Changing Hero on a Map in Conversion Pack 2.2

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gameragodzilla
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Changing Hero on a Map in Conversion Pack 2.2

Post by gameragodzilla »

So I've been using this mod and it's fantastic. You guys did a wonderful job with this. However, I'd like to be able to change some heroes on certain maps to someone else, mainly Kyle Katarn because he's my favorite Star Wars character and I'm a big fan of the Jedi Knight games. However, I've been scouring everywhere to try and figure out how to change heroes on the maps and I'm at a loss.

At first, I tried hex editing. However, whenever I tried that approach, it crashes the map I try to use. I attributed this to the fact that Kyle Katarn's name is too long (all_hero_kyle_katarn_outcast if I recall correctly) and he's in the heroes.lvl file rather than all.lvl.

Later, I tried getting the LUA files for the original Battlefront 2 maps, and trying to add Kyle Katarn that way. But no matter what mod tools I used or what I did, it'd either not work or crash.

I have tried searching around and found threads, tutorials and other related stuff on how to change heroes on maps, but all of them are in relation to heroes already in the game. So I can change Anakin Skywalker to Mace Windu, for example, because they're both in all.lvl and are part of the base game. Kyle Katarn, it seems, isn't. He's part of the Conversion Pack that adds a lot of new heroes.

Since you guys are the ones who created this mod, may I ask if it's possible to change heroes through the Conversion Pack? I'm extremely new to this and while I've learned how to do what I want for standard heroes, I want to be able to change things in new maps with new heroes as well. It's my understanding that the normal way is only possible with the LUA files, but they weren't released publicly for this particular mod.

Anyways, thanks for the help. I tried figuring stuff out by myself but I've been unable to get anything working, so I made an account here just to ask it.
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Maveritchell
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Re: Changing Hero on a Map in Conversion Pack 2.2

Post by Maveritchell »

The quick answer is that while no, the map scripts weren't released for the Conversion Pack maps, you shouldn't have any issue loading in the Conversion Pack heroes (or any other unit) into your own scripts, whether they're a map you're making or a recompile of (for example) the base game maps. I'm not sure from what you've written if so far you've only tried hex editing (and have just seen references to luascript editing) or if you've tried both hexediting and script editing. In the case of the former, you're not really going to get any of this done with hexediting unless you want to be really particular about adjusting header lengths in addition to changing names (not something I'd recommend in large .lvl files anyway).
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Re: Changing Hero on a Map in Conversion Pack 2.2

Post by gameragodzilla »

Maveritchell wrote:The quick answer is that while no, the map scripts weren't released for the Conversion Pack maps, you shouldn't have any issue loading in the Conversion Pack heroes (or any other unit) into your own scripts, whether they're a map you're making or a recompile of (for example) the base game maps. I'm not sure from what you've written if so far you've only tried hex editing (and have just seen references to luascript editing) or if you've tried both hexediting and script editing. In the case of the former, you're not really going to get any of this done with hexediting unless you want to be really particular about adjusting header lengths in addition to changing names (not something I'd recommend in large .lvl files anyway).
I have tried script editing as well, such as trying to load Kyle Katarn from the heroes.lvl file into, say, the Kamino map in the base game using the mod tools, but they didn't work and would just crash if I tried loading, so I'm at a loss. I honestly have no idea what I'm doing when it comes to script editing outside of following the tutorials I found, which have mainly proven unsuccessful to me.
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Re: Changing Hero on a Map in Conversion Pack 2.2

Post by Teancum »

In the end it's rather difficult to do without the original scripts, and we don't provide those as the Convo Pack is used on some multiplayer servers. If we allowed editing of those scripts they could possibly be used to 1) possibly cheat or 2) would make it so that people couldn't join those games -- then they get mad at us.
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Re: Changing Hero on a Map in Conversion Pack 2.2

Post by gameragodzilla »

Teancum wrote:In the end it's rather difficult to do without the original scripts, and we don't provide those as the Convo Pack is used on some multiplayer servers. If we allowed editing of those scripts they could possibly be used to 1) possibly cheat or 2) would make it so that people couldn't join those games -- then they get mad at us.
Yeah makes sense. Is there someone who already has the scripts and can make a sort of custom version for me? That's probably a lot to ask, but it would be appreciated.
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Re: Changing Hero on a Map in Conversion Pack 2.2

Post by BF2-Master »

gameragodzilla wrote:
Teancum wrote:In the end it's rather difficult to do without the original scripts, and we don't provide those as the Convo Pack is used on some multiplayer servers. If we allowed editing of those scripts they could possibly be used to 1) possibly cheat or 2) would make it so that people couldn't join those games -- then they get mad at us.
Yeah makes sense. Is there someone who already has the scripts and can make a sort of custom version for me? That's probably a lot to ask, but it would be appreciated.
I was attempting a similar project a few years ago and ended up using Marvel4's Conversion Pack, as those scripts are/were publicly available. I switch back to the ConvoPack when I need the full experience though. I've thought of writing a tutorial about how to use them effectively, which is cake for an experienced modder but might not be easy for someone with as many problems as myself, but I figured people in the latter category wouldn't be browsing GT anymore.
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Re: Changing Hero on a Map in Conversion Pack 2.2

Post by gameragodzilla »

BF2-Master wrote:
gameragodzilla wrote:
Teancum wrote:In the end it's rather difficult to do without the original scripts, and we don't provide those as the Convo Pack is used on some multiplayer servers. If we allowed editing of those scripts they could possibly be used to 1) possibly cheat or 2) would make it so that people couldn't join those games -- then they get mad at us.
Yeah makes sense. Is there someone who already has the scripts and can make a sort of custom version for me? That's probably a lot to ask, but it would be appreciated.
I was attempting a similar project a few years ago and ended up using Marvel4's Conversion Pack, as those scripts are/were publicly available. I switch back to the ConvoPack when I need the full experience though. I've thought of writing a tutorial about how to use them effectively, which is cake for an experienced modder but might not be easy for someone with as many problems as myself, but I figured people in the latter category wouldn't be browsing GT anymore.
Well I've been trying it and failing miserably, so can you post a tutorial? Even if it's a tutorial elsewhere that's more oriented towards beginners?
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