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| Thread: Two n00bie questions |  This thread is pages long: 1 2 · NEXT» |
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Dor_Daedeloth
Hired Hero
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posted March 05, 2013 01:41 AM |
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Two n00bie questions
I'm thinking about making an WoG campaign that has some game play changes compared to SoD but not many. Is there a way to run WoG maps without the changed game play? I mean no hench man, no changed stats, etc. Just SoD style but with the added buildings and ability to run ERM scripts. I've got Era II installed atm.
Is there a way to completely disable certain secondary skills from the game? Or a way to make it impossible for heroes to learn certain skills even when they visit universities?
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Salamandre
Admirable
Omnipresent Hero
Wog refugee
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posted March 05, 2013 02:07 AM |
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With wog a lot of things are possible, including disabling itself up to 100%. Now, if you want custom things, either you disable the undesired options in wog menu then save as mycustomsettings.dat, or you learn erm and code directly in erm scripts. The first option is much easier.
If you want custom things which are not included in main menu options, as disabling skills offered, there is no way other than own made scripts. Try THIS MOD as starting base, it disables all wog except gameplay enhanced (hints, buy all, remove plague), then add your codes in.
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Era II mods and utilities
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Dor_Daedeloth
Hired Hero
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posted March 05, 2013 04:16 AM |
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I've disabled a lot of the stuff in Era. It was interesting to look through it all, some of the changes are very good (like mixing first aid, ballistics and artillery into one skill, although I'm wondering if that has any effect on heroes that specialize in first aid or artillery)
Unfortunately I've run into a new problem: I can't open the WoG campaign editor, it keeps crashing on me. I get this message: "ResourceManager::Get Text could not find "text" resource ZCmpEdtr.txt"
So I searched the forum for it and found a post [url=http://heroescommunity.com/viewthread.php3?TID=37208&pagenumber=36]here[/url] Slayer asks for the question on August 08. Hero_Of_Light posts a solution right after that. However I can't figure out where these ZCMPEDTR.txt and ZCMPMUS.txt files are. Is there a WoGbitmap.lod or something?
edit: nevermind, just run "Fix Editor.bat" from the tools folder. That fixes it.
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JimV
Responsible
Supreme Hero
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posted March 05, 2013 04:20 AM |
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Quote:
Is there a way to completely disable certain secondary skills from the game?
There is this:
Clicking the Help button gives:
Secondary Skills Page
This allows you to have specific Secondary Skills removed from the game. Once unchecked the skill will not show up in Witch’s Huts, Universities or be available when a hero levels up. However, if a hero naturally starts with that particular skill, then they will have that skill because it is a function of their hero portrait and not a function of the skills. (Easy to change with ERM, see HE:S--JV) You may override this feature by specifically editing Witches Huts. (To give the disabled skill--JV)
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Dor_Daedeloth
Hired Hero
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posted March 05, 2013 04:24 AM |
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Ok cool. Seems I'll be testing my campaign in WoG for now and seeing what else I can do with it. Thanks very much for the help!
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Dor_Daedeloth
Hired Hero
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posted March 05, 2013 06:26 AM |
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Quote:
If you want custom things which are not included in main menu options, as disabling skills offered, there is no way other than own made scripts. Try [url=https://www.box.com/s/rqf3pkrig2sm3q3ewel9]THIS MOD[/url] as starting base, it disables all wog except gameplay enhanced (hints, buy all, remove plague), then add your codes in.
SoD mod replaces the new primary skill images with the old ones and removes the commander button. However the god bonuses are still there. Still like you said it's a good starting base. Thanks!
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Salamandre
Admirable
Omnipresent Hero
Wog refugee
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posted March 05, 2013 08:11 AM |
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Gods icons are hardcoded, I couldn't remove them. But they are dead in sod mod, just visual.
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JimV
Responsible
Supreme Hero
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posted March 05, 2013 06:07 PM |
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That's what I get by editing zgodbon.def. The background might need to be changed also. (Found another Artillery Artifact finally, but will probably give it to a different Hero since Solmyr doesn't have Water Magic.)
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Salamandre
Admirable
Omnipresent Hero
Wog refugee
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posted March 05, 2013 09:38 PM |
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Well yeah, we can remove but can't retrieve the original look, is hardcoded, we get empty rows.
