Modding Questions

rafter wrote:

Thank you GodRage. That program may change the names in the game. But how  can I change the numbers in the game with that program ? I can not see any stat of creature with it.

Each creature will follow this order:

Code:

bytes    description
-----    -----------
0-1      cost in gold
2-6      ???
7        base growth per week
8-9      heal points (Résistance)
10       alignement[1]
11       speed
12       attaque
13       défense
14       dégâts minimaux
15       dégâts maximaux
16       Shoots (if ranged)
17-21    4-character ID string, plus null char
22       attack-type flags[2]
23       other flags[3]
24-25    padding (all bits zero)


[1] Alignement (case 10)
00 = Knight
01 = Barbarian
02 = Sorceress
03 = Warlock
04 = Wizard
05 = Nécromant
06 = neutrals

So...
in the left part (hexa decimal one),
the unicorn stats should start like that:
01 F4 00 00 00 00 02 40 02 5 0A 09 07 0E 00
I am not sure for the 00 00 00 00 and it may vary on each version of the game.
So, better so search (Ctrl F or Ctrl G... by memory) with values from the growing one: 02 40 02 5 0A 09 07 0E 00
And if you entered the right values, it will find only 1 result in your h2w.exe file.

That's how you can find values of each things in the game.
And so, if you ant to find the price of the magic guild, easiest way is to search for the lvl5: 0A 0A 0A 0A or maybe it will me 00 0A 00 0A 00 0A 00 0A.
0A means 10, so it's the price of each rare resource needed to build it, and it's the only building needing 10 of each.


Decimal / Hexadecimal convertor :
http://www.binaryhexconverter.com/decimal-to-hex-converter

Stats of creatures :
http://homm2.free.fr/enroth.php?p=sorc&go=en

In Heroes II you have names in exe eg. peasant. Its easy to find. But you can search statistis too. 0205030203 archer stats speed 2 etc. Buildings you can find using resources 0a000000050000 big numbers of 0000 and gold cost near. The same city buildings are one by one. Common buildins are before cities.

For those who wanted a tool for changing creature stats:

AlexSpl's Universal Balance Patcher for HoMM2 GoG Version

Working for heroes2w eng original too! I tested it. Very powerfull tool and easy to use! Beautyfully! :-)

Could you please give me a rundown on the Iimtations of the sprites? Do I have to work in a certain box of pixels? (I have got time in my line of work nowadays.)

Do you want to make new creatures and stuff like that? Or other things?

After many years, I've found myself back to playing HoMM2, the game that started it all for me. I had done some fairly extensive modding work with 3 and 5 and now I have delved into modding 2.

Armed with a hex editor and some research, I've managed to tweak creature stats, building costs, and spell availability, fixing much of what I didn't like in the vanilla game. Unfortunately, (and unsurprisingly) there are still plenty of things that I haven't been able to edit. I then stumbled upon this site and found out that something like the Ironfist project exists. Seems that there are still people working on modding HoMM2. Maybe the knowledge that I've been looking for has already been discovered.


That said, there are a number of things I'd like to know if are possible via hex editing the exe.


1) The bonus creature growth given by a Well. I'd like to change this to 1, or possibly even scale according to creature level.


2) Building prerequisite tree. Is it possible to change a building's requirements?


3) Creature special abilities, (other than the few handled by the flags in the unit stats entry).


4) Swapping creatures between towns.


5) Editing artifact abilities.

robizeratul wrote:

Do you want to make new creatures and stuff like that? Or other things?

Indeed, i would like to give a go at units, be it stationary map or battle versions later with their phases.
I got the palett and i got the tool, but i still need to do some research on the required sizes. If there isn't much need for that, which i understand as there are already talented and experienced fellows in the group to do that, i will give a go to item and map object images.
I have some ideas though. For example i would like make a WBC stile Dark Elf Assassin unit. Since i met them i always had them in my mind as the type of assassins Archibald would use. Very Happy

Things are going slow right now, I remember when each day I could look at new stuff!

You can extract other creatures and calculate how tall they are. That way you get an idea. They are sone modding guides arround here, you can find good stuff with patience.

As for what you could do, just do it! Do your best! If it doesnt fit the game or whatever reason it may be, you could always add it on with the bonus mod feature Orzie was talking about

Continuing to dig around for info, I came across some links to a decompiled heroes2.exe, unfortunately, all dead/broken.

