Dragon Age Revised

Tutorial: Customizing the PocketPlane - Part 2

2010-01-31T13:08:00.001+01:00

This information applies to Innodil's Pocket Plane version 2.0 or higher only!

In this tutorial you'll learn how to completely customize where all containers and NPCs are located. Those pesky number to specify the locations... they're not that hard to get, especially after this, hopefully useful, tutorial. There is a way to do this without the toolset installed, but it is very cumbersome to say the least... For this article, I'm going to stick to the toolset version.

IMPORTANT NOTE: You should do customizations before using the pocketplane to store items. As soon as containers contain items and you remove or place them somewhere else, all your items will be lost when you reload the area layout. You can however still add new/additional NPCs and containers after you start using the pocket plane. If you want a custom layout, I advise you to create it before really starting to play!

Getting Started

This tutorial involves editing (M)2DA files. There are 2 ways to edit those files:

If you have the toolset installed and know how to use ExcelProcessor.exe: Download the 2DA Sources and edit them as usual. Note: in the remaining tutorial screenshots of GDApp are used. The tutorial also applies to using Excel to edit the 2DA sources of course.
If you don't have the toolset. Please download GDApp and extract it somewhere. Next, Download the GDA files and also extract them somewhere.

For those using the 2DA Sources, all the 2DA files are in 1 excel file for easy editing: inno_pp_custom_2da.xls

The screenshots shown in this tutorial are from the toolset, if you don't have it installed, go get it first: Download Dragon Age: Origins Toolset

An important note about the "mod's install dir"

You will have to copy files to the mod's core/override folder. In all tutorials, I will use my own paths on a Windows 7 machine. If you use another OS like Windows Vista or Windows XP, the first part of the folder might differ. It is always in your User Folder under My Documents or Documents on some operating systems. If you really don't know where this folder is, do a search on your C:\ drive for the folder called inno_pp. This folder is the mod's install folder and I will always refer to a folder inside this install path.

In all tutorials I will refer to this folder as [My Documents]\BioWare\Dragon Age\AddIns\inno_pp.

Getting the numbers...

The easiest way is basically to just design your area in the toolset, and punch in the numbers acquired that way in the inno_pp_layout M2DA file. You might ask, can't I just replace the area by exporting it to the override folder? Well, you can try :-) But since Dragon Age stores areas in your savegame, you won't see any updates. This is the main reason Innodil's Pocket Plane was build with all the 2DA files: to circumvent this "update issue".
Fire up the toolset, open a module of your choice, but:

make sure it is not the Single Player Campaign
make sure your module extends the core game resources

Next, create a new area by clicking File -> New -> Area in the menu, give it a name, it doesn't matter, something like test_area will do for example. In the object inspector on the bottom left of the toolset, set the Area Layout property to den308d. You should see something similar to the screenshot below.

So with the area ready, follow the next steps, the number correspond to the numbers in the next screenshot.

In the Palette Window select the placeables filter
Select the container your want to place. Note that if you are getting coordinates for a chest, you should actually select a chest. For an armorstand, pick that placeable. In this example, I'll go for a wooden crate.
Next place the placeable object in the area in a spot of your choosing
Using the move and rotate buttons, place your object exactly in the right spot and angle
Write down, or copy/paste the numbers of both orientation and position

Great, so we've got a bunch of numbers. Well actually, there are some notes about them I can make:

Both numbers are actually vectors. They consist of an X, Y and Z coordinate and are printed as X,Y,Z like you see them in the toolset
For the orientation only one of the coordinates (normally the X) will have a significant number, other small values can be ignored
In the position vector, the Z coordinates is usually 0. Don't let the 1.49012e-008 fool you since that's exactly the same as 0.0000000149012 which is basically just 0 for the sake of positioning...

Taking the above notes into account, we are left with these numbers:

orientation: 97.4612
position X: -14.6057
position Y: 0.172061
position Z: 0

You might want to place container on top of props, all the already available "furniture" in the area: don't waste your time, it won't work :) Most of those don't have what they call collision planes meaning "you can't stand or put stuff on them". The platform in the area is the only exception to that. Note that in the toolset you can actually place them on top of whatever you like, but the Z coordinates won't be accepted when spawning an item after loading the layout M2DA file, resetting it to ground level, or inside the prop you were trying to place it on.

