HOW TO ADD A MISC ITEM

for this tutorial we're going to look at an item thats already in the misc item file, we are going to add an item we have to go into the items folder, open the file Misc.txt and create a new line, here is where our new item will go.

Getting Started

Perhaps one of the first things you will notice is the numerous numbers and fullstops, the numbers are the items stats, the first thing we need is an item name, this is going to be a broken bottle and we will name it the same, the second number is the value of the item in $, the lowest value we can have is $1 and the maximum is $2147483647 though it is not recommended to price an item that high
Being as the item is broken we are going to price it at $2, it's not a very valuable item but it will have its uses as you will soon see,

So far your item should look like this, Broken Bottle.2.

Material Identifiers

Notice the fullstops, used to separate important values, the next thing we need is the material identifier, the bottle will be made of glass but there are many materials to select each with their own bonuses to the items, metal items for example are usually always able to be turned into scrap, here is a list of material identifiers.

1 = Metal
2 = Plastic
3 = Wood
4 = Ceramics
5 = Remains
6 = N/A
7 = Stone
8 = Glass
9 = UNUSED
10 = Paper

Magnitudes

For this item we are going to choose 8 because it is a glass item, so now we move on to the third number in the item, this is known as the magnitude, the magnitude has mutliple uses, for metal items it is used to define how much scrap a player will get from the item, we are going to be using the magnitude as we want the broken bottle be usable as a weilded weapon, so the magnitude counts as both the weapon durability and damage, 7 should suffice as the it will be sharp and do some damage but not enough to make it a worth while weapon.

Now your item should look something like this, Broken Bottle.2.8.7.

Functions

Now for the next step, item function, this is an important step, for most items this number is 0, this signifies that the item has no special function and is just a standard misc item, there are numerous functions items can have which I will list below.

1 = The item can be converted into a weapon (Magnitude is durability and damage)
2 = Weapon Repair Kit (Magnitude is the amount it will repair the weapon by)
3 = Lockpick (Magnitude is the amount of lockpicks the item gives)
4 = Dice (Magnitude is the maximum number the dice can land on, min is always 1)
5 = The item is a bong and can be used to smoke plants (Magnitude is bong durability)
6 = Medical Item (Magnitude is the amount of health it gives)
7 = Weapon Durability Upgrade Kit (Magnitude is the amount of durability it adds)
8 = Weapon Damage Upgrade Kit (Magnitude is the amount of damage it adds)
9 = Mystery Box (Magnitude is how many items it holds)
10 = Magic 8 Ball (Magnitude should be 1-4, 1 is working magic 8 ball, 2-4 are defunct in some way)
11 = Whistle (Magnitude should be greater than 0 to work, if 0 then the whistle is broken)
12 = Weight (Magnitude is the size of the weight in KGs)
13 = Music Box (Magnitude should be greater than 0 to work, if 0 then the music box is broken)
14 = Guitar (Magnitude should be greater than 0 to work, if 0 then the guitar is broken)
0 = Default for all items with no function

For this item we are going to be using 1, which is the most common, to signify that the misc item can also be converted to a weapon, items can only have one special function so pick wisely.

Conditions

Now we have the function there is only one number left, condition allowance, this number will only ever be 0 or 1, if it's 0 it means the item cannot be given any conditions such as, for example, smashed, cracked, smelly, pristine, it will instead remain standalone as it is, if the number is 1, then the item can be given conditions like most loot, it makes things more dynamic when the number is set to 1 as the item can be found in many different conditions however you may wish to disable it for certain items, in this case we are setting it to 1 because this item can have conditions attached to it.

Descriptions

We have completed the items stats and settings and have only one part left, the description, describe an item how you like, my recomendation is not to write an essay but also don't write a single word, we will keep it short and sweet with this description, when writing a description always write it as if the words 'it is' come before it, for example 'it is' A little half broken dark glass bottle, it's sharp and dangerous
That's everything done, your finished item should look something like this,

Broken Bottle.2.8.7.1.1.A little half broken dark glass bottle, it's sharp and dangerous

A few tips, don't skip out the numbers, there should be five numbers separated by dots! With all that done you should now be able to easily add your own misc items to the game, have fun!

Hey hey Wastelander! I aaaabsolutely like the fact you can make your own items for the game. Thats a nice pice of modding!
There is another question wich is flying through my mind for a long time. Could you maybe add something like a Soundtriggerfile so that we could create our own Soundpacks?
For example in a trigger.txt where you got one line looking like this:
"you swing for * but miss" = swingmiss.wav

It's only an idea!

Keep up this realy nice work!
I decided to make a break till savegames will work. But i am checking it out from time to time and i still love what you are doing!
Very best wishes from germany!
HAHA and i am still dreaming of the day you maybe will go back to finish warsim! This would be sooooo great!

Awesome idea on the mod capabilities, actually it reminds me strongly of Eamon, I'll probably be rather busy for the next few days but will have a bash at inserting an item or two to see how the system works.

Rumours would be cool, both rumours about colours of vials related to harm, and also rumours about the strength of creatures or about what caused the appocalypse, also it'd be a nice way to get some friendlier npcs into the game, sinse manifestly there must be caravans of goods or slaves wandering around, as well as nomads and refugees, and maybe even some colonists trying to setup new settlements.

Even if  we've not got the hole town system yet, perhaps some friendly encounters with camps of refugees or caravans where you spend a night by the fire, share some stewed stinking half dead striped wounded wild dire badger, and hear what's been going on, you could even recover some hp at the time as well.

