I appreciate you taking the time to make this, regardless if experienced or not-- makes the process of modding weapons/armor so much less intimidating in the toolkit!
SOLVED: My problem is the exact one you had in the video. I made an item, but when I went to spawn it, it would not show up in the item list. I tried to make a copy, save root IDs, etc, but still nothing. SOLUTION: Turns out, after you make an item and save it (and see the green check mark), you need to unload and reload the level for it to be added to the list of spawnable items. That is why you were able to spawn in the sword you made from a previous mod, but were unable to spawn in the armor you were currently making. To do this, look for File at the top left and then simply reload WLD_Crashsite_D
Bro great video, it was actually a really good learning process following your video. I managed to make a mod just to turn a longsword into a finesse weapon, thanks so much! earned a like and a sub man. You definitely deserve more, I learned more from this than any other guide.
I am following along and excited to join the modding community. There are three items I hope to make and want to take a stab at adding in the invocation Eldritch Smite (and maybe updating the double-smite issue so they proc separately). This will be an amazing first step. I do want to throw in there that the first half of the video IS accurate, the item just doesn't populate in the list until you reload the debug environment (at time of writing, I just knew to save and shut it all down, lol. There's definitely an easier way to reload the world).
eldritch smite is totally doable check the spells vid i have up should get you at least part of the way also look at the feats classes one as you'll need to do some progressions and spell list edits
Thanks for watching all Just to note, I have deleted the winzip file now that was causing that popup haha And I know a couple of things I get a little wrong, but since no tutorials up, functional understanding is better than clueless Phew, hope this helps
v nice guide !! currently having issues trying to access project settings as it comes up with some .net framework error, but still excited being able to test it in the meantime and see that item alterations are in effect
EDIT: As answered by the pin/like, in order to place the object in the world one simply has to do so using the 'charcter mode' once spawnItem has been done. Might be simpler ways, i just started modding. Have now added a mace for my Paladin PT in the Lathander temple. Will get back to you with results.
Love the video, I was wondering if have any insight on editing two armors? great example I'm trying combine the dark justiciar mask to a hood but I kinda don't understand what I should be doing
Are you trying to attach the visual mask to a hood? I can't help much there I'm afraid, I assume you will want to create new from one of the models. Then likely use the two model files in an external program and combine them. Then create a new item and change the visual model it uses on the sidebar (when you double click it in root menu or right click and edit, the sidebar will come up on the left side) Then you find your new model in the drop down Then go to stats and put that new item as the root file and look at the DJhelm and Mask and combine their stats
Thank you so much for making this I’ve been giving it a listen while I’m at work to prepare for when I can sit down and mess with the toolkit. Curious if you intend on unlocking it with the mod that was released a few days ago?
I miss Never Winter Nights Tool Kit which allowed Moder's to create their own stories. Please Larian. Give us a tool set like that in the Divinity world. ❤❤❤
Just from what I have done so far with the toolkit , I expect we will see some pretty complex mods that will add new adventures. It appears that MUCH of the world can be modded. Not sure about actual 'terrain' but it looks like almost everything else can be modded. I'm thinking about replacing the Owlbear in chap 1 with a dragon 0_o. Maybe spreading pieces of a dragon killing sword/McGuffin all over to be collected to kill it or somesuch. Not saying I will actually do this... just saying it looks like such things will be possible.
Great tutorial, thank you! I was wondering if you could give some insight about how to equip certain Npc with items. I have created and added a sword and a armor to the toolkit and want to equip Zevlor with these items instead of the ones he uses originally. Is this something you are familiar with?
Totally possible, I think in stats, equipment in probably the shared drop-down, find zevlor, right click to override in your mod, then go to your drop-down and change what is on zevlor, they auto wear best equipment I think too
Appreciate the response, I think I found the part you are talking about but it looks like I can only change the items to predetermined selections. Like Sword-leather-dagger etc. Maybe I am in the wrong place or do I need to create a equipment combo in a list some other place before I can add them to NPC. @@ChemikalInk
@@dess4001 If you create the item, afterwards you can search in that bar and it should show the name. The only weird thing is... For whatever reason if you input it into the game this way it will only show as the root item It will have the stats, but if the root item is a glaive like i did for bane of avernus, the thing karlach holds is a glaive, not the thing. But yeah, persist, it should be doable I've managed to do it, but the toolkit is a bit finicky
For anyone else struggling with not being able to spawn their items, or stats not updating: just close the tool and open it again. It seems the tool doesn't always reload/update content properly while working. A simple restart seems to fix it.