Using the numbers

So now we have a bunch of numbers, we can go ahead and edit the inno_pp_layout M2DA. You can basically just adjust an existing row's numbers, or you can create a complete new layout from scratch. For the tutorial, we will create a layout from scratch. Just follow these rules when editing the M2DA file:

If you just want to change the location of an existing container/NPC in the Pocket Plane, you don't need to change the tag
If you want to completely start from scratch, change all the tags except the ones for the merchant NPCs
Changing tags means the previous object is destroyed, everything IN it will also be destroyed!
Basically, if you are editing the M2DA and your changes don't appear, you most likely forgot to update tags, and the loading script doesn't notice your changes...

So open up inno_pp_layout.gda with GDApp and delete all rows in there, except the INVALID one. Next add a new line, choose an object, a tag and punch in the numbers.

Finishing up

To test, save the GDA, copy it to [My Documents]\BioWare\Dragon Age\AddIns\inno_pp and fire up the game. Go the the Pocket Plane, talk to the keeper and ask to reload the layout. Leave the Pocket Plane and when you go back, the only thing there should be your new object from the GDA file. (Note that the keeper and a few other things are always there!).

New BETA version of Innodil's Pocket Plane released!

2010-01-20T21:15:00.000+01:00

I just updated the second BETA version of Innodil's Pocket Plane, you can quickly download it here. It includes an important fix a the first version of the custom visual effect.

Fixes:

Fixes issue: When switching party in the plane and returning, all followers not currently in the party are gone from the party selection. (sorry about this annoying one!)
First version of custom visual effect for teleport ability, many thank to kzelsama

For those of who have their savegame screwed up and don't have a backup, Here is a quick howto for fixing your savegame. You will need the toolset for it though.

Howto: Restore "lost party members" (2.0-beta1 bug)

2010-01-20T21:13:00.002+01:00

A bug in the first BETA version caused party members to be "lost". Although you should always have a backup save when you are testing beta software ;-), some people don't. So here a a quick howto on how to "restore" the party members that were lost due to the bug. You will need 2 things though for this to work:

A "good save": a savegame with the party members you lost in it, it can be a while back doesn't matter, it just needs to have the same original party as your "bugged savegame"
You need to have the toolset installed. Sorry, no way doing it without it AFAIK.

So if you have both things ready, read ahead.

First, open the "good save" in the toolset. When it opens, expand the Top Level struct, SAVEGAME_PARTYLIST, SAVEGAME_PARTYPOOLMEMBERS nodes. Right-click on the SAVEGAME_PARTYPOOLMEMBERS node, and choose Copy.

Now, this is important, or the toolset will crash: CLOSE THE SAVEGAME!. Not the toolset, only the save game.

Next, open up the "bad save game", expand the Top Level struct, SAVEGAME_PARTYLIST, SAVEGAME_PARTYPOOLMEMBERS nodes again, right-click and choose Delete this time.

Now, right-click on the SAVEGAME_PARTYLIST node and choose Paste. Now save your savegame.

now exit the toolset, fire up the game, load the corrected savegame and your party should be restored. If it isn't, you did something wrong, read this howto again :-)

Trying out custom Visual Effects

2010-01-18T23:32:00.000+01:00

Finally getting to the "finishing" touches of Innodil's Pocket Plane. I was hoping to polish up the actual teleport ability with some nifty visual effects but just couldn't get anything decent out of the VFX editor :) But thanks to kzelsama from Baldur's Gate II Redux, who freed up some of his time to create this pretty portal effect for me and allowed me to use it, I took a first shot at it.

And here's a little video to show it off ;-)

Note that the recording is not too smooth (I had the toolset and stuff running, not smart, I know) but anyway, it's just to give an idea of where this is going... Let me know if you like it! The plan is to also have a "closing portal" effect running when you arrive at your location in the Pocket Plane. But that's still in the make, I'll keep you posted on progress.

Innodil's Pocket Plane 2.0 BETA Released

2010-01-17T01:18:00.000+01:00

I am proud to announce a major new release of Innodil's Pocket Plane. Version 2.0 is a complete rewrite of the 1.x version. Next to being much more flexible, compatible and customizable, it also features new stuff like up to 3 custom merchants or magical chests (chests using the merchant interface, so you can sort your loot). Or if you like, all, or some of, those merchants can have random supplies that you can "refresh" any time by just talking to the keeper.

