Enabling Hot Seat in the Beta

[Angelspit]

Credit goes to Andrej, a reader. You will need a program called Winrarto extract the file.

0. Download the rar archive here.
1. Extract the package, you should have one folder named "MainMenu2"
2. Go to your beta installation folder, smth like "c:\HoMMVbeta\data\"
3. You will notice that there is "data.pak" file, which is actually
renamed zip file
4. Go to total commander/winzip/winrar and just press enter on the file,
you see the contents of it (if "Open file with.." dialog pops up, just
find winzip or winrar, no need to rename the .pak to .zip)
5. Now browse to "UI" folder, you will notice that there is already
"MainMenu2" folder, rename it to smth like "MainMenu2.OLD" in case
anything goes wrong
6. Copy that folder that you extracted previously in this "UI" folder
7. Now you should have 2 "MainMenu2" folders in "UI" folder ("MainMenu2"
and "MainMenu2.OLD")
8. Get out of the data.pak or close the winzip and start the game
9. Go to multiplayer and hotseat and lan menus are enabled

Note: I only tested hotseat and it works, but there can be problems. When you enter it, select map and then its best to just chose town, hero and
bonus. Don't try to make both players ready, no need to, besides if you
do, you can accidentaly enable AI slot, in which case you wont be able
to start the game. You will have to cancel it and enter hotseat menu again.

[Derek]

Have you tried this out Angelspit? No offense, but I'd like to know if this is going to cause any sort of nasty crashes or the like...

[Bandobras Took]

It didn't cause me any nasty crashes. But then, I haven't had any nasty crashes without it, either . . .

[Bad Wolf]

Actually the hot-seat works fine (you can even Save and Load).
And you don't have to worry about the slots, if you acidently chose an AI you can just switch it back to human, OR you can switch everyone but Red to AI, and play single player through hot-seat button (did that a few times myself).
And yes, you can still test out balance, even when your playing vs. another human that is near you on the same pc
Oh and you DON'T have to touch data.pak if you are afraid to screw up the game, you can just put the MainMenu2 directory from the mod RAR, into your HoMMV/data/ui directory (In the HoMMV/data you'll have to create a new folder called ui and then put the MainMenu2 there)...
It's much safer this way and you can just move/delete the folder if nesecery without going into data.pak of the game.

[Arzang]

this. is. friggin. awesome!

does the game have as many slowdowns and laggs when playing hotseat?

well even if it does, it's still worth playing. a definitive must have.

[Angelspit]

I haven't tested it myself (I installed the open beta just last night to be honest), but a lot of people claim to be using it.

[jamsz]

There is no need to unpack the data.pak, just copy the MainMenu2 folder into the data folder. The game will load the moded files and everything will work fine.

BTW the hotseat works great, I've had no crashes or problems whatsoever. On my comp the peak memory usage (whole system, not just H5) after hours of playing stays close to 1GB. The only problem I've noticed is when exiting after a longer play session the game can lock-up.

Another warning I've seen on the forums is related to deleting save games - instead of deleting the selected one, it deletes all saves so be careful.

[Labyrinth]

There is no need to unpack the data.pak, just copy the MainMenu2 folder into the data folder. The game will load the moded files and everything will work fine.

QFE !

Don't ever make people change their original game data, AS!

When the game finds folders in ./data/ outside of the data.pak, which is read before the actual file folders, the packed data is overridden by the additional folders. You can add EVERYTHING to the game just by creating new folders in ./data/. (And of course you can extract the whole data.pak and delete it, but it should be wise to keep your backup
E.g. if you want to exchange the Dragons in Sylvan with the Firebird/Phoenixes, just extract the Dragon files from the data.pak into the folder structure, change the models (and names, if you want), and you're done.

And AS, btw. you should already know this from the CB

-- Labyrinth.

[Derek]

It didn't cause me any nasty crashes. But then, I haven't had any nasty crashes without it, either . . .

Nice.

Looks like I've got some new uses out of the beta after all...I just never could play any online without it locking up on me.

[schaf]

Those instructions AngelSpit posted are from me and at the time i only knew about updating data.pak, i didn't know the game also reads from folders outside data.pak. And those folders also have priority.

So if you did like i wrote, go back to data.pak, delete MainMenu2 and rename the MainMenu2.OLD to MainMenu2 and you should be fine and have unmodified data.pak. Then do what Bad Wolf wrote to enable hotseat.

And yes it works nice, also save/load does work. I play hotseat against myself, and must say that necropolis rocks.

[ciptheelf]

I had many crashes in the battles (only), but I thing they happen because of the computer which is a little under the mininum requirements

[Angelspit]

Those instructions AngelSpit posted are from me

Are you schaf as in motorschaf?

[schaf]

Eh, no. What's a motorschaf?

Schaf is actually a german word for sheep. Das Schaf = Sheep

[Angelspit]

motorschaf (I'm not sure the spelling is right) is a Heroes III tournament veteran. But you didn't sound like him anyway.

[Darkstroem]

How can you rename an archived folder with WinRAR?

[wellknownq8]

How can you rename an archived folder with WinRAR?

I did it with "7-Zip" Program.. it allows u to add/delete/rename any file inside.

I had many crashes in the battles (only)

Me too, whether i have better specs than the minimum... !

but i think the problem with my video card (Intel 82915G built-in) .... !

[Derek]

I just played a map and had no problems other than the game stuttered in the Necropolis.

Is there any reason that I should not play against the AI? I am sure that they are stupid, I can live with that in a beta, but it doesn't make the game crash or anything?

[Bandobras Took]

but i think the problem with my video card (Intel 82915G built-in) ....

That's rather likely. On-board video won't cut it for most games nowadays.

[Bad Wolf]

I just played a map and had no problems other than the game stuttered in the Necropolis.

Is there any reason that I should not play against the AI? I am sure that they are stupid, I can live with that in a beta, but it doesn't make the game crash or anything?

Sorry to dissapoint ya, but there is NO ai in the open beta, if you let the computer control some player, he will just end his turn AS SOON as his turn will start...
You can just use them as dummies if you need to play solo, or play less then 4 people on the medium-map.

[Arzang]

no ai huh? guess I'll have to drag my friend's ass over here so we can play a bit.

I noticed that travelling between underground and "normal"ground can make the game hang.