H4 changing objects/wish list of new objects

[Karmakeld]

Over at HC NimoStar have posted a lot of exciting stuff based on his modding experience.
He has made creature heroes, heroes which can look like creature both in combat and on the adventure map (http://heroescommunity.com/viewthread.php3?TID=42915)
Personally I've finally managed to find a way to change an objects type, partly thanks to NimoStar and Namerutan.
This means I can change e.g. creature dwellings and other adventure objects into Quest Huts.
I still got a lot to learn, but it should be possible to change adventure objects into decorative objects or give them the properties of special objects.
Currently this is limited to changing the type of existing objects into another type, but from a map makers point of view, this is quite exciting,
as it opens the possibility to add more dept to maps/stories.

Some of my accomplishments so far includes the creation of several Quest Huts based on: Creature Dwellings, Power Ups, Landscape Objects, Creature Banks and Movements Modifiers. (Equilibris managed make Quest Huts based on creatures - I hope to make to work as well). There are occasional obstacles though, which causes certain objects to not work, but I hope to find a way to fix this.
Creature Dwellings have been changed into One Way Portals (although currently they're all linked to same Portal Exit, which isn't the intention).
Artifact images can be switched, which means it can appears with the image and name of another artifact. However upon being picked up and in inventory, the original name and image will appear. Why would this be useful, you may wonder - well this could enable someone to use the image of e.g. the Sword of Swiftness, with the properties of the Frost Hammer, and you could rename it to Sword of Frost. (for it to appear correctly modded in the inventory, one will have to mod some image files, but I hope this proves possible).

I'm hoping to able to change the placed event into editable resource piles. I've managed to change the image file so it appears as a gold pile in the editor, but sadly it still has it 'invisible' properties in game. It would be nice to have editable resource piles, like in H3 where you could set the amount of resources in a pile.

Few years ago, mirrored objects were requested, but this still lies with the Equilibris team to complete. This can't be done by pure hex-editing.
https://www.celestialheavens.com/forum/14/14481

I'm curious if others would find these changes interesting and/or would happen to have requests for certain objects to be modded (be creative).
If so, I could compile these modded objects and upload them in a single map for others to use. So, would new objects be useful to anyone?

[Karmakeld]

So we've had a lot of progress with this. We're now able to add new images to existing ones, and thus we can add new objects. And mirror existing ones, as has been requested for a looooong time Now there's a few objects, like Hexi's garrison that doesn't have any similar objects where we can mirror the entrance from, but I just rechieved word from Radmutant69 today, that he found out Entrances can be hexedited, so in theory, there's NO objects that can't be mirrored.
We're also able to modify existing objects, like turning the Tree of Knowledge into a Quest Hut.
Like the Equlibris team did in their unofficial version 3.55 we can extract combat obstacles like trees, rock etc. and turn those into landscape objects, meaning we can have 100's of new landscape objects, based on already existing H4 images.



I'm still strugling a bit with animated objects, but I will get to that eventually. As you can see on the images above, there's a lot of oppertunities, like adding dead creatures, weather effect like fog - I hope to be able to add a bit of lightning as well

I've decided to create a folder where players/modders can down/upload new files. (Modders will need a google account as well as an invitation from me to upload, but feel free to pm me).
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/ ... 2xqZlR6WWM
The folder mentioned above currently contain a number of folders and files (more will be added over time):
Folder Equilibris 3.55 objects contains new objects added in that version of Equilibris.
Layer Files now contain 6 fully build town screens by Trashid and the extended HD versions of the original town screens. As well as some new/modified Hero Portraits.
Mirrored Objects contains 14 mirrored Creature Dwellings and 7 mirrored landscape objects (several of these by Radmutant69).
Objects with new image contains 8 objects with new/modified images.
Objects with Switched Image contains several modified objects, like 'Evil' Sanctuary, Quest Huts with the appearance of existing Adventure Objects, like dwellings, Power Ups etc as well as Portals looking like Crack holes and more.


So I ask again, any requests??

[Steven Aus]

Great stuff! I take it you've used this in your updated Mudgeon maps?

[Karmakeld]

Some, yes. It's been a hope ever since I started my campaign, that I could use certain Adventure Objects as e.g. Quest Huts, and as that's now possible, I've updated some of those in my maps. At some points I would've wished mirrored objects had been available when I made certain parts, but as they weren't I had to fit things to it. Just today I exchanged an object with a mirrored and modified one, only to discover the mirrored placement is slightly different than the original. In that particular case I had objects hidden behind it, and as stuff like that can be affected, even minor changes can suddenly require a serie of changes to fit, so there aren't that many changes in the first 3 maps - also I wanted to just get the maps ready for you
There's still a lot of other modding stuff I plan on using in the updated maps, like Creature Heroes and I still have a lot of objects to add, so perhaps I'll find more stuff to add. But indeed a lot of these stuff will be featured in general.

[jeff]

Good work; is the barrel quest hut new; it looks familiar but it is not in the standard equilibris, only the wagon hut was added in it.

[Steven Aus]

There were various objects that NimoStar added to Greatest Mod from the unreleased version of Equilibris. Greatest Mod uses Equilibris as a base but makes lots of other changes.

[jeff]

Ok, thanks. Since most of the objects are rectangles; it's not surprising that they fit slightly different.

[Karmakeld]

The Barrel is infact the Wine Keg, Satyr Dwelling not a Quest Hut
Yeah, the quadradric ones are indeed the easiest ones to mirror, but I hope we'll get them all.

Just like NimoStar I extracted the 'new' Equi files, and they'rr also available, although I personally don't think they all fit. Also they extracted some already existing but non working artifacts like Boots of Levitation.
What might also interest you, is that ppl over at HC found some beta version screenshots. E.g. the Magic Lamp Creature Bank, a few of the Exhausted Mines and the Outpost. NimoStar found that the Magic Lamp is indeed coded and working. The Outpost is only flagable and not convertable as originally intended. I don't recall if the mines are interactable or just 'Exhausted' decoratives. But we can add unused objects the Equilibris never did. I also hope to be able to add more of the Creature Quest Huts as in Equi v.3.55. The Dead Unicorn was added by me, so those we can add more of aswell.

[jeff]

The Barrel is infact the Wine Keg, Satyr Dwelling not a Quest Hut

Just shows you how long I have been away to mis-ID that.

I think the Heroes player base is small and especially Heroes IV, so for right now on my campaign I am restricting myself to only WoW level items. Players will need Equilibris only for the custom portraits; but it will be playable with Heroes WoW, the faces won't make sense but that's all. While the mods look great; I don't want to limit the player base.

[Karmakeld]

You know you don't have to
I asume your portraits are packed in a file new_mod.h4r, you can just rename the new_mod.hr4 file to new.h4r and WoW version can read the changes.
As for all of the new objects, I hope to be able to repack both Equi.h4r and one of the of the original h4r files, like update.h4r or x2.h4r so that all the new objects are packed and can be read by any version.
But there's little point in repacking until 'all' objects are done - or atleast series of objects.
What map makers and modders should be aware of, if using any of these new objects, is that any renaming will break maps containing renamed objects, so in that sense, it would be advised to wait for 'final product'.