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| Thread: Adding a town to replace the Conflux: A No-Coding Tutorial |  This thread is pages long: 1 2 3 4 5 · NEXT» |
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kegolo
Promising
Famous Hero
of infamy
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posted July 07, 2012 06:40 AM |
bonus applied by angelito on 18 Jul 2012. |
Edited by kegolo at 07:33, 07 Jul 2012.
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Adding a town to replace the Conflux: A No-Coding Tutorial
So I told Bersy I would do it, so I did it. Here's a beginner's guide to adding a new town. There's a lot of people out there with the graphical knowhow that shy away from doing it the right way because learning ERM can be daunting (or fun  ). So here it is, will update with pictures if people require, but I am assuming most people are familiar with the H3 tools at their disposal. From the readme:
Beginners Guide to Adding a New Town [Minimal Coding Required  ]
Author: Kegolo
Contact: kbg39@cornell.edu
 1.0 This guide will serve as a template for someone who wants to add a new town that will replace the conflux.
Although some/most of this information is available elsewhere on the forums, this will be the first all-in-one way to add a new townm step by step. Enjoy.
1.1 Definitions
DEF: an animated file made using H3DEFTool, a program in your tools folder.
H3sprite.lod: a file that holds all the DEFs used in Heroes. It can be opened using MMArchive and DEFs can be extracted/inserted by drag and drop (in tools folder).
H3bitmap.lod: a file that holds other useful files (txt, pcx, etc). Opened similarly with MMArchive.
Heroes3.snd: a file holding most the sounds for Heroes 3. Again, opened and edited using MMArchive.
ERM: a scripting language for Heroes 3 WoG. Scripts are held in \Data\s of your root Heroes folder. Scripts are edited with ERM Editor, in your tools folder.
.erm files: the scripts for WoG have this extension. This is where the code for your town is (script88.erm) and can be edited with Erm Editor.
.ert files: a language-independent way of strings used in a .erm file. Edit this also with ERM Editor (will need to for hero names, bios, specialties etc).
DefPreview: a program that allows you to look at DEFs frame by frame. Located in the tools folder.
1.2 How to Start
The first thing you need to do is have a town. This is the most cumbersome part of the journey, but you can't make a new town without all the files needed.
If you have all the necessary components, skip down. Otherwise, check out the template folder for all the required pictures/defs you will need. Open a def
using defpreview to see what it is. The names should also in some cases be an indicator. I think it's easiest to jus go file by file, so here we go!
*****
Please go down to section 4.1.1 before you start!!! This goes over the naming convention of your new town. It will save you time to figure this out first so
you don't have to rename everything at the end.
*****
2.0 Graphics
2.1 Town files
2.1.1 Background
The background of the conflux is called TBELBACK.pcx. It is an 800x374 picture. Replace this with your new town background.
2.1.2 TBEL files
Every town has something like 43 buildings that will need to be replaced. In a town 3 things occur for a building: the animation (or just a picture if none),
the outline when your mouse is over it, and a file that tells the game when your mouse is over the building. The town file is a DEF that starts off with the
name TBEL (something like Town Builing ELemental) and then a short description of the building, like TBELboat, TBELcstl. You will need to make a new building
for everyone of these. You will notice how each building is a rectangle of cyan with the building in it, and not much else. DON'T COPY THIS!!! To make things
easy on you, do this instead: (PS example, any graphic editor will do)
1) Open background file.
2) Copy background and paste, so you have a second layer of the same thing
3) Color the original background all pure cyan [255 255 0]
4) Place your building where you want it on the background so it looks perfect
5) Delete the town background layer so you just have your building and the big 800x374 cyan rectangle
6) Save as the frame, or if not animated, you're done and can make the def with H3DefTool
7) Undo so you're background is back, delete building, place next building. Alternatively you can merge the building/background layer to see what it looks like together.
2.1.3 TZEL files
At this point you should have 44 defs for buildings and a background. The TZEL files match the same descriptions as the TBEL files, but are used to see when your
mouse is over the building. An easy way to make these is select the background cyan of your building's first frame, select inverse, and color some other color.
AFAIK that second color is arbitrary as long as it isn't one of the special ones like cyan. Make sure you save these as indexed files using the H3 palette even
though the defs themselves may not be indexed. All .pcx files should be saved as .bmp though, the game will convert them when they are placed inside the LOD file.
