanks for those valuable infos  :-X

[Art Blade]

Glad to see you're enjoying it!  There are a very few OWG regulars who play this game at all!
I have not started a Lilith build at all - just roland, brick and mordecai so far.  I've also just gotten in to modding also, so that has provided some new life into the game as well.  Keep me posted on how your character build turns out.   :-X

GPFontaine, that was meant for you -- it got cut off in the process of splitting the topic. I split it there because that was when modding was mentioned and splitting there including  that post, mmosu became author of this modding topic which was intentional. :)

[mmosu]

You're the man Art  ;D :-X

[Art Blade]

thanks, mmosu ;D

if anyone wants to get more in depth with this

Now get more in depth with this, already  ;D ;D ;D

[mmosu]

All right class, everyone take your seats, it's time for mmosu's school for scoundrels! First of all, let me preface this by saying I am by no means an expert at this, but I can share some things I've learned along the way. 
The first thing you have to understand is how the game "randomly" generates each of the over 250,000 possible weapons and items that it is capable of producing.  Each weapon class has a pool of parts that can be pulled from in order create the gun, which generally consists of a body, barrel, grip, stock, magazine, sight, and various accessories.  Each part has certain benefits and draw-backs associated with it.  For example, some give a sizeable damage bonus at the expense of magazine size and rate of fire.   Others impart elemental effects (shock, fire, acid, explosive) at the cost of baseline damage. 
To further complicate things, there are multiple weapon manufacturers that "produce" these guns, each with a different focus for their particular builds.  An example of this would be SMG's produced by Torgue, which tend to have higher than average damage and mag size, vs. SMG's produced by Maliwan, which deal less damage but always have an elemental effect attached to them.   These differences are caused by the different accessories, titles, and "materials" used by each manufacturer, which in part dictate the overall quality of the weapon.  Each manufacturer has 3 different material levels from which it's guns can be made.  An example of this would be Jakobs material 1 (low quality) which is rough wood and unpolished metal vs. Jakobs material 3 (high quality) which is more polished wood and gold trim.  Consequently, a Jakobs gun with material 1 will have poorer stats than a material 3 gun even if they use the exact same parts. 
In addition to all of this, there are also "prefixes" that can be added to the name of the gun, and even though these do not necessarily have an actual part of the gun attached to them, they can still effect the stats of the gun.  These prefixes are extremely important for modding, especially after software patch 1.30 (more on this in a minute).
So in general, the code for any gun follows this format:
Item Grade
Manufacturer
Weapon Type
Body
Grip
Mag
Barrel
Sight
Stock
Action
Accessory
Material
Prefix
Title

There are "rules" in place that govern what the game will and will not produce on its own, and these rules have become more strict with each software patch that came out, further limiting what modders can do.  Now with version 1.30, if you stray too far out of bounds with a particular weapon it will be deleted automatically when you load the save data.  You can no longer mix and match parts that logically don't go together (ex: putting an SMG barrel on a revolver), and parts, accessories, and materials must match the manufacturer (ex: Maliwan guns must be elemental, Jakobs guns can never be elemental, and you can't use Maliwan materials on a Jakobs gun, Jakobs parts on a Maliwan gun, or vice versa).  What you can still alter freely is the title and prefix associated with the gun, and you can also mix and match parts to a limited extent within weapon class and manufacturer.  Using Willowtree and GearCalc you can manually pick and chose which parts you want to use, thereby optimizing the gun for the purpose you need. 

Here's a simple example of how it works.  This is the first construct I ever made (a construct is a legitimate weapon that was created artificially, as opposed to a modded weapon which is illegitimate and created artificially).

Jakobs DVL590 Fearsome Bessie
Damage 1677
Accuracy 98.1%
Fire Rate 0.3
Mag Size 3
Zoom 2.8
The code looks like this:
dlc3_gd_customweapons.Pearlescent_Weapons.CustomWeap_SniperRifle_JakobsBessie
gd_manufacturers.Manufacturers.Jakobs
gd_weap_sniper_rifle.A_Weapon.WeaponType_sniper_rifle
gd_weap_sniper_rifle.Body.body4
gd_weap_sniper_rifle.Grip.grip4
gd_weap_sniper_rifle.mag.mag3
gd_weap_sniper_rifle.Barrel.barrel4
dlc3_gd_weap_UniqueParts.SniperRifle.sight4_Jakobs_Bessie
gd_weap_sniper_rifle.Stock.stock5
None
gd_weap_sniper_rifle.acc.acc4_Heavy
dlc3_gd_weap_UniqueParts.SniperRifle.JakobsBessie_Material
gd_weap_sniper_rifle.Prefix.Prefix_Quality3_Fearsome
dlc3_gd_weap_UniqueParts.Title.TitleP_Jakobs_Bessie
0
0
0
0