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JimV
Responsible
Supreme Hero
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posted March 05, 2013 11:08 PM |
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Is that what you want? (It was done by more DEF editing.)
Perfect SoD replication would be a lot of work, but is possible. There might be a way to automate the work, combining DEF's from SoD and WoG. A single message for all Heroes, such as "<- Click for Specialty" would be easy. (Or, "WoG-SoD, brought to you by Salamandre".)
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Salamandre
Admirable
Omnipresent Hero
Wog refugee
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posted March 05, 2013 11:14 PM |
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Interesting, how did you add specialty hint spread in the box? Change anything or it just fits once the pcx are removed? Can you please upload the frames changed so I can add to sod mod, looks very good.
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JimV
Responsible
Supreme Hero
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posted March 05, 2013 11:39 PM |
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Edited by JimV at 23:54, 05 Mar 2013.
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I only did one example, for Solmyr, and thought I would give you the fun of guessing the method.
Spoiler:
I increased the size of all the zgodbon.def frames from 44x43 to 96x43 (guessing at the space between the two frames in the Hero Screen) and made all but the last frame transparent. The last frame is plotted in the left of the two slots, so it overlaps the other one. I did the text in Gimp.
This would work if a single message was used for all Heroes. To get the SoD-lookalike, make all the zgodbon frames transparent, and expand the width of the UN44 DEF frames to cover them, each with the appropriate message - which might already exist in a SoD DEF. (I haven't looked.) If so, the process would involve taking a frame from the UN44 DEF and the SoD DEF and combining them into a single new, wider frame.
Oh, besides combining the two parts, there would have to be a filler between them which looks like the gap between slots. (or just transparent.)
So, too much work for me, unless there is a way to automate it in Photoshop.
P.S. I have uploaded a blank (no text) version of zgodbon.def here, for what it is worth.
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Salamandre
Admirable
Omnipresent Hero
Wog refugee
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posted March 06, 2013 12:08 AM |
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Thanks, I see. Too much work...
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Dor_Daedeloth
Hired Hero
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posted March 06, 2013 04:52 AM |
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Thanks JimV. So unless I only make a few heroes available to the player it would be a lot of work. The way you did one hero on the fly is impressive btw.
I have two more "n00b" questions. Is there a way to make the heroes in taverns only carry 1 unit as a starting army? Just like when you've already hired two new heroes that week. And is there a way to make heroes in placeholders start out with a specific army?
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JimV
Responsible
Supreme Hero
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posted March 06, 2013 05:35 AM |
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Edited by JimV at 05:42, 06 Mar 2013.
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I get tired of copying and pasting information from ERM Help (which contains all the answers to questions a beginner could ask about ERM, and 95% of everything I know about ERM), but one more time (everything between --- lines is a direct quote from ERM Help):
HE (Hero) Receiver:
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HE#:H$1/$2/$3/$4; Set army type for newly hired heroes.
$1 = Slot number (0,1,2)
$2 = Monster type (-1 means no monster) (Format C)
$3 = Minimum value of monsters number
$4 = Maximum value of monsters number (may be equal to min number for fixed number)
Comments:
This will be applied to a hero that CANNOT be hired right now. So if Orin and Jeddite are currently available in a tavern, their army WILL NOT be changed until next week. But if you change the army of Crag Hack and he will be available to be hired after you hire Orin or Jeddite, he WILL have the army that you set.
Then, when you hire a hero that appears in a Tavern in the beginning of the week, he will have 2 or 3 slots of army (it's not possible to set 2 or 3 exactly). So you can set 1st and 2nd slots to desired monsters and 3rd slot to -1 monster type. This will result in the hero always having 2 slots of monsters. Then if you hire a Hero, he or she will have only one slot of monsters and number 1.
Example:
Set Army of Orin to Gnoll at the game start
!#HE0H0/99/3/3H1/-1/2/2H2/-1/0/0;
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OW (Owner, i.e., player) Receiver:
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OW:V#/$1/$2; Set/get/check Heroes available to hire in tavern
# - Owner (See Format E1).
$1 - Left Hero to hire in a tavern (-1 = none, see Format H)
$2 - Right Hero to hire in a tavern (-1 = none, see Format H)
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HE Receiver again:
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HE$:C0/#1/$2/$3; Change monsters: format 1.
