Heroes of Might and Magic Community
visiting hero! Register | Today's Posts | Games | Search! | FAQ/Rules | AvatarList | MemberList | Profile


Age of Heroes Headlines:  
5 Oct 2016: Heroes VII development comes to an end.. - read more
6 Aug 2016: Troubled Heroes VII Expansion Release - read more
26 Apr 2016: Heroes VII XPack - Trial by Fire - Coming out in June! - read more
17 Apr 2016: Global Alternative Creatures MOD for H7 after 1.8 Patch! - read more
7 Mar 2016: Romero launches a Piano Sonata Album Kickstarter! - read more
19 Feb 2016: Heroes 5.5 RC6, Heroes VII patch 1.7 are out! - read more
13 Jan 2016: Horn of the Abyss 1.4 Available for Download! - read more
17 Dec 2015: Heroes 5.5 update, 1.6 out for H7 - read more
23 Nov 2015: H7 1.4 & 1.5 patches Released - read more
31 Oct 2015: First H7 patches are out, End of DoC development - read more
5 Oct 2016: Heroes VII development comes to an end.. - read more
[X] Remove Ads
LOGIN:     Username:     Password:         [ Register ]
HOMM1: info forum | HOMM2: info forum | HOMM3: info mods forum | HOMM4: info CTG forum | HOMM5: info mods forum | MMH6: wiki forum | MMH7: wiki forum
Heroes Community > Heroes 3.5 - WoG and Beyond > Thread: Heroes 3 Hacking Reference Guide
Thread: Heroes 3 Hacking Reference Guide This thread is 41 pages long: 1 2 3 4 5 ... 10 20 30 ... 37 38 39 40 41 · «PREV / NEXT»
Parascus
Parascus


Adventuring Hero
posted February 20, 2023 08:52 AM

Hi portus,

I also needed several attempts to install Cheat Engine. I used Cheat Engine 7.4 and still it always asks me, if I want to start this application.

It might be helpfull to get the error description.

Best regards

Parascus
____________

 Send Instant Message | Send E-Mail | View Profile | Quote Reply | Link
portus
portus


Adventuring Hero
posted February 20, 2023 09:35 AM

Hi, I downloaded the latest version and it works, thanks for the response! I suspect the only problem was that I was not connected to the internet during the previous attempts. Whatever the case, I’m in!

 Send Instant Message | Send E-Mail | View Profile | Quote Reply | Link
portus
portus


Adventuring Hero
posted February 20, 2023 09:30 PM
Edited by portus at 21:34, 20 Feb 2023.

Ok, so I finally figured out the puzzle coordinates at the offset spotted by Morglin (in the How to Edit HotA thread, but I think this topic makes more sense here).

I mean, maybe no one else needed further explanation and they just needed the address, but a beginner like me might find the following lines helpful (at least I sure could have used them):

First, I will say that, at least in my code, this stuff begins one row earlier than Morglin's, specifically at 2818F4, where you will find the first puzzle piece of Castle (the first "08 00").

The reason why it starts at 08 00 and not 00 00, which misled me at first, is to avoid the frame of the puzzle window overlapping the piece (I guess you can set it to 00 00, but a little portion of some pieces will be hidden and there should be thicker gaps between some pieces).

Each coordinate occupies two bytes, and the code starts with every X coordinate for the 48 Castle pieces, starting with the ones touching the left frame and from top to bottom, followed by the next "column" of pieces to the right, and so on.

After those 48 pairs of bytes we have all the Y coordinates (coincidentally the first one is also 08 00, since the first piece touches both the left end and the upper one).

And that's it. After Castle comes Rampart, etc. I'm not sure, but I think there might be some extra bytes after the Y coordinates and before the start of the next town, but I haven't had much time to tinker.

 Send Instant Message | Send E-Mail | View Profile | Quote Reply | Link
phoenix4ever
phoenix4ever


Legendary Hero
Heroes is love, Heroes is life
posted March 17, 2023 11:19 AM
Edited by phoenix4ever at 11:20, 17 Mar 2023.

Hi BTB

Can you help me out?

I tried exchanging some towns war machine in their Blacksmith, but the buy icon is grayed out and I can't click on it.
I tried only changing Necropolis at first, changing 242EB0 from 93 to 92 and 1C325F from 80 to 88. (same as Dungeon.)
Is it because I used 88 again, that it won't work? And is it absolutely necessary to have 3 Ballistas, 3 First Aid Tents and 3 Ammo Carts for it to work?

