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To make weapons for Dungeon Siege

I have a silly question.
In Lazarus, all weapons stats are fixed.
Accept for an occasional intentionally magic item,
most weapons in Laz are static basic versions.
Which means it is very easy to make new versions of them.
Stats in Lazarus only go up to 30 (if you're lucky).
But in Dungeon Siege, weapon can have random attributes.
And they drop due to conditions... of some kind.

My silly question is, how do I make a weapon for Dungeon Siege?
I have the model ready.
But if weapon stats are not fixed in DS,
then how does that work?

Is there a 'known' or 'standard' weapon people usually barrow gas code from and simply change the model and texture it uses?
That would be fine by me.
I remade the DS box art flaming sword model.
I didn't have a good reference pic, but have since obtained an improved one.
Now it looks great and works both in Lazarus and DS.
Since it is a box art sword,
I'm thinking it should be a bit better then minor swords,
but does not have to be a devastating or ultimate weapon.

I hope I asked this question correctly.
What I need is some info on the .gas code.
What melee damage should it produce?
Does DS have a fancy way of randomizing these things?
I know next to nothing about DS.

I normally make progressive weapons for my DS1 and LoA characters. that grow in their abilities based on the character's level, in melee, ranged, combat and nature magic. That way once you find it or buy it you never have to replace it, unless something better comes your way. Like your sword image by the way.
Elf

https://siegetheday.org/?q=node/3
I learned how to work with weapon and armour templates by reading through the Creating a simple item tutorials in the link that I've provided, it might help you get to grips with the template structure.

Ah just what I need thank you everyone for the help.
Kat gave me a link once for getting started with DS modding but I couldn't find where she sent it.
I am very grateful.
A weapon that progresses? That is very interesting.
I really have to start playing DS and see how it works.

Holy Geez.
Example code say to give a weapon 300 damage.
DO weapons really need that much power in Dungeon Siege?

ChickenGeorge wrote:

Ah just what I need thank you everyone for the help.

Kat gave me a link once for getting started with DS modding but I couldn't find where she sent it.

I am very grateful.

A weapon that progresses? That is very interesting.

I really have to start playing DS and see how it works.

Holy Geez.
Example code say to give a weapon 300 damage.
DO weapons really need that much power in Dungeon Siege?

Here is a simple progressive sword that can give a damage of 300 Smile
// Created by Lurker
// Modified by Bare Elf
[t:template,n:sd_cm_sara_elvlong]
{
  doc = "Elven Long Sword";
  specializes = base_sword;
  [aspect]
  {
    model = m_w_swd_015;
  }
  [attack]
  {
    f damage_max = 300.000000;//adjust this to your liking
    f damage_min = 150.000000;//adjust this to your liking
    reload_delay = 0.2; //the smaller the number the faster the sword. 
    //is_two_handed = true;  turns the two handed sword in to a one handed sword.
  }
  [common]
  {
    screen_name = "Sara's Tickle Stick";
    description = "Progressive weapon; re-equip on level up to update bonuses.
\nAdds  to  to Damages.
\nAdds  to  Piercing Damages.
\n% Chance to Block Melee Attacks.\n";
  }
  [gui]
  {
    active_icon = b_gui_ig_i_ic_swd_001;
    equip_requirements = strength:28;
    inventory_height = 2;
    inventory_icon = b_gui_ig_i_w_swd_108;
    inventory_width = 1;
  }
  [magic]
  {
    [enchantments]
    {
      [*]
      {
        alteration      = alter_melee_damage_min;
        duration      = #infinite;
        is_permanent    = true;
        is_single_instance  = false;
        value        = ((#melee+#nature_magic+#combat_magic+1)*2.5);
        effect_script_hit  = evlong_sfx_hit;
      }
      [*]
      {
        alteration      = alter_melee_damage_max;
        value        = ((#melee+#nature_magic+#combat_magic+1)*2.5);
        duration      = #infinite;
        is_permanent    = true;
        is_single_instance  = false;
      }
    }
  }
  [effect_manager]

Feel free to use this template, modify the values change what alters min and max damage.
Just remember to give Lurker credit for the original sword and Bare Elf credit for the modified template.

Elf

ChickenGeorge wrote:
Holy Geez
Example code say to give a weapon 300 damage.
DO weapons really need that much power in Dungeon Siege?