2.1.3 TOEL files
You should now have 43 buildings, 43 TZ files and a background. For each TZ file, you need an outline for the building. Here's a simple way to make them:
Open the TZ file, select the non-cyan color you chose. Press Select, Modify, Contract and choose 1 pixel. Fill this space with cyan, and then you're left with a
single outline of the color you chose. Fill this color with [210 180 110], the color of building outlines. Do this for all 43 buildings.
2.1.4 Siege files
When the town is under siege, it will look how 32 pictures tell it to, with the prefix SgEl. Change all of these, this time do not edit their shape in any way.
These are still indexed pictures using the H3 palette.
2.1.4 Remaining ones
The remaining town files that need editing are HallElem.def, itpa.def, itpt.def, AVCforx.def, AVCfor0.def, AVCforz.def, TPCasEle.pcx and TPMageEl.pcx. Going in
order:
-HallElem.def is a def that holds the building pictures in the town hall screen. They are in a certain order, so when you arrange their order when making
the def make sure it matches. An easy way to do this is use the extract all for H3DefTool option in DefPreview when you open HallElem, and then change the pictures
and save over them.
-itpa.def and itpt.def hold the small pictures of your castles inside your town and on the side of the adventure map. Replace the conflux castle and town pictures and
rebuild the def.
-AVCfor(0,x,z).def are the towns on the adventure map. None are animated but they are defs for some reason, that's why the Covenant has animated adventure map towns.
The 0 is the fort, the x is the castle, and the z is a castle with more flags for some reason. If you use the wog option for demolishing towns, additional ones
are needed that I won't list here, but are similarly named so you can find them with MMArchive.
-TPcasEle is the background of the creature when you see it in the townhall screen. TPMageEl is the middle of the mage's guild overlooking the city. Fix em!
2.2 Creatures
2.2.1 Combat
To add creatures you will be using the amethyst plugin (ERA required). Your creatures will be # 197 - # 211. More on their file configuration later, for now
just make them with deftool and name them CR###.def with ### being 197 for your level 1 unupgraded, 198 for level 1 upgraded, all the way up to 211 for your
level 8 unit. When you create them in deftool, make sure the option to make .mgs and .msk files is checked, as these are necessary. If you want your creature
to be an archer that has a unique missile, make one with the name SHOT###.def where ### is your creature's number. If you want to copy a current creature's
missile, extract that DEF and rename it. Alternatively you can code this but this tutorial is coding-minimal.
2.2.2 Adventure Map
Make small versions of your 15 new creatures standing around (or whatever) for the adventure map, and name them anything you want (up to 8 characters I think).
The common convention is AVWzzz0.def for an unupgraded creature with zzz being a little hint at what it is, and AVWzzzX.def for upgraded, using the same zzz.
Look at the text file descriptions later for how to make these work.
2.2.3 Rest
Three more defs need to be altered and one pic: CPRSMALL.def, TWCRPORT.def, AVWATTAK.def and CRbkgEle.pcx.
-CPRSMALL is the picture of all creatures that is seen in your hero's army during the adventure screen (bottom right) and in town where it says the growth per week.
Extract all using DefPreview and insert 15 new frames at the end corresponding to your 15 new creatures.
-TWCRPORT is the picture of your creatures with the town's background that is seen in your hero screen and in town in your hero's army. Same deal, extract all, add
your creatures to the end. You may need to make a new background, not too hard or anything.
-AVWATTAK is the small little animation that occurs when a creature is attacked on the adventure map. Inside you'll find a left and right facing (mirror images)
of creatures in a battle-ish pose. Add 30 (15 left, 15 right) to the end of this and you're good.
-CRbkgEle.pcx is the background of creatures when you click them in your hero screen or during combat. Can be same as TPCasEle.pcx from town.
2.2.4 Commander
If you want a new commander, make one and name it ZM183NPC.def. Make sure it has shooting and 2hex (breath) frames as commanders can gain dragon breath ability.
2.3 Miscellaneous Rest
2.3.1 Adventure Dwellings
You'll need 8 adventure map dwellings which again, can be named fairly loosely. The convention is AVGxxxxx.def where xxxxx is a description. Again, look to the
text file descriptions for how to make these work. Additionally there is a file called ZLAGPORT.def that has single pictures of the dwellings. I'm not sure if
it is necessary to add your pictures here, but I did, and that's what this file is for.
