DO/Modding/Tools/WH2EDIT

From Dark Omen Wiki

Current revision as of 15:21, 30 January 2009

WH2EDIT (short for "Warhammer 2 Editor") is a DOS based utility written by Mikademus 1998 in Borland Pascal for editing the .ARM (army) files of Warhammer: Dark Omen. It allows editing virtually every aspect of the army files, but the version circulating today is an unfinished beta and somewhat buggy.

The source code is available for download and use licenced under GPLv3.

Original readme.txt for version 2.5

------------------------------------------------------------------------------
              WH2EDIT v2.5 by Mike Andersson (buddha@home.se)
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

WH2EDIT is a savegame/multiplayer/armylist editor for Warhammer: Dark Omen(tm)
by Electronic Arts(tm), a tactical combat simulator set in a fantasy world.
WH2EDIT features:

 * Support for viewing and adapting savegames, saved multiplayer armies, the
   unit selection army lists and the enemy army lists of the single player
   campaign's separate battles.

 * Instant transformation of an unit into any other in the game occurring
   unit/character

 * Comprehensive menu interface OR direct value input, according to your
   choice, gives total control over every relevant byte of information.

 * SIMPLE or ADVANCVED interfaces allows you to only alter those parameters
   you want, according to need or dare.

 * Exporting single units into separate datafiles and importing them at
   any position in army (facilitating save, easy exchange and multiplying
   of interesting units) gives the user the ability to add to the editor.


DISCLAIMER: WH2EDIT is a fully freeware utility written by me to facilitate
my desire to be able to alter the parameters of playing Warhammer: Dark Omen.
It has been extensively tested and works faultlessly for me, but you use it at
your own risk; I cannot be held responsible for any loss of data or any other
form of damage incurred directly or indirectly by the use of this program.

Well, now when that has been taken care of, I wrote this piece of software
mostly to enable me to replay the single-player campaign with a totally
different point of origin, i.e to change the troop disposition of my army
before playing and thus be able to use my own wit to a much higher degree than
by strictly following the a bit to linear gameflow of the unaltered game. This
will especially be reflected in the 'morph unit' command found in the editor.


INSTALLATION
------------
To install WH2EDIT, place the EXE-file in any directory (but preferably in
your Dark Omen directory, for example C:\GAMES\DARKOMEN) and run the editor. A
box will prompt you for the path to your Dark Omen directory. Enter it and
press ENTER. This information will be saved, so you will not need to enter
this again (providing you run WH2EDIT from the directory where PATH.WH2 is
located). (If you for any reason ever need to change the path, delete the file
"PATH.WH2" located in the same directory as WH2EDIT.EXE.) The rest should be
self-evident, if you've played Dark Omen that is...


OBSERVE
-------
Remember, that just because the editor works doesn't mean that your actual
editing will. Dark Omen barfs on several unorthodox unit configurations,
like equipping non-artillery with cannons or mortars. Some weapons/units
require special animation series that are not included in every set of
sprites, so experimentation could be required. Well, what this boils down to
is that I recommend that you backup important savegames before doing any
radical alterations to them, or save to a new savefile.

Also, don't be overwhelmed by the sheer number of information on every unit.
While all relevant information is present, it is more for the sake of
completeness than because every value has to be manipulated. The most relevant
information is found within the SIMPLE EDIT MODE, but it is possible that some
advanced toggles, located by pressing F12, have to be tweaked.

WH2EDIT is limited to editing EXISTING units, it will not add new units to an
existing multiplayer army (even though adding gold will allow you to buy more
units from within DO), and neither can units be added to single player
campaigns. Also note that having too many units in a multiplayer army (say over
35 or something) can cause WH2EDIT to terminate.

WARNING: Altering the campaign battle's army lists in a way not intended by
the creators of the game could cause the game to hang or crash. Always backup
the *.ARM files of the battles you are going to modify.


GUIDELINES
----------
 * An unit needs to be ARCHER type to be able to fire missile weapons, or
   ARTILLERY to fire artillery weapons (cannonballs, mortar shells, rocks,
   bolts, skulls)

 * To be able to cast spells, an unit must have his Wizard Type variable set
   to any value exceeding 0/NONE. He must likewise have a magic book. Do not
   assign magic books to units with Wizard Type NONE.

 * Cavalry must be assigned Mounts. The mount determines the unit's movement
   speed, horse being the fleetest while NONE equals on foot. Do not assign
   mounts to units that are not CAVALLRY.

 * The Earliest Appearance setting determines if an unit is deployable in the
   current position in the campaign mission tree. The easiest way of getting
   round this problem is to switch values between an unit that IS deployable
   and the unit you wish to deploy.

 * The UNDEAD CHARIOT is reported to cause game crashes, as is the LIGHTNING
   magic item. Use these with caution, especially the LIGHTNING.

 * For the sake of completeness, I have determined to make the magic items
   "Lightning" and "Ring of Volans" to be selectable. However, note that the
   lightning item WILL cause a game crash and that the ring have no effect
   whatsoever.

SOME NOTES ON USAGE
-------------------
LOADING:
Enter the LOAD menu with F5. Toggle between campaign savegames and multiplayer
armies with TAB. Use the arrow keys to steer the bar over the game you wish to
load, or enter the game's number. Press enter to load the game. You can load
a savegame with a higher number than 96 by entering its number, but you cannot
steer to it. You cannot access more than 96 multiplayer armies or exported
units, period.

SAVING CHANGES and EXPORTING:
Save changes to existing file by pressing F6 and confirm by selecting yes.
Save to a new file by pressing F7 and enter the extension number of the game
you wish to save to. Export units by highlighting them and press DEL, and
then enter a description for the export file. The export files are named
*.UNT and are located in the savegame directory. They can be freely exchanged,
copied and deleted.

SIMPLE/ADVANCED MODE:
To toggle these modes, press F12 when on any unit. In advanced mode, every
value available for the unit is alterable while only those alternatives I
deemed most important are available in simple mode - this to reduce the risk
of runtime User Information Overload Error.

PSYCHOLOGY MODE:
Press F11 when on any unit to display and edit every Boolean psychology
toggle. Press F11 again to exit to the previous EditUnit mode (or press F12
to exit to the alternative EditUnit mode).

MORPHING UNITS and IMPORTING:
The most powerful tool in the editor for instant transformation of units: just
press SPACE when on any unit to transform it into any other existing unit, or
import (press INS) to replace the existing unit with a earlier saved unit.


HELP ME
-------
As you can see, the psychology section of the editor is sadly uncomplete. Even
though you can toggle all settings on/off, there's no description of what
they are. You who use this editor, you who knows what psychology that
corresponds to what toggle, I implore of you to send me your knowledge and I
will immediately incorporate it into WH2EDIT.


ROUNDING UP
-----------
Please send me any suggestions, tips, ideas, complaints or whatever to the
aforementioned address. Also please lobby Electronic Arts to make expansions
and/or sequels to this game...

Happy gaming!
Mikademus