effecticons.2da loads relevant icons to put in the top right, or the character sheet or examine screen, along with a short descriptive name. For items they are used only on the character sheet except Haste which appears in the top right persistently.
The effect integers here are unrelated to the GetEffectType of an effect., and are usually hardcoded, including in-game only effects such as Taunt and Wounding.
1.84.8193.29 added new functions for removing and adding icons to effects, which unhardcoded the use of them in scripts (but not items). This means you can create "custom" effects such as Fatigue much more seamlessly.
Line Limits
The limit to this file is 255 entries (entry 0 is invalid, with 1 - 255 being valid).
Hardcoded Lines
Apart from the "Cut Content" lines below it is worth not removing any of the existing lines, although alterations (such as new icons) can be made. This is because internally applied effects and item properties still use hardcoded references to this 2da file.
The line IDs for Poison (20) and Disease (21) hardcode the changed colour bars (brown and green respectively); these are lines are recommended not to change but are also good for making custom poison and diseases look proper.
However unused cut content / lines can now be changed quite drastically with EffectIcon.
However there are some notes about the fact the icons for several things are identical, which could be made in a modification to look different, specifically:
- All "Immunity: Misc" lines use the generic Immunity icon ief_immunity.tga
- All "Damage Immunity Increase: Name" use the generic Damage Immunity Increase icon ief_damimmincr.tga
- All "Damage Immunity Decrease: Name" use generic Damage Immunity Decrease icon ief_damimmincr.tga
Cut Content
There are a number of icon files in the game with no equivalent line in this file. There are also some 2da lines that appear to be unused but can now be used with EffectIcon.
ID | Label | Icon | StrRef | Icon File Name | Icon | Possible Purpose |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
ief_abildecr.tga | Generic "Ability Decrease" before specific stat increase/decrease icons were added. | |||||
ief_abilincr.tga | Generic "Ability Increase" before specific stat increase/decrease icons were added. | |||||
ief_arcanefail.tga | Arcane Spell Failure has no scripted property (although it does have an item property) but apparently at one point would have required one. | |||||
11 | ENEMY_ATTACK_BONUS | ief_AttackBon | 8038 | ief_attackbon.tga | Enemy Attack Bonus appears to be an effect that is never used by the game (although apparently it does exist in the internal code). | |
56 | BLINDNESS | ief_Blindness | 8083 - "Blind" | ief_blindness.tga | Oddly a duplicate "Blind" line. The real "Blind" line is line 10. This line is unused by the game. | |
ief_concealed.tga | Concealed, not Concealment (which is used by Invisibility etc.), implies a "cover" system was going to be attempted at one stage in the games design. | |||||
33 | DAMAGE_IMMUNITY_INCREASE | ief_DamImmIncr | 8060 | Is used | This is "used" in so far as ief_damimmincr.tga is used for all different damage immunity increase types, but this line itself is unlikely to be used. | |
34 | DAMAGE_IMMUNITY_DECREASE | ief_DamImmDecr | 8061 | Is used | This is "used" in so far as ief_damimmdecr.tga is used for all different damage immunity decrease types, but this line itself is unlikely to be used. | |
ief_darkvis.tga | Potentially "Darkvision" as an effect was meant to get this. Given in the base game it's only applied by feats however, or item properties, instead of a temporary effect it likely goes unused. | |||||
58 | DISPELMAGICBEST | ief_DispelBest | 8085 | ief_dispelbest.tga | Purple placeholder and the fact the effect is instantaneous means this is unused by the game. | |
48 | DISPELMAGICALL | ief_DispelAll | 8075 | ief_dispelall.tga | Purple placeholder and the fact the effect is instantaneous means this is unused by the game. | |
8 | FATIGUE | ief_Fatigue | 8035 | ief_fatigue.tga | Well it seems Fatigue effects were at one point planned. A shame it wasn't added, would have been handy for rest systems. | |
ief_forcewalk.tga | This probably was part of Fatigue and other effects such as encumberance which stopped running. There's no equivalent effect in the game, although EffectSlow does stop running animations. | |||||
6 | INVULNERABLE | ief_Invulnerable | 8033 | ief_invulnerable.tga | An "Invulnerable" effect was presumably planned. No way to do this now except for the Plot flag - which probably replaced it. | |
ief_invunerable.tga | A misspelt copy of "invulnerable", "invunerable" is purple. | |||||
ief_misschance.tga | "Miss Chance" - from EffectMissChance - hasn't got a respective effecticons.2da line but one could be added now (with EffectIcon). | |||||
ief_see_invis.tga | This is right next to the correct icon ief_seeinvis.tga - note the extra underscore - so purple placeholder. | |||||
ief_stoflesh.tga | "Stone to Flesh" effect icon perhaps. Before people realised it is applied instantly? Or was it going to be an Immunity: Petrify or similar? (since there is no such thing in the game, although one can be now mechanically added with EffectIcon). | |||||
55 | TIMESTOP | ief_TimeStop | 8082 | ief_timestop.tga | EffectTimeStop does not use this icon, instead the game is paused with a special "Time Stop" icon instead of the pause one, so this can be reused/used. | |
ief_turnund.tga | Right next to the correct icon ief_turned.tga is this unused purple placeholder. |
New Effect Icons
You can have up to 255 lines in the 2da.
Lines 1 through 129 are not all used by the game and some can be reused (ie wiped entirely), noted above:
- 6 - Invultnerable - Unused by the game, but may be handy to keep around.
- 8 - Fatigue - Unused by the game (Although a handy one to use yourself, since it's fully localised and has an icon)
- 11 - Enemy Attack Bonus - Unused by the game even if the effect appears to exist inside the games code (so you might be able to use it with NWNX but not in SP).
- 33 - Immunity increase - unused by the game due to the specific damage immunity increase types
- 34 - Immunity decrease - unused by the game due to the specific damage immunity decrease types
- 48 - Dispel Magic is an instant effect so this will never be used (has an invalid icon)
- 55 - Time Stop - Unused by the game but may be handy to keep around.
- 56 - Invalid version of "Blind" can be reused
- 58 - Dispel Magic is an instant effect so this will never be used (has an invalid icon)
Lines 130 onwards can be added, meaning a total of 125 new icons if you don't want to alter any lines 1-130.
2da Contents
2da Columns
Column Name | Example Contents | Valid Values | Description and Notes |
---|---|---|---|
Label | DAMAGE_RESISTANCE | Text | Human readable value not used by the game |
Icon | ief_DamResist | An Icon resref | Icons use square textures |
StrRef | 8028 | Dialog.tlk string | Shown when the icon is moused over or on the examine or character sheet. A very very short descriptive name. 8028 is "Damage Resistance" for instance. It doesn't even specify more than that, such as what type, what spell, duration, or the amount left. |