*edit* ChickenGeorge, I know that player character stats, leveling and enemy health/damage are completely different in the Project Brittania siegelets. I can't run that on my computer for some weird reason (and regular DS/LoA is being very weird lately as well) so could you explain a little bit how that would work? I agree w/ bare elf that a progressive damage weapon might be a good way to go if you are thinking about playing the original DS campaign.

Yup, the weapons often do need to do that much damage as the monsters/bad guys total health pool(s) as well as their damage output keeps getting stronger as you play through the game.

This is a portion of the template for a low level krug that is encountered in the beginning of Kingdom of Ehb. You don't need much of a weapon to defeat these guys.

[t:template,n:krug_grouse]
{
	  category_name = "1W_evil_a";
	  doc = "krug grouse";
	  specializes = base_krug;
	[actor]
	{
		[skills]
		{
			  dexterity = 4, 0;
			  intelligence = 3, 0;
			  strength = 5, 0;
		}
	}
	[aspect]
	{
		  experience_value = 6;
		  life = 12;
		  mana = 6;
		  max_life = 12;
		  max_mana = 6;
		  scale_base = 0.9;
		  selection_indicator_scale = 0.85;
		[textures]
		{
			  0 = b_c_eam_ksc;
		}
	}
	[attack]
	{
		  damage_max = 3;
		  damage_min = 2;
	}

The next template is for a wraith, which is one of the monsters that are encountered near the end of the Kingdom of Ehb campaign.

[t:template,n:base_battle_wraith]
{
	category_name = "1W_evil_c";
	doc = "wraith";
	specializes = base_wraith;
	[actor]
	{
		[skills]
		{
			strength = 		18, 0;
			intelligence = 	9, 0;
			dexterity = 	9, 0;
   			melee =  		35,  0;
		}
	}
	[aspect]
	{
		experience_value = 16000;
		life = 960;
		max_life = 960;
		mana = 18;
		max_mana = 18;
		model = m_c_ecm_wr_pos_1;
		[textures] { 0=b_c_ecm_wr; }
	}
	[attack]
	{
		attack_range = 0.5;
		damage_max = 170;
		damage_min = 150;

Those templates are from the "regular" (1W) folder. The game can also be played on veteran (2W) as well as elite (3W). Veteran and elite are typically multiplayer mode and can only be accessed if the player character is a high enough level.

With tank viewer you can browse through various folders in Logic.dsres and view the different monster stats on each level of difficulty. The higher end weaponry and equipment is intended for the end of regular mode as well as veteran and elite.

Well I borrowed from Bare's Code and from a tutorial that says items will add to the drops and shops.
I started a play through and got to level 8 or 9 on one skill.
Only seen one shop so far and all it sold was junk.
And monsters are only dropping junk too.
I am past the little dwarf guy who joins.
And got to some giant rock monsters who are spewing boulders or something.
But you know what?
I can't do it.
It's just too repetitive for so little reward.
I have to hand it to you people who can play this game.
Next time I will try and make it available to LOA and forget completely about Dungeon Siege.
LOA is at least playable to me anyways.

For Project Britannia...
Lazarus basically mirrors the original Ultima V system of leveling.
Because games were in 8-bit,
that 8-bit was hard coded into everything the game offered.
There were 8 circles of magic, 8 levels to attain, 8 phases of the moon, 8 dungeons, 8 castles, 8 towns 8 shrines... and so on.
In Lazarus each character, you or NPC, has to ascend to level 8 to unlock all spells.
If you are level 5 then you can only use the first 5 circles of magic.
Spell books have 8 circles.
Each level opens up another circle of magic.
All weapons have fixed stats.
And there are fewer of them.
There are some tough monsters.
Most are puny health points.

Lazarus isn't like other siegelets where you can run it from DS.
Because it has a custom UI it must be run from it's own shortcut or it won't work.

Now Ultima VI False Prophet is another animal entirely.
They improved upon some of Lazarus.
They went on to do even greater things to the interface.
Like Subclass systems.
Personally I don't see how anyone would enjoy their character being limited to only one kind of weapon and armor.
That was a mistake in my view.
Besides that and some other issues I couldn't tell you much about False Prophet.
At a certain point I just can't get it to work for me.
Maybe I need a larger ram or something.

