MM3-5 modding?

[GreatEmerald]

I'm curious about modding for MM3, MM4 or MM5... Is there a way to do so at all? We can see that fans managed to create Swords of XEEN (And NWC managed to create a merge for MM4 and MM5), so it should be rather modable? Would be nice to try out something like that and add new features (Protection from Magic against those Demon Lords!), new locations and such... And it could be even easier than modding for newer MM games, since these are grid based.

Also, were there ever any patches out for MM1-5? They could use some, for example, in MM3 you can get infinite EXP if you have full inventory or have 255 AC if you put a -1 AC item on you when you have 0 AC...

[solitaire345]

http://xeen.wikia.com/wiki/CC_File_Format - about the file format
http://xeen.wikia.com/wiki/Filenames - list of files in xeen.cc and dark.cc
http://www.angelfire.com/comics/thewiza ... xtract.xex - extractor for cc files. change extension to exe, to make it work.
usage: extract.exe - [CC-file name] [File name to extract from CC]
http://www.angelfire.com/comics/thewiza ... /extract.c - source

[Corlagon]

Thanks a LOT for that extraction program. I've been looking for something like it for ages, being a coding noob.

Do you know if there's a list of the files in the SWRD.CC on the interweb, or at least if there's a way to view the list through some other means?

[vladimir-maestro]

and what about "packer"? to be able to pack new files back to CC?

[GreatEmerald]

Yea, I had that question as well. And are those music files (indicated as .M) are in form of MIDI files? So a rename to MIDI would simply work?

[Corlagon]

I just gave that a try, unfortunately it doesn't work as simply as that, but the Xeen Wiki says it isn't all that difficult to convert. However, they don't exactly tell us how

EDIT: I found the answer and managed to convert one of the themes into MIDI successfully! This WizardStan guy deserves a prize.

http://www.gamefaqs.com/boards/genmessa ... c=50194802

[vladimir-maestro]

I think that modding earlier mm games are useless.
Much better to made your own game with rpg-maker =) =)

[GreatEmerald]

rebirthofxeen.com seems to be down
Hmm, it seems from the archive at the end of the discussion there that the sci-fi theme is not found yet... It's probably in those "Unknown music file" slots... If only we knew the name... Or it's SF05, it seems to be wrongly extracted in the archive there. A good find anyways

[Talin_Trollbane]

so this program can extract the midi music from all 3 games?

[Corlagon]

rebirthofxeen.com seems to be down
Hmm, it seems from the archive at the end of the discussion there that the sci-fi theme is not found yet... It's probably in those "Unknown music file" slots... If only we knew the name... Or it's SF05, it seems to be wrongly extracted in the archive there. A good find anyways

It's fine for me, I just tested the links. If it's a browser problem or something, give me your email address and I'll send you the music extractor.

I'll check out SF05. My main difficulty is with some of the extracted text files, though. Unlike the .BIN ones, the per-map event files, when opened in Notepad, are gobbledygook.

[solitaire345]

you talk about evt files? they are in event language, for this the xeen wiki has a category http://xeen.wikia.com/wiki/Category:Event_Opcodes

[Corlagon]

Nope, I'm talking about the map event texts, like AAZE0001.TXT for instance. When opened they give me a load of random Chinese characters. I believe the game dialogues are inside them, which would be a motherload for my projects.

How do you decode them?

[solitaire345]

they're ok at my pc. try to go to regional and language options advanced tab, set language for non-unicode programs to 'english (united states)' and extract the text file again

[GreatEmerald]

Interesting, it seems to be back up now. The Files section there is very interesting:
http://www.rebirthofxeen.com/files/
As you can see from revisions.txt, someone is trying to create a port of Xeen... However, I can't open the exe, it says that it failed to initialise (maybe 64bit compatibility problem?).

[Corlagon]

There's nothing wrong with my unicode regional options, they're set to English. I don't understand it.

Could I ask you to send across one of those unicode text files? At least I'd like to know if they're indeed the ones I'm looking for.

[Talin_Trollbane]

Interesting, it seems to be back up now. The Files section there is very interesting:
http://www.rebirthofxeen.com/files/
As you can see from revisions.txt, someone is trying to create a port of Xeen... However, I can't open the exe, it says that it failed to initialise (maybe 64bit compatibility problem?).

hey wait, you are that musicboy from youtube, the one who is uploading the Might and Magic 3-5 music, right?

[GreatEmerald]

I'd put that a little differently, but essentially you're right

[Talin_Trollbane]

so this is how you got the music from the game? i was wondering if you simply stood still ingame and recorded it or had found some way to extract it.

[GreatEmerald]

Nope, this is the first time I hear of such method. I actually got the MIDIs off the internet + I record the "Direct Recording" versions by standing still.

[Rune_Caster]

Sorta like Exult for Ultima 7 part 1 and 2. Even include changes like minor graphics updates and music updates etc while still using all the available game resources...