Slitherine

Ave

These are the "mods" that we have made so far, keep checking back as the list grows!!!

NB. Historical Info. #01. The full game of Legion Arena was first released on Mon. Nov 21, 2005.
NB. Historical Info. #02. The first item on this list was posted on Sun. Jan 08, 2006 @ 7.28 pm.

Index - Modd - progress - Modder - Link

01. Awarding Auxilia with "extra pilum" and the "expert throwers" skill - done - spedius01 here
02. Romans and Celts in the same army - done - spedius02 here
03. Changing Leaders - done - miki01 here
04. Changing initial Denarii - done - miki02 here
05. Altering start-up army - done - spedius03 here
06. Bigger Start-up Armies - done - spedius04 & zakblood here
07. Pre-Made Armies - done - spedius05 here
08. Modding the Demo, Part 1 - done - spedius06 here
09. Increasing The Numbers of Men in a Squad- done - lcjr01 - see page 2 in this topic
10. Celts as the Demo start-up army - done - tora_tora_tora01 here
11. Changing difficulty levels - done - miki03 here
12. Reskinning the Romans - being done - grimsta & kcscott
13. Modding the Elephants - long hold - spedius

What follows are my thoughts and suggestions regarding some possible "moddable" sections of Legion Arena.

Maps.
At the moment there are 68 maps in the Roman campaign and 41 in the Celtic campaign.
During the course of a battle we have the ability to zoom in and out and rotate the map through 360 degrees.
Logically that could mean there are 360 different possible orientations of each map with large and/or small versions.
So 360 x 68 = 24,480 x 2 = 48,960 -68 = 48,892 possible additional versions of the Roman campaign maps.
So 360 x 41 = 14,760 x 2 = 29,520 -41 = 29,479 possible additional versions of the Celtic campaign maps.
I'm aware that Slitherine has already "opened the door" to this possibilty, they have re-used some of the maps. What we need are the tools to allow us to be able to do this too.

Squads.txt
So far we have been able to unlock this first 27 troop types in this file. There are more, spare28 to spare50. If the game can read and recognize these additional squads we could activate them as well.

Retexturing
We are restricted to seven textures per troop type. We need the same troop type with a different name. ie legionaries and pseudo legionaries or marius's legionaries. All we need to do is give each troop type a counter part to double the number of retexturing possibilities. Unless we are restricted by a lack of alternative colours.

The enemy
As we fight our way through the two campaigns we are opposed by some very interesting troop types. Troop types not included in our list of choices for our army, even with the additions from both armies. Namely Balearic slingers and Cataphracts. If Slitherine would release the files that relate to the enemy we could include them in Squads.txt.

ProxySquads.txt
This is a fascinating file. There are many, many troop types listed. I wonder if Slitherine would care to comment about this? Are these possible additions that we might expect to see in a future patch? Or maybe in LA2? Or are they merely leftovers from a previous game?

Modding the Elephants
I am about to attempt this, if I fail it may well be due to a lack of animations. Is there any possibility of Slitherine releasing a patch to allow the archers mounted in the howdah the ability to shoot the bows with which they are depicted?
It will be up to us if we wish to activate this new skill, or not. Alternatively, can they help us to achieve this.

If you have any suggestions that you would like to make or any "mods" you've made and wish your name to be added to the "Roll of Honour" above, please write in.

Finally, is there some way of making this topic "Sticky" to keep it at the top of page 1?

Vale

M. Spedius Corbulo

PS. This post will be subject to many edits and updates.

I start look into demo campaign's localization .text file.
So far, there are some points which I can't understand, though game messages and unit types and unit description is
easy to recognize.

So
MOD-Japanese, I want to try.

P.S.
the obvious difficult point is streaming video which played at the start of game and campaign starts and finishes.
My English is so poor, I can hear only part of them. My poor English, I should try harder during my school days.
In the heart of Italy, the seed of Empire resawned, or something like that.
And even if I translated how to mingle it to the video is another problem.
I need everyone's help, help, please.

If you want to try and translate to Japanese I can supply you the original scripts in English. Just send me a mail.

iainmcneil wrote:If you want to try and translate to Japanese I can supply you the original scripts in English. Just send me a mail.

I'm going to send right now. Thank you, thank you, you guys are great.

so, iainmcneil @ slitherine.co.uk is your mail address?

tora_tora_tora wrote:I start look into demo campaign's localization .text file.
So far, there are some points which I can't understand, though game messages and unit types and unit description is
easy to recognize.
So
MOD-Japanese, I want to try.
P.S.
the obvious difficult point is streaming video which played at the start of game and campaign starts and finishes.
My English is so poor, I can hear only part of them. My poor English, I should try harder during my school days.
In the heart of Italy, the seed of Empire resawned, or something like that.
And even if I translated how to mingle it to the video is another problem.
I need everyone's help, help, please.

Ave Tora_Tora_Tora

Below is the text of the opening sequence. Taken from row 3,112 of my copy of localization.txt in an Excel spreadsheet.