Eamon were a series of adventure games for the Apple Ii computer that were mainly produced in the eighties and nineties.
Unlike most interactive fiction though, Eamon were definitely combat rpgs, so though there were some games with puzzle elements, the parser was limited, and you had a character with actual stats that fought.
The really cool thing was that the system was made to be modable ad to let you take one character through multiple games. So you started in the main hall of the guild of free adventurers where you could train stats, learn some generic magic and buy some basic weapons, however then you could start any adventure with that character, so could have your barbarian wandering through the deathstar with a broadsword or the like.

I  never played the originals, but there's a rather nice windows port called Eamon delux which ports about thirty of the original 250 odd games and an enhanced version of the main hall, (more games were going to be added but sadly the developer seems to have fallen off the map sinse we've not heard from him for a while).

The item creation system you've got in the wastes reminded me of that used in Eamon, though Eamon's being far older was much more clunky and to get stuff like character dialogue and special conditions people had to essentially add their own code.

See The Eamon adventurer's guild site  for more info on Eamon. Actually you might want to leave them a few words about The Wastes, sinse I imagine fans of Eamon would enjoy the game as well.

Npc interactions would be cool, and a random rumour system sounds like a great start.

What I'd suggest myself is that each rumour has a truth factor.
Some rumours, such as how the apocalypse started or some legends about Iguana bill or other things in the wastes have a truth rating of zero, ie, they're complete speculation.

Others have a positive or negative truth rating to decide whether they're true or false, and based on how useful the information is, the truth rating is higher or lower. For example "My cousin drank an X colour vial and got sick" would have a truth rating of either 3 or minus 3, while "X colour vials will cause your teeth to grow" has a truth rating of either 5 or minus 5.

Your character's intelligence is then compared to the truth rating, and for every ten points of intelligence, you can be sure of whether the rumour is true or false, however for every 5 points of intelligence you can make a guess that is likely to be 50 percent correct.

For example, the above rumour "My cousin drank an x coloured vial and is sick" if you had int 15 you'd get the message "Your not exactly sure but you think this is a lie" however this hunch would be %50 likely to be incorrect.
iff on the other hand you had int 30 you'd get the message "You know this is the truth"

That's why I suggest progressive truth ratings, which is another use for intelligence, at least until a perception stat is added, ---- though perhaps if your considering as mentioned on the subreddit also having int used for avoiding ambushes, maybe intelligence should be renamed whits or perception.

Anyway, lets say I think the rumours idea is awesome! .

Heeeeeey Wastelander! Dont be so harsh and hard with your self! You made a nice job! And we all had a lot of fun with this! Please please remember! You are a one man team so it was all up to you! And you also have a real life out of all this computer stuff! So again, dont be so harsh with your self! The Concept was realy realy great and something realy new in this days! I like your sense of fantasy very very much! And if you will put your hands on a new project, please please let us know and we will again have a lot of fun with it and with talking and duscussing with you! I am absolutely not pissed or angry or whatever! I had some very very nice sunday afternones with this nice pice of gaming! So i have to tell you  thanks thanks thanks and another thanks!
Get you something nice to eat and to drink and celebrate the fact you made some people very happy! Thats what matters,, OK?
Very best wishes and sorry for my sometimes bad english!:-)

Damn man, that really, really sucks.
I don't want to imagine what it'd be like for me to lose my project in progress, and its certainly not as large as yours.
Have you tried file recovery software? It might be possible to get the code back that way.

I'm sorry for your massive loss.
I wish that donating 10 or so dollars or some such would get you just a little of your code back... I know what a frustrating loss this must be, but don't give up, there's got to be a way to get the code back. there's got to be. I refuse to accept that the waists is gone, a part of me died with posts 435 and 439.
but even if this particular code is gone, what prevents you from even making something better? or if you get even a partial bit of your code back, what prevents you from continuing? I once lost a sound project I had been working on for 2 years in a computer wipe, and in my foolishness had no backups either. while I know programming is considerably harder than sound design, I didn't let defeat rule me and made something better in a matter of weeks. Don't give up on this truely wonderful game. I know it must be a bitter pill to swallow but as my English teacher once said, make that pill sweeter! do something, anything to turn that horrible news into something you can profit from!
With hope for the future,

I know this might sound like a stupid question, but is there anyway that you can retrieve the code by  decrypting the  executable file? I didn't know if that might be possible or not.

wastelander don't be hard on your self man like others said you did a great job on this game and like I said in a early post awhile back I said that my wife thought I loved this game more than her lol like I said I thought you did a fantastic job on the game and I still will enjoy playing the game. god bless you my friend.

@catfish, thanks I appreciate the support, I'm just sorry I can't see the game go where it was headed , if you check out the downloads I put up you can see the 1000s of ideas I had written down, I would go to that list daily and work away at clearing as many features as possible

@Mata, the only place that holds code is the thing that got wiped, all of the game builds aren't the code they are the result of it, I can't get any code from them

@Wastelander, that is bloody aweful! I'm incredibly sorry this happened. You have done some truly amazing work and created a really landmark game, whatever happens in the future.
Just over the time I've been playing from July onwards I've seen the thing grow hugely into a massive project that is still an amazing experience to play.

If you can get the code back somehow from keystroke logs or file recovery software or whatever method, that would of course rock, however even if this is indeed the final and last build of the wastes, that doesn't take away from what the game is now and what you've achieved.

Btw, I didn't know you accepted donations otherwise I'd have sent one.

I hope you can take care of yourself , sinse losing this amount of work is a major blow, ---- believe me, I know where of I speak on that score. But really it's not your faullt at all.

At the end of the day you've made an amazing game, and have the potential to make more amazing stuff later, indeed I've seen far crappier games than The wastes sold commercially on Ios (don't kno about steam due to it's lack of accessibility), but for the time being, please don't beat yourself up, the wastes will always be a great game that myself and others will come back to, indeed I've archived a copy of the latest build myself.