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| Thread: Heroes 1 appreciation and modding |  This thread is pages long: 1 2 3 4 5 · NEXT» |
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lujo
Hired Hero
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posted January 27, 2017 06:19 PM |
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Edited by lujo at 18:26, 27 Jan 2017.
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Heroes 1 appreciation and modding
Hi, I'm a long time lurker on these boards and I'd like to set up a thread for information on Heroes 1 and also for potential modding projects related to it.
From my own perspective, I consider it a superior game to all the other HOMM games except H4, which evolved the gameplay significantly enough to not make me want to just play H1 instead.
Why do I feel this way? What did H1 do "better" than the other games?
1) Graphics. It has the most charming, distinct, goofy-yet-grim and lovely graphics of all Heroes games. I remember being completely disappointed with H2 when it came out, because it just looked plain worse than H1 did, and H3 went for realism in art direction which a specifically H1 fan just isn't looking for (it was a popular thing, lots of folk appreciate more realistic art, just saying). H4 tried to bring the OG look/feel back, but you just can't do it right with 3d.
This is why I wouldn't expect anyone to be able to mod H1 in any major way like adding towns or new monsters. You would have to be the original artist personally to not make new art stick out too much (which isn't the case with later games which all have comparatively generic art).
2) Spell System. The pricing on the Mage Guild levels only ever made sense in H1, because of the way the spell memorisation system in it worked. It took them until H4 to realize this.
The relative scarcity of gold and the relative lack of creature numbers inflation also meant that spellpower was a more meaningful stat, and the knowledge stat is more powerful when spells can be used to counter spells and when it determines how many copies of each spell you can cast (spell points were quite a nerf to the stat).
3) Properly sized battlefields.
H1 is the only game until 4 where battlefields were small enough for obstacles to mean anything, for fliers going the length of battlefield to make sense, for units visually not feeling lost in them, and for walker units in general. The basic game mechanics, which didn't change, never really felt as satisfying on larger battlefields.
This also contributed to the sense that H1 graphics are superior to other game's graphics, the creatures felt larger and more tangible on a smaller field.
The castle siege system with not being able to go out also enticed certain defenders to have defensive battles out in the open (which is the key to playing the Knight right).
4) Tight design, no bloat. Everything is there for a reason and very little is situational.
This means no creature upgrades (making individual creatures more distinct and appreciable, and there not being any issues with troop compatibility between upgraded and non-upgraded troops). Only four types of castle (the game never really supported more than that well enough, and there aren't many distinct creature abilities which weren't introduced in Heroes 1 anyway), which makes it more like a boardgame with distinct enemy sides.
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What the game could use is:
- The wait option if anyone knows how to hack it in,
- In-game creature ability documentation,
- Possibly a few map objects (there aren't many different map objects in the whole series in general, but I suppose a few low-level dwellings wouldn't hurt)
- Alternatively alternate sprites for terrain specific map objects to make them more terrain independent
- Mixed enemy stacks (All enemy stacks in Kings Bounty were mixed, yet in H1 all neutral stacks were not mixed, I always found this bizzare)
- A way to tweak some numbers, since Peasants are just too horrible
- I'd say AI tweaks maybe
- I'd say the abiltiy to show the grid, but there's no actual need with the battlefield as small as it is.
- Damage prediction and current health indicators for individual units (I saw this somewhere but couldn't get hold of it)
- Heroes instead of tents on the battlefield (also saw this somewhere)
- A Well hack if one is possible, to lower the growth bonus. Or make it act as a caravan (probably too difficult). Or make the Tavern act as a Caravan, and the Thieves Guild act as the Statue (on top of being the TG). That's about the extent of how far I'd go into meddling with buildings, maybe some resource cost tweaking here and there (Because the AI gets into trouble with blowing resources more than actual tactics from what I've seen).
- Sea objects?
- Fizbin of Misfortune lowering luck instead of morale hack (I know someone did this, and the engine supports negative luck, there's just nothing that would cause it)
- Spells! Damage Amplification debuff spell (of some kind) to begin with.
