In Game Clues
For Bears Pit Campaign One,
the production of game clues was made possible using Lurkan's Weapon Description
Editor combined with a modified Itmdsc25. file supplied by Lurkan. W4st
discovered the actual location of these files within UB itself.
Basically if you create a
subfolder called binarydata inside your UB/Data folder then place the Itmdsc25.
file inside that & follow the instructions provided from Lurkan's
readme you could then alter item description text at will using his editor. Your
UB will then read & display files with an altered text content.
To have someone else read
the same text you must provide them your version of the Itmdsc25. file as we do
in the Campaign One zip.
Lurkan's readme page is
located at http://www.lurkan.de/ja2/ub-items.htm
You need Lurkan's UBWBE or Toxics UBAIO utilities plus the Itmdsc25. file (280K) These can be found at Lords of The Bytes site located at http://www.webcodesign.de/LotB.
The guys have a dedicated
forum there to discuss editor & technical issues.
There are however several
considerations limiting the possibilities.
1. Many items are commonly
found in the regular UB game sectors or sold by Betty at Fungs Store so they
could be discovered by players at inappropriate moments.
2. Some items have an
action associated with them. Eg picking up Morri's Launch Instructions triggers
a dialogue. Other items have a usefull purpose eg X Ray Detector parts.
3. The amount of text per
clue is limited to a few lines and cannot exceed the boundaries of the dialogue
box.
4. The total choice is
limited by STI format pictures eg marbles, can, deed, bloodcat & creature
parts etc on the inventory files that make those item appear nothing like game
clues.
At present Shanga is
working on a method of transferring the letter image onto a range of unused
items though the total number of possibilities are again only about 20. Eg
bloodcat & creature parts, robot controller, deed, can & string sort of
items.
This will entail the
necessity to provide still another set of files though they will be very small
probably 20K in total. He has succeeded in most respects but successfully
replacing STI images is an extremely complex & delicate process.
This in combination with
changing text will allow players to find items in game that look like letters
& have text messages on them but apart from that have no adverse impact on
the game itself. Altering the severed heads, armour & clothing items is also
possible this way.
So for the next campaign hopefully there will be additional clues possible...