So The sword I made is a new model.
It's a new version of the box arm flaming sword.
I thought it would be nice to make this a mod that works in both games.
But wow DS really isn't my cup of tea.

Well, DS1 does have its 8-characters-in-party limit. The original multi-player map (Utraean Peninsular) has 8 towns.

"A new version of the box art flaming sword." Ah, but which sword is that? When painting the heroine's portrait, after her triumph, the Ehb court painter took some artistic licence. From its hilt design, the weapon she is shown with looks like a Jewel Sword. None of the swords in the game has to have a flaming enchantment (one that adds fire damage); though many can have, the Jewel Sword type is not one of them - it takes the so-called "Unique" enchantments, the yellow ones, which can boost many things but none add fire damage. Not that I can find in pcontent.gas

I haven't checked to see if the tutorial mentions this, but all the original game's swords are defined in world\contentdb\templates\regular\interactive\wpn_sword.gas from logic.dsres

[t:template,n:sd_un_g_c_sd_1h_mag]
{
	doc = "Jewel Sword";
	specializes = base_sword;
	[aspect]
	{
		model = m_w_swd_038;
	}
	[attack]
	{
	  f damage_max = 113.000000;
	  f damage_min = 83.000000;
	}
	[common]
	{
		pcontent_special_type = unique;
		screen_name = "Jewel Sword";
	}
	[gui]
	{
		active_icon = b_gui_ig_i_ic_swd_005;
		equip_requirements = strength:31;
		inventory_height = 3;
		inventory_icon = b_gui_ig_i_w_swd_069;
		inventory_width = 1;
	}
	[pcontent]
	{
		[base]
		{
		  f modifier_max = 23.000000;
		  f modifier_min = 7.000000;
		}
	}
}

Like all original equipment, as opposed to what modders have invented, this has fixed stats. It takes a character with Strength >= 31 to use it, and its damage range is 83-113. Bare_elf's progressive tickle-stick is way overpowered by comparison.

Remember that a character's own strength of arm adds to the sword's inherent damage; against this, monsters' armour rating can drastically reduce actual damage to way less than the character is theoretically capable of. The battle wraith that kathycf quoted has defense=395.

There is another sword type with a jewelled hilt, of almost the same shape but with a coarser blade, and this type can carry a flame enchantment: the [o_avg] variety of the "Blade", Strength 17, damage 25-47. Which a ranger could well be using as her side-arm until quite late into the game. Its pcontent modifier_max of 12 allows it to be "of Searing" for 8-15 extra damage.

(According to some personal research quite a while back. Other people before me must have asked the same question, so have I got it right?)

More numbers to finish with: the way experience divides up, I reckon a pure fighter would reach Strength 31 (21 up from the farmer's starting 10) just short of level 34 (melee skill 33) whereas a pure ranger would achieve Strength 17 by level 30. A ranger who occasionally uses her side-arm for some actual melee fighting will gain strength sooner. To put this in perspective, the farmer should typically pass level 50 before the end of the game. Not in LoA though, which experience-wise is much shorter.

I do understand where you are coming from CG. Especially if you are used to playing the Project Brittania modifications, then to play the original campaign must feel like a let down. I just wanted to make a few quick suggestions that are simply based on my own experiences and thus others might not agree. Anyway:

Play the original Kingdom of Ehb campaing using the DSLOA.exe, not the dungeonsiege.exe. It is the same story regardless, but I feel that by using the loa.exe you have access to better array of equipment.

You could also try Dungeon Siege Revived for LoA (or the original DS revived) Overall I like using this mod as it makes some small, but nice quality of life improvements. Archers bow skill/damage actually improves with their dexterity which is a nice change from the "vanilla". There is more experience from using some spells, healing spells come to mind but there are a couple of other types. Additional armor and equipment, including hair ribbons and "wigs" for female characters which is a little feature I like. Smile

Dungeon Siege Adepts is also a nice choice, if you don't mind the anime style character art. Different items and re-working of some spells, plus other things I can't remember. It can be played with maps that utilize the LoA.exe.

To move away from the Kingdom of Ehb, you can try playing Legends of Utrae, which is a modification of the multiplayer Utraen Peninsula story. You will also need to run this using the LoA.exe. The story is more complete than the original campaigns. Another nice feature of this is that you can move and explore with much more freedom. There are several ways to reach varioua destinations, so exploring is more fun that it would be with the linear experience in Ehb.