I wouldn't expect anyone to ever do this, but:
And if one individual monster has a graphic I'd change it's got to be the Rogue, I'm perfectly adamant the game kicks every other game's in the series for best art, but that particular monster is just too goofy looking even for this game.
And If I'd back adding a castle to H1 (god knows how difficult it would be), I'd go for the Dungeon from Kings bounty. This means undead and deamons (yes this was the original setup, and the original Deamon is the Genie form H1 and H2).
The important thing would be that undead wouldn't cause negative morale, because that was always too harsh of a penalty (except in H4 where they actually adressed this, for once), so you could mix and match them with the other guys. Except Ghosts who you wouldn't be able to recruit anyway because their ability is just silly.
I'd go for perfectly equal stat growth for the hero and skeleton raising as the (silent) specialty, with the 6 units being (off the top of my head): Skeleton (cannon fodder) - Imp (flyer) - Witch (shooter) - Cerberus (multiattack) - Vampire (life drain) - Deamon (shooter with no melee penalty, uses diamonds) or something along those lines. Just a thought.
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But my question so all good folks here is: Do you know of any existing H1 mods and where and how could I get them?
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orzie
Responsible
Supreme Hero
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posted January 27, 2017 06:44 PM |
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Edited by orzie at 18:48, 27 Jan 2017.
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Quote:
- I'd say the abiltiy to show the grid, but there's no actual need with the battlefield as small as it is.
There is a tool for that by Miner.
1. Unpack the archive to the DATA folder (the one which contains heroes.agg);
2. To turn on the grid, run showgrid.bat, press OK twice;
3. To turn off the grid, run hidegrid.bat, press OK twice.
original topic (in Russian).
Quote:
I wouldn't expect anyone to ever do this
Like anything for Heroes 1, yes. There are people capable of modding the game, but they won't do it and probably won't fulfill custom requests. It depends on their mood and the position of planets really.
All I can say is that adding a new castle is a dream that never comes true because it's a pain in the ass even for Heroes 3, and haven't been achieved yet for Heroes 2 despite the efforts.
What's more important and probably is even a more naughty factor is that they speak Russian. 
Quote:
Do you know of any existing H1 mods and where and how could I get them?
None I know of. Yet, someone once asked me if we are also going to make a H1-themed total conversion of H3.
The only H1-related materials can be found here and the forum (in Russian) is here. Heroes 1 now exists only in the shape of a small and mostly Russian tournament-oriented community HeroesPortal.net, with some attention to it on Forums of Enroth aside from the Library of Enlightenment you are visiting right now.
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Baronus
Legendary Hero
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posted January 27, 2017 06:52 PM |
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Me! I like this game very much.
Here is biggest HI site:
http://handbookhmm.ru/
Download section:
download
Tournament Edition:
Tournament
In russian but you can play. There is not a lot texts in this game.
...
A lot of your wishes was done:-)
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AlexSpl
Responsible
Supreme Hero
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posted January 27, 2017 07:01 PM |
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Edited by AlexSpl at 19:56, 27 Jan 2017.
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lujo
Hired Hero
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posted January 30, 2017 12:21 PM |
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Edited by lujo at 12:23, 30 Jan 2017.
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orzie said:
Like anything for Heroes 1, yes. There are people capable of modding the game, but they won't do it and probably won't fulfill custom requests. It depends on their mood and the position of planets really.All I can say is that adding a new castle is a dream that never comes true because it's a pain in the ass even for Heroes 3, and haven't been achieved yet for Heroes 2 despite the efforts.
Well, I wouldn't be all that eager to add one, to be honest, even if it was easy.
I would love to be able to tweak some costs and unit statistics, because it might help the AI out. Being able to improve the AI would also be a very good thing.
orzie said:
What's more important and probably is even a more naughty factor is that they speak Russian.
Well, I worked with Russian speaking modders before, on other games.
orzie said:
Yet, someone once asked me if we are also going to make a H1-themed total conversion of H3.