Okay first thank you so much for this guide! I got everything down in this guide. My only issue now is when my character holds the weapon he holds it too high up on the blade. It looks fine on his back though .
You should just change the animation, it might be set to like spear or something. Edit the root template of the item, find the animations part, and select a different one. That ought to do it
should be able to find a text method for that on the mod io guides I've never done it and wouldn't know where to get the meshes xD If you tell me where to get a mesh to do I could, might take me a lil bit tho
So I'm starting my own mod, I've never made a mod for any game in my entire life, but I would like to learn how to make a new Class for BG3, do you think you could demonstrate that, or how to get started on one .... I've been inspired by the new class that's coming to the Diablo 4 game "Spiritborn" and I would love to see that being added into BG3 lol!
Making a class is a bit beyond me at the moment, but you will find most of the information for that on my other video about spells. Um, its mostly the stuff in progressions you would need to change I think, but I'm not 100% sure.
Are there any further insights you have found since this video dropped, regarding weapon stats? Seems that no matter what I change in Stats Editor, the skills or stats do not get added to my weapon. This includes reloading/restarting the editor too
right click on the item in your mod file, select edit, scroll down on the sidebar that comes up until you reach stats for the weapon, and type in the name you have for the new weapon stats if you've done that then I'm not really sure what the issue is, I know someone else in the comments had difficulty with things not working toolkit might be a bit buggy so might have to try a few computer literate things I don't know much more than that though
@@ChemikalInk Thanks again, man! I think I might have found the issue.. for some reason, when I set a specific weapon (to be the template) as the "parent" in Stats-->Weapon (in the Stats Editor), it won't work or show up unless I create a custom variation of said "parent" weapon to be the template to use, instead. I could again just be doing it wrong as I myself am not that experienced, but every template and/or skill I want to have on my custom weapon, I have to steal the details from Shared/SharedDev/Gustav/GustavDev and basically make a copy of it, and referencing my custom weapon TO those copies-- instead of the original
Hi I wanted a modder's help with something silly I wanted to make a simple mod for my gameplay of a boot with some buffs, I did everything right in the editing and selection of existing resources But when it comes to adding my item to a treasure table, I simply can't make it appear (whether in tut_chest or any other) Do you have any tips for something I'm missing? Using the bg3 toolkit
if you find the new mod for the toolkit unlocked, you can then input the items directly into the game, there is a vid on youtube showing it i think spawning it otherwise requires a script?? I think you might be able to do things via treasure tables with the normal toolkit but, you'll just need to test around I haven't done it yet I just put it on characters equipment, and doing that actually makes the name of the item and its animations code from the root, rather than the new uuid (so is not ideal)
Thanks for the video! I can't test the levels though. Karlach or any other spawns for me to control. I see only the level. I can navigate normally through it with WASD and the mouse, but even on Game Mode, there is no character. Any suggestions?
Press control+t on the map Just in case maybe the character is lost somewhere, that will teleport them to a location you point out? When you press i does the inventory open?
This has helped so much! Small problem though. When I go into game mode, the game UI doesn't pop up and I can't open my inventory or anything. Do you know how to fix this?
Right click, create new from that item (or something like that) Then it should appear in the folder at the bottom of the root menu and be moddable Also you can only edit stats underneath your mods dropdown If you want to override an in game resource you have to right click on it, and override (but that will also appear in your mod stat dropdown)
Hey mate,first of all huge thanks for showing how stats and stuff work in this monstrosity called "official toolkit". I have a question: How does model import work here? Say I want to swap Nyrulna or any other trident with my custom model, there are literally zero guides how to actually import and align weapon models and textures via modkit, only how to setup the files....I've looked up on Larian discord either, there are no guides there as well. (Not sure if old tools like Equipment Generator and polymath and gonna work properly with patch 7, would like to make stuff in official kit)
@@MichaelSRocha This is beyond me, all I know is there is a mod io page that talks about inserting textures and such. And there is a video if you search "bg3 toolkit" that goes on about how to import a character head. It goes through some finicky pathing details thing. I don't know if thats it, or you've already done that properly. From my guess tho, I think there are two kinds of object Root and Override (or create new) Only if all the options are input in a way that is compatible with the root will it allow an override. So if its not showing, my guess is that something isn't lining up with the root. Or there is some other step required to let it override like you want. I say this cuz usually when certain things break it returns to root properties.
