How do I create a new spell?

[TheLieka]

That guide is actually pretty good. It identifies the values used by OpenSpell. It's a very handy reference when you're digging through the spell file with excel trying to adjust a batch of spells. In fact, I've got it saved as a favorite.

Dax

[Dispair2]

I looked back over the wiki about the spells file and i am not sure if i am just too simple to understand but it seams like allot of things are off on that file from my spells files that or their are allot of spells that have a 0 mana cost and so on. Also can anyone give me a broken down side by side list of what the fields are? I have been pulling it apart my self in word and just can not seam to decipher it.

[AndMetal]

Another useful resource for decoding the different fields is Lucy. On the download page, there are dumps of the Lucy spell database in CVS format (although you can't extract them on a Windows system because the files contain colons), which is parsed from the spells_us.txt file. By cross referencing known fields in Lucy & unknown fields based on current known information, I have already uncovered some additional information (like field 145, counting from 0, is the spell animation).

Something else to remember is that the most recent spells_us.txt file uses 215 unique fields, where as the Titanium client uses 203 unique fields. The most recent spells_us.txt file can be downloaded directly from the official patch server here (right-click & choose Save As, otherwise it will kill your browser) if you want to work against it.

[AndMetal]

I found myself with some free time yesterday & updated the Wiki. It should be a little more complete, and hopefully a little easier to read. A lot of the fields don't have a description, but they should be relatively self-explanatory. I also included a SQL file at the bottom to create a table with all of the columns.

On a side note, there's actually an even more recent version of the spells_us.txt file here (also through the official patcher) that has a few more fields, which look to still be unknown.

[Dispair2]

Thank you very much i revisit the wiki and see what i can learn i had not seen this post and started a new thread asking for information, but any information that return i am sure will greatly help everyone.

[AndMetal]

The SQL information is the true format of the spells_us.txt file. If you use those as your headers in a spreadsheet, everything will match up. You will find that, with the Titanium version of the client's spells_us.txt, you will have fewer than the total fields listed in the Wiki, but they are still unknown values, so it shouldn't be an issue.

[Faza]

i just downloaded openspell 1.1 and it asked me if i wanted to configure spells for EQemu 5.5 or 5.7 .... i'm using 7!

which do i use? will any of it work?

[trevius]

Try the Bleh/Ailia spell editor from the dev>tools section. It works great.

[Faza]

ok, i'm all set for editing spells

except that the spell scrolls, the items in the game, show up as unusuable despite #castspell <spell i edited> performing the way i edited it to ...

so how do i change the scroll properties? i'm looking at scrolls in the items table (using navicat) and don't see the level/class restrictions that i'm trying to remove


help!

[trevius]

Try copying your edited spells_us.txt file to your everquest playing directory. You may want to back up your old one instead of overwriting it though.

Also, I heard when making spell scrolls, you have to make sure they are useable by the class that is intended for the spell.

[Faza]

i put the edited spells_us in my eq directory (client) and my eqEMU directory (server)

it doesn't change that "level need: WIZ (49)" still shows up for ice comet


i *did* search through a bunch of posts and find that i can change the bit code for what classes can use the spell, sort of ... if you change the class attribute for spell scrolls (items called Spell: SOMESPELL) to 65xxx (i forgot) you can get the in game item to display as "Level: War (255) CLR (255) ...WIZ (49)" etc

so now i just have to find out where those 255's are and then i can make them 1's and then everyone can cast anything =P

[trevius]

If you use the bleh/ailia spell editor, you can find all of that info and change it easily.

[Faza]

i'm using the spell editor on GeorgeS' site for eqemu tools

i'll have to change each one manually, but that's ok

ooh, or i can just open spells_us in notebad and do a find-and-replace for all values of "255" (making them "1")

awesome...all/all spells, here i come

[erik_llewellyn]

I found that opening MS Excel, using the import option, and setting the deliminator to ^ let me view the spells in collum format and make changing them all to be usable by lvl 1 and all classes was super easy. you then simply export it again making sure you use ^ as your deliminator. ***NOTE*** a value of 255 for the level means that it cannot be used, your value should read something like "wizard(1)" in game.

As for setting your scrolls to all/all, you have to go into the database and make the changes to the table "items", collum "classes" AND "races", value "65535"

[erik_llewellyn]

Almost forgot, do NOT simply use notepad and do a replace all "255" with "1" as this will cause several other spells/abilites to fail since it will also replace numbers like 1255 to be 11. I did that innitially when I first started making my all/all server and it was a nightmare that I found was easier to start over instead of fix.

You will also need to be able to make your custom spell_us.txt file available to download for those you want to play on your server. The catch to this is you cannot post said link or file on these forums. It is also highly suggested for anyone who plays on your server to backup thier current spell file for later use on normal servers.