Brakazog
Tavern Dweller
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posted July 24, 2006 10:18 AM |
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Edited by Brakazog at 10:46, 24 Jul 2006.
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How to Mod MP Maps for Alliances
Here's how to change the existing multiplayer maps so that you can play with alliances. I know it's been posted somewhere (or it might've been a different board - for some reason I'm not finding it here), but I thought it'd make a pretty good example of how to do a very simple mod.
--FIRST STEP: Accessing data.pak and texts.pak
There have been several posts on this, so I'll just give the quick version.
1. Make copies of data.pak and texts.pak, found in (default) Program Files\UbiSoft\Heroes of Might and Magic V\data. Put the copies somewhere else, like on the desktop. Don't leave them in the data directory.
2. Change the extensions of the copied files from .pak to .zip.
3. Use WinRAR or something similar to extract everything out of these files. Be sure to preserve the directory structure contained in the archive. If you have trouble, there are more detailed posts on how to do this.
(Actually, this is just to make searching easier. For advanced users, if you want to edit files directly in the archive, the only thing you really need searchable is the Maps\Multiplayer directory of texts.pak. I just like to have everything unpacked in case I want to search for other stuff)
--SECOND STEP: Figuring out where your map data file is
Inside both data.pak and texts.pak, in the Maps\Multiplayer directory you'll find folders for all the original and planned MP maps. They'll have names like "L2" or "M8"; in texts.pak these folders will contain a file with a name like "name.txt" or "M8.txt" or "MapCaption.txt" (there's no consistency other than it's always a .txt file).
The name of the map you seek will be in this file. It's a simple matter to do a Windows "Search..." on the Multiplayer folder and look for *.txt files containing "Warlords" for example.
The important thing here is to find out which directory your map is in. In the example of the Warlords map, it's in the L2 directory.
The file you need to edit will be in the corresponding directory of data.pak, and it will have a filename that matches the name of the directory, with an extension of .xdb. For example, to edit Warlords, the file you want in data.pak will be Maps\Multiplayer\L2\L2.xdb.
--THIRD STEP: Editing the map data
Inside your backup version of data.pak, open the .xdb file you just found using any old text editor. Search for "CustomTeams"
The line it finds will read "<CustomTeams>false</CustomTeams>". Change "false" to "true" on this line.
Following this line will be 8 player definition sections. Every player used in the scenario will contain "<ActivePlayer>true</ActivePlayer>". Right below this line will be a Team number, like "<Team>0</Team>".
For each player, change the Team number so that matching numbers are on the same team. For example, to set up four teams of two, set two of the players to team 0, two to team 1, two to team 2, and two to team 3. The order of the list in the file matches the order of the player list in-game.
Save this file.
--FOURTH STEP: Install your modified file
Go to the program data directory (default: Program Files\Ubisoft\Heroes of Might and Magic V\data).
Create a directory path from here that matches the structure within data.pak. You only need to create the directories that lead to the file(s) you edited, so in the example of Warlords, you would only need to create Maps\Multiplayer\L2.
Copy your edited L2.xdb (or whatever) into the new directory. As long as your directory structure matches that of data.pak, your file will override the one that's contained in data.pak.
--PLAY! ENJOY!--
Note: The map will not appear any different in the menu, but once you get to the player select screen, you'll see that the numbers inside the colored flags correspond to the teams you set up.
To set things back to normal, simply remove your edited .xdb file.
Important: This is a quick and dirty solution, mainly because I'm assuming most people would just want to set up allies for a game or two -- if you want to permanently change the map, I highly recommend that you zip your new directories into a .pak file as described in the "How to submit your mod" post, so that you keep your data directory clean.
Also, before you ask, no, I don't know how one could create a brand new map that would just be an allied version of another. Nor have I found out how to make the map select screen info accurate. Not really planning on trying either -- I've spent too much time away from the game already...
I've only tested this for Hot Seat games -- if it gets weird in LAN or Internet, you might need to make sure everyone has the same .xdb file installed.
Have fun!
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