This is the most powerful sniper that the game will produce on it's own . . . but maybe we can do a little better . . .

dlc3_gd_customweapons.Pearlescent_Weapons.CustomWeap_SniperRifle_JakobsBessie
gd_manufacturers.Manufacturers.Jakobs
gd_weap_sniper_rifle.A_Weapon.WeaponType_sniper_rifle
gd_weap_sniper_rifle.Body.body4
gd_weap_sniper_rifle.Grip.grip4
gd_weap_sniper_rifle.mag.mag3
gd_weap_sniper_rifle.Barrel.barrel4
dlc3_gd_weap_UniqueParts.SniperRifle.sight4_Jakobs_Bessie
gd_weap_sniper_rifle.Stock.stock5
None
gd_weap_sniper_rifle.acc.acc4_Heavy
dlc3_gd_weap_UniqueParts.SniperRifle.JakobsBessie_Material
gd_weap_patrol_smg.Prefix.Prefix_Barrel3_Twisted
dlc3_gd_weap_UniqueParts.Title.TitleP_Jakobs_Bessie
0
0
0
0

By changing the prefix from "fearsome" to "twisted" we get this:
DVL590 Twisted Bessie
Damage 1925
Accuracy 98.1%
Rate of Fire 0.3
Mag Size 4
Zoom 2.8

As you can see, we've increased damage significantly and also increase magazine capacity – which is exactly what the "twisted" prefix does and why it is one of the most abused prefixes since it has these effects and no draw-backs.  Of course it's easy to tell the weapon is modded, especially if you know that the "twisted" will only naturally occur with SMG's, but we still have created something better than what the game would ever produce on its own.  It really is that simple, and I've got some more involved examples if anyone is interested.
 

[Art Blade]

That was understandable so far :)  :-X

Pity that those software patches limit your modding abilities. I can already figure out that people who had terrific modded guns now freak out after a software patch deleted those.

What I can see in the "code" you provided is that apparently there are at least 5 levels or classes per part a weapon is comprised of. Example:

gd_weap_sniper_rifle.Stock.stock5

Which makes me believe that there are still almost endless combinations left to check out, am I right?

[mmosu]

Right, but that's the beauty of GearCalc - it lets you swap out parts and will recalculate the stats of the gun each time just like the game itself does based on the changes, so you can switch something and instantly see the effects of it before saving it and it will also give you the individual attributes of the part you are changing so you can easily see what it does.  It will also tell you if what you built is legit (could be randomly generated by the game), illegit, or if it would be deleted by the software patch (when this is true GearCalc won't be able to "assemble" the gun and generate statistics for it, rather it will give you a list of what rules it violates).  Overall it's a very clever program and it's what makes Willowtree so easy to use because you can cut/paste the code straight out of it.

[Art Blade]

So you design a weapon to your likings, what happens then? That thing has to end up in the savegame you exported to the PC, so I assume willowtree will have to either add it or alter an existing one to be found in the savegame (I think adding is more difficult so I'd alter an existing one if I had to program that). And I assume that way you'd find it in your inventory once the modded savegame is imported into the console. Something like that?

[mmosu]

Actually you can do it either way - if you have a gun similar to what you want but just need to do a few "tweaks" then you can alter what is already in your inventory, or you can build something new from scratch and "upload" it to your backpack.  Willowtree inserts the code into your inventory, so that when you load the save back to your console the new gun appears in your inventory just like it had always been there.  It's almost too easy  ;D 

[Art Blade]

Thank you for this nice interview, Mr mmosu  ;D

[mmosu]

You are quite welcome.  For anyone interested I'm going to be adding an Armory Log to my journal.  I will hopefully be posting details of some of my modding experiments there - stay tuned  8)

[Art Blade]

very good!  :-X

[mmosu]

Just for some perspective, here's a good example of what types of things were possible before patch 1.30

Borderlands - Def G Mammoth Terror Gun

yep, those were the days. . .

