Is is possible to add new spells?

[Auric]

There isn't much info on that around here and I've personally never seen it done before. The main reason I ask is because I had gotten a great idea for a new spell. I was looking at the On Target (2) Earth Dragon spell and I thought it'd be neat to make a similar spell but rather then a dragon's head, jagged stone spikes would erupt from the ground.

[HwitVlf]

I have never added a completely new spell, but I'm pretty sure what you're describing is doable. I think the "on target" spell is an animated MDL file. So you would make a similar animated model of rock-spears that started below ground and then jabbed up above ground level.

Then you would find the "on target" dragon head entry in the SFX.dat file and copy it's entry to a different 'slot' in the sfx.dat and change the entry to refer to the new rock MDL.

Lastly, you would make a new spell PRF file that pointed to the new spell slot.

None of that is as hard as it probably sounds and I'd be willing to help with the SFX.dat stuff if you'd like to make the animated model of rock spears.   

[Auric]

I don't know how to make animated models...

[HwitVlf]

Ah, that's OK. Do you want to make this spell for your game, or were you just asking out of curiosity?

EDIT: I should mention that I don't think all spells need animated models. For example, I think projectile spells are non animated, rocks arrows and such which the SoM engine propels forward.

[Auric]

A bit of both really, but I did want to use it for my game. There seems to be very few earth themed spells to work with.

[HwitVlf]

Spells are often made up of multiple animated models chained together- like the Earth Elemental rock-hurl spell; it has one model that shows the rock rising out of the ground, then a second non-animated model of the boulder which is hurled toward the player.

The on-target dragon spell is also made of two separate models- the rising dragon, and then a non-animated ring which expands out from the center. 

Attached are a couple new animated models to replace the dragon spell with a rock spell. The models aren't great, but if you put  0220.mdl and 0221.mdl in SoM's  DATA\SFX\MODEL folder, the dragon spell will become rock spikes. You'll want to back up the original files first. Also included is the MQO files so you can edit them if you like.

So it looks like you can overwrite existing spells with new ones quite easily, and probably make completely new ones by editing SFX.dat, but I don't have time to test that right now.  Hopefully someone will make a spell editor. Cool!

[Auric]

Sweet! I honestly wasn't expecting this. Thanks! 

[HwitVlf]

I seem to have completely bungled the MQO file for the rock spell. I just checked tried to open it and apparently I never saved the final spell as an MQO (.x only). The files I attached earlier were just a non animated mess. I have no idea how I pulled off something so stupid, but I will try to remake the models correctly when I get time and post a decent animated MQO/MQX model. Sorry about that!

[Auric]

I didn't even notice. I haven't been working on my project recently although I'm sure I'll be getting back to it soon.