Is this information still available somewhere? Any help in this regard would be much appreciated.

I don't remember (because it's years I didn't hexadecimed H2 ), but for each buildings is there spare data?
I mean, not 00 and not values of building price.
If there is, you must try to change some values by yourself and check ingame what changed..
For the building theses values could be: building ID (for images), building prerequisite, next building ID (if upgradable), the ID of the effect (ID of a creature, open market, open well, etc).

But it's just my guess... All the hexa knowledge we have is mainly made by self-discoveries: get something to find and search for it.

The data tables that I'm aware of for buildings only contain materials costs, listed back to back, without even padding bytes between one and the next.  I've compiled all the data that I've been able to ferret out into an Excell sheet.  All the offsets and relevant bytes listed for the GoG edition.

Homm2 data sheet

Then the "architecture building order" is somewhere else... +,+):
It may be difficult to find it with only watching the hexa. I don't know about decompilation and so, but, buildings order and "what creature on what building" should be before or after the building section in the .exe?

I've continued to chip away at the EXE and have made some useful discoveries.  Highlights include: Hero starting troops, Estates gold , Pathfinding bonus, Scouting radius, Hero XP table, starting resources, town captain stats.  Tonight I knocked off one of the items from my list, town dwelling creature assignments!


EDIT:

Found dwelling prerequisites, another one off my to do list. It's been a productive couple of nights

OK, I've got another question.  

Is there any information out there on adjusting the frame settings for a creature animation?  I'm trying to clone a recolored creature animation to a creature that has a different frame setup.  I think in H3 all that info was packed into the creature animation  (.DEF file) but that doesn't seem to be the case here.  Does anyone have any clues on what I should look for in the .EXE?


EDIT: Never mind, I figured it out. I found that packed along with the .ICN files in the .AGG there are corresponding .BIN files that define the frame setup. Cloning the .BIN so that it matches with the cloned .ICN fixed my problem.

Thanks for the info. Yes, it's rather easy to add frames; the need in reducing the number of frames for an existing creature may result in more complex issues.

For Heroes 3, the sprites are much easier to handle.

Arstahd wrote:

I've continued to chip away at the EXE and have made some useful discoveries.
[...]
It's been a productive couple of nights

Heroes Arstahd got 7550 XP. (level +1)

You have now certainly more knowledge than me in HEXediting Heroes2w.exe!!

I haven't messed with H2 for a few months now, but since I saw that someone else was asking about modding the GoG edition .EXE, I figured that I might as well upload the most current version of my data sheet.  It should have all the offsets for the discoveries I listed earlier along with any other insights I came up with.


Homm2 data sheet  ver2

Alright, here's a question that's been bothering me for quite a while now:
Does anyone know where the spell damage multipliers are stored? Those clearly aren't where most of the spell data is (cost, anim, icon, etc.), and I'd like to make some adjustments to Cold Ring/Fireball/Death/Holy spells, for instance. I've been browsing through offsets for days, but to no avail.
I'm running the GOG DOS version, but if anyone knows the address(es) for the windows version, that'd be more than enough. It'd be easy to find it in the DOS version once one realizes how the data is structured.

Here's a link to an old H2 modding thread on Celestial Heavens LINK

The damage calculations for Fireball, Cold Ring and Fireblast were discovered for the windows version of H2.  I had tried to find the equivalent code for the DOS (GoG) version but was unsuccessful. Maybe you'll have better luck.

Hello,
I have a question (hope in good topic) - there is a unit stat editor for fheroes2 like Universal Balance Patcher for Heroes 2? Thanks in advance for help

MetalMachine wrote:

Hello,
I have a question (hope in good topic) - there is a unit stat editor for fheroes2 like Universal Balance Patcher for Heroes 2? Thanks in advance for help

If you scroll up a bit I believe there is one already posted.



New Question tho, is there a way to change or add portraits of heroes? I'd like to make my own XD

IamChiku wrote:

New Question tho, is there a way to change or add portraits of heroes? I'd like to make my own XD

I would say you have to replace a portrait to add a new one, if you mod the original game. ^^

I need info about growth 2 and 8 well and horde. City income 250 1000 250 will be good too. If anyone knows...

Does anyone know what upgrades/buildings where removed/added from the 0.82 version map editor?

I started playing an old map I made...and just saw in the map editor an "X" "centaur upgrade". Is there a comprehensive changelog anywhere?