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Heroes Community > Heroes 4 - Lands of Axeoth > Thread: How to mod HOMMIV
Thread: How to mod HOMMIV This thread is 3 pages long: 1 2 3 · «PREV / NEXT»
NimoStar
NimoStar


Responsible
Legendary Hero
Modding the Unmoddable
posted June 12, 2016 01:49 PM

Well, if you insist, will make a topic about my planned mod...
____________
Never changing = never improving

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NimoStar
NimoStar


Responsible
Legendary Hero
Modding the Unmoddable
posted June 22, 2016 07:16 AM

I have made the first stage test changes in my mod, however I have a problem that needs community help.

Whenever you change the school of a spell (a Life spell to Order, for example) , its icon disappears and becomes a bland square of that schoold's solid color .

I know why this happens: The spell iconset on the new school doesn't have an image for it.

But I don't know how to put IN an icon into that list. Equilibris could do it, so it is possible but I can't. I have tried the most common toold and been able to *extract* the spell icons from the file,
but I have *not* been able to put a new icon *into* the file.

Any idea how to do this?
____________
Never changing = never improving

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Baronus
Baronus


Legendary Hero
posted June 22, 2016 09:38 AM

No tools to modding spells icons. Only facetool...
All school has own colors...

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NimoStar
NimoStar


Responsible
Legendary Hero
Modding the Unmoddable
posted June 22, 2016 10:52 AM
Edited by NimoStar at 10:53, 22 Jun 2016.

There must be a way...  equilibris made new icons for the spell "smoke" on the chaos iconset. They modified them. That means they added them to the pictures somehow.


(clickable)


When I change spell alignement, this happens.


(click to enlarge)

Notice the dull red square on "Berserk", this shows it's lack of image on the Chaos spell iconset.
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Never changing = never improving

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Baronus
Baronus


Legendary Hero
posted June 22, 2016 02:56 PM

Equilibris team tell nothing how to mod and there is no tools for it.
Of course it is possible. It was done by people. But it is very hard.

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iLiVeInAbOx05
iLiVeInAbOx05


Honorable
Famous Hero
posted June 22, 2016 04:02 PM

Seems like we need a tool that can do more than just extract the info / files from the .h4r files.. Something that can also add to each of the files, and then create a new .h4r file..

That's kind of what I was talking about adding to the H4MG later on (or possibly a new app since the main purpose would be different than what the H4MG does).

The only issue is we would need someone to analyze the particular file and document its organization and the full process. I think I noticed on CH that the mh04 program also had source available.. that might be a good place to start, since it should have an idea of the file structure (which I noticed to be a bunch of concatenated .gz files when I looked at it once).

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Karmakeld
Karmakeld


Responsible
Supreme Hero
posted June 23, 2016 11:10 AM

I created a profile on the russian equilibris forum site, and found a single active equilibris member. I don't know how much he has worked with the modding part, but it might be worth looking up Max.
Personally I gave up trying to figure out extracting/reading the game files.

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NimoStar
NimoStar


Responsible
Legendary Hero
Modding the Unmoddable
posted June 26, 2016 11:59 PM

So, can anyone contact them?

Sadly I can't speak Russian.

I think Equilibris people had access to at least some of the original assets of the game. Their Barbarian walls sprites appear to be created from original H4 3D files. You can see they are the same from the Might town but resized.
Some of them may have been developers. That is my speculation.

Other than the icons, whcih I still cannot "inject" into the files, I am having other problems.

I learned how to edit some of the characteristics of "advanced object" files.
And yet, whenever these are added to the mod file, they seem to corrupt it.
This happens with Heroes 4 Resource Extractor (H4ResEx.exe)





As you can see, table files have been imported OK into the new built .h4r , but other, excrypted/formatted files corrupt the list. In the original .h4r exploration, they are seen OK too, and not like that.
Any known solution to that? Another program that can build the mod files?
____________
Never changing = never improving

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Baronus
Baronus


Legendary Hero
posted June 27, 2016 10:56 AM
Edited by Baronus at 10:59, 27 Jun 2016.