Feature list:

all sorts of different containers to store all the loot you can't keep in your inventory. It features armor stands, weapons stand, a crafting material rack, several chests, ...
A magical chest (up to 4) that you can use as storage: it uses the same interface as merchants so you can sort your loot by type.
The Keeper: a magical creature that has an UNLIMITED supply of ALL crafting materials (potions, poisons and traps) and sells some backpacks
The Tome of Secrets: a tome you can use to unlock ALL specializations, at no cost , can be disabled by INI setting
An enchanter for all your enchanting needs.
Change your party at will while in the plane. And yes, when you teleport back your party is still changed. This is also useful when you want to equip or use abilities of followers not currently in your party while in the plane.
3 additional merchants whose inventories can be controlled by 2DA files or you can just let them have random supplies
Almost everything in the plane is completely customizable by editing a few 2DA files!
Control buy/sell rates of all merchants

For downloads, changelog and bug reporting, check out the Mod's Page.

Tutorial: Customizing the PocketPlane - Part 1

2010-01-16T04:08:00.004+01:00

This information applies to Innodil's Pocket Plane version 2.0 or higher only!

In this tutorial you'll learn how to customize Pocket Plane to your needs and preferences. You do not need the toolset for this and no modding skills are required. Simply edit a 2DA file, dump it in the override folder and it's done! You can customize which containers and NPCs are in the plane, where they are located and how they are called. Interested in a Pocket Plane completely tailored to your own needs and personal preferences? Read on!

IMPORTANT NOTE: You should do customizations before using the pocketplane to store items. As soon as container contain items and you remove or place them somewhere else, all your items will be lost when you reload the area layout. You can however still add new/additional NPCs and container after you start using the pocket plane. If you want a custom layout, I advise you to create it before really starting to play!

Getting Started

This tutorial involves editing (M)2DA files. There are 2 ways to edit those files:

If you have the toolset installed and know how to use ExcelProcessor.exe: Download the 2DA Sources and edit them as usual. Note: in the remaining tutorial screenshots of GDApp are used. The tutorial also applies to using Excel to edit the 2DA sources of course.
If you don't have the toolset. Please download GDApp and extract it somewhere. Next, Download the GDA files and also extract them somewhere.

For those using the 2DA Sources, all the 2DA files are in 1 excel file for easy editing: inno_pp_custom_2da.xls

An important note about the "mod's install dir"

In all tutorials I will refer to this folder as [My Documents]\BioWare\Dragon Age\AddIns\inno_pp.

Understanding the layout M2DA files

First of all, inno_pp_layout.gda is actually and M2DA file. This means you can have multiple gda file that will be merged into 1 file when the game reads them. Merging is done based on the ID column. If 2 files have the same ID, the last one loaded will "win". This being said, this tutorial will be based on editing the original layout M2DA, obviously, you can create a new file or edit another "layout M2DA" in exactly the same way, just make sure your ID are unique if you don't want to override things! For more information about M2DA files, please refer to the DA:O Toolset wiki.

Start op GDApp. Use File -> Open and open the GDA file "inno_pp_layout.gda".

You should see the following:

Note: some values may be different. You can ignore this.

Since the columns names can not always be read in GDApp, I'll list them here for reference:

ID: the ID of the row, they must be in ascending order, but there can be gaps
Resource: the resource to place (must be a placeable *.utp or creature *.utc resource, everything else will simply silently fail and not be added)
ResourceType: the type of resource: 1 = placeable (*.utp), 2 = creature (*.utc)
Tag: The tag to give the the resource, read below about tags and their importance!
Name: the name to give the resource in the game (also what you see when holding TAB)
PosX: The X coordinate to place the resource at
PosY: The Y coordinate to place the resource at
PosZ: The Z coordinate to place the resource at
PosAngle: The angle/orientation of the resource (i.e. which direction is the front facing at)

There are a few things I need to explain about the tags first:

They are very important. The area loading is based on these tags. Basically what happens when you reload the Pocket Plane the script will search if there is already something with that tag, and in that case just move and rename the object instead of creating it. If it can not be found, the object will be created. So if you for example, on ID 3 would put inno_pp_weaponstand_2.utp instead of inno_pp_weaponstand.utp and you would not change the tag, the object wouldn't change, because the script will only move and rename it.
All tags in the 2DA file must be unique, the reason is explained above, multiple objects with the same tag will just cause the first one created with that tag to be moved. Don't try it :)
There are 4 exceptions to the tags, these 4 are marked in the image above in red. This is because they are either merchant NPCs or magical storages, both which use a merchant store. To use a merchant store in the Pocket Plane the object must have one of those tags (and some scripting or dialogue, but that will be covered in another tutorial). The 4 lines with those tags will always be created again, you will not lose any items because of this, because your items are in the merchant store not in the inventory of the NPC or chest offering access to them. Anyway, don't worry too much about this now as this will be explained in further details in a separate tutorial. For now you just need to remember to use these tags for the merchants and magical chest.

