Help with my modding?

[Naja]

I have vanilla EaW, and the only modding I really do is changing some of the XML stats on some units.

 

However, I've heard of some people having crashes when they upgraded to version 1.03, because they had modded and been unable to change their files back to default settings.

 

I also want to install Legacy of War when that comes out. If I just waited until it was released, then could I just upgrade to the latest version (without worrying about crashes) and then install Legacy of War? Or am I missing a step?

[maxpublic]

So far just about the only thing we can really do is extract files from the megs and change stats.  So you can always revert to the regular game just by moving your files out of the extracted directories (e.g., /data/xml).

 

The problem with the 1.03 patch is that apparently more things were broken than fixed, and that's true whether you've got a modded or unmodded game.  Also, it appears that LA or Petroglyph or whoever did the patch changed the executable to put a wrench in pirated copies.  Thing is, their 'new and improved' detection scheme seems to think that some retail copies of the game are actually pirated (a SecureRom problem...as usual when it comes to SecureRom).

 

My advice is to skip 1.03.  It really doesn't do a whole lot except for improve multiplay (supposedly, although I haven't seen any evidence of that) and tweak some stats - which is something we do as modders anyway.  Oh, and of course it seems to break a good many installs that were working just fine with the 1.02 patch.  Of course, you could always install it, see how it runs, and if it mucks things up just uninstall/reinstall the game and patch to 1.02 (which is what I had to do, since it'd crash my game right after the logo movies each and every tiime).

 

Max

[Foshjedi2004]

LoW will have an auto installer with any luck.  Juggernaut is looking into that possibility.

[kingdark]

but without 1.03 multiplay wont work... ofcourse

[MajorPayne]

"possibility". If anyone wants a dedicated installer then they can give me a yell.

[DragonShadow]

What would it modify? Just resource folders (xml, art/models, art/textures, etc.) or would it modify MEGs? I don't mind if it changes movable files, I just want to be able to move the files out of the game and put different ones in to play different mods...or maybe release a file install in addition to an installer version...

[MajorPayne]

DragonShadow. The program I use is similair to Installshield, but is a bit easier and quicker to use. It backups any replaced files so having multiple mods installed with this program works fine. The best part about it, is it also features a rollback function to make the installation the way it was. I've used it many, many times for my own Armada 2 mods.

[maxpublic]

The patch modifies megs, not extracted files.  It does, however, replace your masterenglish.dat file.  So you should really back that one up if you've made any changes to it.

 

Max