#1 = hero's slot number (slots are numbered 0..6)
$2 = new monster type (Format C)
$3 = number of monsters
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So all (unhired) Heroes except those currently in the Taverns at the start of a game can have starting armies set by HE:H. Those that are in the Tavern for each player can be found by OW:V#/?/? and then their armies can be specified by HE:C. (Heroes already on the map can be found by checking all Heroes for valid Owner numbers via HE:O?.) The syntax (#, $, ?) is explained in ERM Help. Hero numbers (#) vs. name are given in Format H (a clickable HTML link in ERM Help) and owner numbers vs. color are given in Format E1 (ditto). Heroes 0-155 can be done in a "DO loop" in which the Hero number is stored in a variable (see ERM Help, Flags and Variables, and the DO and FU Receivers).
Just about anything is possible in ERM, to answer questions n through infinity, but some things are easy and some are very hard.
Examples: can I make an F-402 fly across the top of a battlefield and bomb some Wraiths? Answer: yes. Can I script a casino with a Black Jack game on a screen that looks like a Black Jack table? Answer: yes.
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Asheron
Famous Hero
Ancient
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posted March 06, 2013 12:43 PM |
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If I may add, the thing with ERM Help is that, while many ERM veteran scripters recommend it, it's a nightmare for beginners. I personally barely know what receiver or flag or variables are suppose to mean without any coding experience... I wish we had Help for ERM Help 
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Dor_Daedeloth
Hired Hero
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posted March 06, 2013 01:15 PM |
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Quote:
If I may add, the thing with ERM Help is that, while many ERM veteran scripters recommend it, it's a nightmare for beginners. I personally barely know what receiver or flag or variables are suppose to mean without any coding experience... I wish we had Help for ERM Help
I found tutorials for beginners at the top left of the Erm help file. It's unfortunate that the help file has no search function and there are about 10 million options. So like you said it's a little overwhelming to find what you're looking for if you're new. But those tutorials seem like good introductions to the coding part.
Thanks for the help JimV I'm looking into it.
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JimV
Responsible
Supreme Hero
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posted March 06, 2013 01:44 PM |
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Yes, people who don't read the introduction, the tutorials, and the Flags and Variables sections before looking at specific commands are going to be lost, and yes, a topic Search function such as used in Microsoft Help functions would be useful (although those don't always find the phrase I guess either). In the meantime, a Ctrl-F search for keywords or phrases works page by page. E.g., press Ctrl-F and type "Tavern" in the box that appears when you are in the HE Receiver tab to find HE:H; do the same thing under OW to find OW:V. (Ctrl-F is the browser command you can use to search any HTML document, such as a web page.)
However, my advice is not to wait until you have a project and then try to find commands which are relevant to it, but be like a carpenter and learn all your tools first before trying to build something. That is, read all of ERM Help first, and as you read about each Trigger and Receiver (having read the background stuff first) think about what types of things you can use it for. You won't memorize them unless your memory is photgraphic, which mine isn't, but later you will probably be able to find the commands you need for specific projects and re-read their details.
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Dor_Daedeloth
Hired Hero
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posted March 07, 2013 12:16 AM |
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Quote:
Yes, people who don't read the introduction, the tutorials, and the Flags and Variables sections before looking at specific commands are going to be lost, and yes, a topic Search function such as used in Microsoft Help functions would be useful (although those don't always find the phrase I guess either). In the meantime, a Ctrl-F search for keywords or phrases works page by page. E.g., press Ctrl-F and type "Tavern" in the box that appears when you are in the HE Receiver tab to find HE:H; do the same thing under OW to find OW:V. (Ctrl-F is the browser command you can use to search any HTML document, such as a web page.)
However, my advice is not to wait until you have a project and then try to find commands which are relevant to it, but be like a carpenter and learn all your tools first before trying to build something. That is, read all of ERM Help first, and as you read about each Trigger and Receiver (having read the background stuff first) think about what types of things you can use it for. You won't memorize them unless your memory is photgraphic, which mine isn't, but later you will probably be able to find the commands you need for specific projects and re-read their details.
Sir, yes sir!
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JimV
Responsible
Supreme Hero
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posted March 07, 2013 12:35 AM |
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Quoting a whole post immediately after that post is redundant and against the rules of this site. (If everybody did on every post, the Internet would explode.) Drop and give me 50.
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