But... why? That makes no sense. Other way around I can see a point, but you can't get the feeling right if you try to port H1 into the H3 engine. Most of the charm of H1 comes from going back to the original rules with less chaff. Otherwise everything that's in Heroes 1 IS in Heroes 3, except some fundamentals are different (there's a marketplace so the resource game is silly, the battlefield is too large, there's too much gold around, the spell system is quite different, the skill system makes the spell system silly, attack and defense formulas are different and there's an inflation of samey units). If you ported H1 into H3 engine it wouldn't be H1 anymore.
Funny as it is, the situation with H2 is a bit different.
Baronus said:
Me! I like this game very much.
Here is biggest HI site:
[url=http://handbookhmm.ru/]http://handbookhmm.ru/[/url]
Download section:
[url=http://handbookhmm.ru/programs-and-utilities]download[/url]
Tournament Edition:
[url=http://handbookhmm.ru/tournament-edition]Tournament[/url]
In russian but you can play. There is not a lot texts in this game.
...
A lot of your wishes was done:-)
AlexSpl said:
There's more for Russian Heroes though. For example, [url=http://handbookhmm.ru/tournament-edition]TE Patch[/url] for offline ([url=http://handbookhmm.ru/forum/download/file.php?id=704]1.04 f8[/url]) and online games.
This is great stuff, guys, but... I don't have the Russian edition of Heroes. Is it avaliable anywhere as a download?
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Baronus
Legendary Hero
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posted January 30, 2017 02:37 PM |
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You mustnt have russian edition.
To work you need:
English edition
And rus:
heroes.agg
heroes.exe
miss.dll
binkw.dll
All are in pack replace them and play!
TurnEd ru
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orzie
Responsible
Supreme Hero
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posted January 30, 2017 04:51 PM |
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Edited by orzie at 16:52, 30 Jan 2017.
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Quote:
If you ported H1 into H3 engine it wouldn't be H1 anymore.
Of course. Spending such insane amount of time and effort on a project which only transfers H1 to a modern engine is madness anyway. I'm pretty sure that people who suggested that enjoy only the visual side of H1.
Personally, I'm kinda another type of a player, for I really dislike Heroes 1 graphics, but I admire its simplicity and combat system instead. So that there is not much sense in porting it somewhere
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lujo
Hired Hero
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posted January 30, 2017 06:37 PM |
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Baronus said:
You mustnt have russian edition.
To work you need:
English edition
And rus:
heroes.agg
heroes.exe
miss.dll
binkw.dll
All are in pack replace them and play!
[url=http://handbookhmm.ru/TE/HEROES.zip]TurnEd ru[/url]
Thanks a lot!
But the only thing in the pack is heroes.agg ? Where's the rest of it?
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Baronus
Legendary Hero
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posted January 30, 2017 07:08 PM |
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No there? Try this second link and tell:
TE2
exe + dlls for wxp are here?
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lujo
Hired Hero
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posted January 30, 2017 09:32 PM |
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Baronus said:
No there? Try this second link and tell:
[url=http://handbookhmm.ru/TE/TE_Pack.zip]TE2[/url]
exe + dlls for wxp are here?
No, no dll's here.
It has a folder called CPU with two exe files in it, and it has RCRTHER1.BIN and 2 more .exe files, and a readme.
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Baronus
Legendary Hero
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posted January 30, 2017 11:11 PM |
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Edited by Baronus at 23:12, 30 Jan 2017.
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Ok. Here are all needed dlls and exe.
Replace agg you downloaded and these pack too:
HI TE ru
Maybe you must use Win xp mode or use exe from pack you downoloaded 1.04 for modern systems.
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lujo
Hired Hero
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posted February 01, 2017 12:48 PM |
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This works wonderfully! Thank you very much!
Does anyone know how to replace graphics within the game? Or text? I wouldn't mind doing it to translate it back to english ^^
-
As for the graphics - gameplay thing... I think it's linked. The reason why graphics in H1 are easier to enjoy is because the battlefield is smaller. This makes the models larger, and it also makes them take up a bigger percentage of the battlefield, making them appear more important and have more presence.