Hi, first of all thank you very much for the video. I've been editing in the Divinity original sin engine for almost 6 years now and many options in this editing engine are the same. Unfortunately, Larian blocked many options and it is almost impossible to build deep mods that will upgrade the game. (such as new maps or embedding objects into existing maps) It is not clear to me why they chose to do this... a really, really shame. Hopefully this will change soon. If anyone knows of a way to do this, I would really appreciate it. Thank you very much.
They did this probably because WOTC wouldn’t allow Larian to put this in the game due to licensing. Although with there already being a mod to unlock these features, I wouldn’t be surprised if Larian left them in on purpose so that people could bypass this
@@aidanclarke5476 OMFSM! I just found it. And yuppers, ALL the stuff that we modders wanted, but were told we wasnt getting... Terrain/Map/Dialog editors etc etc etc ARE UNLOCKED! Granted, I have no clue if any of it works, or how to use it 'Yet?' but this is a whole order of magnitude more modding.
The root templates, unselect everything except the orange one (second from left), and search in the search bar just under the screen that shows the game. Look up ring for example, and it will provide a bunch of items that match the search, then right click on the one you like, and create new from
Can you please tell me how to make a permanent passive like booal's blessing or the eye passives we get in the game. It always bothered me that although worship of kuo-tao give people power like booal, when we save them it doesn't give us any power or passive although they start to worship us. So i want to make at least a simple passive buff to reward the players for doing the right thing. But i don't know how to make a spell or passşve effect can you please show an example on how to make one?
I'm looking into it now. I know it has to do with the UUID object editor just to the right of the stats editor. I'm just a pleb at this so, I may just fail and give up after half an hour or so, but I'll look.
UUID object editor, shared, progressions has some stuff that might relate... Sorry I had to give up for now... I'll keep it in mind when I search around tho
You can change eratz' eye that volo gives you, go in stat, create new armour, and in the parent field you can load eratz eye and alter that with whatever passives you want on it. Its not booals, but its close
If anyone doesn't know there is a very helpful resource for modding if you click the '?' Icon on the top bar. I would post a link but youtube might nuke the comment if I do
Okay not really very helpful when you don't show proof of concept. You figured out how to be able to spawn an item in game but never end up showing us that, or that the stats ever changed on the item.
I will say thanks for trying to make a tutorial. But this is the most painful to watch tutorial Ive ever seen. With the "sooo ummm" cut out would probably be a 10 minute vid. A re upload of this tutorial with a planned pre written script would be very helpful instead of just winging it for 30 minutes.
I appreciate you taking the time to make this, regardless if experienced or not-- makes the process of modding weapons/armor so much less intimidating in the toolkit!
SOLVED:
My problem is the exact one you had in the video. I made an item, but when I went to spawn it, it would not show up in the item list. I tried to make a copy, save root IDs, etc, but still nothing.
SOLUTION:
Turns out, after you make an item and save it (and see the green check mark), you need to unload and reload the level for it to be added to the list of spawnable items. That is why you were able to spawn in the sword you made from a previous mod, but were unable to spawn in the armor you were currently making. To do this, look for File at the top left and then simply reload WLD_Crashsite_D
Awesome!
Thank you.
Very bueno 🔥
if in doubt, turn to the comment sections knowing that someone had the exact same problem
Bro great video, it was actually a really good learning process following your video. I managed to make a mod just to turn a longsword into a finesse weapon, thanks so much! earned a like and a sub man. You definitely deserve more, I learned more from this than any other guide.
thanks a lot
glad it could help like that
fortunately more and more guides are slowly coming out as people figure it out
I am following along and excited to join the modding community. There are three items I hope to make and want to take a stab at adding in the invocation Eldritch Smite (and maybe updating the double-smite issue so they proc separately). This will be an amazing first step.