[Art Blade]

I went like this, watching: ??? ...  :o ... ^+-+ whoa... WOW!  :-X

[mmosu]

Yeah, you can see why a lot of purists got a really bad taste in their mouths early on when it came to modding this game - you could make things that erased any and all element of challenge.  Notice also when he throws the gun on the ground at the beginning that there are parts missing - namely there is no grip, magazine, or stock (the gun just kinda floats in the characters hands).  You used to be able to put parts in any slot you wanted, so a part that doesn't add any stats to the gun (ie, the grip) could be replaced with something that made the gun better, so it was like you had several "free" slots to play with.  The part you added in this case wouldn't even be seen on the final product, but the code was still there and so the computer added the effects in. 
I personally find this "pre-patch" Borderlands a very interesting thing, and I think it would be really cool if Gearbox included a weapons editor like Gearcalc in a future edition of the game.  I mean why not?  The game can already produce some cool stuff randomly on its own, but as you can see human creativity quickly surpassed this.  I feel this is what a lot of people already want to do with this game, so the devs giving it their blessing would be cool.  They could put limits on it, and they could make it so you have to make your creations from parts of guns you've found or taken from enemies and deconstructed.  That would prevent everyone from walking around with stuff like the video above and still satisfy the need to tinker for many people.

[Art Blade]

Using parts from weapons found or stolen was implemented in FO3 when it came to repairing degraded weapons, those parts used became part of the repaired weapon and therefore disappeared. And yes.. I've always liked to tweak, tune, upgrade and pimp up stuff in games. Better have it incorporated than allow wild modding with results depicted in that vid. Having watched that vid I don't mind the patches any more which put a limit to those modding attempts, you still can create awesome weapons but not that impressive any more. Hehe, the damage of that gun in the vid was something like 560 or so, compared with your super hellfire guns that's insane  ;D

[mmosu]

Yeah it's pretty good.  I believe that 560 is just from the initial explosion from the projectile - it doesn't account for the smaller "cluster bombs" that are dispersed from each of those primary projectiles.  The star in this particular example is the "rainmaker" attachment, which is actually a piece of a gun that was removed from the game before it released - that's what makes the grenades explode into tons of little "mini-grenades".  The neat thing is they removed these grenade launchers from the game but left the parts buried deep inside the game files - and guess what happened when those were found  :-()

P.S. - if you think 560 is insane wait for what's coming up on the armory log

[Art Blade]

 ??? Ok I'm waiting.  >:D

[Art Blade]

I just checked the new pics.. ??? OMFG!  :-X ^+-+

[Art Blade]

mmosu, how about you make this topic a default reply topic for your locker and modder articles (link them to this topic here)? Or have I missed a discussion topic?

I like those commented screenies of your locker article and of course those experiments.. although I'm not yet into the game, I still read those new entries of yours. I reckon I'll be using some of them (modded weaps) for my amusement  ;D

Also, is there a way to upload those modded weaps so people could download them? If I get it right, you do import/export data for your own savegame files, so I think it might be possible to import your mods into one's own savegames. Possible? If so, and if you want, I can add a category in the downloads for you (BL) :)

[mmosu]

I do have journal discussion topics linked for both the Armory Log and the Locker, if that's what you mean Art. If there is a better way that you have thought of to organize all of this absolutely let me know - I'm open to suggestions as always, and the more I add the more cumbersome it gets, so anything to help people navigate to the info they want more easily is a good thing imo!  :-X

As far as uploading modded weapons themselves, I can and do post Willowtree code for everything in the Armory Log, which is more of a "how to" section - anyone playing the game can download Willowtree for free (click here to get it) and use these codes to reproduce my weapons in their game no matter what platform they are on.  I don't typically post Willowtree code in the Locker because that's more of a "show and tell" section, but if anyone ever wanted the code for anything there I would be more than glad to post it - all they would need to do is PM me or simply ask on the assigned journal discussion page.  I don't think a dedicated download section would serve much purpose in that regard, because if the code is posted you can just cut and paste it straight into Willowtree or even into a Word or Notepad file for safe keeping.  Again, if you have thought of a better way Art let me know - I don't really see an end in sight for this stuff in the near future, so it's gonna get more complicated keeping it all organized.

[Art Blade]

I'll check what we've got so far and get back to you.