Risen Message Board  

The following article assumes knowledge of hexeditors ,editing of data, and good old dos commands ^^

After going over a ton of internet sites (xentax forum) (deepsilver risen forum) (aluigi.org) reading about articles how to change images,.pak extractors etc.
I wanted to change weapon damage ,(and NOT directly changing that in templates.pak),
and using the information given above in said sites, i managed to mod a weapon template file, and a shield template file,
to give it more damage, less strenght needed (weapon), and more resistance to damages (shield)

I found out that, after extracting templates.pak, and placing for example It_BS_TitanSword.tple, (after changing some data in those files)
(for the shield i used It_Shield_Rune.tple), and placing those files in
C:\Users\"accountname"\AppData\Local\Risen\data\templates
(this is for windows 7 and vista), (the data folder and inside there the templates folder need to be made first)

that Risen game reads this modded files outside of templates.pak (they dont bite eachother so to speak).
so for weapon and or other item modding this is the place to change da stuff

All and all this needs the use of a hex editor which can be had (freeware) from different internet sites.
Since there arent (yet) modding tools and nice extracting (guis) tools, extracting is done with a command tool like the old DOS zip tool
for this i used aluigi QuickBMS tool (thanks go to him for this wonderful tool), and his BMS script file that he made for Risen, which can be found on his site.
The files from his site are to be placed inside the risen folder, for example c:\program files\deep silver\risen\data\common
Inside the common folder is templates.pak located , which we need to extract , i used the same name, so i made a folder named templates
I named the script file templates.bms

Ok now the important stuff ^^

1: Open command.com (start run ,(in that little window type Cmd) (A dos command window opens)
2: Type cd.. till it shows c:\>
3: Type cd "c:\program files\deep silver\risen\data\common"
3a: If your risen folder is for example on D: you should type cd "d:\program files\deep silver\risen\data\common"
4: After typing above named cd command it shows again c:\>, so be sure you type d: then it shows d:\program files\deep silver\risen\data\common>
5: Next the extracting itself: type Quickbms templates.bms templates.pak templates

6: If all is well you should see a lot files passing by (getting extracted) into the templates folder including subfolders.
After a few moments quickbms is finished extracting and we can close Dosbox again

7: We use windows explorer for the rest of the session so open up the risen game folder,
and locate c:\program files\deep silver\risen\data\common\templates\items\weapon_swords\It_BS_TitanSword.tple
8: copy It_BS_TitanSword.tple into C:\Users\"accountname"\AppData\Local\Risen\data\templates

9: Run the hexeditor and open It_BS_TitanSword.tple
10 Find hex string 9F 00 42 00 1E 00 04 00 00 00 14 : 14 hex= 20 decimal which is the damage this sword standard does
of course one need to give this sword at first with the game console command "give It_BS_TitanSword 1"
change 9F 00 42 00 1E 00 04 00 00 00 14 to: 9F 00 42 00 1E 00 04 00 00 00 FF ff hex= 255 decimal, which will be 255 damage in game
change 9F 00 42 00 1E 00 04 00 00 00 14 to: 9F 00 42 00 1E 00 04 00 00 00 FF FF ffff hex=65535 decimal so that will be a nice damage ^^

CAUTION: your "hexeditor" needs to be put in overwrite mode because you cant add any data, we just replace exsisting data, else ya wont see any difference
damage wise in game when you look at your weapon in game. so we need to overtype the 14 hex into for example FF, so be carefull.

11: next the strenght needed hex string
Find hex string 41 00 42 00 1E 00 04 00 00 00 4B
4B hex= 75 decimal which is if i am correct the default needed strenght to use weapon
change 41 00 42 00 1E 00 04 00 00 00 4B to: 41 00 42 00 1E 00 04 00 00 00 0A
0A hex = 10 Decimal so you need now 10 strenght to use weapon

CAUTION: After you are done with editing of the sword be sure you dont forget to save in the hexeditor the file you edited of course ^^

12: next the shield
in windows explorer locate C:\Program Files\Deep Silver\Risen\data\common\Templates\Items\Shields\It_Shield_Rune.tple
copy It_Shield_Rune.tple into C:\Users\"accountname"\AppData\Local\Risen\data\templates

13: Run the hexeditor and open It_Shield_Rune.tple
14: Find hex string 9E 00 42 00 1E 00 04 00 00 00 04
04 hex= 4 decimal better said the shield does 4 damage? lol not sure if changing this is interesting.

15: Find hex string: 41 00 42 00 1E 00 04 00 00 00 06 you will find it 6 times . this are the resistances that are on the shield
change 41 00 42 00 1E 00 04 00 00 00 06 into 41 00 42 00 1E 00 04 00 00 00 FF so this will give 255 resistance
Find next string: 41 00 42 00 1E 00 04 00 00 00 06 change 06 into FF
do this for all the following 41 00 42 00 1E 00 04 00 00 00 06 occurences you find ( 6 total)
change the 06 into FF

CAUTION: After you are done with editing of the shield be sure you dont forget to save in the hexeditor the file you edited of course ^^

END: close hexeditor and all stuff thats still opened on your desktop and start game , and enjoy your buffed up weapon damage and shield ^^
Happy "Rising" ^^

i would like to thank the guys in xentax forum, deep silver forum and luigi Auriemma, without their info this couldnt be done in the 1st place.