I do want to throw in there that the first half of the video IS accurate, the item just doesn't populate in the list until you reload the debug environment (at time of writing, I just knew to save and shut it all down, lol. There's definitely an easier way to reload the world).
eldritch smite is totally doable check the spells vid i have up should get you at least part of the way
also look at the feats classes one as you'll need to do some progressions and spell list edits
Thanks for watching all
Just to note, I have deleted the winzip file now that was causing that popup haha
And I know a couple of things I get a little wrong, but since no tutorials up, functional understanding is better than clueless
Phew, hope this helps
v nice guide !! currently having issues trying to access project settings as it comes up with some .net framework error, but still excited being able to test it in the meantime and see that item alterations are in effect
EDIT: As answered by the pin/like, in order to place the object in the world one simply has to do so using the 'charcter mode' once spawnItem has been done. Might be simpler ways, i just started modding.
Have now added a mace for my Paladin PT in the Lathander temple. Will get back to you with results.
This was SO helpful
Love the video, I was wondering if have any insight on editing two armors? great example I'm trying combine the dark justiciar mask to a hood but I kinda don't understand what I should be doing
Are you trying to attach the visual mask to a hood?
I can't help much there I'm afraid, I assume you will want to create new from one of the models.
Then likely use the two model files in an external program and combine them.
Then create a new item and change the visual model it uses on the sidebar (when you double click it in root menu or right click and edit, the sidebar will come up on the left side)
Then you find your new model in the drop down
Then go to stats and put that new item as the root file and look at the DJhelm and Mask and combine their stats
Thank you so much for making this I’ve been giving it a listen while I’m at work to prepare for when I can sit down and mess with the toolkit.
Curious if you intend on unlocking it with the mod that was released a few days ago?
Yeah, why not, I'm probably not good enough to use it but I'll give it a go. Just downloaded the dll patch (shrugs)
@@ChemikalInk I believe in you my man 💪
Thanks so much for this. Do you happen to have any extra info on some of the other vanilla console commands useful for modders?
I miss Never Winter Nights Tool Kit which allowed Moder's to create their own stories. Please Larian. Give us a tool set like that in the Divinity world. ❤❤❤
Just from what I have done so far with the toolkit , I expect we will see some pretty complex mods that will add new adventures. It appears that MUCH of the world can be modded. Not sure about actual 'terrain' but it looks like almost everything else can be modded.
I'm thinking about replacing the Owlbear in chap 1 with a dragon 0_o. Maybe spreading pieces of a dragon killing sword/McGuffin all over to be collected to kill it or somesuch. Not saying I will actually do this... just saying it looks like such things will be possible.
Someone's already unlocked the toolkit. Search Nexus for BG3 Toolkit Unlocked.
Super helpful! Thanks 🙏🏻
Great tutorial, thank you!
I was wondering if you could give some insight about how to equip certain Npc with items. I have created and added a sword and a armor to the toolkit and want to equip Zevlor with these items instead of the ones he uses originally. Is this something you are familiar with?
Totally possible, I think in stats, equipment in probably the shared drop-down, find zevlor, right click to override in your mod, then go to your drop-down and change what is on zevlor, they auto wear best equipment I think too
Appreciate the response, I think I found the part you are talking about but it looks like I can only change the items to predetermined selections. Like Sword-leather-dagger etc. Maybe I am in the wrong place or do I need to create a equipment combo in a list some other place before I can add them to NPC. @@ChemikalInk
@@dess4001 If you create the item, afterwards you can search in that bar and it should show the name.
The only weird thing is... For whatever reason if you input it into the game this way it will only show as the root item
It will have the stats, but if the root item is a glaive like i did for bane of avernus, the thing karlach holds is a glaive, not the thing.
But yeah, persist, it should be doable
I've managed to do it, but the toolkit is a bit finicky
Thank you for at least giving me something to go off off!
Thank you!
Thanks to you, I made an item and got my mod published!
Now just to figure out how to put it in the tutorial chest.
For anyone else struggling with not being able to spawn their items, or stats not updating: just close the tool and open it again.
It seems the tool doesn't always reload/update content properly while working. A simple restart seems to fix it.
Or as already mentioned File>Reload level (which is pretty fast)
@@MrTomaat23 thanks - I hadn't seen that option👍
Okay first thank you so much for this guide! I got everything down in this guide. My only issue now is when my character holds the weapon he holds it too high up on the blade. It looks fine on his back though .