It's "In the heart of Italy, the seeds of an Empire are sown~Over the years Rome grows, conquering her neighbours~Tribe after tribe fell, crushed by the Legions. But Rome??™s success drew envious eyes.~The powerful Carthaginian??™s sent their armies to challenge Rome, but with disastrous results.~Hannibal, son of the defeated Carthaginian King, vowed revenge. He led his soldiers and war elephants through the Alps, risking all for his chance to destroy Rome.~Hannibal won many great victories against the might of Rome.~But in the end, Rome had become too powerful.~Hannibal, the master strategist, suffered only one defeat. But it was enough to ensure the fall of Carthage and the rise of Rome.~Then one man would change the course of Roman history forever. Gaius Julius Caesar~Caesar??™s ambition demanded a war to make his name. He headed north to Gaul.~These ferocious warriors had raided Italy for hundreds of years~Now was the time for Rome??™s revenge~The Republic became an Empire, the greatest the world had ever known. But what fate awaits you commander?~Legion Arena. ~Role playing strategy on an epic scale."

Someone else will have to help with the streaming video part.

Vale

M. Spedius Corbulo

Thank you. I really appreciate your help. And astounished at your talents, really.
How could PGs and SEs read through such large volume and maintain, my one of secret wonder.

By the way, So is it all included in the localization.txt?
I only read the doorstep to the file. And it is very interesting, as it seems to suggest somekind of strategy game or something,
and the cheat mode, which seems to be the fourth gateway to campaign.

On the question of textures, IIRC (and a quick look at the code seems to indicate it...) you can just add more textures on at the end (e.g. if there are textures up to 006 then just name yours 007) then it should just take them and use them.

You can download a photoshop plugin to make DDS files (otherwise it will slow you rendering down somewhat) from the nVidia site (developer section) - and there are other DDS creation tools out there too.

Hope that helps!

Cheers

Pip

yeah, for doing textures i must recomend a combination of Photoshop 7 and the nVidia .DDS convertor, amazingly useful pice of gear. I used to use a program called the DDS2 Convertor, but it messes up the Alpha's so i wouldnt recomend it. If and when they ever possibly may decide to release anything about their models (which according to iain isnt very likley) then you may need to get 3DS Max 8.0 from Autodesk.

For people on the cheap, the best Image program is The GIMP (careful when googling that ) - GNU Image Manipulation Program which is an open source freeware artist program which has been ported to windows from Linux, and thne combine it with the DDS2 Convertor, which although it messes up Alpha's occasionaly is still a reliable piece of gear.

Links:
The Gimp for Windows (Compiled): You can get that from Here!!
Photoshop 7 Trial: You can get that from Here!!
nVidia .DDS convertor for Photoshop: Available from Here!!
DDS2 Convertor: Available from Here!!
Autodesk 3DS Max 8: Get that from Here!!

If there are any useful programs i have forgotten, then please do tell me.

What you guys have been doing modding LA is amazing!!!! I have been wonderng is it possible to add another element to the batles, making angle of attack relevant? Indeed as it is you can charge someone from behind or straight on and it doesn't matter. Maybe somehing could be done about it.
Just a thought , if it' s a stupid question tell me I have never seen a game being modded. I must say I m awed by what you have been doing .
Keep it on

No, i dont think thats possible, It may be a hardcoded feature (means its compiled with the app and we cant touch it) or the (as is the case with Gloss files - to my eternal frustration) the Source Code may not support it. Sorry dude

Ok then but could you create new units or only modify the old ones? I uppose only the old ones will have their own graphisms but maybe we could use the same image for say Greek hoplite and triari or Cataphracts and Nobles etc.
Again I m sorry if what i say is dumb

Well.

If you can find edit any of the .txt files to make certain units playable and if you can find a model for them (after a quick browse i think you need to add lines to Battlegfx.txt as well) then i would be more than happy to make a new texture for the file, but making an individual model for them is beyond the skill of anyone in the community, apart from that of the evil neo con game devs ( )

We are indeed evil.

I actually have horns.

Cheers

Pip

Here is a little insight into the .ase file format used by Slitherine in the game, i havent actually read this through myself as i dont have the time, but opening one of the .ase files in notepad and just googling the first command line lead me to this its a page all about the .ase file type, just incase anyone was intrested

EDIT: Also, the .SAS files, I think they control the games Loader, and it is possible to stop the Legion Arena logo from making itself a puzzle by changing
"Turn on mini-game?" from "1" to any other number afaik. But then, that also clears away the picture entirely

Don't forget the balancing mod.

Also, I have scrutinized the maps, and while we could copy a map and give it different captions, maybe even a different intro screen, along with adding in more maps based on the old ones, until a .bsf unpacker is located, we are through.

well i found a whole load of .bmf file converters, but they are all for DOS so I cant use any of em
EDIT: found this handy piece of kit
http://www.xnview.com/xnview/endownloadwin32.html
Apparently it can open .bmf files, so thats one part of the trouble down

not quite, you want ".bsf", not ".bmf", but i tried it.

Good try, glad to know your on the case too

Bah Humbug! I'll keep on trying though!!

spedius01 wrote: We are restricted to seven textures per troop type. We need the same troop type with a different name. ie legionaries and pseudo legionaries or marius's legionaries.

Marian Legionnaires... um um good!

Ray (alias Lava)

pipfromslitherine wrote:We are indeed evil.

I actually have horns.

Cheers

Pip

Only when you spike your hair