Biobob said:

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Good morning, folks!

This thread shall be used to share everything that is needed to make a map. Looked for things in this thread are the ones you dont find that easily without really knowing what to search for (specific programs, hex editing guides, etc.)! We still lack a topic in which all of that kind of knowledge is gathered, so this is it.

But for now, I am coming up with a request. Heroes 3 has some sprites built into it that never made it into the final game. Here are some of them:



I once had a map which held a vast amount of these objects, but it seems I lost it

Does anyone still have this (or a similar) map, or knows how to access these hidden objects? I'm really desperate by now...

Greets

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Biobob said:

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Creating hero without creatures in map editor

Let's create a hero without creatures. This hero will start as a ghost hero without any creatures in your map  (=2000 Movement Points).

First, set a hero:



Now, navigate to the 'Creatures' tab, and check 'Customize':



Give your hero any amount of any unit (one stack, I chose Pikeman):



Now move to the 'Quantity' box and delete the number there:



When there is no number in the box, press 'Enter':



Check the result:



This hero now officially has no creatures After this procedure, the hero is safe now, you can safely close the box using the button in the menu and navigate all the tabs

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Biobob said:

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Enhanced Map editor

Remember how much of a hassle it is to create heroes of level 868, 6424, etc.? At least I do. Luckily, someone made an enhanced version of the original heroes 3 map editor which can be used to assign a hero all useful levels with just one click



Unluckily, it does not allow you to put more than 9999 creatures in one stack when in the editor (or anything else the normal editor could not do for that matter, the ONLY change is the suggested experience values in hero screen). It still saves a lot of time when putting high level heroes on the map!

I tested out all the experience values, there were some new ones I had not used yet! These can be used as flexible values when trying to assign a hero specific primary stats!

Level Chart
Experience equals...
18500      -  Level   11
99999999   -  Level   59
999999999  -  Level   71
1508362195 -  Level   74
1810034207 -  Level   88
2073739175 -  Level  100
2099639276 -  Level  108
2144641867 -  Level  868
2146553679 -  Level 3732
2146673313 -  Level 5920
2147293156 -  Level 6424
2147400657 - Level endlessly


Download
Enhanced Map Editor

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Biobob said:

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Disabling all secondary skills in a map

Tools needed
Notepad++, get it here
7-zip, get it here
Notepad++ Hex-Editor plugin, get it from within Notepad++ (Plugins -> Plugin Manager -> Show Plugin Manager -> HEX-Editor)
Note that you can also use different tools, but these two are very simple to use and small in size

Step one: Set allowed skills in a particular way

Edit the secondary skills by banning wisdom, intelligence, scholar, logistics, fire, water, air, earth - then save the map:



Step two: Preparing the files for hex editor usage

Extract the just created map using 7-zip:



Step three: Ban all secondary skills using hex editor

Open the just extracted file using Notepad++. It will look like this, click on the hex editor button:



Now we need to find the value corresponding to the allowed secondary skills, press 'CTRL + F', find 84C00701 (which matches the previously banned skills):


Change it to FFFFFF0F (which equals no skills), then save the file:


Rename the file back to a .h3m extension:


It will warn you of possible complications; ignore it: We know what we're doing (right?)



Note: If you can't see the file extensions, follow this graphic. Control Panel -> Appearance and Personalization -> File Explorer Options -> Change to 'View' Tab -> Uncheck 'Hide extensions for known file types'. For older versions of Windows, I suggest looking it up online



Step four: Check the result

Open the map in the editor and check the secondary skills:


Celebrate From here on, you can set any secondary skills you want, so it is not necessary to know the cody for all of them

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Biobob said:

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Biobob said:

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...
3) Change the file extension from .h3m to .7z

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Biobob said:

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Yet another useful editor: h3mtered

This program combines multiple useful design options for maps. It allows to resize maps, set terrain in any wished for  way (although a bit unintuitive to use) and allows to preview combat terrain in an instant. Also you can copy and mirror terrain. It is a useful terraforming tool for specific cases!



Download
Download h3mtered

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Biobob said:

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H3rechner: A tool to check wheter a stack is upgraded or not

This is a very simple tool that allows the user to check wheter a specific tile has an upgraded creature, or not. If it says "geuppt", the toops will have an upgraded stack, if it says "nicht geuppt", they dont. Oberwelt means surface, unterwelt means subterranean.



