Modified Scenarios Workshop

[Thorvald of Lym]

Thanks for the briefing; I tried following Catfish's guide but like I said, I'm not a seasoned hex-editor and "I'm not going to fall into the trap here of writing a how-to guide on graphics and hex editing - much of this will be assumed knowledge." I'd used HxD for some minor tweaks years ago, but any field knowledge was long since lost. I think I've figured out where I went wrong trying to fix the junk tables described in Section 5 during the Day After update, so I'll try it again and see if I actually can do these myself.

 

[gapetit]

Some screenshots: I select the block of tribe 1:

It is marked and it is seen that it is corrupted:

This second one that I use as a base is correct, clean of errors, and then all that remains is to replace the first block with this second one:

You copy this second one and paste it over the first one, and done in each one of the 8 tribes, the scenario is free of corruptions and there will be no errors.

 

[Thorvald of Lym]

Frhed looks a lot easier for bulk editing so I'll switch to that; thanks again!

 

[tootall_2012]

Hi Gaptit,

I've been following this latest hex editing lesson with a lot of interest as I still struggle with this process despite your previous attempts to teach me. I persist to learn because I believe you can still teach an old dog new tricks!

You copy this second one and paste it over the first one, and done in each one of the 8 tribes, the scenario is free of corruptions and there will be no errors.

What is this base.scn file you say you use? Is it downloadable from somewhere?

 

[gapetit]

Hi Gaptit,

I've been following this latest hex editing lesson with a lot of interest as I still struggle with this process despite your previous attempts to teach me. I persist to learn because I believe you can still teach an old dog new tricks!


What is this base.scn file you say you use? Is it downloadable from somewhere?

View attachment 659277

Hi Tootall,

The base scenario is any conversion to ToT from both Catfish and me. You simply choose a scenario (which becomes "base"), mark the first block (5778
to 6289) next to the same block in the scenario that you choose to remove the corrupted zone (which we call "changed"). You copy the first and replace the second. Then you no longer need to choose the second block in the "base", because that choice is valid for the next 7 civilizations. You would go "change" by picking out the rest of the blocks and substituting them. You save it and this job will be finished and you won't have any more problems with this scenario.

 

[tootall_2012]

Hi Gapetit,

Thanks for the information. I will try to run a test, probably later this week, with the converted to ToT "Day After" scn file, which gets corrupted during the conversion process, to see if I can get it to work.

 

[gapetit]

I hope the test goes smoothly. For any doubt I will try to solve them

 

[Blake00]

Thanks for sticking around 'post-retirement' to help people @gapetit ! Much appreciated! As with your guidance hopefully others will be able to fill the void!

 

[tootall_2012]

Hi Gapetit,

From your latest instructions, I see that we can clearly identify 3 sections that might require hex editing when converting an MGE to a ToT scenario:

1. The scenario scn file was corrupted
2. The Defense Minister screen is being pre-populated with casualties
3. Units normally homed to NONE being homed to nothing

So the good news is that I was able to successfully fix the corrupted DayAfter scenario today by copy/pasting the correct blocks of code, as per post #956, from my scn file (I used your Charlemagne conversion as my base scenario file) into the corrupted DayAfter scn file and now I can load that scenario without it crashing (as a test I had already converted it to a ToT scenario). Yeah one!

The DayAfter scn conversion doesn’t have an issue with the Defense Minister screen or NONE units.

Therefore to test the Defense Minister issue I used hex editing on the scenario “1945” by Timothy Fowlkes, which I had previously started to convert but never released, as it had an issue with displaying values in its Defense screen. Again, following the blocks of code outlined in post #958, I was also able to fix the scenario’s scn file and remove the offending values from the casualties list. Yeah two!

For the NONE issue, I decided to use the Indochina.scn from the DST conversion because I know it had issues there and followed your instructions as per posts #489 and #957:

But this time I was not successful as the offending units failed to display NONE as their home cities after I had tried to change the values. Boo!