I distinclty remember being dissapointed with Heroes 2 as a kid because the graphics were a letdown, it took me years to understand why I felt this way. Eventually I figured it out one time when I went to replay all the games starting with Kings Bounty. After replaying H1 and then installing H2 I realized that the units were much smaller and they felt lost on the battlefield. I immediately installed H3 and I had the same feeling, these little insignificant units swimming in a pool that's to large for them, that's how it felt.
Which is (one of the reasons) why I think breaking down the H1 engine would actually be worth it, as importing castles into it would do something no other Heroes game can do, and that's give you varied creatures played on a properly small battlefield. With tighter gameplay due to no dead weight, ofc, I absolutely enjoy H1 for that reason primarily, I just also like the art direction.
I mean, I'd even work on a ground up remake or a separate game made in spirit of Heroes 1. 
--
If there was a modding project going on, one which would add castles, it would run into the problem that, well, H1 used up most of the memorable stuff from Kings Bounty and H2 and H3 didn't really expand on it that much in ways which aren't filler or silly, when it comes to creatures. Towns are MUCH more than creatures, of course, and creatures are way more than just their name/concept and what they do in a fight, but in those simple terms what would kinda work would be:
(In a fantasy world where people would acatually be able and willing to do something like this, of course, just daydreaming otherwise):
a) A Kings Bounty / H4 style "Dungeon" Necro/Inferno mashup. The hero bonus would have to be Necromancy, ofc. The monster roster would be something like:
1) Skeleton
2) Imp (flier)
3) Mummy (Shooter, curse)
4) Cerberus (I'd put them at no. 3 but too similar to the wolf)
5) Vampire
6) Deamon (A different ability than KB one, since H1 Genie has it)
Gems would be what lets you buy deamons, obviously. I'm not fully sure about the speeds, which is very important.
b) A lightning / mechanical themed "wizard", who either starts with some spells if his bonus is meant to be an early game one, or with archery if it's meant to be a later game one.
1) Gremlin (Small puny shooter)
2) Gargoyle (Or some kind of flier, I'd give Warlock "Harpy" instead)
3) Golem
4) Mage (Can cast "Push" on his own unit, to move it forward)
5) Thunderbird (Lightning strike)
6) Titan (Lightning Strike, no mele penalty)
So Wizards thing would be that his stronger troops add magic damage to the attack, bypassing raw defense stats, with the Mage, Thunderbird and Titan all having lightning for flavor. Mage could also push slower units forward in a straight line, it would make for cool combos (natural combo with Golem). Titan is just Kings Bounty Giant, and Mage is just Kings Bounty Archmage (demoted), like they always were, and most of the rest was always crammed into the archetype anyway.
c) A mesoamerican/greek mashup take on the Fortress (which probably should have just been done in Heroes 3, really). The bonus would have to be +1 speed all units, I think. I'd have to test it, but it's a way to make him move faster on the map, better at controlling his own troops, have a slight advantage on rough terrain and also make sure his troops are better controlled by him rather than anyone else.
1) Nacatl (Jaguar folk, to fit the theme, with Aztec swords)
2) Lizardman (similar to the H3 one)
3) Basilisk
4) Coatl (Winged/feathered snake, what "dragonflies" should have been)
5) Naga (But as an archer, like H3 Medusa)
6) Gorgon (Death attack + 2 hex breath attack, that ought to cause terror)
Well, the problem is that "Gorgons" in greek mythology are actually what we think of as "the Medusa", as Medusa is just the name of one particular Gorgon. It's deffinitelly not the bull. But that bull is such a kick ass unit that it would make a very good topper in a H1 castle, especially if it had death attack AND breath attack (on a small battlefield, lol).
There always was a bit of a spamy overlap between Basilisk and Gorgon in H3, too, not sure how to handle it exactly (still even if Basilisk could paralyze, he could still be a "wose" cyclops because he's 2hex on a small field, attacks only one hex and has worse stats).
