MMExtension v2.2 + MMEditor v2.1 Level Editor [June 4, 2019]

[Baronus]

THANKS A LOT! Good news. Changing people is easy. In npc.table. You can add new faces and people. Hardest thing is add building synchronized with npc.table. The same easy is changing animation. Its only number.
Adding old taverns etc. it is possible? Its enough.
You can add completly new shops using animations and shop word in tables but only with selling. No buying.
Good work. I suggest making not to big games maybe 7-9 maps. But more. Wonderfull editor! :-)

[neutonm]

Yes, documentation is very needed, but it's not my thing, I don't have motivation to do it.

Well, if you are OK with answering questions then it's not required. This topic may serve as partial guide for it.

Last MMExt version has a huge bug (spells don't do any damage in MM7&8) witch I've fixed, but haven't uploaded the fixed version yet.

I made a program to add new monsters into sft.txt and monlist.txt back in the day for vladimir-maestro. Also don't forget about monsters.txt

Which spells? Like from the trap? If you're talking about player spell casting then it works fine.
Anyway, i've bet everyone is looking forward for fixed version and the monster maker software - don't be shy to upload it.

Did you find that PortalList thing in mm8leveleditor?
Make sure the vertices have exactly the same coordinates for both rooms and the portal and make sure the portal belongs to one of the rooms. The best way normally is not creating a portal at all, unless the map is based on internal one and thus has such portals. The editor can create portals for you, but having the same vertices in both rooms is essential.

Yes, yes yes! Success
I was adding mesh to mesh and that's why i got such a poo. I've tested manual and automatic portal creation. Interesting that In the case of automatic "portaling" two rooms and corridor resulted only one portal whereas with manual i had two portals.


To the rest of your answers. Huge thanks GrayFace, you're my hero
I've PM'd the problematic map.

Holyc... looks neat. Kudos!
Judging by "textures" should be MM8 mod, right?

@GrayFace, J. M. Sower

Could you guys share the process of making minimap picture with blender (step-by-step)? I was killing myself with PS clone-stamp tool...

[J. M. Sower]

Yes, I'm working on new world for MM8. Exactly Karigor with the possibility of traveling to Vori, Krewlod and something. I need people to write dialogues/texts and to inventing quests.

My map is generally created in Photoshop. Renders are only the base for work, but perhaps I will share some helpful materials.

[Baronus]

Write how to do minimap its important.
You must write everything you know for all mapmakers. End help one for one. I see two new games rather than mods. I wish ten or more new games.
One based on MMVII
Second on MMVIII. I see Sower has big plans.
Vori with snow elves. You can use dark elves. They have white snow hairs.
Krewlod with ogre and troll peasants, warriors and mages. You can use troll and lizard shops and taverns.
Tatalia with daggerwound isle resources.
Minotaur country.
Maybe Erathia knight country using dragon hunters shops but not with so crazy textes and mad hunters. And with Catherine and Roland throne room.
Deyia with Shadowspire resources.
Dragon country.
Regnanan empire. This small isle in MMVIII is not a empire.
It is 8 maps. Maybe in the middle country neutral for all factions. Karigor?
Map graphic order:
Regnan Vori Deyia
Minotaur Karigor Erathia
Dragon Tatalia Krewlod
Dragon and Minotaur one land.
Deyia, Erathia,Tatalia and Krewlod second land plus isles.
East part of Jadame and West of Antagarich.
Its my idea.

[GrayFace]

I've done that, and there's no more error message, but when I try to change the items there's no effect.

Send me the modified script, I'll take a look.

[GrayFace]

Which spells? Like from the trap? If you're talking about player spell casting then it works fine.

Maybe monsters casting spells at player. I don't remember.

I've tested manual and automatic portal creation. Interesting that In the case of automatic "portaling" two rooms and corridor resulted only one portal whereas with manual i had two portals.

That's strange. You had 3 rooms, right? Or just 2?

[GrayFace]

I typed it in the Scripts/General/moded.lua and the game crashes when I click on a new game.

Code: Select all

mem.IgnoreProtection(true)
mem.i2[0x492340] = 1158
mem.IgnoreProtection(false)

Oh, you said "columns B and C". It should be 0x49234B then.

Code: Select all

evt.hint[250] = "Ewan's house" -- event 250 for walls of Ewan's house - only show text when cursor on it
evt.house[251] = 500 -- assigning event 251 to idhouse 500
Game.Houses[500].Name = "Ewan's house entrance" -- assigning text showed when cursor on doors

If it's a dungeon entrance, also add a command to enter the map, e.g.

Code: Select all

evt[251] = function()
  evt.MoveToMap{HouseId = 500, Icon = 1, Name = "d20.blv"}
end

I recommend using 2DEvents.txt rather than assigning house name in script. Currently its capacity is limited, but I'll deal with that. So, code for a regular house would be like this:

Code: Select all

evt.house[251] = 500  -- assigning event 251 to idhouse 500
evt.hint[250] = Game.Houses[500].Name  -- event 250 for walls of Ewan's house - just show the hint (also shown on right click on the world map)

Code: Select all

evt.str[120] = "Ewan's house"
evt.hint[250] = evt.str[120] -- event 250 show text from str120 when cursor on it

To make it clearer, this would assign the same text to event 250 hint (evt.hint[250]) and evt.str[120]. evt.str strings are only used by *.evt files, so for a new house there's no reason to set evt.str[120].

It's cool that you've figured it all out by yourself.

I need people to write dialogues/texts and to inventing quests.

So do we in MM8.5 team I think we should try to merge our projects. Both are vastly ambitious (as I understood, yours mostly uses new maps).

[J. M. Sower]

Baronus, thanks for the ideas! I already have a general outline but each idea can come in handy. My vision more based on the use Karigor.

Oh, you said "columns B and C". It should be 0x49234B then.

Of course! For a moment I thought about it but it was after writing the post.

So do we in MM8.5 team I think we should try to merge our projects. Both are vastly ambitious (as I understood, yours mostly uses new maps).

I am eager to cooperate. I'll talk about it with the Maestro.

[Baronus]

We must see what resources are in the MMVIII. Because removeing all units animations and grafics is work for 100 people. We have lizards, elves, barbarians, peoples, minotaurs, necromants, dragons, pirates. And thats all. Factions are arranged. It can be some modified but it is a lot of work.
First build maps and gameplay. I suggest short textes. Find (sword) and bring to (...). You dont filled mission (if not) for all. At the end of work you can think about writing. All good for you! For MM 8,5 makers too!
And for neutonm project too. :-)

[J. M. Sower]

I'm 2D and 3D Graphic Designer (see for Mod Design Team works for HoMM3, some of them are mine), so I can make new creatues (eg. I plan to make Mogreds). But I agree, for now I'd rather avoid that work.

[J. M. Sower]

I have a question. Is it possible for MMExtension to break the global constraints such as the max number of creatures, or number of 2devents? I thought it was impossible , but with time I gain more and more confidence in the MMExtension. If it is possible please explain how to do it.

Ps. Neutonm, can you explain (step by step) how to correctly make portals in dungeons?

[Baronus]

As you see there is no idea how to ad creatures. But I think you can replace some of them. There is 61 sprites in MMVIII. You have all VI-VIII games. And about 180 monsters...
In 2D events you can add 2 NPCs in each house. Its enough.
Number of NPCs is UNLIMITED! I test it.

[GrayFace]

I have a question. Is it possible for MMExtension to break the global constraints such as the max number of creatures, or number of 2devents? I thought it was impossible , but with time I gain more and more confidence in the MMExtension. If it is possible please explain how to do it.

It's tricky. The next version is coming very soon with MapStats.txt and 2DEvents.txt limits removed.
As for monsters, there's a good number of free 'slots' in MM8. Here's a script for Hostile.txt for MM8 (put it into Scripts\General), it makes it read info for all free monster slots from it:

Code: Select all

local i4, i2, i1, u4, u2, u1, call = mem.i4, mem.i2, mem.i1, mem.u4, mem.u2, mem.u1, mem.call

local Count = 89

local BytePatch = {0x4011D7+2, 0x4011DC+2, 0x452017+3, 0x45203D+2, 0x45204D+3}

mem.IgnoreProtection(true)
for _, p in ipairs(BytePatch) do
	u1[p] = u1[p] + Count - 67
end
mem.IgnoreProtection(false)

You'll have to delete it after I remove Hostile.txt and Monsters.txt limits completely.

Ps. Neutonm, can you explain (step by step) how to correctly make portals in dungeons?

It goes like this:
1. Create a plane
2. Split the hallway with it (without creating extra facets)
3. Delete the plane
If it's a dungeon with pre-existing portals, you'll need to actually create a portal facet in one of the rooms, but I'll change this in the next version. I suggest making rooms after the dungeon is done.

[Baronus]

Thanks.
Second thing rnditems in MMVI. How add to treasures and shops items 399 and higher?
And in MMVIII unarmed, and no armor skills. How to add exacutable textes to learn this skills on 1 to 4 levels? For dragons eg. will be very usefull.

[J. M. Sower]

The next version is coming very soon with MapStats.txt and 2DEvents.txt limits removed.

This is great news! I'm looking forward.

You'll have to delete it after I remove Hostile.txt and Monsters.txt limits completely.

So, at this time I can only use the free slots and wait until you have removed limits?

As for monsters, there's a good number of free 'slots' in MM8. Here's a script for Hostile.txt for MM8 (put it into Scripts\General), it makes it read info for all free monster slots from it:

Code: Select all

local i4, i2, i1, u4, u2, u1, call = mem.i4, mem.i2, mem.i1, mem.u4, mem.u2, mem.u1, mem.call

local Count = 89

local BytePatch = {0x4011D7+2, 0x4011DC+2, 0x452017+3, 0x45203D+2, 0x45204D+3}

mem.IgnoreProtection(true)
for _, p in ipairs(BytePatch) do
	u1[p] = u1[p] + Count - 67
end
mem.IgnoreProtection(false)

Good, but tell me, where/when informations about the free 'slots' will appear when I use this script.

It goes like this:
1. Create a plane
2. Split the hallway with it (without creating extra facets)
3. Delete the plane
If it's a dungeon with pre-existing portals, you'll need to actually create a portal facet in one of the rooms, but I'll change this in the next version. I suggest making rooms after the dungeon is done.

I already have one dungeon almost finished, so I will need this knowledge in the near future.

Ps. Also I have some completely different problem. I can't find in the archives of the game any graphics of main menu. Someone knows how to change them? It frustrates me.

[GrayFace]

So, at this time I can only use the free slots and wait until you have removed limits?

Yes. Well, there's also an option of replacing monsters for some maps.

Good, but tell me, where/when informations about the free 'slots' will appear when I use this script.

What do you mean? You have empty lines in monsters.txt file that you can use as always. Similarly, empty cells in hostile.txt that were ignored without that script.
I should dig up the program I made for Maestro to add monsters: add frames into SFT.txt, monster info into MonList.txt, it'll definitely come in handy for you. I also made some for a bit of .png pics processing: render settings he used produced a mix of image colors and background color in places where there was transparency, etc.

Ps. Also I have some completely different problem. I can't find in the archives of the game any graphics of main menu. Someone knows how to change them? It frustrates me.

Most of it is in EnglishD.lod

[Baronus]

And in icons.lod. See MMArchive you have look option. Search only pcx. Its only some in this format and fast search.

[GrayFace]

Version 2.1

I fixed two critical bugs introduced in last MMExt version: 1) no damage from enemy spells abd dragon breath and 2) crash whenever an item was broken using a mass spell.
Limits for MapStats.txt and 2DEvents.txt files removed. You can simply add as many new lines as you want to these files.
In MMEditor I've added NPC_ID parameter that I forgot to include for monsters.
Also, now rooms without manual portals get automatic portals even if some rooms in the dungeon do have manual portals. Disregard this sentence if you don't understand what it is about

[Baronus]

Cong.:-) It is road to creating rmg like in Daggerfall and rdungeon g. It will be very usefull. Thanks :-)

[J. M. Sower]

I'm glad!

In Scripts\Structs\ appears file "02 Increase Facets Limit.lua". Could you explain what improvements it introduced? I dream about it, that will be removed limits of number of models included in the maps.

Thanks for targeting me, about main menu graphics.

You have empty lines in monsters.txt file that you can use as always. Similarly, empty cells in hostile.txt that were ignored without that script.

Now I understand. So the MonList.txt doesn't contain any limits and there are some free slots in Monsters.txt and Hostile.txt?

For now, I can render graphics with correct background, I know how MonList.txt is constructed and I can add frames to SFT.txt, but that programs would be welcome.

This improvement with NPC_ID was desirable, but there was able to circumvent that with the scripts. For example:

Code: Select all

local mon = SummonMonster(167, 3850, 5920, 704)
mon.NPC_ID = 31
mon.Hostile = false
mon.Direction = 1548

Ps. How to set for the monster that is alive or undead? Some spells only work on one type, so I'd like to know how to change it.