So basically, you just tell the mod what (resource, resource type, name) should be placed where (pos x, y, z, angle). Of course you might be wondering how to get all those numbers, I'll get back to that later on.
For now let us focus on changing the rest of the file, but reusing the existing coordinates.

Editing the layout M2DA files

So now that we understand how these M2DA files work, let's play with them a little bit. First of all, in this tutorial, we will reuse the available coordinates, simply because I think it warrants a separate tutorial on how to get these things in a doable way.
First of all, these coordinates don't tell you much, you should load the game and check where each container or NPC is to get an idea where each coordinate actually refers too. To help you out with this, I created the below "layout map" for easy reference. The numbers on the map correspond with the ID in the M2DA file, so if you want a certain container on a certain location, just lookup the ID on the map below, and enter your information on that row in the M2DA file.

Pocket Plane locations

So let's create a custom layout with following items in it:

The 2DA file after our changes

I marked some interesting changes I made in red and numbered them. So let's take a look at them.

First of all have a look at the ID column. As you can see there are gaps, because I removed a few rows because I don't want anything in those locations. These gaps are fine, but be careful: the ID values must be sorted from low to high!
I changed a bunch of names to things more to my liking. No need to change tags if you only touch the name or location...
This is somewhat more complex: I basically removed a merchant NPC and replaced him by a chest. Note that the chest will now "sell" what the NPC sold before. I'll get back on how to influence that again another tutorial (yes, lots to go :-) ). Some important things here: I changed the ResourceType to 1 because the Resource is now a placeable (*.utp), and secondly, I did not change the Tag
Here I changed some resources, you can use anything available in the layout 2DA file. It is also possible to add custom containers or NPCs but I will get back to that in a separate tutorial. But note that I changed the tags for these lines!

Making it happen

OK, so when you are done editing, choose File -> Save. Next copy the "inno_pp_layout.gda" you just saved to [My Documents]\BioWare\Dragon Age\AddIns\inno_pp\core\override. Now you can fire up the game, teleport to the plane. If this was the first time you entered the plane, your changes will immediately visible, if not, you need to refresh the layout.
To do this, talk to The Keeper, choose "Can you do something for me?", next "Reload the area layout." Note that the merchants NPC and magical chest disappear after the conversation is over, this is OK, you will not lose any items. Just leave the Pocket Plane and when you return they will be back with their original contents. So leave and come back to see your custom layout in all it's glory :)

Note: if you don't see the dialogue option, but only "Uhmm, Pocket Plane?", just follow that dialogue first. After that, the other options will be available.

This is the most basic adjusting you can do and it should suffice for most users. I will add other tutorials later on that explain how to add custom containers and NPCs in the pocket plane.
But first you can expect tutorials on how to customize those merchants! Keep checking back for more...

Innodil's Pocket Plane

2010-01-16T00:27:00.014+01:00

Author: Nikivich
Download: 1.4.2 (Stable) , 2.0 (BETA)
Project Site: Project Website
Support & Bugs: Project Site, 2.0 BETA Support/Bug Reports
Changelog: Complete changelog

IMPORTANT: You can not upgrade Innodil's Pocket Plane version 1.4.2 or older to the new 2.0. If you upgrade, you must start a new game!

Description:

Innodil’s Pocket Plane gives you a full blown PARTY CAMP ALTERNATIVE. The addon gives you a stone that you can use to teleport to and from your own pocket plane from anywhere in the world giving you access to lots and lots of storage, merchants, an enchanter and some special stuff. You can control all your followers and even extend the plane with containers, NPCs and merchants of your choosing.

