This will allow visual effects to be added to the game for weapons - the item property overrides automatic "damage" based ones.
Default Damage Visuals
You get visuals with additional damage on weapons by default.
See the iprp_damagecost.2da for the "VFX" column - this sets a visual effect on certain amounts of damage, but since damage types are hardcoded you can't say have a sword with a nice pink VFX for fire damage, you'd instead code the VFX here and add this item property to it.
You could also disable all the default VFX by setting it to 0 for each entry, and rely on this for distinguishing / cool visuals.
New Weapon Visuals - 1.80.8193.9
NWN:EE added the ability to add further options in this 2da file. For instance you could add "Pink_Coolness" which has the ModelSuffix of "pink" meaning for a shortsword wswss_fxpink.mdl would be loaded.
For most weapons (see below for exceptions) the game will load a visual effect in the name of;
XXXXX_fxYYYYYYYY.mdl
- XXXXX - The weapon shorthand name, as in baseitems.2da "ItemClass" column, example: "WSwSs" for "Shortsword"
- _fx - always present
- YYYYYYYY - Bioware's default ones (acid/elect/fire/etc.) or your own name. You can use up to 8 characters due to the 16 max total.
Not all weapons (or ammo since ammo can have this too) have all types, for instance Arrows don't bother with Holy or Negative models. Thrown weapons don't apply weapon VFX.
Existing files (that you can convert to ASCII to recode) for the Shortsword are:
- wswss_fxacid.mdl
- wswss_fxelect.mdl
- wswss_fxfire.mdl
- wswss_fxfrost.mdl
- wswss_fxholy.mdl
- wswss_fxneg.mdl
- wswss_fxsonic.mdl
These models are loaded essentially overlapping the current weapon as any other item part can.
The exceptions to this are these items which have hardcoded exceptions where the VFX model above, for instance wblfl_fxholy.mdl (loaded for "Holy" for the Light Flail), are attached to a specific part instead.
| Weapon Name | Node attached | Part attached to |
|---|---|---|
| Light Flail | fx_node | Part 3 (Top) |
| Heavy Flail | fx_node | Part 3 (Top) |
| Morningstar | fx_node | Part 3 (Top) |
| Whip | fx_node | Part 2 (Middle) |
2da Columns
| Column | Example Contents | Valid Values | Description and Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Label | Acid | Human readable string | Builder reference, not used by the game |
| Name | 83393 | Dialog.tlk string reference | Name of the item property for toolset use |
| ModelSuffix | acid | Text string | The YYYYY suffix of the model to use. Note a blank entry would make a good "None" to override any other VFX on the weapon (hardcoded ones such as vs. good). |
2da Contents
2DA V2.0
Label Name ModelSuffix
0 Acid 83393 acid
1 Cold 83394 frost
2 Electrical 83395 elect
3 Fire 83396 fire
4 Sonic 83397 sonic
5 Holy 83398 holy
6 Evil 83399 neg