There's more between Medusa / Naga / Basilisk, really, since H3 Basilisk is just a "reskin" H2 Medusa. I think the solution would be to have "Naga" be the snake woman, but make her an archer like the Medusa in H3 and have the Basilisk be the ground troop.
d) I don't think there's enough functional, recognizeable and cannon creatures left for another castle, to be honest. Most of the rest of it is just spam, lame, or in the game in one way or another. If you take the configuration above, what's missing is (U for "used"):
Kings Bounty:
- Militia (No idea why they replaced these with peasants anyway)
U Knights (Got changed into Paladins, also a hero class so no dice)
U Barbarians (Hero Class, got improved into Cyclops in H1)
U Giant (They're Titans, I put them in)
- Gnome (You can kinda count the Halfling, Gremlin and Leprechaun as all interpretations of this basic flavor concept, if not the mechanics)
So far: Militia, Gnome
H2:
- Zombie (There just never was mechanical sense in having both them and skelletons in a castle. H4 did it right and made them neutrals/summons, I wouldn't mind having them in the game as that.)
- Lich (Err, it's a skeleton who shoots, very filler)
- Bone Dragon (It's a dragon, there's allready a guy with the dragon as the tip unit, no need for other guys to also have dragons as top units, that's was always just spam)
- Halfling (it's just a gnome as imagined by a 20th century author)
- Boar (was always terribly uninspired filler)
- Roc (Is legit, but I'd rather use thundebird for lightning flavor, and have Roc be a neutral unit if it needs to be in. Plus it's only been in "Wizard" because "Wizard" was crammed with Tolkien refferences, like the halfling, the Archmage upgrading into white and the Roc standing for the eagles from Toliken books, it really doesn' fit otherwise - they moved it to the barbarian in H3).
- Medusa (it's the basilisk, and the game always had the problem that "Medusa" is a persnal name and the race is called "Gorgon". Then they went and called a bull "Gorgon" further messing it up), and then there's the whole Naga also being a snake-woman thing and I used her.
So far: (KB) Militia, Gnome / (H2) (N) Zombie, Roc
H3
- Monks (Well, the only place they'd fit is the knight, and H1 knight is not that kind of guy)
- Angel (Same thing, not that I'd be against it, it's just that they've got nowhere to be)
- Pegaus (They were kind great in the Centaur - Pegaus - Unicorn horse themed Rampart, not sure they've got much of anywhere to go otherwise, and H1 kind of stay away from "guys riding stuff" as a concept, the Wolf is not the Wolfrider etc, and Pegasus has a rider, otherwise it's just a horse and as such kind of overlaps with the Unicorn)
- Dendroids (Not the most inspired of units, and kind of overlap in theme with the Sorceress where there isn't enough place for them)
- Multicolored Dragons (Just no, that's lazy design)
- Gogs (Are "small shooting deamon", very indistinct)
- Deamons (Are a "burly walking deamon called Deamon" the most filler unit there ever was)
- Pit Fiends (With the possible exception of "slightly bigger deamon with the whip")
- Efreet (Now these guys are actually usable!)
U Devils (What the "Deamon" topping the Dungeon concept actually is)
- Troglodyte (Was always filler, honestly
U Harpy (It fits into Warlock better than Gargoyle does! The only problem would be hacking that properly, lol)
- Evil Eye / Beholder (Was always a laughably silly creature even in D&D, and has no root in any culture or mythology. I think it started as a joke that got out of hand and is now somehow pulp fantasy cannon.)
- Manticore (Is actually useable, albeit quite silly. It's one of those Medieval mashups which tries a little too hard to be Greek but is simply not as cool as the Gryphon and falls a bit on the stupid side.)
- Wraiths (Are just nerfed Ghosts that you can use as a castle troop. No real need in a H1 setting where Ghosts are a mechanical deterrence to loot collecting, and you can actually stuff a castle with other things and have spillover.)
- Black Knights (Have got to be the laziest filler ever, concept wise.)