Download
Download h3rechner

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Biobob said:

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H3CombatTerrain

This tool is probably known by most. It allows to check for battlefield obstacles in a very convenient way (pressing enter moves the highlighted area to the next box!).
Terrains: 1, 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, 64, 128, 256, f1, f2, f4, f8, f16, f32, f64, f128, f256, f512



Download
Download H3Combat Terrain

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Biobob said:

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LmOracle: A map testers dream

AlexSPl has released a tool that allows the user to guarantee Morale events, which is very useful for map testing. ...I suggest however not going crazy with this (more than 2 times morale, which is already crazy), or map will become unplayable. It seems that the morale check doesnt for x64 machines however...

Link to original thread
Download Page

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potmdehex said:

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Biobob said:

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...
3) Change the file extension from .h3m to .7z

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Minor correction: this step is not needed and makes no sense.

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Biobob said:

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Exactly this

I tried everything to get it to work, maybe my setup is wrong tho. What version of heroes do I have to use? I always get a "Unable to read RAM (0 or 11)" error...

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potmdehex said:

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The .h3m vs .7z stuff was mostly nitpicking, but to keep it constructive I recommend anyone who finds themselves often hex editing to make it as easy as possible to extract .h3ms, in any way they prefer.

7zip does not care about extensions (which also is why it manages to extract when incorrectly named to .7z), you can use both right click->extract or open them in the 7z file manager while they are still named .h3m. As RoseKavalier pointed out the correct extension would be .gz (don't worry man, we're all mortals who uncompress instead of looking at compressed data, I was just talking about renaming).[...].

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RoseKavalier said:

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Credits to Liu Xue Lian for this method.


For instance, you can have negative creatures join you since there is overflow after 32,767.  Using FFFF (65,535) will yield -1 Pikeman





You can set negative primary stats in Seer huts if you're

Obviously, this is for SoD maps. You don't need this much trouble with WoG

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bloodsucker said:

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Uau! Very interesting thread, thanks Biobob and RoseCavalier.
Did I understood correctly? I can add an object (from Freds Object Pack for instance) to the original sprites using just SoD and it will work in game but player will not be able to open it on the maps editor. Is that it?

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RoseKavalier said:

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This is really nice for dinosaurs who don't want to move to ERA + Safe SoD to enjoy the wonders of Turbo WoG.

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Biobob said:

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~Hex-Editing: Comparing Values~

Tools needed
HxD , grab it here
7-Zip, grab it here
Note that you can also use different tools, but these two are very simple to use and small in size

Let's get going

Step one: Creating the maps

NOTE: Make sure to start the editor in administrator mode! Otherwise a small problem might occur later

Start by creating a small map without underground (for convenience reasons, we want as little a map as possible -> less values



Edit the loss condition to two days (you can find it under Tools -> Map Specifications -> Special Loss Condition):


Save the map (choose a logical name, like in the example below):



Then change the loss condition to three days (again Tools -> Map Specifications -> Special Loss Condition, I suggest you change it in the same map, so that as much information as possible is shared):



Save this map as well:




Step two: Preparing the maps for hex editor usage


Find your map in the explorer (Standard path is C:/Program Files (x86)/3DO/Heroes 3 Complete/Maps, if you don't find it, go to C:/Users/username/AppData/Local/VirtualStore/Program Files (x86)/3DO/Heroes 3 Complete/Maps, it means you did not start the editor in administrator mode (applies to newer versions of windows, for a little older ones, you can click a button 'show compatibility files' that does the same) and extract the files using 7-Zip (as learned above ):




Step three: Changing the values in hex editor


Open HxD.exe and load the two files that are now without an file extension (in my case '2' and '3'):



Analysis -> File-compare -> compare:



The two loaded files will be suggested by default:



Click F6 (or Analysis -> File-compare -> Next difference) until we hit a point of interest: two values at the same spot, with two different values '02' and '03' (note that there are several differences at the start of the file, surrounded by 'a wall' of FF values, those don't interest us, they will always be different but carry no significance for us):



Once we've found that spot, close one of the files, and rename the value of the other file to '01' (without the 'quotation marks', equals day one loss condition):



Save the file (I chose '1' for the name), then rename it back to .h3m extension:




Ignore the warning message...



Note: If you can't see the file extensions, follow this graphic. Control Panel -> Appearance and Personalization -> File Explorer Options -> Change to 'View' Tab -> Uncheck 'Hide extensions for known file types'. For older versions of Windows, I suggest looking it up online




Step four: Check the result


Let's see in the map editor...well, you can't really do that. Why? The H3 map editor does not allow for a loss condition of one day, so it will crash if you check the 'Special Loss Condition' tab:


Instead, check it ingame (need to add a hero to the finished map, or it won't be playable). Indeed, the loss condition changed to one day! A glorious thing for day-1 puzzle maps!

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