You should just change the animation, it might be set to like spear or something. Edit the root template of the item, find the animations part, and select a different one. That ought to do it
a real one here
Great tutorial, any chance of creating one with an imported custo mesh for a weapon?
should be able to find a text method for that on the mod io guides
I've never done it and wouldn't know where to get the meshes xD
If you tell me where to get a mesh to do I could, might take me a lil bit tho
So I'm starting my own mod, I've never made a mod for any game in my entire life, but I would like to learn how to make a new Class for BG3, do you think you could demonstrate that, or how to get started on one .... I've been inspired by the new class that's coming to the Diablo 4 game "Spiritborn" and I would love to see that being added into BG3 lol!
Making a class is a bit beyond me at the moment, but you will find most of the information for that on my other video about spells. Um, its mostly the stuff in progressions you would need to change I think, but I'm not 100% sure.
Are there any further insights you have found since this video dropped, regarding weapon stats?
Seems that no matter what I change in Stats Editor, the skills or stats do not get added to my weapon. This includes reloading/restarting the editor too
right click on the item in your mod file, select edit, scroll down on the sidebar that comes up until you reach stats for the weapon, and type in the name you have for the new weapon stats
if you've done that then I'm not really sure what the issue is, I know someone else in the comments had difficulty with things not working
toolkit might be a bit buggy so might have to try a few computer literate things
I don't know much more than that though
@@ChemikalInk Thanks again, man!
I think I might have found the issue.. for some reason, when I set a specific weapon (to be the template) as the "parent" in Stats-->Weapon (in the Stats Editor), it won't work or show up unless I create a custom variation of said "parent" weapon to be the template to use, instead.
I could again just be doing it wrong as I myself am not that experienced, but every template and/or skill I want to have on my custom weapon, I have to steal the details from Shared/SharedDev/Gustav/GustavDev and basically make a copy of it, and referencing my custom weapon TO those copies-- instead of the original
lol what are the "bunch of things yoiu have to click through" ?!?!? Are they important? I feel its crazy you left that out in an instructional video
Thank you. Anyone know how to for the Item ids for mods we install and use?
Hello, nice video. Do you know how to spawn that created item in the inventory of a current campaign?
i use a cheat engine
thx bro
Hi
I wanted a modder's help with something silly
I wanted to make a simple mod for my gameplay of a boot with some buffs, I did everything right in the editing and selection of existing resources
But when it comes to adding my item to a treasure table, I simply can't make it appear (whether in tut_chest or any other)
Do you have any tips for something I'm missing?
Using the bg3 toolkit
if you find the new mod for the toolkit unlocked, you can then input the items directly into the game, there is a vid on youtube showing it
i think spawning it otherwise requires a script??
I think you might be able to do things via treasure tables with the normal toolkit but, you'll just need to test around
I haven't done it yet
I just put it on characters equipment, and doing that actually makes the name of the item and its animations code from the root, rather than the new uuid (so is not ideal)
Maybe make sure it isn't set to unique in the treasure table.
Thanks for the video!
I can't test the levels though. Karlach or any other spawns for me to control. I see only the level. I can navigate normally through it with WASD and the mouse, but even on Game Mode, there is no character. Any suggestions?
Press control+t on the map
Just in case maybe the character is lost somewhere, that will teleport them to a location you point out?
When you press i does the inventory open?
@@ChemikalInk Thanks! In my case, verifying my files on Steam solved the issue.
This has helped so much! Small problem though. When I go into game mode, the game UI doesn't pop up and I can't open my inventory or anything. Do you know how to fix this?
Literally any item I try to make a copy of so I can edit stats on it says that I can't mod it and it isn't in my project.
Right click, create new from that item (or something like that)
Then it should appear in the folder at the bottom of the root menu and be moddable
Also you can only edit stats underneath your mods dropdown
If you want to override an in game resource you have to right click on it, and override (but that will also appear in your mod stat dropdown)
Hey mate,first of all huge thanks for showing how stats and stuff work in this monstrosity called "official toolkit". I have a question: How does model import work here? Say I want to swap Nyrulna or any other trident with my custom model, there are literally zero guides how to actually import and align weapon models and textures via modkit, only how to setup the files....I've looked up on Larian discord either, there are no guides there as well.