1. Equi files are not so perfect h4 files I think. Are a bit another.
2. The best is MH4096. Works perfectly. Try the same.
3. You correct something into def? Maybe is corrupted?
4. You used txtedit which is in MH4096 linked by me?

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Karmakeld
Karmakeld


Responsible
Supreme Hero
posted June 28, 2016 10:44 AM
Edited by Karmakeld at 17:08, 28 Jun 2016.

I don't speak Russian either, but luckily they speak a bit of English Max replied to some pm's and it seems Dalai has made a reappearance (I think both are also active on the English forum on CH. - maybe here as well?? - search for Dalai or Max_HMMI).
Could it be the change in sizes that causes the issues?
F.x. if you want to replace creature skills, I've read you can only change the number of skills they start with, not add extras. So my guess is the code must be the same length and thus the same byte size when edited. But it is just a guess.
You could also look for Taro. He did a minor mod recently, available on CH, where he changed the costs of the Potion of Immortality. He should be able to tell you how he did it successfully.

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NimoStar
NimoStar


Responsible
Legendary Hero
Modding the Unmoddable
posted June 30, 2016 07:25 PM

I will see if can contact them...

The cost of the potion of immortality is in a table file.
The problem is in the adv_object files.

I have already researched how to add extra abilities to creatures. that is on the EXE, you need to do jumps to empty parts to add more abilities (sadly only up to four total, although I am trying to research how to add more).

Unfortunately, I am already using that program and gives this error.
It happens even if I don't modify the files, so it isn't abouth their lenght.

Anyways, for the people following the thread, you can download and comment the first open beta of my mod here:


But now I have run into another problem.
Does anyone know how to edit the home terrain of a faction?
I converted Might faction into  new H4 version of Inferno, but their home terrain is still rough instead of Volcanic...




You can see some of the creatures (don't worry, there are others, including devil, nightmare, ogre magi, etc. this is just an option), but their background doesn't quite fit so well with the inferno theme. (the background shows the home terrain of the creature's faction) - So, I would like to change Might faction home terrain to Volcanic (Hot), and Death faction home terrain to Cursed Ground.
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Never changing = never improving

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Baronus
Baronus


Legendary Hero
posted June 30, 2016 08:22 PM

If there are separate terrain defs:
Extract terrain def you want. Rename it for you need and pack two changed terrain defs eg. in new.h4r file will be smaller.
If it is one def no way. Terrain is like faction.
...
If you use txtedit and MH4096 error like this IS IMPOSSIBLE! It must be corrupted file.

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NimoStar
NimoStar


Responsible
Legendary Hero
Modding the Unmoddable
posted July 18, 2016 03:42 AM

I used ResEdit2 to create non-corrupted files. The other program is only good to create tables and string, but not adv.objects or others.


Now well...
The terrain thing did not work either. It only changed the terrain on the map by renaming.
For now, I can't change native terrains. The only way would be finding them on the .exe

:::::::::::::::

BUT I NEED HELP ON ONE EASY THING

¿How to edit portraits?

I have tried portrait tool and the Equilibris portrait tool to no avail...
I will change the hero faces around the factions (to suit the new hero types; might will not have barbarians but Demons, for example). The adventure and combat stuff is already changed.
But I can't change the portraits.
I can switch the heroes from one faction to another, but the "ring" behind the face is what really worries me.
I would need to change the portraits to delete or recolor color rings behind heroes (even one by one).

How to do this?
____________
Never changing = never improving

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Baronus
Baronus


Legendary Hero
posted July 18, 2016 09:28 AM

Resedit2 is not perfectly. And game may crashed. Mh4096 made the same perfect.
Pack portraits in updates.h4r or new.h4r. It must mus be first to red by processor.
It is order game reading:
1. new
2. updates
3. other h4r

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Karmakeld
Karmakeld


Responsible
Supreme Hero
posted July 18, 2016 06:42 PM

NimoStar said:

¿How to edit portraits?
...I can switch the heroes from one faction to another, but the "ring" behind the face is what really worries me.
I would need to change the portraits to delete or recolor color rings behind heroes (even one by one).

