Tutorial #3: Adding Art Objects

By Richard Avery (Loric) (Richard@spectraproducts.com)
doc version 1.0

This tutorial will introduce a method for adding items to the art object table.

The first file we will be taking a look at is the "art.bsk" file. This is the first file that I was able to add items to, and one of the easiest. The art files, as they stand, are great, but if you're like me they just don't have enough as far as inventory. If you were going to use the treasure generator for a prolonged period of time, your players would have tons of "brass mugs with jade inlays," and they would probably start to get sick of it. So, let's add some more items. Find the file "art.bsk" and open it up in a text editor (it will probably be in "C:\Program Files\JamisBuck\Treasure\dat\standard", unless you installed the treasure generator somewhere else).

The "art.bsk" file is relatively small, only 3-4 pages. When you open up the file you will see some text and words that seem a little confusing, but on about the 4th line you will see a line that says

{ .name "silver ewer" }

This is the type of item line that the database looks for. An important thing to look at is the category section above the items. For example, the first category is group55gpart, meaning that the average value of any item in this category should be near that amount. In other words, if you want to add an item that is a "small jade necklace," don't add it under the 7000gp category unless there is a reason that a small jade necklace would be worth on average 7000 gold pieces.

So let's add an item: "a small crystal ring." We will say it is worth about 55 gold pieces. We can simply add the following line after the "category" keyword and before the "end" keyword:

{ .name "a small crystal ring" }

So now instead of it saying:

category group55gpArt
	{ .name "silver ewer" }
	{ .name "carved bone statuette" }
	{ .name "carved ivory statuette" }
	{ .name "finely wrought small gold bracelet" }
end

It would say:

category group55gpArt
	{ .name "silver ewer" }
	{ .name "carved bone statuette" }
	{ .name "carved ivory statuette" }
	{ .name "finely wrought small gold bracelet" }
	{ .name "a small crystal ring" }
end

Now, save the file. Your new item won't appear yet when you generate treasure, however -- you still need to recompile the database. To do this, open up the treasure generator and select the "Tools" menu. Then select "compile database," which will open up a "Compile Scripts" window. As long as you didn't move the location of the original file you shouldn't need to change anything here; just hit "compile." It will take a few seconds to compile the data files, and when it has finished you will get a window saying, "The requested database has been compiled and loaded, and is now the current database." Just press OK.

Now, generate some treasure! For testing, I recommend having the console on Auto-Clear set the encounter level for 20, and select "No Gems." You should get a decent return on the items, but it may take you about 15-30 generations to get your new item. But keep doing it until you make sure it works.

Bang! You now know how to add art items to database!

Back to the tutorial index

Last modified on 23 Feb 2001 by Jamis Buck (minam@rpgplanet.com)