Feature list:

All sorts of different containers to store all the loot you can’t keep in your inventory. It features armor stands, weapons stand, a crafting material rack, several chests, …
A magical chest (up to 4) that you can use as storage: it uses the same interface as merchants so you can sort your loot by type.
The Keeper: a magical creature that has an UNLIMITED supply of ALL crafting materials (potions, poisons and traps) and sells some backpacks
The Tome of Secrets: a tome you can use to unlock ALL specializations, at no cost , can be disabled by INI setting
An enchanter for all your enchanting needs.
Change your party at will while in the plane. And yes, when you teleport back your party is still changed. This is also useful when you want to equip or use abilities of followers not currently in your party while in the plane.
3 additional merchants whose inventories can be controlled by 2DA files or you can just let them have random supplies
Almost everything in the plane is completely customizable by editing a few 2DA files!
Control the names and buy/sell rates of all merchants
Optional “extension packages” that integrate the plane with other mods or add custom functionality to it.

Installation:

Download DAModder
Click Install Mod and select the inno_pp_*.dazip you downloaded
Click Yes when prompted to install the mod

Uninstallation:

Run DAModder, select Innodil's Pocket Plane in the list and click Uninstall mod

Tutorial: Changing the merchants names, buy and sell rates in the Pocket Plane

2010-01-13T23:36:00.010+01:00

This information applies to Innodil's Pocket Plane version 2.0 or higher only!

In this tutorial you'll learn how to change the buy and sell rates of all merchants in the Pocket Plane. You do not need the toolset for this and no modding skills are required. Simply edit a 2DA file, dump it in the override folder and it's done! Read on for a detailed tutorial complete with screenshots and background information.

Getting Started

This tutorial involves editing (M)2DA files. There are 2 ways to edit those files:

If you have the toolset installed and know how to use ExcelProcessor.exe: Download the 2DA Sources and edit them as usual. Note: in the remaining tutorial screenshots of GDApp are used. The tutorial also applies to using Excel to edit the 2DA sources of course.
If you don't have the toolset. Please download GDApp and extract it somewhere. Next, Download the GDA files and also extract them somewhere.

For those using the 2DA Sources, all the 2DA files are in 1 excel file for easy editing: inno_pp_custom_2da.xls

An important note about the "mod's install dir"
You will have to copy files to the mod's core/override folder. In all tutorials, I will use my own paths on a Windows 7 machine. If you use another OS like Windows Vista or Windows XP, the first part of the folder might differ. It is always in your User Folder under My Documents or Documents on some operating systems. If you really don't know where this folder is, do a search on your C:\ drive for the folder called inno_pp. This folder is the mod's install folder and I will always refer to a folder inside this install path.
In all tutorials I will refer to this folder as [My Documents]\BioWare\Dragon Age\AddIns\inno_pp.

Understanding the 2DA

First start op GDApp. Use File -> Open and open the GDA file "inno_pp_merchants.gda".
You should see the following:

Note: some values may be different. You can ignore this.

Since the columns names can not be read in GDApp, I'll list them here for reference:

ID: The ID of the row
MerchantTag: the tag of the merchant resource
MerchantName: the name of the merchant store
BuyRate: The buy rate
SellRate: The sell rate
UseAsContainer: This is a special flag. It doesn't matter for this tutorial, so leave it alone

Basically, the only 2 columns we will be touching in this tutorial are 4 and 5. Do not touch any other values except what is explained below or face the possible consequences of the mod not working!

So how do these values work?

The BuyRate is the percentage of the actual item value a merchant will pay you when you sell him items. So, the default, 75 means you get 75% of the actual gold value of an item. You can go from 0 , or "free", up until 200 , or "pay double". Obviously any value above 100 is considered cheating since you get more than the actual value of the item you are selling.

The SellRate is the percentage of the actual item value a merchant will charge you when you buy items from him. So, the default, 125 means you pay 125% or 25% more than the actual value of the items. Like the BuyRate this value can range from 0 to 200. In case of selling however, any value below 100 is considered cheating since you pay less than what the item is worth.

Editing the 2DA

So now that we understand how these values work, let's play with them a little bit. Let's say the blacksmith is a good friend of ours and he only charges his costs to us. As a result, we don't charge him at all. If he needs something, the good friend we are, we just give it to him! :-) So this would result in a BuyRate of 0 and a SellRate of only 65 for example. To edit the values in GDApp, just select the cell you want to edit and type in the new value. This is how things should look after we edit it:

Obviously, the above was just an example. Personally, I think the defaults are fine and balanced. But for example to compensate with difficulty levels or because of personal preferences you can use any values you like.

Making it happen

OK, so when you are done editing, choose File -> Save. Next copy the "inno_pp_merchants.gda" you just saved to [My Documents]\BioWare\Dragon Age\AddIns\inno_pp\core\override. Now you can fire up the game, teleport to the plane and watch the results of your actions.