[Edited by jackbig, 10/10/2009 5:54:01 PM]

I feel like saying thanks, for gathering this, and sharing with us, but since there are console and trainers, i don't know if it is of much importance.
Of course, in future community mods or expansions, this info will be valuable.
The best thing about your post is the part of editing requirements for specific items, so a mage player who doesn't prefer cheating, may use every weapon with lower stats, but i think it's kind of cheating anyway. As i said, your post will be quite valuable in future modding (I hope there will be some good mods).
You may make one

I, personally, would like to see a mod: spawning chests with all kinds of items in the game. This requires editing of loot-tables and of course, the positioning of the chests. Not the easiest task, but I think it could be done. (I haven't had a look at those yet, I don't have much time to figure out these things nowadays).

And one that's easier (maybe): copying the "Titan Lord" armor and helmet, so the copied one doesn't have the script which updates your quests, that way it could be spawned from console, while not screwing up the game. That mod would be a good start for one who would like to mod this game.

[Edited by DReCHo, 10/10/2009 9:21:53 PM]

Thanks for the kind words DReCHo
Yes of course this little Tutorial is all about
cheating, but then this is a specialistic site
mostly about trainers and what all. I didnt had the
intention to make or call this a mod, but wanted to
try if the game was able to use a altered tple, without
changing template.pak itself. And maybe for future modders
can be important to know it can be done.
your point about the titan lord armor, would mean sort of
a new custom armor, which indeed need a lot more things
to change then my simple hexedit

Yea you posted it in the right place of course
Well, about that armor... everything has a start before it's done, there may be more ways to start making it, and if you'd decide to make something similar, hex editing is a good start imho. The hardest part about these games is studying and understanding of the structure, how the game engine handles certain files / strings. And of course their correspondence.

"10 Find hex string 9F 00 42 00 1E 00 04 00 00 00 14 : 14 hex= 20 decimal which is the damage this sword standard does
of course one need to give this sword at first with the game console command "give It_BS_TitanSword 1"
change 9F 00 42 00 1E 00 04 00 00 00 14 to: 9F 00 42 00 1E 00 04 00 00 00 FF ff hex= 255 decimal, which will be 255 damage in game
change 9F 00 42 00 1E 00 04 00 00 00 14 to: 9F 00 42 00 1E 00 04 00 00 00 FF FF ffff hex=65535 decimal so that will be a nice damage ^^"

That is wrong.

for 65535 the last 4 digits would be

04 00 00 FF FF and not 04 00 00 00 FF FF

Hi Dab yeps i agree in normal case this would be like you said
04 00 00 FF FF . I tested it in game but then weapon damage is 255
meaning those 00 00 00 need to be there, so indeed 9F 00 42 00 1E 00 04 00 00 00 FF FF gives the weapon 65535 damage

So that means that the damage is a 16bit unsigned integer and the last two octets of 9F 00 42 00 1E 00 04 00 00 00 FF FF determine the damage.

This means you can change the damage from anything between 1 (01 00) to 65535 (FF FF)

For Example, if you wanted to change it to be 10000 damage, you would set it to 10 27 (2710 is 10000 in hexadecimal)

If you feel like you'd like to "cheat less" you could set it to something lower like 500 (F4 01) and that way you won't be one shotting everything at higher level.

Jack, do you have a list of the specific offsets for the item type? That way, if you want to edit a different weapon/armor, you can just go to the offset instead of searching for a specific string that might not be there in a different piece of gear.

[Edited by Raalgra, 10/11/2009 11:05:55 AM]

indeed FF FF is a 1 shot kill, setting it to 255 is not so bad either but i didnt see much difference in game hitting someone with 255 damage . by the way 65535 is not max i tested it with FF FF FF = 16.777.215 decimal. i put the string here and the rest of the following data 9F 00 42 00 1E 00 04 00 00 00 FF FF
FF 00 A0 00 0E 00 1E 00 04 00 00 00 00 00 80 3F 72


no sorry i dont have such a list but that string 9F 00 42 00 1E 00 04 00 00 00 is used in a lot weapons in game, only at times that 9F is different, its then for instance 9B or 9D or 9E.for the shield It_Shield_Rune.tple its 9E 00 42 00 1E 00 04 00 00 00 04 the rest of the string stays the same

[Edited by jackbig, 10/11/2009 11:29:21 AM]

[Edited by jackbig, 10/11/2009 11:30:58 AM]

[Edited by jackbig, 10/11/2009 11:35:58 AM]