- Gnolls (Hyenas in a swamp? Really? Not that I couldn't get behind gnolls, even if they are just a D&D filler monster for monster sourcebooks, there's just nowhere for them to be and not clash with the rest of the stuff (even though they'd fit right into H1 Barbarian thematically, it's just that goblins are allready there))
U Dragon Flies (Are the lamest way to implement a Coatl I've ever seen. "A snake with feathers is silly and not grim enough" - have a snake with bug eyes and insect wings instead. I suppose they upgrade into "dragon flies" but H1 doesn't have upgrades, so it can have the original thing. And "Dragon Flies" are even more laughable than feather snakes when you think about it )
U Wyvern (Is just a lame, small dragon, no actual need for it in a 6-troop, small battlefield setup).
- Behemoth (Er, it's a biblical beast / deamon thing of some kind, but it's a completely generic "monster". In RL the word is used to simply describe something that's big. You can't even tell what's being described or if it's even a living thing from it. Mechanically it isn't even bad, but it's complete filler otherwise)
So far:
So far: (KB) Militia, Gnome / (H2) (N) Zombie, Roc / (H3) Monk, Angel, Pegasus, Dendroid, Efreet, Manticore, Gnoll
H4:
- Squires (They're just militia from KB, back in the game instead of peasants, like they should have been all along.)
- Ballista (Never was too happy with them as a unit, honestly)
U Berserker (I'm not sure this unit could be ported or even be used properly in H1 but it's actually a damned fine unit. The problem with it, though, that it doesn't work right in a no-spells castle, and H1 early game can be very light on spells. It's also a problem to put a unit like this into a game without proper unit ability documentation)
U Siren (I'd like them as neutrals, there's very little going on at sea anyway)
U Sea Monster (also rather nice, even thought they're technically just a H3 Gorgon reskin and reflavoring)
- Ogre Mage (I mention this here separately, because they're a very different unit than the basic ogre. A unit with a spellbook would be pretty nuts in H1, and it obviously couldn't be called Ogre Mage)
- Mechanical Dragon (Dragon spam is as usual - laaaaaaaaaaaaaame)
- Ice Deamon (Is just an elemental that for some reason got to be evil aligned. I've never, ever been happy with any deamon summoning stuff in any Heroes games, no game made it work in a satisfying way and this dude only exists so that devils can summon them and than they an freeze something. It would've been the best deamon summon in a heroes game if it wasn't beig summoned by your top-level unit. No reason to copy it it's more of a spell than an actual monster)
- Venom Spawn (Is just a lich made to be some kind of deamon. At least it looks interesting, but the thing with Lovecraftian dudes is that they (by design) clash with traditional monsters. It would be cool in a strictly Lovecraftian castle, which is probably doable)
- Pirate (well, it's a seafaring bandit, and the sea has never really had much going on it in the Heroes franchise. Would be nice to have for low level sea fights you could have)
- Nightmare (mechanically it couldn't work in the H1 engine unless it was seriously rewritten to allow monster spellcasting, but it would make a rather workable dude, even for that lovecraftian castle)
- Lephrecaun (is just a gnome variant)
- Satyr (A morale raising troop? It's kind of strange it took them so long to make it, could've been in a lot earlier )
- Mantis (Er, no, these are in for summoning purposes)
- Waspworth (It's basically a dendroid shooter, also a summon, not meant to be used as a castle dude)
- Faerie Dragon (Dragon Spam, laaaaaaaaaaaame, although slightly less lame because spellcasters are not boring flying lizards, but still)
- Elementals (Really, they were always pretty filler and they should have always been just summons, not appear on the map and stuff. I wouldn't bother with them myself).
So far: (KB) Militia, Gnome / (H2) (N) Zombie, Roc / (H3) Monk, Angel, Pegasus, Dendroid, Efreet, Manticore, Gnoll / (H4) Berserker, Siren, Sea Monster, Venom Spawn, Nightmare, Satyr
And there's the idea of having a straight up Lovecraftian castle, with a few hints from Darkest Dungeon, which I suppose would have something like:
1) Zombie (Plays/has stats like Berserker)
2) Cultist (Can cast a buff on Zombies and if actual spellcasting could be done, a few different ones. Looks like Monk, obv.)
3) Deep One (Fishperson, throws harpoons)
4) Nightmare (If spellcasting is in, one shot of Paralyze, it's there to protect all the shooters.)