2.3.2 Heroes
4 hero defs need to be changed, 2 for each class. ah16.def and 1h17_.def are the adventure map heroes riding around on horses (or whatever). ch16 and ch17 are the
battlefield heroes. Change these to your new hero animations and you're good here.
2.3.3 Individual hero portraits
You will need 32 hero pictures, 16 small and 16 large. Name these something convenient like hero1S.pcx and hero1L.pcx. IMPORTANT: don't save these as bmp files
as they will not go into the LOD file. Save them as .pcx.
2.3.4 Hero Specialties
un32.def and un44.def are files holding all the small and large hero specialty pictures. If you added a new creature and want a hero to specialize in it (and have
the corresponding picture) you need to add pictures here. Make a note of the frame number if you add any as you will need it later doing some light coding.
Done with graphics! Make sure everything is done, all indexed images are properly H3 paletted, and be happy the hard part is over!
3.0 TXT Files
N.B. - TXTEdit is a great program to edit text files but is not included in the H3 tools folder. I included it just in case you don't have it. Use it.
- ObjtxtEditor is used to edit the files having to do with objects, and is necessary to do so. Also included.
3.1 Creatures
3.1.1 zcrtrait, crtraits, crtrait0
The main file is zcrtrait and should be fairly self explanitory how it works. You'll see lines like damage, shots, speed etc and these correspond to in-game
values. Go to the bottom and notice the 3 blank lines. Look at the top for a picture of two white rectangles atop a blue rectangle, and press it 15 times. This
makes 15 more rows at the end of the file. Fill these with your 15 new creatures. The second to last column is what is displayed when you click on a creature,
but the last column is just a reference so you can leave it blank. After this is done, make two copies of the file and save one as crtraits, the other crtrait0
3.1.2 cranim
This file (CReature ANIMations) controls the speed of creature animations, along with shooter specific code. Again, add 15 lines at the bottom. If your creature
is not a shooter, you can pretty much copy the line from another non-shooter. If it is a shooter, copy a shooter's line from above but pay attention to the second
to last column. This number corresponds to the frame of the shooting sequence where the shooter actually freezes and the missile fires, and then the animation
finishes. If this number is greater than the amount of frames your shooter has, your game will CRASH when it shoots, but be careful. Usually the angle of the missiles
will match those of other shooters, and is based on the missle frames in SHOT###.def. The offset columns correspond to where the missile leaves the shooter, and can
be played with so it looks like the missile is coming right out of the shooter, for example the arrow coming right off the bow as it's fired, instead of the archer's
head.
3.1.3 crexpbon
This is a complicated file without reading ERM help, but you can sort of reverse engineer what is going on from what is already provided. This controls special bonuses
that creatures can get at each level of experience, which you may want to add for your new creatures. I won't explain how it works here, but go like this:
creature number, symbol for some bonus, + for add = for set or % for percent, then the 11 columns referring to levels 0 through 10. An example is the first pikemen
line, which you can see in the last column gives +1 speed at rank 4. Again WoG help will be the main way to learn this.
3.2 Objects
3.2.1 DwTable
This file is setup easily for you to add your 8 new dwellings to the game. Simply go down to row 101 and fill in your dwelling names and the plural of the unit within
that dwelling. Easy. ZDWELL8.txt is provided but does not require any changes assuming your 8th dwelling produces creature # 211, which it should.
3.2.2 zeobjts, zaobjts and zobjcts.txt
These three files control the objects in the editor (ze), random maps (za) and the game (zo). Open zeobjts with ObjtxtEditor and do a CTRL+F for avgpixie. This text
file determines how things show up in the map editor. You will first make it so your dwellings appear after a pixie dwelling (but can make it go anywhere, just choose
a new file to search for). Here's what you do now:
1) Remember what you named your level 1 dwelling? In the Def File Name box (blue) erase AVGpixie.def and put your name, with the .def included.
2) You'll notice the red, grey and yellow boxes above this. This corresponds to where heroes can walk on your def, and where the "door" is. Make sure you
correctly edit this (do what the program says, click colored boxes with mouse button, then on the grid to change) so that the yellow square is where the
hero can walk, and red is anywhere that should not be passable. Try to make them smaller rather than bigger, or you'll need some coding knowledge later.