Changelog: Innodil's Pocket Plane

2010-01-13T22:33:00.003+01:00

This is the changelog for the Dragon Age: Origins mod Innodil's Pocket Plane.

Version 2.0

NEW: Area only contains some basic fixed resources: Keeper, Tome of Secrets and merchant stores (can't be spawned in script).
NEW: There are 3 additional merchants available, of which you can customize what they sell with a 2DA file.
NEW: All merchants can also get random supplies, which are randomly choosen from a 2DA file you can edit if you like.
NEW: Talking to the keeper has an option to give your merchants a fresh set of random supplies.
NEW: All merchants "scale" their supplies relative to your current level EACH time you access their store. This can be disabled with an INI option.
NEW: You can change the buy and sell rates of all merchants in the plane using by editing a 2DA. Default: Buy at 75%, sell at 125%.
NEW: There are 3 new merchants: 1 sells all runes, the other 2 have a random inventory (can be refreshed by talking to the keeper)
NEW: The keeper has new dialogue options to:

reload the plane's layout after you change the 2DA (Note: you should only ADD new items when you have stored stuff in the plane, see tutorials for more info)
reload the merchants inventory from their 2DAs
refresh the inventory of "random" merchants with new random items
give ALL merchants random content, ignoring their 2DA if they have any

NEW: Each time a game is loaded, the mod checks if the player has a teleport stone. If not, a new one is given.

Simply QuickSave and QuickLoad to regain the stone should you loose it in any way.

NEW: New icon for the teleport stone which "blends in" better with the other game icons.
NEW: Area layouts are M2DA files. This means "extensions" and "integrations of other" mods can be supplied as separately downloadable zip files.

I hope to encourage the community to integrate other mods this way and supply the packages online for other users.
I will be more than happy to host these on the Pocket Plane's project site if wanted.

NEW: New blog http://nikivich.blogspot.com with tutorials on how to customize your pocket plane and other info about the mod.

CHANGE: Tome of secrets can be disabled with an INI option for those who consider this a "cheat". By default it's enabled.

FIX: Uses a PRCSCR M2DA file instead of an engineevents M2DA, which improves compatibility.
FIX: Fixed issue with dwarf origin. After you loose all item in your inventory, Quicksave/Quickload to get a new teleport stone.

1.4.2

FIX: Fixed the "black area" issue some people where having
NOTE: Game version 1.02 is now REQUIRED for this mod.

1.4.1

ONLY CONTAINS "Extension System" FIXES, you don't need this is you don't use extensions...
FIX: Fixed bug in extension system, extensions where reset after game exit (loosing everything in containers etc)
NEW: Added sample merchant to the extension package (version 2) and added explanation on how to create custom merchants (HOWTO.txt in extension package)

1.4.0

NEW: Almost doubled the available storage, some new types of containers too...
NEW: A brand new extension system! You can now easily add up to 11 custom Containers/NPCs/Merchants to the pocket plane.

1.3.0

FIX: Added "back" options to all branches of the Keeper's conversation
MISC: Removed shadow armor as reward. There are many mods with custom items, I feel this mod should focus on other stuff.
FIX: Finally found a solution to solve the teleport back issues. From now on, each party member's exact location is stored when using the teleport and each character teleports back to his exact location.
NEW: Added enchanter NPC to pocket plane.
CHANGE: Completely rewrote conversations (Toolset suddenly "forgot" all my strings :/ )
FIX: The module now forces the teleport item to be useable on the Hero. However, I can not verify the fix 100% (used some saved game of other people). So please let me know if some of you still have this issue.
FIX: Added toxin extract to the keeper store
NEW: Added some "basic" recipes for potions, poisons and traps to the keeper store.
NEW: Teleport is now prevented during combat to balance out this mod, since you could use the teleport to "escape" from a hard battle, fix up and jump back into the fray. I added a new INI setting though to override this if you still wish to teleport during combat. Since this is a considered "cheating", the default is to NOT allow it.

1.2.0

NEW: Added a pair of daggers (only if you are warrior or rogue) to the shadow armor "keeper reward", and "downgraded" armor a bit (note if you already got the armor, the stats won't change)
NEW: Changed default buy/sell rates for keeper since he was selling much too cheap. Settings can be overridden in "DragonAge.ini" though
FIX: Fixed bug in Tome Of Secrets, specialization where only unlocked if you previously had the achievement in the game. Now related achievements are unlocked too.

