Wonder if they agree to include custom fan mods I release Wood Elves next week. Would be cool to have a compatible version of DO with all our crap included. Olly should be a moderator of what's worth it and what's too raw yet.
1. Distance is usually measured in battle map coordinates. It is so for BTB blocks: range of node etc. It is so for ranged weapons: maximum range seems to be battle map coordinates. BTW 100 circle distance is less than shortbow range. My guess is: if this is really a distance, then this is distance measured in percents, and 100% = ranged weapon maximum range.
I always thought 50/75/100 to be a kind of probability rather than distance. In B101 and a lot of other missions enemy archers have the argument = 50 when they are not at main target point, and have argument 100 when they are. And in B101, when second goblin archers regiment appears in the north: if you stand still, sometimes they come to shooting distance and fire at once - from maximum range that shortbow allows. And sometimes they come very close to your unit before they start sooting. This is why I interpreted 50 as probability: even if they see you in range, they do not always shoot at once.
2. All those flags: "in close combat", "steam tank", "fleeing" and all others - where can I get the list of them? or at least a list of known flags?
Thank you, now your formula works fine! - this is about EngRel.exe and Max Range for ranged weapons. By the way I figured out what the other 4 bytes mean. It is approximate time between shot and hit:
Pistol has the shortest. Also, if I increase range for shortbows to the level of longbows, short bows become much deadliear weapon than long bows because the arrows fly with much greater speed and hit target faster.
Now to my main goal. Imagine I want to introduce some short-range Xbows, or long-range Pistol (for Dwarf Organ Gun), and at the same time I want to leave original weapon unchanged - because other troops use it. Can I pick up one of unused weapons - for example, short bow - and change _everything_ for this weapon so that it was used as Xbow or Pistol? I hope there is such data about all ranged weapons: projectile type (or picture), firing sound etc - maybe it is only 1 byte that contains all this information Even a better solution would be to expand the list of the ranged weapons in way similar to sprites.
P.S. Forgot to mention another problem. These values (unlike values for spell costs) are not picked up from modded EngRel.exe. I have to modify original executable, and this makes it impossible to apply changes to 1 mod and do not apply them to another. But I guess this is what I had better discuss with Ghabry.
P.P.S My P.S might be not valid. I keep forgetting Mod Selector checks only /Prg/ folder, not /Prg_Eng/ I will test that tonight.
A question about sprite file HORSE.SPR It's an unsaddled horse.
Any idea how I can use it in my army files?
The problem is that this sprite is not used by any armies in original campaign - unlike Skeleton Horse that is used for Chariots. So I do not know what Id it has. It is not present in Ghabry's army editor - due to the same reason probably: Ghabry keeps values only from existing original troops.
It is not present in list of sprite types in this thread. Only Skeleton Horse is there. and the sprite file for Skeleton Horse has a different structure.
The version of darkpatch.dll is the same - 10 Jan 2015 (local time 15:17) Also, my EngRel.exe does not have offset 0x004E5E50 you suggest for ranged weapons.
This means that I calculate offset in a wrong way or I do not understand how to do it I open EngRel.exe (or darkpatch.dll) in a hex editor - HxD. I go to provided offset and that's it. It worked fine when I looked up Spell Costs in EngRel.exe: I found the values, though they were slightly farther than your value. This means that the way I do it should be correct.
But EngRel.exe (with mod selector) has last byte at 11D1FF so it just cannot have 4E5E50...Could you explain that stuff to me?
Hm, I think I did what you suggested: in darkpatch.dll at offset 01EF90 I changed value from 5F to 01
I used command RemoveMagic 5 (my campaign starts with Storm Sword in hands) after first mission is won.
Actually, after I added this line, my whmtg.txt was ignored by Dark Omen altogether. It used what was in EngRel.exe instead. After I removed the line, whmtg.txt started to work properly again.
Aqrit, since I cought you here let me tell you that I used a way around that works more or less OK without removemagic: for a few cases I use ctl script that increases enemy mana now and again. And for a few cases I use your nice find for spells that allows to reduce mana costs (I use it only for spells that my mage does not have).
Since you said that it was a relatively easy find, could you probably do similar thing for ranged weapons if this is possible at all? It would be really cool to edit: range, type of projectiles etc...and it would be awesome to be able to add 1-2 types of ranged weapons...Doing this, I could add weapons like Organ Gun that shoots pistol bullets but for longer distance, and make other cool modifications. Do you think you can find time and say if you can look up ranged weapons offset and stats?
[1] Have you tried enabling WHMTG RemoveMagic with a hex-editor?
I have not done it this time, but I experimented with it when I edited Chaos Dwarves 3 years ago...I do not remember the results: whether or not it works exactly as described in Dark Omen Wiki, but I remember it worked in a way Now as I worked directly with WHMTG, I will need time to recall how to test 'removemagic' properly using only hex editor. If I do it I will report results.
1. WHMTG command 'remove magic'. It does not work and I cannot remove wands of jet. Probably I will have to remove wands of jet from enemy wizards altogether.
2. As Ghabry found a place where maximum player-controlled units is stored, I would like to increase the amount from 10 to 11. But this seems not to be posslbe to do ONLY for Wood Elves mod. It will affect all others. I wonder if this can be solved.
3. I will investigate how to add more missions to the campaign. If this is doable (it should be), then if I have a new map from Olly I will insert it, or I will use any existing map for 2nd time and make custom ctl/btb scripts for it so that it would be a brand new mission.