Pick up some party members and decide on their jobs; you can come up with some interesting combinations of skills. This comes with a small caveat; cross training e.g.melee+nature mage isn't *always* optimal. You can actually shortchange the character if you try to learn all the skills you can. This has always been an annoyance to me, since the stats the character gains can be weaker than if one played a "pure" character. Still and all, I always pair up various skills.

To illustrate what I mean about stat gains, take a look at the Logic/world/formula - for the formulas used to calculate how character skills are distributed as well as basic stuff about health and mana ratios and stuff like that.

I have a few more things but I'm falling asleep here.

kathycf wrote:

Pick up some party members and decide on their jobs; you can come up with some interesting combinations of skills.


Continuing on from my previous post: The Jewel Sword, if you are lucky enough to find one at the right time, is just the right level of final-chapter weapon for a character with equal Strength and Dexterity, which you can achieve by having her (or him) use both bow and sword, in roughly equal measure throughout. This, which I think of as a "samurai", is a dual-class combination that I find easy, natural and very useful.

I figured it out.
Made the noob mistake of having the 'Hard' setting on.
Leveling up at that setting is crazy.
Spamming the H key.
I play Laz on hard and forgot to switch it back.

Dungeon Siege is fun on 'Normal' setting.
What’s the deal with the fairies?
They run (fly) away.
But sometimes gives a gift of health or mana.

Thank you RSimpkinuk57 for the info.
Cleared up a lot for me.

I believe Dungeon Siege took some notes from Ultima.
And the reason Tiberius chose DS engine for Lazarus.

The sword for LOA on the box is different from the DS one.
I used some game art as a reference for this sword.


My first version of the sword made some assumptions that were wrong.

The main benefit of using this weapon,
it acts as a good light source in dungeons.

And my sword appeared after the crypts.
This is the code I used to make it show up in the game:

	[pcontent]
	{
		[base]
		{
		  f modifier_max = 33.000000;
		  f modifier_min = 9.000000;
		}
	}

Thank you Bareelf for your leveling code.
The sword works great.
I will gladly credit you for the code and wonderful help.
It does as you said,
advancing in power as the character levels up.
The only issue it has,
and I have seen a similar thing happen in Lazarus with a mod too,
is the stat of the sword doesn't update unless I unequip it and then re-equip it.
If the stat is indeed increasing still,
even if it doesn't say it,
I don't know for sure.
But to get the new stat of the weapon,
I had to re-equip it.
But so what? That's not a big deal.

Now that the sword works I have a question.
The .dsres is the same for Lazarus as for Dungeon Siege.
But should I make a separate .dsres for Dungeon Siege instead?
Only because if I submit the weapon as a Lazarus mod,
people might not know that it is also a Dungeon Siege mod.
This is a forum question.
When submitting a mod it ask for what game is it made for.
But right now this dsres file works in Lazarus and Dungeon Siege.
Haven't tested if it will show up in LOA.
If keeping the pcontent setting which made it show up DS.

About Kat's question.
I don't know too much about Lazarus.
But pcontent does not work at all.
All of the weapon drops are coded in each monsters .gas.

The weapons of Laz are unchangeable versions.
3 ranged weapons and perhaps 25 melee.
They don't drop anywhere,
unless a monsters has it listed in a random drop.
Example of a Bandit in Laz:

		[delayed_pcontent]
	    {
        	[all*]
         	{
            	[oneof*]
            	{
               		il_main = food_meat_bone;
               		il_main = pb_short_sword_broken;
            	}
				[gold*]
				{
					chance = 0.7;
					min = 5;
					max = 40;
				}
         	}

The above means randomly a meat bone or a broken sword
will be the treasure after the monster dies.
Yes the loot of most of Lazarus monsters suck.
But GrailQuest made a fix for this.
An example of a boss version of bandit:
		[pcontent]
		{
			[all*]
			{
				// WEAK WEAPON
				[oneof*]	// choose between 1H or 2H
				{
					[all*]		// 1H
					{
						[oneof*]	// weapon
						{
							il_main = pb_main_gauche_broken;
							il_main = pb_short_sword_broken;
							il_main = pb_long_sword_broken;
							il_main = pb_club_broken;
							il_main = pb_mace_broken;
						}
						[oneof*]	// 75% chance of having a shield as well
						{
							chance = 0.75;