3) After this is correct, press the button up top that is a square with exp in it in red. Now go down to the subtype box (second ones with only numbers)
and change the number to 101. This corresponds to the line in DwTable.txt that has your first dwelling. Keep the type as 17.
4) Go up to edit and choose "insert file after current position" and a line should appear with what you just entered right below AVGpixie.def in the left column
5) Repeat steps 1-4 for all dwellings, increasing 101 up to 108 for each dwelling.
After you dwellings are in place, do another CTRL+F for ZMM158Z. Now you are at the location of sacred phoenixes in the editor. You are now going to follow a similar
procedure as with dwellings but with your creature map defs, which if you followed convention will be named AVWzzzz.def. So:
1) rename def in def box
2) press the exp button up top (or it may already be pressed, then just continue)
3) leave the type as 54 (monster) but change the creature to the corresponding creature number, from 197 up to 211
4) go up to edit and choose "insert file after current position" and a line should appear with what you just entered right below ZMM158Z.def in the left column
5) repeat for all 15 creatures
The next part is somewhat annoying. You need these changes also in zobjcts.txt and zaobjts.txt. I would bite your lip and simply repeat for the other two, but you
can also do this: note the current position box (green) of where you entered your creatures/dwellings. Open say zaobjts with TXTedit and go find this line. Insert 8
lines here and open a new instance of TXTedit (may have to copy/paste exe and config to another location to do this) and open zeobjts, the file you already fixed.
Copy your 8 dwelling lines and paste them in zaobjts. Increase the very first line's number by 8. Repeat for your 15 creatures, increase number by 15. Repeat this
whole procedure for zobjcts.txt and you're done. Whew!
3.2.3 ZSETUP01
This file controls the WoG options you see when you click on, you guess it, WoG options in the main menu. Scroll down until you find the big capitolized lines saying
NEW TOWN HERE. You can replace these lines with your town's name and description. Notice the column that says state. This is set to 1. This means your town is by default
checked. Note that WoG loads your saved settings usually so if you want your town on by default make sure to check it again and save that.
I believe that is all you will have to do with text files. Rejoin, it aint easy on the eyes!
4.0 Script
4.1 script88.erm
********4.1.1 NAME CHANGING CONVENTION: PLEASE READ FIRST AND CAREFULLY!!!
Open up ERM Editor and open script88.erm. I have tried to make this painless for ERm-n00bs and beginners, so hopefully it is. The main thing you'll first want to notice
is lines 35 and 36. They say:
!#VRv9500:S67;
!#VRv9501:S86;
what each line is doing is setting a variable (9500 in the first line, 9501 in the second) to a number, 67 and 88 respectively. This corresponds to the ASCII code
for the uppercase letters C and V.
THIS IS THE MOST IMPORTANT PART OF THE WHOLE SCRIPT!!! THIS IS THE MOST IMPORTANT PART OF THE WHOLE SCRIPT!!! THIS IS THE MOST IMPORTANT PART OF THE WHOLE SCRIPT!!!
ok hopefully you didn't miss that. In order for your town to work, you will be renaming all your graphics files using the convention EL --> ## where ## is your
two letter convention, in the example it is CV. Do a Google search for an ASCII table to find the corresponding numbers you need. Don't mix the same letter like
aA or xX. Insert your number after the S in both lines 35 and 36. So if I chose AB I would have:
!#VRv9500:S65;
!#VRv9501:S66;
Now is the fun part of renaming all your graphics to your new name convention. Graphics like TBEL will now be TB##, similarly for TZEL or TOEL. Some files, like itpt
and ah16 will not have an EL to replace, so go through the script to see what to name them. You can CTRL+F to say ah16 and find that your new name should be ##16.def.
Be careful and rename all your files accordingly as the game will somewhat break should there be a typo of if you forget one. On the plus side, it will be very obvious
which file is missing when you get an error and it tells you exactly the name it was looking for that it could not find.
*******
4.1.2 other functions
Now read through the rest of the script. If you don't understand any ERM, that's fine! 99% of the work is done for you, and I am explicit where coding is needed.