4. 3d heads. It is one of the things that I would like to update. I need to learn how to place King of the Elves head instead of Bernhardt in intermission dialogues. Also, current 3d heads patch does not work well: 3d heads that are not used during battles in Original Campaign, often crash the game when intense action is under way. I wonder if Olly's way of creating new heads may fix the problem. Anyway, it would be really cool if I had at least King Orion's head so that players felt more 'elvish' during battles . But as I said, if I use default Orion's head, the game often crashes during battles.
5. Olly helps to to introduce another interesting unit in Elves army. I am not aware if he already has a good progress. If he manages that, then I will really appreciate it and add another cool-looking unit to the army
6. [attachment=1] Glade Riders. Elven archers/cavalry. Fast, good archers and good in close combat. The only thing the unit lacks is greater numbers.
7. [attachment=2] Wardancers. Infantry. They do not wear any armor but their outstanding initiative and skill with dual-wielded swords makes them one of the best units in the army. They slay enemies very quicky. Also, wardancers can wear a magical shield (any shield gives them +1 armor) and their high melee skill makes it harder for enemies to wound them. Do not keep them under ranged attacks.
8. Waywatchers. Elven Archers. Best elven archers that can be encountered in Loren Forest. Their shooting range and skill make them extremely important, surpassing even human artillery units. Not to mention they move fast.
9. Treeman. Tree Monster. Very tough and reliable companion. As dryads, he does not wear artifacts so he is hard to level up. But he is very useful none the less, especially vs enemies that are not immune to fear. Just do not through him alone against a strong enemy unit. He may fall sooner or later.
10. Glade Knights. Cavalry. Fast and strong in close combat. They appear in the second part of the campaign. But if they are equipped well and are used wisely, they very soon become both reliable tanks and fast killers.
11. Shadowdancer. caster character. He has 1-2 useful spells at his disposal. His weapon skill is tremendous, but he is by far not as tough as treeman. He's best used when he joins another friendly unit and kills enemy very quickly. And power of dark magic cannot be ignored either. Even though he appears closer to the end of the campaign, he is still a very interesting unit to play with.
I am currently working on a wood elf army single player campaign. While the work is not done yet, let me introduce units that will be under player control. General elf bonus - speed. Even infantry units are fast and have high initiative, so elves can easily follow and fulfil combat plan. Also, elves are good archers in general, and perfect archers' unit appears in the campaign much eariler than in original campaign. However there are almost no perfect tanks who can stand unbound under fierce enemy onslought and do not have artillery of their own.
1. [attachment=1]
Wild Riders. Main unit. Cavalry. Very strong in melee, fast. However they are few and are not tough, so they cannot be used as perfect tanks that keep enemy at bay on their own.
2. Wood Elf Glade Guards. Infantry. One of most important units. They are fast, as all elves are, and they fight well. As they are under control from the very beginning of the campaign, they usually have high experience in the end and this makes them preferable choice in many situations.
3. [attachment=2] Deepwood Scouts. Archers. Light infantry using bows and knives. Even though they are not best elven archers, their archery skill leaves almost any human and orc archers behind.
4. [attachment=3] Spellsinger. Wizard. Moving faster but less tough that human wizards. Skilled with ice magic (ice and dark are probably best suited for wood elves in Dark Omen)
5. [attachment=4] Dryads. Infantry. Very strong and tough. Probably best choice in the army when it comes to tanking. They appear early in the campaign. Dryads do not wear artifacts so they are hard to empower with magic swords and advance in levels. They should be used whenever possible to gain more experience.
Aha, so I have to edit original EngRel for that don't I? I will try it out tomorrow.
P.S. It would be cool if this parameter were not global. Increasing it for my new campaign will shift the balance for all other campaigns including original one, if they are gathered in 1 pack. Ghabry could you read this one from mod or create a list of values that should be read from modded executable or from a text file (1 such file per mod)?
Hi, Olly told me that Ghabry had found where maximum of deployed troops is stored for single player campaign. Offset 0x5CD99 in EngRel.exe I edited that value. It was 0Ah indeed (10 decimal). However after I increased it to 0B (11 decimal) I was still unable to deploy more than 10 troops in the campaign (game was restarted of course). Do I miss an important step?
Could anyone tell me step-by-step instructions on how to add a new mission to single player campaign?
I edited WHMTG script in a way that after I win B1_01, it loads same B1_01 once again. Now I need to create a custom mission, let it be in folder B1_09 and it can be exactly same map, textures etc, but I will edit btb, arm, ctl files for it in a different way.
If I copy .prj file to B1_09.prj, and do a few more changes I know - like edit army file name in .btb file etc...it does not work: mission does not load properly. Now I am not sure what exactly I should edit to make it work.
It was xslots. I tested it with original armies and it does not work either. Also, I have a mission with >15 armies fully taken from xslots and it works fine.
I assume there might be a problem in CTL or BTB. This was one of few missions where I rewrite CTL from scratch. but the problem is hidden too deep to comprehend: As I said, if I exclude any 3 units from the armies list (I tried different combinations) remaining 15 units behave exactly according to CTL instructions and BTB positions.
A question to developers: Is it possible to use debugging tools to track down what exactly crashes the game? I can provide savegame and position. It is very important for me to know because this unknown problem puts the whole campaign in danger
Show Posts