One thing I’m not clear on, is in your list below, you seem to have blocks of code to swap for No Orders, Fortify, Fortified, Sentry and Transporter but nothing for “Replace to NONE" itself. Am I missing a step?

Replace to NONE:

No Orders:
<bh:ff>X<bh:00><bh:00><bh:ff><bh:ff><bh:00><bh:ff>
<bh:ff>X<bh:00><bh:00><bh:ff><bh:ff><bh:ff><bh:ff>

Fortify:
<bh:ff>X<bh:00><bh:00><bh:01><bh:ff><bh:00><bh:ff>
<bh:ff>X<bh:00><bh:00><bh:01><bh:ff><bh:ff><bh:ff>

Fortified:
<bh:ff>X<bh:00><bh:00><bh:02><bh:ff><bh:00><bh:ff>
<bh:ff>X<bh:00><bh:00><bh:02><bh:ff><bh:ff><bh:ff>

Sentry:
<bh:ff>X<bh:00><bh:00><bh:03><bh:ff><bh:00><bh:ff>
<bh:ff>X<bh:00><bh:00><bh:03><bh:ff><bh:ff><bh:ff>

QUITAR BUILT TRANSPORTER
<bh:00><bh:ff>1<bh:00><bh:00><bh:0b><bh:ff><bh:00>
<bh:00><bh:ff>1<bh:00><bh:00><bh:0c><bh:ff><bh:00>

Otherwise, I believe I've made some very positive steps forward with regards using Hex Editing. Thank you for your patience and instructions.

 

[gapetit]

Hi Gapetit,

From your latest instructions, I see that we can clearly identify 3 sections that might require hex editing when converting an MGE to a ToT scenario:

1. The scenario scn file was corrupted
2. The Defense Minister screen is being pre-populated with casualties
3. Units normally homed to NONE being homed to nothing

So the good news is that I was able to successfully fix the corrupted DayAfter scenario today by copy/pasting the correct blocks of code, as per post #956, from my scn file (I used your Charlemagne conversion as my base scenario file) into the corrupted DayAfter scn file and now I can load that scenario without it crashing (as a test I had already converted it to a ToT scenario). Yeah one!

The DayAfter scn conversion doesn’t have an issue with the Defense Minister screen or NONE units.

Therefore to test the Defense Minister issue I used hex editing on the scenario “1945” by Timothy Fowlkes, which I had previously started to convert but never released, as it had an issue with displaying values in its Defense screen. Again, following the blocks of code outlined in post #958, I was also able to fix the scenario’s scn file and remove the offending values from the casualties list. Yeah two!

For the NONE issue, I decided to use the Indochina.scn from the DST conversion because I know it had issues there and followed your instructions as per posts #489 and #957:

View attachment 659539

But this time I was not successful as the offending units failed to display NONE as their home cities after I had tried to change the values. Boo!

One thing I’m not clear on, is in your list below, you seem to have blocks of code to swap for No Orders, Fortify, Fortified, Sentry and Transporter but nothing for “Replace to NONE" itself. Am I missing a step?

Replace to NONE:

No Orders:
<bh:ff>X<bh:00><bh:00><bh:ff><bh:ff><bh:00><bh:ff>
<bh:ff>X<bh:00><bh:00><bh:ff><bh:ff><bh:ff><bh:ff>

Fortify:
<bh:ff>X<bh:00><bh:00><bh:01><bh:ff><bh:00><bh:ff>
<bh:ff>X<bh:00><bh:00><bh:01><bh:ff><bh:ff><bh:ff>

Fortified:
<bh:ff>X<bh:00><bh:00><bh:02><bh:ff><bh:00><bh:ff>
<bh:ff>X<bh:00><bh:00><bh:02><bh:ff><bh:ff><bh:ff>

Sentry:
<bh:ff>X<bh:00><bh:00><bh:03><bh:ff><bh:00><bh:ff>
<bh:ff>X<bh:00><bh:00><bh:03><bh:ff><bh:ff><bh:ff>

QUITAR BUILT TRANSPORTER
<bh:00><bh:ff>1<bh:00><bh:00><bh:0b><bh:ff><bh:00>
<bh:00><bh:ff>1<bh:00><bh:00><bh:0c><bh:ff><bh:00>

Otherwise, I believe I've made some very positive steps forward with regards using Hex Editing. Thank you for your patience and instructions.

