/*****************************************************/
/                                                     /
/          Dungeon Siege Player Editing               /
/                Made Easy                            /
/                                                     /
/          Chris "Rico Blanco" Bennett                /
/            blancorico@hotmail.com                   /
/              Ver 0.2                                /
/*****************************************************/


/*****************************************************/
/Introduction.                                        /
/*****************************************************/
   A little known fact is that editing your players in
Dungeon Siege is really a snap. We have the tools, we
have the brains, how come nobody has made popular this
technique? Myself, I came to this revelation while
experimenting with a few mods I made, and was wondering
how I might make the testing process easier. The answer
was to edit my characters with the items already on
them. This .txt explains the process.

/*****************************************************/
/Tools.                                               /
/*****************************************************/
   Several freely available tools exist to allow you to
extract the .gas files from Dungeon Siege. In order to
edit your players, you will need the following:
     * Notepad - My pal, an amateur coder's best friend.
     * Tank Viewer - www.game-editing.net
     * Tank Creator - www.game-editing.net
   With these tools combined, you have in your hands
everything you need to do anything from adding a couple
of levels to your warrior to replace every Krug in the
game with a chicken(I've done it, and it provides for
some...interesting...gameplay)

/*****************************************************/
/Getting Started.                                     /
/*****************************************************/
Multiplayer:
   Alright, you've heard me yammer for long enough, you
want to get to editing. You need, of course, a template
character. Let's say you have a level 30 Archer named
Billy Bob and you want to add a few more levels to his
strength so he can use some better armor. Load up the
Tank Viewer, and open up your Dungeon Siege save folder.
By default, this is "C:\My Documents\Dungeon Siege\Save"
A plethora of files should appear if you're an avid
player. You want to look for one particular type of
file, however. Player characters are held in files
ending in .dsparty. So, back to Billy Bob. You want to
open "C:\My Documents\Dungeon Siege\Save\Billy
Bob.dsparty" and you're ready to begin.

Singleplayer:
   Follow multiplayer instructions, but load
"C:\My Documents\Dungeon Siege\Save\Billy Bob.dssave"
instead.

/*****************************************************/
/Getting Started Part Deux.                           /
/*****************************************************/
Multiplayer
   Before you should behold two windows, one consisting
of "Billy Bob.dsparty" and another of three files. Click
Extract, select the "All" option, pick a location to
extract to, and click Extract. For simplicity's sake,
we'll say that you extracted to C:\Players\. You can
close the tank viewer now, it no longer has a purpose.
You have what you want. Now, start browsing C:\Players\.
The info.gas file and portrait-0.bmp files are
irrelevant, you should bother with them not, but keep
them in the folder. Open up the party.gas file with
notepad, and if you're not sure how to do that, then the
majority of this .txt is probably over your head. Once
you have it opened, all character information is
accessible to you. It might look Greek, but it's fairly
simple to understand. The file is sepparated into four
main sections:
     1. Introduction - This is unimportant, don't bother
        with it unless you're really bored and have
        nothing better to do. Unless you want to change
        your character's name, then use the
        "screen_name = " tag.
     2. Inventory - Very fun stuff. I might get into
        this later if I ever get bored again.
     3. Skills - The easy stuff, but I know all of you
        want to dig into it. This .txt focuses mainly on
        this section.
     4. Gold - Very very easy to mess with

Singleplayer:
   Once again, follow instructions with the .dssave file
rather than .dsparty. The .dssave should have two
additional files that include map information and such,
so they shouldn't be of much interest. The .dssave file
includes information for all of the members of your
party, so just look for the desired character with the
tag "screen_name = (playername)" in the Introduction
(section 1, as listed above). Names can be changed here,
as well.

/*****************************************************/
/Work.                                                /
/*****************************************************/
Multiplayer:
   No, not too much. In fact, you can probably figure
the rest out on your own. But I'll help out since I'm a
nice guy.
Your stuff should look sort of like this:

combat_magic_level = 1.34582;
combat_magic_xp = 270.517;
dexterity_level = 65.4757;
dexterity_xp = 2.1948e+007;
intelligence_level = 32.9275;
intelligence_xp = 173552;
melee_level = 71.7123;
melee_xp = 3.45657e+008;
nature_magic_level = 1.31213;
nature_magic_xp = 250.98;
ranged_level = 80.0032;
ranged_xp = 1.79966e+009;
strength_level = 53.8331;
strength_xp = 3.89289e+006;
uber_level = 71.9784;
uber_xp = 3.62874e+008;

   I'm not sure what XP corresponds to what level, but
it's fairly simple. Just use the basics of trial and
error to come up with whatever works best for you. It's
pretty much self explanatory.
One thing, DON'T CHANGE THE LEVELS AND EXPECT RESULTS!
The game will screw up your character if xp doesn't
correspond with levels. However, it's alright if levels
don't correspond with XP, as it'll automatically adjust
the levels to fit the XP you set.

   And finally, the gold. Once again, self explanatory.
You can assign any amount of gold up to the default max
of "gold = 9999999;"

   If you want to mess around further, you can assign
skins if you know the codes, but it's better not to mess
with that stuff.

Single Player:
   Ditto, with the inclusion of the fact that you have
to edit the stats under each player in your party as
designated by the "screen_name = " tag. Gold is held
communally and still appears last in the .dssave file

/*****************************************************/
/Compilation.                                         /
/*****************************************************/
Multiplayer:
   You're not done yet! You have one little bitty step
left. Load up the Tank Creator(www.game-editing.net),
point the source to C:\Players\ (or whatever you named
the extraction directory), and set the output to
"C:\My Documents\Dungeon Siege\Save\Billy Bob.dsparty"
(or whatever your character's name is). And viola,
you're done! You now have a character with your new
custom stats, and without that +drdeath garbage.
Congratulations, you're now a cheater. Please use this
newfound knowledge with wisdom, and don't be a jerk with
it as this sort of power has a tendency to promote.
You may now load this character in a multiplayer game.

Single Player:
   Same thing, but compile to "C:\My Documents\Dungeon
Siege\Save\Billy Bob.dssave" instead of .dsparty.

/*****************************************************/
/Conclusion.                                          /
/*****************************************************/
   Anyway, this concludes my player editing .txt, and
hopefully we'll see the return of El Rico Blanco with
an equipment editing .txt.
On that note, if anyone wants to help me out with
figuring out item prefixes and suffixes, please e-mail
me. I have a few basics, but I'm particularly looking
for what the unique item modifiers do.

blancorico@hotmail.com


/*****************************************************/
/Updates.                                             /
/*****************************************************/
Updated 4-27-02 with Multiplayer/Single Player specifics
due to an E-Mail influx of people wanting these.

Authorized Websites:
www.gamefaqs.com
www.neoseeker.com