Inscription (overview)
Inscriptions are permanent extra effects carved into an item at the Chaos Goblin. Every eligible item gets a Potential budget (0-100) the first time a player gets it. Players spend that budget in chaos mixes to open slots, fill them with an inscription, and empower inscriptions to higher tiers. When the budget is gone, the item is finished.
Pages#
| Page | File | What it holds |
|---|---|---|
| Inscription.xml | Inscription.xml | Master switch, which items qualify, Potential bands, reroll jewel, slot rules |
| Pools.xml | Pools.xml | The inscriptions themselves: what they do, costs, tiers, catalysts |
| Recipes.xml | Recipes.xml | The chaos machine recipes: open, inscribe, empower, Forbidden |
File Location#
Data/Plugins/Inscription/
Inscription.xml
Pools.xml
Recipes.xml
Dependencies#
| Depends On | Purpose |
|---|---|
| ChaosMix Recipes | Recipes.xml uses the same <Recipe> format; the recipes are added to the chaos machine at load |
| ChaosMix Formulas | SuccessRate FormulaId of each recipe |
| OptionIndex Reference | OptionIndex of Amplify / Convert / Defiled inscriptions |
| Skill.txt | Skill of Alter inscriptions |
| Effect.xml | Effect of Rider inscriptions |
| ItemStack.xml | Catalyst and payment jewels must stack |
| GameStrings.xml | Window and recipe text, ids 11200-11278 |
| GameMaster.xml | Who may use /insc |
| DataServer | Table dbo.ItemExt (ItemSerial bigint, Data varbinary(128), Updated datetime). Run the shipped dbo.ItemExt.Table.sql once |
| Client | Receives the inscription list at login (game data sync type 37) and each item's record when it shows a tooltip |
How It Works for Players#
- Potential. An eligible item rolls its Potential once, the first time it lands in a player's inventory, warehouse or chaos box. The tooltip shows it.
- Open a slot. Chaos Goblin, Inscription tab: item + 10 Jewel of Chaos. Costs Potential (the slot's
OpenCost). - Inscribe. Fill the first open slot:
- Pick: item + one catalyst jewel + 10 Chaos + 10 Bless. The catalyst decides the inscription.
- Random: item + 10 Chaos + 10 Soul. Rolled from what fits the item and the player's class.
- Forbidden: item + 10 Soul. Cheap and random, but a failure corrupts the slot forever.
- Empower. Item + the inscription's catalyst + 10 Bless + 10 Soul. Raises it one tier. No catalyst = empowers a random-only inscription.
The Inscription tab shows a live panel: Potential left, each slot, the cost of the mix, and why a mix cannot run. Hovering a catalyst shows what it inscribes for your class.
Potential Bands (shipped)#
| Item | Potential |
|---|---|
| Plain (no excellent / ancient / socket / harmony / 380) | 50-100 |
| Excellent, ancient (set) or socket | 25-45 |
| Harmony or 380 | 35-60 |
Plain items get the biggest budget on purpose: they have nothing else going for them. The roll happens once and never again, so a plain item upgraded later keeps its high Potential. An optional reroll jewel can re-roll an untouched item (off by default).
Permanence#
- An inscription can never be removed or rerolled. Make it stronger with Empower.
- An item never holds the same inscription twice.
- A corrupted slot is dead forever (it can feed "Defiled" inscriptions, see Pools.xml).
- Removing an inscription from
Pools.xmlmakes it dormant on items (no effect), not deleted. Put it back and it works again. Never renumber an entryId.
Where the Data Lives#
The record is stored per item serial in dbo.ItemExt, not in the item itself. It follows the item everywhere:
| Action | Record |
|---|---|
| Trade, warehouse, drop and pick up, Market (personal store), Sell Post | Kept, goes with the item |
| +10..+15 chaos upgrade, harmony restore, 380 mix, socket seed mount / unmount | Kept (the item keeps its serial) |
| Sold to an NPC | Deleted |
| Consumed by a chaos mix | Deleted. Other mixes that would eat an item with spent Potential follow SerialReplace (see Inscription.xml) |
| Despawns on the ground | Deleted |
Only non-stackable items with a real serial can carry a record.
Bound items (recipes with Bind="onInscribe"): cannot be traded, dropped, put in the guild vault or listed on the Market, and their inscriptions only work for the bound character.
GM Commands#
Needs a GameMaster.xml entry with Level 1 or higher. Every command works on the item in the first inventory slot (top-left).
| Command | Effect |
|---|---|
/insc info | Print serial, Spent / Potential, the three slots (entry:tier:state) and the bound name |
/insc pot <n> | Set Potential to n (0-100). Creates a record if none exists |
/insc set <slot> <entryId> <tier> | Put an inscription in slot 1-3 at tier 0-7. entryId 0 = empty open slot |
/insc corrupt <slot> | Corrupt slot 1-3 |
/insc clear | Delete the item's record |
Slot states in info: 0 closed, 1 open, 2 filled, 3 corrupted.
Important Behavior#
- Turning the system off (no license or
Enabled="0") keeps all records. While it is off, any item that carries a record is refused by other chaos mixes ("An item in the box cannot be used in this mix.") so its data is never lost by accident. Serial-keeping mixes (+10..+15, harmony restore, 380, seed spheres) still work. Bound items can be traded while the system is off. - An inscribed item that is broken (0 durability) or that the character cannot wear gives nothing.
- All mixes are logged in the ChaosMix log as
[InscriptionMix][Success]/[InscriptionMix][Failure]; rerolls as[InscriptionReroll]. - Reload:
/reload pluginsre-reads all three files, re-adds the recipes and recalculates online players. The client inscription list is sent at login, so players relog to see new names and text.