How to do this?


First download the Facetool - http://equilibris.celestialheavens.com/eng/downloads.html
You may need to place the program on the C: drive for it to work, but from it, you can copy/paste portrait to clipboard and copy the template ring to clipboard. You will need to cut out the hero portrait manually if you wish to add a new ring color to existing portrait, but once you have it, you can simply re-use it for all new portrait (I did this myself).
You can't use the program itself for editing, you'll need to do that in a photoeditor.
Once you've inserted your new portrait simply save it, and it will create a new_mod.h4r file. If you want to use it for Std./WoW rename it to new.h4r. Otherwise it will only work in Equilibris.

Hope this will help you. If you need more help, let me know.
A bit of inspiration:

http://www.celestialheavens.com/forum/7/12752?hilit=home%20made%20portraits (a list of portraits I've changed)
http://www.celestialheavens.com/forum/7/15973?hilit=portraits#p362339 (from Russian equilibris site)
http://imgur.com/9MEOW6n (By Echo)

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Karmakeld
Karmakeld


Responsible
Supreme Hero
posted July 18, 2016 06:46 PM

I should add you need to save the files as bmp, in order for them to be read properly.

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NimoStar
NimoStar


Responsible
Legendary Hero
Modding the Unmoddable
posted July 19, 2016 05:11 PM

Thank you for your answers,

The results on the screenshots look nice.

But I had tried FaceTool many times before. it never worked. What would I need, Windows XP? Compatibility doesn't work either. I launch it in admin mod and from C: and still has the problem.





Or would I need someone here to make the portrait changes for me?

_________________________

As for the mh_96, I don't know how to use it.
I only get options to open a file and to build an h4l file (this isn't the same as an h4r). I don't know how to actually create or modify a data file with it. I don't see any such way to do it in any of the menus.
Even extracting files doesn't work. *No* file is created when I choose extracting selected files and enter data to save.


?

I am trying to see if it's the libraries. The trolltech site for the GUI they cite (QT 2.30) is down.
Making the lists manually seems exhaustive, though. My mod has easily hundreds of files.
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Never changing = never improving

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Baronus
Baronus


Legendary Hero
posted July 20, 2016 12:18 AM

equi file is most important.
1. Build h4 file.
2. Click equi file! (in the same folder you must have all files to packing! Equi is ONLY LIST ALL FILES TO PACK!)
And thats all.
On Win xp crash is too but worked after crash! One tool is ONLY Equilibris second for orginally game.

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Karmakeld
Karmakeld


Responsible
Supreme Hero
posted July 20, 2016 06:56 PM

I had it working on Win XP. Win 7 and Win 8, but that's not to say I didn't have trouble getting it to work at first. There's a tread on Celestialheavens.com dedicated to troubleshooting, might help you.
Is your heroes folder named by default or renamed/custom placed?
Iirc, the facetool needs to read the equi.h4r(?) file from the Data folder (likely the one Baronus also refers to).
I had to manually locate it at times, but I can put up my directory, when I get to my PC, so you can compare locations.

If you're okay with getting help, I can try to help you, on the condition that you provide me with the template ring color you wish and the portraits you wish to replace. The way I altered some portraits took quite a few hours, but if it's mostly copy/paste I'd be willing to help you out.
Do note that you can't add new heroes, you'll be replacing existing ones, but can change their name and bio, to be default in game (so it doesn't keep the former hero's name/bio).

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Baronus
Baronus


Legendary Hero
posted July 20, 2016 09:15 PM
Edited by Baronus at 21:16, 20 Jul 2016.

I wrote about equi file for Mh4096 :-) Equilibris is too on equi file. You must click equi to build h4r file in Mh4096.
I heard some people has problems with facetkits.
One is only for Equilibris, second for classic version. I have crash too but after crash if I click crashed window it works! Try!

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