1.0.1 QOL Junk/Hoarders mod, AKA Drypeaks Effective Recycling Program

[Waladil]

This is something I put together for my own use but wanted to share it out as well. Basically this mod does three things:

1.) The vast majority of junk items stack now! You can toss them in your junk bag and they'll go into one stack per item type.

2.) Tweaks the values of items, such that tunics, sandals, and cloaks have a value of 6 (so they sell for 1 coin each). The now-stacking junk items all have their values reduced to 0. Many of them had values of 1-5, but that would round to 0 for sale price and the game doesn't consider the price of the stack. (So a stack of 100 items worth 5 each still sells for 0.) This also applies to items that aren't junk -- mostly food items but also base javelins.

3.) It makes the items which provide +Leadership and +Mechanics work while in your pack, so you don't have to swap for them. This is not related to the above parts, and I got the idea from Slarzahl / Slartifer's QOL mod so I included it for my own use. I'm just too lazy to make a second version without the QOL.

Between parts 1 and 2, which are the actual parts of this mod, what this means is that junk items take only one slot per item type, and these stacks will grow to comical levels if you chuck all the game's garbage into your junk bag (as of writing, I have 41 severed limbs and 112 piles of bones). These convenient stacks will not be destroyed when you sell all from your junk bag.

BALANCE EFFECTS: Minimal. It does slightly add to the overall money availability, but only by a single coin per tunic, sandals, or cloak. Those are common items, so maybe like +200-300 coins by endgame. It also prevents you from uselessly destroying potentially beneficial items, although that can already be avoided just by removing them from the junk bag.

KNOWN ISSUES: The game gets funky about making items stackable in a game that's already started. All of the old items are saved as unstackable and this will only apply to newly-found items. I don't know if there's a way to fix this, so the mod is best applied to new games if possible. Also, due to the game's structure, this will not be compatible with other mods and will need to be updated for each game version. This version is for 1.0.1 only.

LINK:
https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/p3wv3f2t1hfyfc2sn0ke1/GF2itemschars.txt?rlkey=oc00zieiysagvqad13vtmaobr

INSTALLATION:
Navigate to game folder (Right-click on the game in your library, manage -> Browse local files)
Navigate to /Geneforge 2 Infestation FIles/Scripts
Backup and then replace GF2itemschars.txt with the modified file.

[Mauman]

Modding Geneforge...huh....that sounds cool.

If there was ONE thing I'd like changed about this game it'd be putting the freaking fire shaping canister at an earlier point than the freaking Geneforge, the LITERAL END OF THE GAME

I always considered that a cruel joke played by Jeff, especially considering how easy it's counterparts are to aquire.

[Waladil]

If that's something you want to do, it's pretty easy to change what the various canisters do. Could just swap it with something else.

[Mauman]

Originally posted by Waladil:

If that's something you want to do, it's pretty easy to change what the various canisters do. Could just swap it with something else.

Heh....I would do it, but I literally just finished my fire shaping playthrough.

Next game is magic shaping. But if it is easy, next time I decide to do a fire game I just might.

[solaris32]

Would it be possible to get a mod for point 3 only? I just want leadership and mechanics equipment to be charms.

[Mauman]

Originally posted by solaris32:

Would it be possible to get a mod for point 3 only? I just want leadership and mechanics equipment to be charms.

Don't know if you want to go THAT far. The infiltrator's ring is legit good if you're running a missile build or simply want to go before your enemies.

[solaris32]

Originally posted by Mauman:

Originally posted by solaris32:

Would it be possible to get a mod for point 3 only? I just want leadership and mechanics equipment to be charms.

Don't know if you want to go THAT far. The infiltrator's ring is legit good if you're running a missile build or simply want to go before your enemies.

What are you talking about? That's already in this mod, I just want it separate because I don't want the other stuff.

[slartifer]

This mod does remove the +Dex from the Infiltrator's Ring (like mine does) to avoid the Dex freebie. (It does not look like it removes the +Int from the Girdle of Leadership.)

[Waladil]

I'll probably remove the +int and put out an updated version, I hadn't gotten it in my game yet.

Unless Slartifer or myself or someone else takes the time to split out separate versions of these, you might just want to make the variant yourself.

In the GF2itemschars file, find the items you want to change (just search by their name) and add "it_abil_work_in_pack = 1;" along with the other lines defining it.

Although now I'm thinking about setting something up so you can like, ask Sharon or someone to switch those items between charms (without the attribute bonus) and wearable (with the attribute bonus). That would let people like Mauman have the stats if they want to use the attributes on an agility build and Solaris or myself to have them as charms.

Really the biggest problem is you can't just install multiple mods because so many items are jammed into one text file. Unless the game has some hooks that I'm completely unaware of, or a really smart person writes some sort of program that can automatically merge mods, every one will have to be bespoke.

[solaris32]

I didn't know it was that easy, thanks. BTW your link has a 400 error.

[slartifer]

I don't think there's _any_ sort of build or playthrough that would prefer to wear those items over others with better bonuses, when not actually using the Mechanics/Leadership/Stealth.

[Waladil]

Thanks for the heads-up about the 400 error. I'll get it fixed and the girdle int removed. I think I see what happened, somewhere between Dropbox and Steam an ampersand was parsed... interestingly.

[Mauman]

Originally posted by solaris32:

Originally posted by Mauman:

Don't know if you want to go THAT far. The infiltrator's ring is legit good if you're running a missile build or simply want to go before your enemies.

What are you talking about? That's already in this mod, I just want it separate because I don't want the other stuff.

Well, you said you wanted them to become charms, and I think the infiltrator ring has legitimate build use.

Also, I was immediately proven right there'd be a problem anyways. Just not in the way I thought. So yeah :P

[Mike]

This is EXACTLY the type of QOL inventory management mod I was looking for! Too bad I'm too far in my current playthrough to want to test given your notes about trying on ongoing saves, but thank you for this!

1) Cheeky request: would you consider creating a Spiderweb forum account to post this in a linked topic there? Either way, appreciate the effort put into this.

2) For clarity given the discussion among others above: both this and slartifer's mod mention they remove the +Dex bonus from the Infiltrator's Ring (and apparently, in only this mod, it's planned to remove the +Int bonus from the Girdle of Leadership). However, are these bonuses removed only when the items are sitting in the pack and therefore acting as "charms" per feature #3 of this mod, or are the bonuses removed completely such that even equipping the two items on the character will no longer give the +Dex/+Int bonuses? If the latter, perhaps that could be clarified in the "BALANCE EFFECTS" note.

[slartifer]

No, the Int bonus is already gone in mine.

[Waladil]

I do have an account there, albeit a really old one. When I fixed the link I also got rid of the int bonus on girdle of leadership, which Slartifer's also does (they don't mention it in the spiderweb post but those lines are indeed commented out).

Because again of limitations of how the game handles things, you can't get the attribute bonuses even when equipping them, the entire item is defined as either a charm or not. It looks like the armor values don't apply, at least. I need to double-check to confirm that. That's why I'm kind of thinking about splitting them into two items you can trade between, one charm and one equipment. That'd be way out of scope for the moment, though.

It should mostly work fine on existing saves, the main thing is you'd have some instances of junk items that can stack and some that can't, or at least that's what I experienced while first putting this together.