(I would possibly also like to change Inferno, Dungeon and Castles Blacksmiths, but sadly we all know what happens, if you try to change Castles Blacksmith...)

 Send Instant Message | Send E-Mail | View Profile | Quote Reply | Link
BTB
BTB


Famous Hero
Moist & Creamy
posted March 17, 2023 12:12 PM

phoenix4ever said:
Hi BTB

Can you help me out?

I tried exchanging some towns war machine in their Blacksmith, but the buy icon is grayed out and I can't click on it.
I tried only changing Necropolis at first, changing 242EB0 from 93 to 92 and 1C325F from 80 to 88. (same as Dungeon.)
Is it because I used 88 again, that it won't work? And is it absolutely necessary to have 3 Ballistas, 3 First Aid Tents and 3 Ammo Carts for it to work?

(I would possibly also like to change Inferno, Dungeon and Castles Blacksmiths, but sadly we all know what happens, if you try to change Castles Blacksmith...)


I updated the blacksmith part of my guide a little while ago, including letting you switch out Castle to whatever without affecting the Ballista Yard. The new code is much simpler and should avoid whatever problem you're running into, as well.

 Send Instant Message | Send E-Mail | View Profile | Quote Reply | Link
phoenix4ever
phoenix4ever


Legendary Hero
Heroes is love, Heroes is life
posted March 17, 2023 07:19 PM

Where can I find that in your guide?, because I could only find, I guess old information, under the Blacksmith section.

 Send Instant Message | Send E-Mail | View Profile | Quote Reply | Link
BTB
BTB


Famous Hero
Moist & Creamy
posted March 17, 2023 07:38 PM

phoenix4ever said:
Where can I find that in your guide?, because I could only find, I guess old information, under the Blacksmith section.


It's in the Blacksmith section. Try refreshing the page, maybe?

 Send Instant Message | Send E-Mail | View Profile | Quote Reply | Link
phoenix4ever
phoenix4ever


Legendary Hero
Heroes is love, Heroes is life
posted April 11, 2023 09:59 AM
Edited by phoenix4ever at 10:04, 11 Apr 2023.

Hi BTB

Sorry, I can't remember if I have asked this before, but is there a way too make the elemental orbs require their particular magic school?, for example Orb of Silt requirering Earth Magic?

I feel like the game is a bit too dominated by damage spells and if you get one of these orbs you add +50% damage to spells, (which is HUGE for spells like Armageddon, Implosion and Chain Lightning) it also ruins magic schools a bit that you can just spam powerful damage spells, because you have an orb and you might not even have that magic school.
So with the above change it would at least make you stick more to spells you at least have the magic schools for, that is my theory at least.

Or is there any other good way of limiting damage spells a bit?
Spells like Stone Skin, Weakness, Fortune, Bloodlust, Precision, Disrupting Ray, Hypnotize, Slayer etc., which a lot of heroes specialise in seems kinda useless with powerful damage spells and elemental orbs around...

Also is there a way to make Sorcery directly affect the Power stat (similar to Intelligence and Knowledge) and not only damage spells?

 Send Instant Message | Send E-Mail | View Profile | Quote Reply | Link
BTB
BTB


Famous Hero
Moist & Creamy
posted April 13, 2023 01:27 PM

Making the orbs require the skill is pretty trivial, but from what you're telling me it doesn't really sound like it's going to address your concerns. I see three primary issues here.

First, if you consider damage spells in general to be far more useful than support spells (as I did when I started working on the game), then support spells need to be buffed. Buff them until you can legitimately see yourself using them instead of damage spells.

Second, if a 50% boost to an unskilled spell makes it that much better than the output of that same spell unboosted at expert level, then too much of the spell's damage is reliant on magic power and not enough depends on skill level.

Third, the magic orbs shouldn't be common enough finds to be a significant balance concern for such a broad issue as damage spells on the whole. If they ARE popping up that frequently, that's telling me that relic-level artifacts are way too common in the maps you're playing. This is a level design issue moreso than a core mechanical one.

I'm guessing the question about making sorcery also boost the duration of support spells is meant to push heroes who have it toward preferring both support and damage spells rather than going all in on damage spells to capitalize on their skill. But again, the underlying issue is that you think that damage spells are preferable in a vacuum, so addressing it by effectively buffing the skill that's focused on specializing in damage spells is addressing a symptom rather than the root issue.

In any case, both hacks are relatively simple. Sorcery to buff spell duration would probably just need to be +1/+2/+3 rather than percentage-based due to the binary nature of the application. If you really want I can write up the code and post it here, but I don't think you'd be too satisfied with it since, as I explained above, it's not really addressing the concerns you've expressed.