(Not sure if old tools like Equipment Generator and polymath and gonna work properly with patch 7, would like to make stuff in official kit)
+1
I managed to create an armor, I managed to put it in the toolkit, even the textures, but I can't insert it into the game
@@MichaelSRocha
This is beyond me, all I know is there is a mod io page that talks about inserting textures and such. And there is a video if you search "bg3 toolkit" that goes on about how to import a character head. It goes through some finicky pathing details thing. I don't know if thats it, or you've already done that properly.
From my guess tho, I think there are two kinds of object
Root and Override (or create new)
Only if all the options are input in a way that is compatible with the root will it allow an override.
So if its not showing, my guess is that something isn't lining up with the root. Or there is some other step required to let it override like you want.
I say this cuz usually when certain things break it returns to root properties.
Do a tutorial on feats, how to edit them and how to create them.
Will make a pipe smoking mod so male characters can smoke hashin's pipe unlimited times?
Hi, first of all thank you very much for the video. I've been editing in the Divinity original sin engine for almost 6 years now and many options in this editing engine are the same. Unfortunately, Larian blocked many options and it is almost impossible to build deep mods that will upgrade the game. (such as new maps or embedding objects into existing maps) It is not clear to me why they chose to do this... a really, really shame. Hopefully this will change soon. If anyone knows of a way to do this, I would really appreciate it. Thank you very much.
if i’m not mistaken there’s now a modding kit unlocked mod up on nexus that allows for map editing
They did this probably because WOTC wouldn’t allow Larian to put this in the game due to licensing. Although with there already being a mod to unlock these features, I wouldn’t be surprised if Larian left them in on purpose so that people could bypass this
@@aidanclarke5476 OMFSM! I just found it. And yuppers, ALL the stuff that we modders wanted, but were told we wasnt getting... Terrain/Map/Dialog editors etc etc etc ARE UNLOCKED! Granted, I have no clue if any of it works, or how to use it 'Yet?' but this is a whole order of magnitude more modding.
Hi, good job !!! But.... where can I find the codes for weapons, armos, etc... !? (ej BB01 for the ring in the example)
Thanks
The root templates, unselect everything except the orange one (second from left), and search in the search bar just under the screen that shows the game.
Look up ring for example, and it will provide a bunch of items that match the search, then right click on the one you like, and create new from
I made a custom weapon but whenever I hover over it in the inventory the game crashes. Any ideas on what may be causing that?
no idea, if that happened I'd start fresh, and i'd try to figure out if i put something in the wrong place somewhere
@@ChemikalInk I figured out what it was. I apparently can't add ability scores or lore to weapons. Though I can add them to feats.
Hey anyone figured out how to add VFX to weapons? For example: how do I make my sword glow red?
Can you please tell me how to make a permanent passive like booal's blessing or the eye passives we get in the game. It always bothered me that although worship of kuo-tao give people power like booal, when we save them it doesn't give us any power or passive although they start to worship us. So i want to make at least a simple passive buff to reward the players for doing the right thing. But i don't know how to make a spell or passşve effect can you please show an example on how to make one?
I'm looking into it now. I know it has to do with the UUID object editor just to the right of the stats editor. I'm just a pleb at this so, I may just fail and give up after half an hour or so, but I'll look.
@@ChemikalInk Thanks for trying
UUID object editor, shared, progressions has some stuff that might relate...
Sorry I had to give up for now... I'll keep it in mind when I search around tho
@@muhammedrzasengun7272 Gustav dev > stats > passive
I'm looking in there now on the stats editor line 145 there is boooals blessing
You can change eratz' eye that volo gives you, go in stat, create new armour, and in the parent field you can load eratz eye and alter that with whatever passives you want on it. Its not booals, but its close
i cant get the stats i edit into the new stat slots to work. This video didnt help, i did what it showed and i cant manually add more stats.
If anyone doesn't know there is a very helpful resource for modding if you click the '?' Icon on the top bar. I would post a link but youtube might nuke the comment if I do
I cannot get anything to populate in the parent tab, no options at all, anyone know why?
Can you teach how translate mods ? Pls
Okay not really very helpful when you don't show proof of concept. You figured out how to be able to spawn an item in game but never end up showing us that, or that the stats ever changed on the item.
I will say thanks for trying to make a tutorial. But this is the most painful to watch tutorial Ive ever seen. With the "sooo ummm" cut out would probably be a 10 minute vid. A re upload of this tutorial with a planned pre written script would be very helpful instead of just winging it for 30 minutes.