Max Tactics Tutorial

Author: Georg Zoeller, BioWare

This is a short tutorial on how to unlock 25 tactics slots from the start.

• Go to your toolset installation directory and find the 'tools\source\2da' directory.

• Make a full backup copy of the directory and all sub directories so you can return to it if needed.

• Go into the 'rules' subdirectory and find the exptable.xls file. Open it.

• Change the 'tactics' column to read 25 for each level and save the file.

• Next we need to process the data file into binary so the game can load it. To do that we use the excelprocessor tool located in tools\resource build\processors:

ExcelProcessor, Copyright (c) 2006 Bioware Corp.
Usage:
ExcelProcessor <input XLS file[.XLS]> [-outdir=outputdir] [-debug] [-sheet=worksheetname] [-noinput] [-pause] [-nooutput]
-outdir       Specifies the directory for output files, default is current dir (no slash at end)
-target=[PC][X360][PS3] Specifies output format, default is PC
-debug        Includes the column string names in the GFF file for human-readability and debugging
-sheet        Specifies the worksheet to process, default is process all worksheets
-noinput      Never wait for user input, default is to halt on errors, wait for user input
-pause        Waits for keypress before exiting, overridden by -noinput
-nooutput     Does not write any output files. Only parses and error checks

• Run your file through the excel processor:

ExcelProcessor "fullpath\to\exptable.xls" -outdir=c:\\temp

• If the output directory was writable and everything worked well, you should find a file called 'exptable.gda' in there. This is a binarized gff v4 (generic file format) file that the game engine can read.

• Put this file into the 'packages\core\override' folder underneath your games install location. Note that on some machines you need to put it into My Documents\BioWare\Dragon Age\packages\core\override instead, so try that if it doesn't work.

• Start the game.

• Create a new character or level up an existing character using the Developer Console 'runscript addxp' command.

• If successful, your new or existing character should now have 25 tactics slots from the start.

You can modify the preset character tactics that can be selected through the in game dropdown (or add your own) by modifying the file 'AI_TacticsPresets.xls'. The file should be self explanatory.

The other AI_*.xls files provide access to the Conditions and Actions available in the tactics system, allowing the user to create their own if they wish to.

The 'packages' subdirectory contains all the AI tables (tactics tables) used by creatures in the game.