The script is edited from the Covenant Town, so you can see what happens for certain things (like where creatures are involved). Line 878 is where you will need
to do coding if you wish. This function deals with Heroes and their abilites, which need to be coded in. The ERM help is your only way to do this, but examples
are given. If you head all the way down to line 1169 you will see lots of descriptions for town buildings from the Covenant. Replace these with your building names
and descriptions, don't change variable names.
4.2 script88.ert
For a language-independent script, some strings are held in this file, which is also opened with ERM Editor. If at first you only see two columns, one with <!!S> and
another with a date, don't panic. The bottom rectangle will aid you! Click on the first row first column (it will say <!!S> now press left once. Look down. Now you
should see the word Spirit even though you cannot see the column. Now look up to where there are two white boxes with 1's in them. Change the first one to 500. BAM!
Now that you can see the strings fully (or mostly). Press left again and you'll see 188000 in the bottom. Change the first white box to 55 and now you're set. Now
some of these may be obvious what they are, others less so. To figure it out, CTRL+F that left number (for example 188045) in script88.erm. If you did this one, you'll
see
!!VRz170:Sz188045;
This is in the Hero function and says: Set 'z' variable 170 to that line in script88.ert. Look two lines later:
!!UN:G2/129/2/170;
Notice the 170 at the end along with the helpful [specialty text]. Now you know this is the specialty text for some hero (129). But who? Either look in the script
where it says Thunar, look up the hero number (129) or notice above a line that says
!!HE129:B0/z188042;
This line says: For hero 129, make the name line 42 from script88.ert. Now you can go back into script88.ert, find line 42 (which is 188042) and see what your new
name will be.
Note that some lines in script88.ert are unused (CTRL+F in the erm script finds none) and that is from Covenant specific things. If you can't find it, just leave it
as it won't hurt. Don't remove the line or all your numbers will change and you will be SOL.
5.0 .wog File Creation
5.1 Setup
So now you're almost done! Now you just want others to play your town, so you need to make a .wog file for them. Here's how:
Make a folder and organize it so it has the following subfolders:
Data
EraPlugins
MP3
Update
If you are following the Covenant Example, you can open Covenant Town 1.0 and it will look similar, a few more files but not necessary for you. In Your MP3 folder,
place your town's theme song, named Clemtown.mp3. In the EraPlugins folder, go ahead and copy the files inside the Covenant's EraPlugins folder, which should be:
alphaSE.dll, amethyst.dll, artmerfix.dll, Dwellings.dll and ermexec.dll. The two new ones should be amethyst and Dwellings if you know what should already be in there.
Leave the Update folder blank for now. The Data folder's subfolders should be structured:
creatures
MapEdPatch
s
and then a bunch of files. These should be: all .txt files from section 3, hero small and large portraits from section 2.3.3 and amethyst.cfg. If you
want to change creature sounds, you can by calling your new sounds S###(ATTK,DFND,WNCE,MOVE,KILL,SHOT).82m where ### is your creature number
197 - 211 and choose the appropriate suffix for attack, defend, wince (getting hit), moving, death and shot (if they are a shooter). For the Covenant these were
placed directly into Heroes3.snd but you can just leave them in the data folder, renaming the file type to .82m (if it is a wav file from the game). If you make
a file brand new, search the forums for the exact specifications to make the wav file compatible with .82m, then rename (fred79 thanks). Now open the creatures folder.
Inside creatures you will see 15 files named 197.cfg up to 211.cfg. Opening one up shows:
Town=8
Flags=16
Level=1
The only part to change is the flags. If you open ERM help and find the format FL, you will see the flag designations and their numbers (in powers of 2). The number
next to Flags= you want is the sum of all those flags you are interested in. For the Covenant, creature 197 (grunts) had no special abilities but were alive, flag 16,
so they are only 16. If you open 211.cfg the number is 742421, which is: 1+4+16+1024+4096+16384+65536+131072+524288. This, from the help file, corresponds to:
2 hex, shooter, alive, immune to mind spells, no melee penalty, immune to fire spells, no enemy retaliation and attacks all around. You get the idea. For each creature
197-211, add up the flags you want and put that number here.
Now what you need is a folder with all the defs, msg, msk and bmp files you made. In this folder make 5 new blank text files, and call them:
action
h3bitmap
h3sprite
INFORM
InstMult
If you want, look in the Covenant example's Update folder and there should be a file called Wog file.wog. If you change the extension to Wog file.rar, then extract
this to a folder, you will have these 5 files, almost in the correct form.