Hi Tootall,

The most dangerous thing so that the scenario does not give total error has already been resolved, which is undoubtedly a great advance.
Everything else has a solution.
The entire list is for NONE because in principle it is the units that do not have an assigned city which in the conversion to ToT go from NONE to nothing. For this reason, the state in which the units are found is the only thing that is indicated. But I don't know why in some scenarios there are units that in the correct state do not go to NONE, and there are even not small variants in some scenarios, as is the case precisely in Indochina...

 

[gapetit]

I could not contact Catfish to modify their scenarios, since when they were published, this problem in the conversion of the scenarios was unknown. But I did that fix on all of the Catfish scns, which wasn't a problem I seem to remember, except with Indochina, which has completely different unit codes and I don't recall running into it again. The model was this:

<bh:ff>X<bh:00><bh:00><bh:ff><bh:ff><bh:00>$
<bh:ff>X<bh:00><bh:00><bh:ff><bh:ff><bh:ff>$

 

[gapetit]

I forgot to discuss this with Blake about scenarios converted by Catfish, and that it is already modified in my collection, but in general I have not uploaded it to the community.

If necessary I can upload the scn (Can be added to the originals) or something else.

 

[gapetit]

And we must also take into account the RULES: @UNITS_ADVANCED with the range: "barbarian unit will not expire" which can also affect some scenarios.
You tell me what you prefer.
Greetings

 

[Nightgoblin]

Hi, here's an old Fantastic Worlds scenario, Alba de America by Jesús Balsinde, converted by me. Many thanks to gapetit, his recent posts made me revisit and fix this conversion (it always crashed on turn 1, so I postponed releasing it). The error was in the corrupted tables.

 

[gapetit]

Hi Nightgoblin, magnificent conversion to ToT. I can only offer this improvement:

I hope to play it scenario soon. Thank you so much

 

[Nightgoblin]

Hi Nightgoblin, magnificent conversion to ToT. I can only offer this improvement:
View attachment 659612

I hope to play it scenario soon. Thank you so much

Thanks, I'll include it in the final release.

 

[tootall_2012]

Hi Gapetit,

I could not contact Catfish to modify their scenarios, since when they were published, this problem in the conversion of the scenarios was unknown. But I did that fix on all of the Catfish scns, which wasn't a problem I seem to remember, except with Indochina, which has completely different unit codes and I don't recall running into it again. The model was this:

<bh:ff>X<bh:00><bh:00><bh:ff><bh:ff><bh:00>$
<bh:ff>X<bh:00><bh:00><bh:ff><bh:ff><bh:ff>$

It sounds like DST's Indochina.scn file was a very special case and that's why I had issues.

As such, today, as a further test for the NONE, I tried hex editing the scn file of "Karl XII" by Markus Eklund, which had a problem with units being homed to nothing as well during the conversion process and I was able to successfully fix the problem. Yeah three!

Therefore, thanks to your latest instructions, I've been able to test and successfully fix all three types of hex editing problems related to MGE scenario conversions.

Muchas gracias!

 

[Nightgoblin]

As promised, final release. Minor graphics corrections to units, icons and improvments. Copied describe.txt entries for wonders from original scenario pedia.txt. Edited game.txt to allow cheating and pillaging of fortresses. Removed lua helper code.

 

[Nightgoblin]

Early attempt of conversion of Exile's The Modern Age. Basically, it works but needs some polish.

 

[gapetit]

Very good job Nightgoblin, I hope to play the Alba of America very soon . I send "Improvements" in case these are of interest to you: