less talk, more action

[Sir_Toejam]

But oddly enough(t),there isnt a line for unlimited retal for griffins,spell immunity of gargoyls,etc.Where are those things?

arrrr! it be like a treasure hunt, matey.

[DaemianLucifer]

Yes,too bad that some things(like creatures)are scattered everywhere.I found three separate files for creatures and two for creture abilities.Which one does what?Ok,I know what graphical ones and sound ones do,and those I wont touch,so I didnt count them here.

[Sir_Toejam]

don't forget about the reftables entry too.

that file contains most of the data for individual heroes, and has to be modded along with the skils files for the heroes.

yeah, it's tedious, but the more you play, the more you figure out.

eventually, we'll get enough info to slap a rough guide together.

that will speed things along, i think.

somebody over at elrath was working on putting together a table for datafile useage, but it was a huge project.

last post i saw on it was dated aug 25.

[NeXaR]

About the date of the files in the mods... what about changing your PC time/date to, say, year 2009, and save the files? I think it could save a bit the patching problem

[Naskoni]

Thanks for the replies in regard to my questions. My first project seems to be almost solved as in the replacement of the Wights/Wraiths by the proper unit in the Necro catalog - namely the black/dread knights, problem being I think it is inadequate for them to have harm touch as an ability and I'd like to give them the default abilities from HoMM III (if possible), so I'd like to change it. I'd like to change the ability of the Spectral Dragon also to -1/-2 morale for the enemy team as well. If that works I have some ideas about the other faction's tier 6 and 7 as I find a lot of them lacking in interesting abilities, but one step at a time.

I guess it is a fairly obvious question but I'd prefer to get a confirmation from the more experienced before committing too much of my time (reinvention of the wheel is not my priority here if someone already did it). I would guess that I can modify existing user .pak files the way I would the default ones, no? If so I would use them as sort of templates and simply add or modify them as to suit my needs, as frankly I'm trying to spend as little time in order to obtain max results and still get my own .pak file as easily as possible and this seems a good starting point to do so.

So, is modifying user .pak files done in the same way you would do the default ones?

[NeXaR]

If you modify the original pak, you'll need to reinstall the game to play mp. Pack your modified files into another pak file, so you can add/remove your mod at will.

[Naskoni]

If you modify the original pak, you'll need to reinstall the game to play mp. Pack your modified files into another pak file, so you can add/remove your mod at will.

Well, that's the point - I want to avoid having to pack properly my own .pak's if I can reuse and modify somebody else's that were proven to work right. Plus I have so many mods already I don't even bother thinking about MP, so in that regard I don't give a damn. My issue is not having to retweak the default .pak after every patch/reinstallation of the game and separate .pak's are the way to go.

Now please answer my question in the previous post

[Sir_Toejam]

what about changing your PC time/date to, say, year 2009, and save the files? I think it could save a bit the patching problem

yes, it probably would.

OTOH, there are myriad files changed in the patch, and sometimes it's good to know that a particular mod has been superceded by a patch.

IOW, if you install a patch and your mod doesn't work, it's a good signal to make sure that nothing else was changed in the file you created your mod with as well.

example:

I was just taking a quick look at the mod that increases neutral stack sizes on any given map.

the file it uses is the defaultstats.xdb, which also contains ALL of the default settings for every game.

there's over 2000 lines in that file!

of course, Nival updated several areas in that file with the patch, so simply changing the date on the mod will invalidate the rest of whatever Nival did to that file as well.

modders need to be careful to check the latest data.pak updates (they are named after the patch numbers, like patch 0 is p0-data.pak, patch 3 is p2-data.pak, etc.

it's a better plan if a mod needs to be updated to extract the more recent relevant file/directory from the updated data.pak (or text.pak) and modify that one with whatever changes need to be done to add the mod's effects back in.

then recreate the mod.

then you can safely say that only what you wanted changed is changed.

very clunky, i know, but that's the way it works.

So, is modifying user .pak files done in the same way you would do the default ones?

it's all just xml, no matter which xdb you open for editing.

the user mods are simply extracted directories from the original data.pak or text.pak files that have modified very specific files therein.

you definetly only want to include the files in your custom .pak file that are specific to the thing you modded.

for example, if you wanted to change how the dark knight mod works, but aren't interested in changing the graphics... your mod of his mod could be entirely seperate, and only contain the files needed to change the stats.

makes it far easier to update later too.

hmm.

I'm starting to think that the mod manager should have a feature added to automatically change the timestamps on a specific mod so as to be able to get any particular mod to supercede another, and make it easier for the end user to manage.

[NeXaR]

Now please answer my question in the previous post

Yes, you can modify user-made paks the same way

[zero_ant]

I am actually interesting.Modding the game might actually make me enjoy the game.But there are some things Im not too keen to search for meanings.For example this:

<SpellPoints>17</SpellPoints>
<SpellPoints1>0</SpellPoints1>
<SpellPoints2>0</SpellPoints2>

What are SpellPoints1 and SpellPoints2?Or what is TimeToCommand?What is MonsterShared?

SpellPoints corresponds to creature's spell point, typically set to spellcasters who have multiple spell selection (a.k.a. having spellbook). Note that inferno's gating and gennie's random spellcast don't fall into this category.

SpellPoints1 corresponds to creature's special ability point, but gating is excluded. If a creature has a (activated) special ability but its SpellPoints1 value equals 0, it means the creature can activate its ability multiple times (i.e. unlimited). Other value greater than zero means the creature can only activate its ability x times (x = SpellPoints1 value).

Examples:
- Djinns and Djinn Sultans have 3 ability point. That means they can only cast three times in each battle.
- Imps, Arch Devils, and Archangels have 1 AP. They can only steal/drain mana, summon Pit Lords, and resurrect allies once in combat, respectively. Note that imp's ability triggers automatically.
- Imperial Griffins and Paladins have 0 AP, thus they can battle dive and lay hands unlimited times in combat.
- Master Gremlins, prior to v1.2 patch, have 0 AP for their *unlimited* repair ability. After patch v1.2 and above, they have 1 AP, therefore they can only repair once.

Notes for modders:
- Creatures with 0 AP for their activated abilities implies that the ability cost is free. Changing the value to something like 1 or 3 doesn't limit how many times the ability can be cast.
- Creatures with limited AP/SpellPoints1 implies that the ability needs 1 AP to be cast. Change this to 0 to disable the said ability.

SpellPoints2 corresponds to creature's gating point, normally set to 0 except for inferno creatures. All Inferno creatures have this set to 1, including Devils. Set this to a value greater than 1 to have a multiple gating ability. Set this to 0 to disable the creature's gating ability. Note that whether the creature can gate or not also depends on the hero's gating level and game's internal mechanics.

TimeToCommand corresponds to how long the game wait for a command for the current creature before it skips its turn (skip=wait). Only applies in dynamic battles. Cretures normally have 10 seconds before it lose its turn. Spellcaster (with multiple spell selection) got 15, and heroes got 20 seconds turn time.

Power corresponds to creature's power rating. Using this in calculation either affects the AI's decision to combat, affects quick combat result, or affects both the thieve's guild information regarding best monster and mightiest army.

As for MonsterShared, I have no idea.

Edit: fix description in spellpoint2.

[Naskoni]

Ok, I'm starting to get used to the .pak stuff which turns out to be easier than what I thought (or at least I simply ZIP all the files that are modified and simply change the extension to .pak - didn't bother reading elsewhere whether that is the optimal way - seems to work, making and then renaming a .rar didn't work at least).

I read that modding is actually determined by the date - the newer stuff overrides the older one and thus gains priority - initially I thought changing the date of the .pak file should be sufficient but using the DeathKnights mod the description of the Wright/Wight building and unit descriptions didn't change (i.e. still described the unit as a Wraith/Wight) untill I unpacked everything and changed the dates of the .txt files dealing with this. ZIPing and .pak-ing the whole thing afterwards fixed the problem for me.

Is this the case for all files and mods? It would be a bit tedious to change the date for every single file modified, for every single mod made after a patch...

Either way if I'm correct maybe the guy that created the DeathKnight mod originally might want to update it so that the descriptions are intended ones. The unit animations and so on are working right without the need of updates of any sort though.

Another small question - what program do you use to modify the .xdb files?

[Sir_Toejam]

Is this the case for all files and mods? It would be a bit tedious to change the date for every single file modified, for every single mod made after a patch...

yes. and yes, it is tedious. I'm hoping to convince the author of the mod manager proggy to work in a feature that auto-updates internal timestamps to speed up the process, and allow the end user to manipulate the precedence of mods in the data directory.

I don't think the author of the dark knights mod is interested in spending time updating it, but you can always contact him and ask (he's listed under the entry in the mods download area).

xdb files are simply xml (html). you can use any proggy that will edit xml files (like most html editors), or any text editor, like notepad.

I personally like using UltraEdit - 32

http://www.ultraedit.com/

[Sir_Toejam]

I started thinking about that "tedious" thing, and it dawned on me that there should be dozens of freeware proggies that would auto-update timestamps, if not within a zip file, at least for standard directories.

...sure enough, there are.

it took me 5 minutes to find one, and I put it up in the mods section:

https://www.celestialheavens.com/homm5/ ... estamp.exe

it's a tiny little program that simply allows you to change the timestamps on files inside of directories.

so all one has to do is extract a pak file, and run the timestamp updater on the extracted directories, then repack back into the pak file.

tada.

[Naskoni]

...

tada.

[Sir_Toejam]

[Naskoni]

Another question - I can't find where in a creature's profile (so to speak) does it indicate what effects it's attack has - cursing, fear, poisonious, etc. I wanted to experiment adding poisonious attack to the Dread Knight's attack (in the mod), plus I have some additional ideas about Devils and few others, but cannot seem to find the referrence as to where is that particular thing specified...

Does anybody know?

[Sir_Toejam]

hmm, i seem to recall seeing someone mention how to adjust the poison values for the assasin attack, and that it's in the default.xdb file.

the only mod here that uses that file is the neutral stack size increaser by gaidal cain.

you might want to open that mod to see where the file is located in the most recent data file (p2-data.pak), and check out if the lines controlling damage type are in there.

[DaemianLucifer]

I think you should search for the file named attack_effects or something like that.

[Sir_Toejam]

I am actually interesting.Modding the game might actually make me enjoy the game.But there are some things Im not too keen to search for meanings.For example this:

<SpellPoints>17</SpellPoints>
<SpellPoints1>0</SpellPoints1>
<SpellPoints2>0</SpellPoints2>

What are SpellPoints1 and SpellPoints2?Or what is TimeToCommand?What is MonsterShared?

Ok, i figured out the first part (partially)

each spellpoint value refers to a different skill set.

the first is spellpoints for actually casting spells

the second is "points" for applying a skill (like repair for gremlins), and tells you how many times per battle you can use the skill.

not sure about the 3rd one; maybe it relates to things like the phoenix's resurection ability?

[Sir_Toejam]

Another question - I can't find where in a creature's profile (so to speak) does it indicate what effects it's attack has - cursing, fear, poisonious, etc. I wanted to experiment adding poisonious attack to the Dread Knight's attack (in the mod), plus I have some additional ideas about Devils and few others, but cannot seem to find the referrence as to where is that particular thing specified...

Does anybody know?

they're hanging out in this folder:

\GameMechanics\Creature\Creatures\

the most recent mods being in the p1-data.pak file, but if you don't find your particular critter there, suggest opening the same directory in the main data.pak file.