 Send Instant Message | Send E-Mail | View Profile | Quote Reply | Link
phoenix4ever
phoenix4ever


Legendary Hero
Heroes is love, Heroes is life
posted April 13, 2023 04:16 PM
Edited by phoenix4ever at 16:20, 13 Apr 2023.

Thanks for giving it some thought.

You have a good point with trying to improve buff and debuff spells, but what would it take for Stone Skin to compare with Implosion?, +60 defense?, LOL, I just don't see that happening.
Damage spells are so good, because they work instantly, enemy does'nt get a chance to counter, Dispel or Cure anything, because by that time he might have lost his great stack or Archangels due to Implosion or perhaps severely lost the most of his stacks due to Arma.

Perhaps the core issue is damage spells existing in the first place, of course the orbs and Sorcery only makes things worse.

I mostly play my own map and the map is rich both in resources and artifacts, so I usually end up with some elemental orbs. (They are not relics, by the way, they are major artifacts.)
A solution could be to lower the amount of major artifacts though.

My thought with Sorcery buffing Power directly, is not only for duration, but spells like Resurrection, Animate Dead, Cure, Hypnotize and Summon Elementals would all have a greater power modifier and become stronger because of Sorcery.
That way Sorcery would not only buff damage spells, but more or less all combat spells.

 Send Instant Message | Send E-Mail | View Profile | Quote Reply | Link
RerryR
RerryR


Promising
Supreme Hero
Researching Magic
posted April 13, 2023 08:55 PM

@phoenix4ever
The problem is with the Orbs themselves. The value of +50% is way out of proportion if you compare it to the sorcery skill with gives just +15%. So a single artifact is three times better than an expert skill. Imo that is questionable, but also a common practice in H3 that artifacts can have a higher impact than secondary skills.

If you would mod on a proper platform (for modding), I could forward you the code that Daemon gave me to set the orb damage to 25%, for example, and show you how Sorcery or orbs could affect the power of buff/debuff skills.

 Send Instant Message | Send E-Mail | View Profile | Quote Reply | Link
Phoenix4ever
Phoenix4ever


Legendary Hero
Heroes is love, Heroes is life
posted April 13, 2023 09:19 PM

Hi RerryR

In my game Expert Sorcery is 20% and I think at one point I lowered the orbs to 30%, which seems a bit more reasonable. (Honestly not sure why I changed the orbs back to 50% again.)

Sounds interesting with the orbs also affecting buff and debuff spells, is that only for duration or would +6 Stone Skin become +9 instead or something like that?

Yeah I am afraid you use some different modding tools than me, I only use hex editing and txt file editing. I don't really feel like learning any new modding tools either.


 Send Instant Message | Send E-Mail | View Profile | Quote Reply | Link
RerryR
RerryR


Promising
Supreme Hero
Researching Magic
posted April 13, 2023 09:57 PM
Edited by RerryR at 21:59, 13 Apr 2023.

Phoenix4ever said:
Hi RerryR

In my game Expert Sorcery is 20% and I think at one point I lowered the orbs to 30%, which seems a bit more reasonable. (Honestly not sure why I changed the orbs back to 50% again.)

Yes that sounds reasonable.

Phoenix4ever said:
Sounds interesting with the orbs also affecting buff and debuff spells, is that only for duration or would +6 Stone Skin become +9 instead or something like that?

Right, Stone Skin would go up from +6 to +9 (just different values)

Phoenix4ever said:
I don't really feel like learning any new modding tools either.

If I already had done as much modding as you, I probably wouldn't switch either.

 Send Instant Message | Send E-Mail | View Profile | Quote Reply | Link
deathstare
deathstare


Adventuring Hero
posted May 28, 2023 03:17 AM

Hello? I have a question about land mine. Land mine installed by the magic of heroes and land mine installed in front of the wall of tower seem to have different operating principles.
Land mine, installed by the magic of heroes, is influenced by  creatures native to the terrain. On the other hand, the land mine installed in front of the tower's walls has nothing to do with the  creatures native to the terrain.
Is it possible to edit land mine, which is installed by hero magic, too, so that it has nothing to do with creatures native to the terrain? I want to edit land mine so it can always be installed and explode regardless of creatures native to the terrain.

 Send Instant Message | Send E-Mail | View Profile | Quote Reply | Link
Phoenix4ever
Phoenix4ever


Legendary Hero
Heroes is love, Heroes is life
posted June 23, 2023 08:02 PM

Hi BTB
Do you know how to change the Logistics specialty bonus from 5 to 2,5 or 2% per level?