							es_shield_hand = pb_woodbuckler_broken;
							es_shield_hand = pb_blackshield_broken;
							es_shield_hand = pb_spikedshield_broken;
						//	es_shield_hand = pb_kiteshield_broken;
						//	es_shield_hand = pb_heatershield_broken;
						//	es_shield_hand = pb_towershield_broken;
						}
					}
					[oneof*]	// 2H
					{
						[oneof*]	// 2H weapon
						{
							il_main = pb_2h_sword_broken;
							il_main = pb_staff_broken;
							il_main = pb_halberd_broken;
							il_main = pb_spear_broken;
							il_main = pb_2h_hammer_broken;
							il_main = pb_2h_axe_broken;
						}
						[all*]		// ranged weapon plus light 1H weapon
						{
							[oneof*]
							{
								il_main = pb_bow_broken;	// leave in inventory, hope the AI will switch automatically
								il_main = pb_crossbow_broken;
							}
							[oneof*]
							{
								il_main = pb_dagger_broken;
								il_main = pb_main_gauche_broken;
								il_main = pb_short_sword_broken;
								il_main = pb_club_broken;
							}
						}
					}
				}
				[all*]	// PATHETIC BODY ARMOR
				{
					[oneof*]
					{
						chance = 0.20;

						es_head = pb_leather_helm_broken;
						es_head = pb_chain_coif_broken;
					}
					[oneof*]
					{
						chance = 0.20;

						es_chest = pb_leather_armor_broken;
						es_chest = pb_ring_mail_broken;
					}
					[oneof*]
					{
						chance = 0.05;

						es_forearms = pb_leathergloves_broken;
					}
					[oneof*]
					{
						chance = 0.05;

						es_feet = pb_leatherboots_broken;
					}
				}
			}
			[all*]
			{
				[gold*]		// the gold they are carrying
				{
					min = 1; max = 10; piles = 1;	// min is level^2, max is 10 x level^2, piles is up to 1 per level
				}

				[oneof*]		// miscellaneous item, up to 1 per 2 levels
				{
					min = 0; max = 1;

					[oneof*]	// food
					{
						il_main = food_bread;
						il_main = food_cheese;
						il_main = food_cheese_small;
						il_main = food_meat_bone;

						il_main = food_ale;
						il_main = food_wine;
					}

					[oneof*]	// junk
					{
						il_main = pb_bauble;
						il_main = pb_bedroll;
						il_main = food_rations;
						il_main = pb_potion_bottle;
						il_main = pb_lockpick;
						il_main = torch_small_equippable;
						il_main = pb_pocketwatch;		// probably stolen
					}
				}
			}
		}

His code allows randomizing the equipment of a bandit.
And offers much more loot.
I strongly recommend this mod for playing Lazarus.

Nobody then could make a weapon for Lazarus and wait for it to drop.
Instead it has to be found in a container or sold in a shop.
Requiring overriding some files.
But this makes perfect sense for Lazarus.
Dungeon Siege items wouldn't make a lot of sense in Ultima V.
However could it not be possible to replace the pcontent list
of a given siegelet?
If so then the loot would function much more like the original Ultima V.

kathycf wrote:

Play the original Kingdom of Ehb campaing using the DSLOA.exe, not the dungeonsiege.exe.

You could also try Dungeon Siege Revived for LoA (or the original DS revived) ...including hair ribbons and "wigs" for female characters which is a little feature I like. Smile

Dungeon Siege Adepts is also a nice choice, if you don't mind the anime style character art. Different items and re-working of some spells, plus other things I can't remember. It can be played with maps that utilize the LoA.exe.

To move away from the Kingdom of Ehb, you can try playing Legends of Utrae, which is a modification of the multiplayer Utraen Peninsula story. You will also need to run this using the LoA.exe. The story is more complete than the original campaigns. Another nice feature of this is that you can move and explore with much more freedom. There are several ways to reach varioua destinations, so exploring is more fun that it would be with the linear experience in Ehb.

cross training e.g.melee+nature mage isn't *always* optimal. ..You can actually shortchange the character...

Nice ideas. I should have played KOE with the loa. And the DS2 version. Haven't yet try the cat mansion. Yes it really does suck that mages can't learn another skill. So I used the rings of experience mod to offset that. Which worked fine but the temptation to use the x100000000 just for curiosity sake was too great. But I didn't care because I was technically just testing the new sword. And it is much longer then LOA. Very stunning game visually. I think.