5) Efreet (Exactly what he is)
6) Starspawn/Elder Thing (Looks like venom spawn, plays like Lich/Cyclops)
With the Zombie not necessarily even being undead, and undead obviously not impacting morale. The hero would be Occultist, obviously, and the bonus would be... Not sure, honestly. Giving them spells to start off with like what I suggested for Wizard would probably be a good idea considering they start of with the berserked Zombie.
Otherwise, a simpler implementation could go something like:
1) Zombie (Just a regular grondpouder)
2) Deep One (Cheap slow shooter)
3) Satyr (Passive morale buff, "Great God Pan" inspiration for Dunwich Horror, which was the ispiration for any Lovecraftian game ever made)
4) Monk (Evil Monks, staple of gothic fiction)
5) Efreet (Lovecraftian stuff is actually fairly orientalist)
6) Either a Nightmare or Venom Spawn variant.
Anyway, whew - long post, mostly probably not too relevant in the long run, but I hope it was worth a read.
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AlexSpl
Responsible
Supreme Hero
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posted February 01, 2017 05:04 PM |
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Edited by AlexSpl at 17:19, 01 Feb 2017.
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Quote:
Does anyone know how to replace graphics within the game?
You can do that with GrayFace's tools (see my post with links above).
Quote:
Or text? I wouldn't mind doing it to translate it back to english ^^
Use OgreGUI tool which allows you to replace text strings in an executable (exe) with longer ones. Also you can use various hex editors for that purpose (like HxD for example).
* * *
The latest version of TE Patch is 1.04 Offline f8
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lujo
Hired Hero
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posted February 02, 2017 05:47 PM |
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Edited by lujo at 19:54, 02 Feb 2017.
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AlexSpl said:
Quote:
Does anyone know how to replace graphics within the game?
You can do that with GrayFace's tools (see my post with links above).
Quote:
Or text? I wouldn't mind doing it to translate it back to english ^^
Use [url=http://zalexf.narod.ru/res/download/ogregui-eng.zip]OgreGUI[/url] tool which allows you to replace text strings in an executable (exe) with longer ones. Also you can use various hex editors for that purpose (like HxD for example).
* * *
The latest version of TE Patch is [url=http://handbookhmm.ru/forum/download/file.php?id=704]1.04 Offline f8[/url]
Thank you very much!
I've been translating this for a few hours using a hex editor because I couldn't get the OgreGUI to work. Probably because I don't have the proper cyrilic font installed in the XP. So I can't make bigger text strings than there are allready and this is making the translation lousy in places. Because I can't use the original text if the Russian text is shorter I can't use the original wording all the time. Or even if the translation is just terrible, they translated "Ultimate wand of magic" as "Magic wand", "Witches Ring of Power" as "Witches Ring" and "Ultimate cape of protection" as "Protective Cape". Just look at the last one and think of finding it: "Congratulations! After hours of searching you dug up a raincoat!" 
The pack-unpack tool worked in a strange way. The unpack pallette for the Buka version is fine, it unpacks the russian stuff correctly. But in order to "translate" stuff I needed to unpack the regular version, which was using a different pallette, so the colors were all psychadelic. I went and fixed up a few of the buttons color by color, but when I adjusted the necessary pics to have english text, the packing exe wouldn't work. What happens is it makes psychadelic versions of the edited pics, for some reason. If it did I'd have all the picture bits translated.
What's difficult to translate is the combat text, as it's quite hard to figure out what fires when and what's singular and what's plural.
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Baronus
Legendary Hero
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posted February 02, 2017 07:27 PM |
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Edited by Baronus at 19:36, 02 Feb 2017.
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What version of Heroes you unpacked? Dos? It must be Window version! Tournament is Window version.
You can try oldest tools:
old tools
Not so fast. Each text has hexd number of reserved area.
Eg.
03 00 56 78 75
03 means three bits 56 78 75
If you want longer text you must write.
05 00 56 78 75 87 98 to five.
But you can copy past from eng version. There is correctly size number...
And the best. Nocd map generator rus:
Map generator
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lujo
Hired Hero
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posted February 03, 2017 10:59 AM |
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Baronus said:
What version of Heroes you unpacked? Dos? It must be Window version! Tournament is Window version.
