combine ffh and standard bts elements

[gzilla]

ok. this is my second post ever and i am a total noob. i posted this somewhere else on here before i realized where it should go.

with that out of the way, let me tell you what i am trying to do:



first, i am trying to combine elements of standard bts assets and ffh assets.

second, i am trying to do this all in conjunction with a custom map i have made. the map was made with civ4mapmaker and exported to bts format.

now, i d/l'ed both the modular loading app as well as WoC app. i have my doubts as to whether WoC installed correctly because it does not show up in my mods list.

i am up to date with the 3.17 patch as well as patch e. i am using a mounted bts iso. ffh runs fine, but i can never use my custom map with it. maybe there is something else i need to d/l to convert maps. i saw something about Dreiche's map scripts in another thread, but never could find a link to it.

basically, i want to use arcane races from ffh, dwarves, elves, etc., as well as some of the regular civ races like the greek, celtic, and so forth and also the orcs race which i also d/l'ed separately. the custom map is huge (260X160 or so), but i have got it to work with bts, just not ffh.

maybe i'm not reading something right. i guess i'm just asking is this possible and could you give me some startup tips for getting WoC to work?

 

[xienwolf]

WoC and FfH both use a custom DLL, which means you have to go through some considerable code work in order to get the two to work together in any manner at all. If you aren't familiar with programming in C++, you'll be in for a fairly long process and a lot of learning. But if you are determined about it you can feel free to ask questions here and we'll help you along.


But the short answer is: What you want to do is not done simply.


(If you just want the artwork so you can make a new Civilization in basic BtS which looks like the fantasy races, then you can check the Modpacks forum and you'll find them all bundled up nicely there)

 

[gzilla]

ok. i'm pretty obsessive, so i guess i'm in for the long haul here. i have no experience in c++ either.

maybe i should try this the easy way first and work my way up to the real deal.

for the time being, how can i import a custom made map so that it will play in ffh2?


would it be easier to get the map working with ffh2 and then maybe later try to bring in some of the bts civs ? (eventually, i would like to use some of the original techs as well)

also, hats off to the whole ffh2 crew. it's an impeccable game. i want to get into a game of it, but right now, my own campaign world is my only determination.

 

[xienwolf]

I don't know much about maps myself, but you should mostly have to adjust the resources to only include those which belong in FfH, and possibly add new resources and terrains to the map to utilize all the new things in FfH.

Adding Civs from base BtS into FfH wouldn't be difficult, but adding in CONCEPTS from base BtS might be. Things like Fighters and ICBMs are slowly being removed from the AI's understanding since it gets in the way of them playing properly now that they do not have them available in base FfH. Also, the animated/3D leaderheads may look a bit funny in the same game as the static/2D leaderheads (though someone did make 3D leaderheads for FfH once).

 

[gzilla]

no, i have already tried editing the resources. it won't let me use ANY bts maps if they're not .py

 

[gzilla]

ok, so i tried this:

i loaded a game in ffh2 and then went into WB mode and made a save of the map. than, i went in and copied all the text of the map i am trying to get to play in ffh2, starting at 'begin map' until the end of the file at 'endplot'. i pasted this over all the same text from the ffh2 WB save.

i only left one remnant of the old file text (excluding all of the civs, of course) and that was


num signs written=0
Randomize Resources=false


i changed the num signs written from 6 to 0, because i figured this text related to the number of landmark signs, and the new map plots didn't have any.

in the end, this is what i ended up with (minus all the info on the civs and the plots):

BeginMap
grid width=229
grid height=168
wrap X=0
wrap Y=0
top latitude=90
bottom latitude=-90
world size=WORLDSIZE_STANDARD
climate=CLIMATE_TEMPERATE
sealevel=SEALEVEL_MEDIUM
num plots written=38472
num signs written=0
Randomize Resources=false
EndMap

when i tried to play this map in ffh2, it actually got past the 'initializing' phase, which was where it had been crashing, and went just a little further before i got a runtime c++ error.

i'm going to go back and try to make sure all the civs are on solid ground and not in the ocean this time, but i'm wondering if there's something obvious that i'm doing wrong, or if there a max limit to the number of plots for ffh2 or what. help!

 

[gzilla]

helz yeah. i got it to work. turns out that the map was just too big for ffh2. i reduced it 189x160 and it worked fine.

now, all i have to do is figure out how to combine the standard bts assets with the ffh assets.

does anyone have an idea of how the 2 tech trees would work together? it would be nice if some civs could only research standard techs while the fantasy races could only research arcane techs.