To answer some of your questions.
1. Yes progressive weapons must be re-equipped to get the higher values. The value keeps increasing even though you do not re-equip but you must re-equip to get the added benefits.
2. The sword should work both in DS1 and LoA if you put it in the DS1 resources folder. Should also work just fine when playing Cat Mansion Adepts as that is just turning standard characters into Anime characters (must use LoA to do this)
3. Since all of the code works with all of the games, I would upload it separately to each download section, so that people who play only one of the games can find it easily. Just include in the description and the read-me if you write one. That it works with DS1 DS2 and Lazarus
4. To get the weapon working in DS2 or Broken World you would need to do a little additional work as the way images are saved is different and the scaling of the items may be different. I have to resize all of my DS LoA weapons to work in DS2 and Broken World.
Elf

ChickenGeorge wrote:
The sword for LOA on the box is different from the DS one.
I used some game art as a reference for this sword.

That game art you showed is what went on the original box, and when I discussed the Jewel Sword, that was the picture I had in mind. Even though the box I have is the LoA one. Same woman, wearing same armor, but now I look closely at the edge of the picture, not the same sword. Different color jewel, different shaped crosspiece on the hilt - what little I can make out through the blinding light - and see-through blade! Ugh? Looking at the tip, and lining it up with the jewel and her hand, that must really be the blade itself, not a surrounding flame effect. What in-game weapon, if any, is it meant to be?

I have another picture of the same heroine (as in the original art) in an action pose. Presumably released by GPG even if reproduced on a fan site. Showing her down to mid-thigh, sweeping her sword - clearly an example of the Jewel Sword, and not flaming at all - sideways at waist level with both hands. It matches well with a line drawing in the user manual.

ChickenGeorge wrote:
Leveling up at that setting is crazy.
Spamming the H key.

Spamming the H key is silly. Let me re-phrase that. It is silly to stop and stand still in the middle of a fight, for the time it takes to swig from a potion bottle. Gifts enemies free hits. If needing to drink a potion, disengage first, even if only by a few steps.

(As with many rules of thumb, there may be exceptions that prove the rule, as the saying goes.)

Doesn't the H key choose the smallest/emptiest bottle to drink from? Even if that means less potion than needed?

Some tips for Kingdom of Ebh.

Expect to start Chapter 3 with two quests, one of them being to go to a place called Fortress Kroth. Do not worry when no such place shows up. It is a long way ahead at the end of Chapter 5.

The chapters are unequal, with Chapter 4 by far the longest. The goblin stronghold is the hardest part of the game (relative to party capability at that stage, if not grossly over-levelled by experience rings). Still some challenging boss fights after that, of course, but do not despair.

bare_elf wrote:

1. Yes progressive weapons must be re-equipped to get the higher values. The value keeps increasing even though you do not re-equip but you must re-equip to get the added benefits.

There are ways around this. The progressive weapons in Light/Dark Elf by Witness have a skrit block that does some weird “toggle enchantment” voodoo to make the weapons automatically “level up” when you do. IIRC, it seemed to work within the confines of Light/Dark Elf, but when I tried to port it into my own mod it failed. I’m not a coder and was never able to understand what her skrit was doing in the first place, so I was unable to troubleshoot it.

Instead, I did a total overhaul, starting with Witness’s equip_enchantment.skrit as the base. As with her original skrit, it tracks the character’s ability scores and looks for a change. Since the “toggle” wasn’t working for me, I changed it so that the skrit instead first makes sure your character is not in combat, and then does an unequip/equip combo.

As clunky-sounding and unelegant as this solution is, I’ve played through a few games with it and it has worked seamlessly.

LoA has those progressive pcontents that do the same thing as buff spells, e.g. "of Magic Armor" and "of Ogre's Might". How, and how well, do they progress as characters up-level?

I don't know why you had to do that Klandank could it be an OS problem?, I'm using win7 and it worked flawlessly for me on the first go.
There was very little that I had to do, just copied the equip_enchantment.gas with the appropriate folders to my Melisandre mod and I was almost halfway there. Next thing to do was copy one of the daggers, either the "Hunting Knife" or the "Jackal Knife" with the mesh file and the raw images and you're almost done.
I put the knife in my heroes.gas started a new game and went on a killing spree all the way to the crypts, I had no need to unequip the knife or anything as the equip_enchantment.gas file did it all in the background.