If not, in action put the lines:
[REGEDIT]
[INSTALL]
and nothing else, save this one.
For INFORM, put:
[GeneralName]
Here put the name of your new town, or what you want people to see the update name to be.
[WhatAboutVrotAbout]
Here describe what you mod does, something like: this adds a new town called blah, a race of blah blah blah that I find cool. Save this file.
For InstMult put:
[PICS]
[MUSIC]
and nothing else, save this one.
The next two, h3bitmap and h3sprite are the long ones. Remember the LOD files from the beginning, H3bitmap.LOD and H3sprite.LOD, well here's what these text files want:
Every .def, .msg and .msk file should be listed, in alphabetical order, in h3sprite.txt. Look at the Covenant again for an example. Similarly, every .pcx file should
be named in h3bitmap.txt. You will note that for these they can actually by .bmp files and will only convert to .pcx when extracted from the LOD. This is fine, just
list it as a .bmp and make sure it's indexed properly when created and it will work fine. Again, look at the Covenant example and more importantly, just change all
the CVs in your 2 letter signature to save time. Make sure you have all these def, bmp, mgs and msk files in this folder or else your update will not work. You do NOT
need your small and large hero portraits (the ones specifically saved as .pcx files) as they don't belong in the LOD. Keep these in the \Data folder.
So now this folder should have all your defs, all your bmps, and these 5 text files. Select all of these and archive into a .rar file. Rename the extention from .rar
into .wog. Place this .wog file into the Update folder. Now select all 4 folders:
Data
EraPlugins
MP3
Update
and make this into a normal archive (.rar or .zip or whatever). Put this archive in your root heroes folder, and extract and merge with existing folders. Depending on
your heroes folder, some things may be overwritten like the text files in the Data folder, which you will have to live with. Make a backup before trying this obviously.
Run H3wupd.exe and you're DONE!!!
If instead of giving you the old CONGRATULATIONS, an error occurs, an error file will be produced that will tell you the file that caught up the install. Make sure this
file is 100% correct, repack the .wog file, and try again. Sometimes it is a little picky and will need a few tries, but know this: If it works for you, it will usually
work for someone else's wog as well. It's harder to make a working .wog than it is to make a universal one.
Play.
Download the example files here *Updated 1:34AM EST*
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Salamandre
Admirable
Omnipresent Hero
Wog refugee
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posted July 07, 2012 07:32 AM |
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All was great until the wog file tutorial 
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kegolo
Promising
Famous Hero
of infamy
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posted July 07, 2012 07:34 AM |
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I'll learn ERA 2.0 soon... very soon Can't believe I started H3 modding Feb last year and I'm already old-fashioned...lol
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LizardWarrior
Honorable
Legendary Hero
the reckoning is at hand
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posted July 07, 2012 09:36 AM |
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Nice tutorial,it will surely help a lot of modders that want to make their own towns.
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Bersy
Honorable
Supreme Hero
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posted July 07, 2012 12:09 PM |
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Excellent work indeed, thank you .
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Sav
Known Hero
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posted July 07, 2012 12:12 PM |
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Edited by Sav at 13:29, 07 Jul 2012.
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Kegolo, you forgot buildings icons for campaing bonuses. Each icon is a pcx file in h3bitmap.lod, which name begins with "BoE" (ex. BoEBlack.pcx).
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bigjocker
Responsible
Supreme Hero
Forgotten but not Forsaken
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posted July 07, 2012 01:30 PM |
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Where were you when I was starting to mod WoG. I had to figure out everything by myself. Good job!
____________
HoMM3Lite
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kegolo
Promising
Famous Hero
of infamy
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posted July 07, 2012 05:15 PM |
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Quote:
Kegolo, you forgot buildings icons for campaing bonuses. Each icon is a pcx file in h3bitmap.lod, which name begins with "BoE" (ex. BoEBlack.pcx).
Is THAT what those are for? I always wondered but I never found them in game so I never replaced them. Oh well, close to exhaustive. Thanks though.
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Salamandre
Admirable
Omnipresent Hero
Wog refugee
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posted July 11, 2012 10:49 PM |
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@Kegolo, can you please help me with outlines for the Nein's snow castle grail? I can't run any graphical editor atm, it froze
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kegolo
Promising
Famous Hero
of infamy
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posted July 11, 2012 11:18 PM |
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indexing should be right but I never know without testing...