You can try oldest tools:
[url=http://web.archive.org/web/20161009180628/https://sites.google.com/site/sergroj/heroes]old tools[/url]
Not so fast. Each text has hexd number of reserved area.
Eg.
03 00 56 78 75
03 means three bits 56 78 75
If you want longer text you must write.
05 00 56 78 75 87 98 to five.
But you can copy past from eng version. There is correctly size number...
And the best. Nocd map generator rus:
[url=http://heroesmmhk.ucoz.ru/_ld/0/10_editor_cr.rar]Map generator[/url]
Ooooooh, very nice!
I went and got the GOG Heroes 1 version, it was advertized as the windows version. However, it doesn't have the same black mouse cursor that the windows version was stuck with. Which would mean it's either the dos version or something strange is going on.
It has about 100 MB's so it's quite a bit bigger than the Dos version, it comes with extras which inlcude the map editor in english, but it comes with it's own dosbox and launches in some complicated way on windows XP.
It also has a handy but strange structure, beause the files I'd expect to be in DATA are in DDATA for some reason. Dos Data? Because when I unpack the graphics from it's .agg I get the same psychadelic pictures I got before. And when I use the same palette on the Buka (or TE) .agg I get regular colors.
--
Also, when I use the latest TE the only changes which are easily visible are the grid and the current health count. And everything being in russian, ofc. But this site shows there were other changes:
[url=http://www.h1.acidcave.net/mods_%26_utilities.html]Nice H1 site[/url]
As you can see the hero on the battlefield instead of the tent and stuff.
I guess it shouldn't be that hard to "fix" the cursor and replace the tents with the hero graphics, I just happen to not know how and someone probably does.
Also, has anyone ever fixed the "flying backwards" problem? Units "turn" to attack things, it would be pretty cool if they also turned to walk/fly backwards. It's funny I know, but it's just too silly
--
I'll get my hands on something that's just a windows version for sure and get the agg from it (or if someone has the english windows version .agg I'd love that, so that I can check if the buka palette is really different).
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Macron1
Supreme Hero
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posted February 03, 2017 11:41 AM |
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Heroes on battlefield were in nonplayable beta demo. They can be extracted and used to replace tents I think.
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lujo
Hired Hero
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posted February 03, 2017 12:42 PM |
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Edited by lujo at 12:45, 03 Feb 2017.
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Macron1 said:
Heroes on battlefield were in nonplayable beta demo. They can be extracted and used to replace tents I think.
Great info!
Got my hands on an actual Windows version, and I've tracked down some of the button .icn's and am making myself (and anyone else) an English-Buka version ^^ As far as the graphics are concerned, I'll still need to hex edit all the text.
Should I replace the tents with Hero graphics for the version? I shouldn't think it's too controversial, I mean, those tents are just silly. Plenty of stuff to be nostalgic about graphics wise, but I'd be surprised if someone was actually genuinely attached to the tents
And also - replacing the cursor to the nice one from the dos version should also be doable, the graphics seem to be there but are not used for some reaso. Since I'm used to the dos version graphic, the black-and-white one is quite annyoing and looks like a bug, so does anyone know exactly what I'd need to replace to change it? I could probably figure it out by trial and error, I'm asking just in case...
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Baronus
Legendary Hero
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posted February 03, 2017 01:03 PM |
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Hero or tent is here:
hero or tent
It was .inked up for eng version. Make backup you dont lose original agg.
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lujo
Hired Hero
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posted February 03, 2017 02:08 PM |
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Baronus said:
Hero or tent is here:
[url=http://handbookhmm.ru/forum/download/file.php?id=102]hero or tent[/url]
It was .inked up for eng version. Make backup you dont lose original agg.
Thank you, thank you
I've been opening everything to see where stuff is, and I think I can apply this without shortcuts using the other tools.
But since I don't understand how the code works I don't know what causing the cursor to be black and white. I mean, I would know how to change it, but I haven't yet found the .ico (or the whatever) that I need to replace.
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