Hello Siegers,

I found a better flame effect for the sword...

And added another light source effect so it acts as a torch.
Some minor tweaks and some rewriting the template here and there.

Which brought me to my first problem.
I have to replay Dungeon Siege to make sure it shows up.
Because it is a light source it would be nice to have it
before the crypts. Definitely before the spider dungeon.
And I replayed it from the beginning 3 times.
And it no longer showed up.
If it still will, it is too random for me.
I want the player to have access to it right away.

I came upon the solution by having a monster boss
provide it. Very early. In the little side dungeon
just before the crypts. I made a giant knight skeleton.
A player would have to defeat it to get the sword.

Because it is still early in the game, I made sure
to make the stats of the monster suck.
And also made a dummy sword, a replica of the flaming sword,
but also sucks. That gave me another problem.

How do I make sure the dummy sword does not drop?
I've seen many monsters not drop the weapon that
is equipped. How is that possible?

I looked into the editor to see if there is a
setting and found this one:

spew_equipped_kill_count = < ignore >;

That does something strange to the dummy sword.
It is now invisible and stands up on the hilt.
Maybe a good solution accept that it still has a name,
and still has the effect working, the flames are
shooting upwards along an invisible blade.

Does anyone know what spew_equipped_kill_count means?
Is that the solution?

I looked into the editor and the definition of the term
is cut off.

Not sure if my screen resolution is doing that or what.
But the slider bar is all the way to the right.
And still I can not read the rest of the definition.

Figuring that it may be a DS hack to get rid of equipment that is equipped
the problems it still has are...
It has a name.
And it has an effect on.
Meaning it can still be picked up.

I have to make a dummy version of the sword because the
real one would kill the player with one blow,
that early in game play.

Having this sword early really is an advantage
because of all the dungeons in the beginning.

My questions would be:
What does spew_equipped_kill_count = < ignore >; mean?
How can I prevent the equipped dummy sword from being treasure?
Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Its so you don't drop all your equipment if you get killed, it will still drop everything that's in your inventory though, by the way the monsters who have this code in their templates shouldn't drop anything as well.
spew_equipped_kill_count = ;
[equipment]
{
es_weapon_hand = dg_g_d_1h_fun;
es_forearms = gl_gl_le_f_g_c_avg;
es_chest = bd_sl_f_g_c_fun;
es_feet = bo_bo_le_f_g_c_avg;
es_spellbook = book_glb_magic_01;

Look at this templates gui, that code could be how to stop the dummy sword from dropping, but it could also stop any other weapon from dropping too.

[t:template,n:rock_krug]
{
doc = "rock_krug";
specializes = base_bow;
[aspect]
{
is_selectable = false;
model = m_w_misc_017;
[voice]
{
[attack]
{
* = s_e_swing_01;
* = s_e_swing_03;
}
}
}
[attack]
{
ammo_appears_jit = true;
ammo_template = rock_krug_ammo;
damage_max = 12;
damage_min = 11;
}
[common]
{
is_pcontent_allowed = false;
screen_name = "Rock";
}
[gui]
{
is_droppable = false;
}

If you wait awhile the members who know for certain will give you the answer to the dummy sword question.

Why not give the flaming sword to your character in his or her hero template. I do that quite often when testing a new bit of armor or a weapon.

Elf

[spew_equipped_kill_count] 
{
    type = string; 
    default = 1,5;
    doc = "Comma-delimited list of kill counts for this template that will result in an equipped item spew (rather than simple inventory spew)";
}

I got it working. I went with Moros's drop = no code. Thank you Moros.

bare_elf wrote:

Why not give the flaming sword to your character in his or her hero template. I do that quite often when testing a new bit of armor or a weapon.

Elf

Every time I add items to the hero's inventory they don't show up. And somebody else told me this as well.
But I tested that in LOA and have another problem, surprise :(.
My LOA crashes every time I start a new game.
Either with mods or without mods.
With the CD in tray Or using the NoCD patch.
It just crashes at exactly the same time, right where the video is to play after the Microsoft logo.
I can't figure that one out, which means I can't test mods for it Sad