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Salamandre
Admirable
Omnipresent Hero
Wog refugee
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posted July 11, 2012 11:19 PM |
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Thanks
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fred79
Disgraceful
Undefeatable Hero
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posted July 14, 2012 04:11 AM |
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kegolo, you're the man. thanks a mil for the info. i'm just now looking into the erm help page. it's a lot of info to process, but posts like these simplify things greatly!
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ivorrus
Hired Hero
modder
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posted July 18, 2012 12:58 PM |
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Quote:
-AVCfor(0,x,z).def are the towns on the adventure map. None are animated but they are defs for some reason, that's why the Covenant has animated adventure map towns.
The 0 is the fort, the x is the castle, and the z is a castle with more flags for some reason. If you use the wog option for demolishing towns, additional ones are needed that I won't list here, but are similarly named so you can find them with MMArchive.
AVCforZ.def (with additional flag) is used for capital.
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OxFEA
Promising
Famous Hero
feanor on DF2.ru
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posted July 24, 2012 12:32 PM |
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Quote:
Additionally there is a file called ZLAGPORT.def that has single pictures of the dwellings. I'm not sure if
it is necessary to add your pictures here, but I did, and that's what this file is for.
Kingdom overview
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fred79
Disgraceful
Undefeatable Hero
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posted August 15, 2012 01:43 AM |
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Edited by fred79 at 19:18, 03 Feb 2013.
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i was going to start a new thread, but since i am using kegolo's instructions, i thought my problem might better be answered here.
k, here it is: i am trying currently to add/exchange the current black knight dwelling in the necro castle with the pyramid from Heroes 2(from Heroes 2 castle). only thing is, i need some pointers, because i am not ps-savvy.
now, the pyramid needs to be blended into the surroundings. i have tried deleting the cyan in the background, then re-shading the pyramid, then trying to re-paint the background accordingly. but whenever i try to repaint the background, it blends into the pyramid image itself, causing a loss of pyramid edging.
then there is trying to find a place for this mammoth def in the full map. i figure, since it is replacing the black knight dwelling, it should go there. but, does this mean that the upgraded castle will automatically overlap the pyramid, or cause a problem instead? i figure i will have to resize the pyramid def, then i can resize the outline and the shadows too, but there is still the problem of blending it to look more natural in its new setting. anybody?
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kegolo
Promising
Famous Hero
of infamy
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posted August 15, 2012 04:35 AM |
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Well first off I think this is mainly a graphics issue. Making a pixel-art style building "fit" into the H3 necropolis probably won't happen no matter how much shading you do. I think it would be a better idea to use the H3 pyramid, at least the art style is right.
As for your PS issue, if you do everything you said with the blending, then select the entire pyramid, choose contract from the selection menu and do like 1-2 pixels, then select inverse, you will have just the outer edge of the pyramid, which you can put back in to keep the hard edges.
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fred79
Disgraceful
Undefeatable Hero
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posted August 15, 2012 01:39 PM |
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Edited by fred79 at 13:42, 15 Aug 2012.
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i looked at the h3 pyramid, the only difference is the face on the front, the color is the same. i planned on replacing that anyway, i have another pyramid def. it's a really big one tho, so no chance that THAT one would go into the castle screen, either. the one i'm trying to put in there is the one i want in there. fitting, because i'm trying to put the h2 mummies in there in place of the black knights(obviously, lol).
as for the ps instructions, i'll give that a try. thanks, kegolo.
edit: i'll check other defs and see if they break up whenever something that would overlap it is upgraded.
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kegolo
Promising
Famous Hero
of infamy
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posted August 15, 2012 03:17 PM |
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You could also just resize all the frames in the def... doesn't have to be the exact same size.
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fred79
Disgraceful
Undefeatable Hero
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posted August 15, 2012 03:47 PM |
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Edited by fred79 at 19:19, 03 Feb 2013.
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ok, work so far-
resized and cropped:
well? any improvements needed, before continuing?
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kegolo
Promising
Famous Hero
of infamy
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posted August 15, 2012 09:38 PM |
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To be honest it looks better replacing the vampire dwelling, could always just ERM it so you still replace black knights.
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