 Send Instant Message | Send E-Mail | View Profile | Quote Reply | Link
Parascus
Parascus


Adventuring Hero
posted June 23, 2023 08:17 PM

@Phoenix4Ever: Isn't the paragraph "SKILL SPECIALTIES" what you need? On the other hand it would also change the calculation of every percegtage based skill speciality.

Regards

Parascus
____________

 Send Instant Message | Send E-Mail | View Profile | Quote Reply | Link
Phoenix4ever
Phoenix4ever


Legendary Hero
Heroes is love, Heroes is life
posted June 23, 2023 08:25 PM

Thanks I know, but I only wanted to change the Logistics bonus.

 Send Instant Message | Send E-Mail | View Profile | Quote Reply | Link
AlexSpl
AlexSpl


Responsible
Supreme Hero
posted June 24, 2023 12:07 AM
Edited by AlexSpl at 04:04, 24 Jun 2023.

You can change E4 EA 63 00 (which is 0x63EAE4 and points to 0.5f) at E4F1E to another pointer you want. For example, you can use pointers to 0.2f from Offense skill multipliers table (0x63E9F8 + 4 for each skill level: 0x63E9F8 + 4 + 4 = 0x63EA00 for Advanced Offense, which is, as you know, 20%), and to 0.25f from Archery skill table (0x63E9E8 + 4 for each skill level: 0x63E9E8 + 4 + 4 = 0x63E9F0 for Advanced Archery, which has 25% bonus, as you need). None of those operations will affect any other aspects of the game but Logistics specialty multiplier.

Oh, sorry, it's not 0.5, 0.25, 0.2, you need 0.05, 0.025, and 0.02.

Let's see, for 0.02f will do 0x63AC60 from create_skeletons. For 0.025 it's hard to find a pointer to float, so you can use a pointer to double (0x63B8C0), but don't forget to modify opcodes as well (D8 0D -> DC 0D before the offset you are changing).

You can use free space to write your own floats and doubles in case they cannot be found in the Heroes 3 code.

So, for 0.025 multiplier write DC 0D C0 B8 63 00 at E4F1C, for 0.02 write D8 0D 60 AC 63 00. Works even with HotA. Make sure, of course, that you haven't directly changed any of the above multipliers earlier in your mod. And if you plan changing them in the future, you'll have to find another ones for 0.025 and 0.02.

But... The best and error stable way to do your modifications to the executable file is via plugins. You, at least, will not shoot yourself in the foot making further modifications which your earlier modifications may depend on.

 Send Instant Message | Send E-Mail | View Profile | Quote Reply | Link
Phoenix4ever
Phoenix4ever


Legendary Hero
Heroes is love, Heroes is life
posted June 24, 2023 07:51 AM

Thank you Alex.
Yeah, it seems a bit like a risky operation.
I don't know how to make plug-ins and they does'nt seem to work with newest version of HD Mod either.
I am not sure I even want Logistics specialists at all, having more movement than everyone else, seems like the best ability in the game. I might give Kyrre, Gunnar and Dessa a brand new specialty instead. (They still start with Logistics, which is great.)

 Send Instant Message | Send E-Mail | View Profile | Quote Reply | Link
AlexSpl
AlexSpl


Responsible
Supreme Hero
posted June 24, 2023 12:11 PM
Edited by AlexSpl at 12:22, 24 Jun 2023.

As of HD 5.4 R30 (the latest build), plugins work perfectly both in HD and HD+ modes. What do you mean by not working with the newest version? If we speak about the HotA HD launcher, then yes, they cannot be added via interface, though still it's possible to use them.

Quote:
I don't know how to make plug-ins

Believe me, writing complex hex-patches requires a lot of time and sometimes low-level skills (assembler, opcodes), while writing plugins requires basic knowledge of high-level programming language such as C++.

For example, in plugin you could simply write (level * 0.025 + 1) for Logistics secondary skill specialty multiplier, and that's it. Only your imagination is the limit. You could do things in the blink of an eye which would require hours of work in hex-editor otherwise.

 Send Instant Message | Send E-Mail | View Profile | Quote Reply | Link
Jump To: « Prev Thread . . . Next Thread » This thread is 41 pages long: 1 2 3 4 5 ... 10 20 30 ... 37 38 39 40 41 · «PREV / NEXT»
Post New Poll    Post New Topic    Post New Reply

Page compiled in 0.0508 seconds