1.1.0

FIX: Fixed issue with module script (some paths still forwarded to module_core, causing the known issues with that)
MISC: Removed some leftover stuff from testing

1.0.0

Initial Release

Innodil's Pocket Plane - The Origin Story

2010-01-11T20:51:00.004+01:00

Well, since I had to have something on here I decided to write a little bit about the what, why and how of the pocket plane mod. I will add some more specific information and tutorials about the mod soon.

Innodil's Pocket Plane is the first and (so far) most complete mod I made for Dragon Age: Origins. The idea came to me after the first playthrough.
Although I very much liked the game, some things annoyed me after playing a while:

Storage! One lousy chest? And only if you bought Warden's Keep (which I did, and it didn't even work at first) If you like to keep stuff "because you could have use for it later" like I do, one chest isn't going to do it...
Crafting ingredients. I like crafting, I use it a lot (traps, poisons, etc). If you do too, you know what a pain in the a** it is getting all the necessary ingredients all the time. Why can't at a certain point merchant don't have most ingredients available e.g.? No, 1 has that, another this, which makes you travel the entire world map for half an hour trying to get a decent stash of ingredients together.
Why can't I put up a camp while in some dungeon. Do adventurers never "pause"?
The camp: another pretty useless place. So yes, there's an enchanter and a merchant....marvelous! You can't select party members, so using talents like crafting and trap making from other followers isn't possible.

Well, that's where the Pocket Plane comes in. Instead of whining about the (for me important) missing feature, I decided to create a mod that tries to solve the above issues without being an actual cheat.

My first thoughts were adjusting the actual camp. However, this wasn't easy to do without overwriting the entire area, due to issues and restrictions with the script engine. Secondly, this would render my mod incompatible with other mods and possibly future game updates.

So I decided to create my own custom area, to have all the freedom I wanted. I thought a teleportation device of some kind would be the coolest to get there and back again (instead of the slow world map transitions). This would also make the area accessible from anywhere at any time.

For balancing reasons, teleportation had to be restricted to only work when not in combat though since you could otherwise jump out of an almost wipe out, "restore" your party and jump back into the fray.

The area itself would feature mostly storage. Lots and lots of storage. I added all kinds of containers from weapon racks to armor stands, chests, cabinets and more.

Next to that, it had an NPC The Keeper that managed a little quest and featured a crafting merchant. He would sell all ingredients and some basic plans/reciped at reasonable prices and better yet: unlimited supplies!

This was basically the first version of my mod. After a few months of user feedback and learning a lot more about the toolset and modding for DA:O I decided to greatly extend the plane's functionality, or to at least make it very flexible in setup so less real modding and scripting was needed when I wanted to add something.

Secondly, since stuff is stored in containers in the area. The save game contains references to the area. This resulted in users not being able to update the mod while in a play-through. Updates to the area would only become visible when starting a new game. Ideally, the new mod would circumvent this issue too.

So it created a system completely based on custom 2DA and M2DA files. This allows me to:

Create a very basic area, only the keeper, some merchant stores and a few other "special" things are preset (mostly because they are really needed or can't be spawned using a script).
Create a custom 2DA file to define other placeables and NPCs in the area.
Customize merchants' inventories using custom 2DA files
Generate random contents for merchants using a configurable item list (preset to use almost every item available in the game by default)
Easily allow users to completely customize the layout for their area
Easily allow M2DA files to be plugged in the mod to for example "integrate" another mod into the plane.
Give the Keeper some dialogue options for users to reload any changes they would make to the M2DA files.

Next to that, I would make much more extensive use of "generic plots" to handle all configuration and reusable actions in the mod. This allows modders wanting to extend the plane to easily create custom placeables or NPCs that can actually USE the mod's functionality.

And that's basically the new 2.0. version that will be released (BETA) very soon. Next to the improvements behind the screens, there is also:

3 new merchants NPCs or 3 additional magical chest
Specify what merchants sell with a 2DA file
The keeper can supply the merchants with brand new random supplies on demand
Merchant upscale there items as you level
An enchanter
Some new container models
A tutorial on how to customize the mod.
Tome of secrets (can be used to unlock specializations, can also be disabled if not wanted)
By default lots and lots and lots of storage
Optional other predefined layout for the plane to pick from

Be sure to check back soon for the release announcement of the first 2.0 beta!