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Add armour

Designer · 20 min · No code

Result: a new chest piece, Hide Vest, that raises physical defence, costs some Agility through its weight, and shows as Light on the item details.

Before you start

How armour is put together

Armour is simpler than a weapon. Every piece of armour shares one equipment definition, Inventory/Armour/ED_XenoCore_Armour. It spawns nothing and grants one ability set, Inventory/AbilitySet_XenoCore_EquipmentStats, whose only job is to apply the piece's stats while it is worn. So a new piece of armour is one asset: its item definition.

Armour changes numbers only. It does not change how the character looks.

The sixteen shipped pieces are in Inventory/Armour, several per slot:

Slot Example
Head ID_XenoCore_PrototypeHelm
Chest ID_XenoCore_BattleArmour
Arms ID_XenoCore_BattleGauntlets
Legs ID_XenoCore_BattleLeggings
Feet ID_XenoCore_BattleBoots

Steps

1. Duplicate a piece for the same slot

  1. Create MyGame/Armour under Content.
  2. In Plugins › XenoCore Content › Inventory › Armour, right-click ID_XenoCore_BattleArmour, choose Duplicate, and move the copy into MyGame/Armour. Name it ID_MyGame_HideVest.

Fails silently: never create an item definition from blank

A new, empty item definition has no Equipment Definition. It appears in the Chest list and does nothing when chosen. Duplicate a shipped piece every time.

2. Name and describe it

  1. Open ID_MyGame_HideVest and click Class Defaults.
  2. Set Display Name to Hide Vest.
  3. In Fragments, open Xeno Core Fragment Item Display and, under XenoCore › Display, set Description and Icon.
  4. Open Xeno Core Fragment Item Category and, under XenoCore › Item, set Sell Value and Rarity (rarity). Leave Category as Equipment.

Leave Inventory Fragment Equippable Item › Equipment Definition on ED_XenoCore_Armour.

3. Choose the slot and weight class

In Xeno Core Fragment Equip Slots (XenoCore › Equipment):

  1. Allowed Slots: exactly one of Head, Chest, Arms, Legs, Feet. Keep Chest.
  2. Equip Type: Light, Medium or Heavy. This is the "Type" line on the details pane. It is a label; the gameplay cost comes from Weight below. Set Light.
  3. Gem Slots: 0 or 1, the number of gem sockets. See Add a gem.

4. Set its stats

In Inventory Fragment Set Stats, edit Initial Item Stats. Armour normally carries three:

Tag Hide Vest What it does
XenoCore.Stat.PhysicalDefence 8 Flat points taken off physical hits from enemies
XenoCore.Stat.EtherDefence 4 Flat points taken off ether hits from enemies
XenoCore.Stat.Weight 1 Subtracted from the wearer's Agility for hit and evade rolls

Values are whole numbers. Every equipped piece adds up, so a full set of five pieces gives five times these numbers. Any other XenoCore.Stat.* tag works on armour too; see Add a stat to equipment.

Pitch defence against your enemies' Strength

Enemy damage is Strength − defence, so defence that is large compared with an enemy's Strength makes that enemy harmless. Early-game pieces in the shipped set carry single-digit defence per slot. Tune armour and enemy statlines together.

Weight shows as its own row

Weight does not lower the Agility number on the character sheet. The sheet shows Agility and Weight as two rows, and the subtraction happens when a hit is rolled. More Weight shows in red on the comparison block, because for this one stat, more is worse.

Compile and Save.

5. Put it in the bag

  1. Open a starting party member's pawn, for example Kael, Characters/VRoid/Kael/B_XenoCore_Party_VRoid_L. A member's Starting Inventory reaches the party bag when its body first spawns, so a member who joins later brings it only then.
  2. In Components, select Equipment Component. Add an entry to XenoCore › Equipment › Starting Inventory: Item Definition ID_MyGame_HideVest, Count 1.
  3. Compile and Save.

Test it

  1. Open Maps/L_XenoCore_Gym and press Play (not Continue: a save remembers the old bag).
  2. Open the menu (pad Y, keyboard I), go to Equipment, choose a character and the Chest slot.
  3. Hide Vest is listed. Its comparison block shows Physical Def +8, Ether Def +4, Weight +1.
  4. Equip it. The character's totals rise by those amounts.
  5. With the Chest row focused, the unequip prompt appears in the bottom bar. Use it: the totals drop back.

If it doesn't work

Fails silently: it equips and adds nothing

The piece's Equipment Definition points somewhere other than ED_XenoCore_Armour, or that definition's ability set was changed. Armour's stats come only from AbilitySet_XenoCore_EquipmentStats on ED_XenoCore_Armour. If you make your own armour equipment definition, grant that set, and do not grant GA_XenoCore_WeaponDrawSync, or the armour tries to draw itself like a weapon.

Hide Vest is not in the list at all

You pressed Continue on a save made before the change, or the Starting Inventory entry is on a member who is not in the starting party. Start with Play in the editor or New Game, and add it to Kael.

Fails silently: the item is listed but choosing it does nothing

The item definition was created blank instead of duplicated, so it has no Equipment Definition (step 1).

It appears under the wrong slot, or under several

Allowed Slots lists more than one slot, or the wrong one. The item is offered in every slot it lists.

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