New! Werewolf sprite/unit/creature: Files and Guide

[eyesodilated]

In the spirit of this month, I have ready an experimental NEW sprite/unit for LoMSE! Introducing the Werewolf, a new Chaos creature just in time for the Halloween season. I have the stats roughly between an Ogre and the Legendary Hydra. You need WinMPQ to install the new creature- I may make available the complete .mpq files if people are unfamiliar with MPQ modding.




Here is a guide on how to install and play with the new Werewolf creature.

• Download the file chwm3.zip attached to this post. Make backups of your gs.mpq, pic.mpq and imp.mpq as these will be modded and it is a good idea to have a copy.
• Open up WinMPQ, preferably with the Lords of Magic LISTFILE added under "Options" then the "File List" tab. Here you can click the "Add List File" button which will let you browse for it. Links to WinMPQ are here in the forum and on Google. I attached the listfile since it was kind of difficult to find. Credits to ShadowFlare I believe.
  
• Step 1: With WinMPQ open, click "File" then scroll down to "Open". This will bring a window where you can navigate to your LOMSE folder and select gs.mpq
• Now that you have the gs.mpq open, scroll down to gs\unittype.gs and DELETE it. WinMPQ will ask for confirmation click "yes".
• The toolbar on WinMPQ will have several functions: NEW, OPEN, ADD, ADD FOLDER, EXTRACT & COMPRESS- click "Add". This will open up a file explorer window so navigate to the unzipped folder chwm3 you downloaded in step 1. In this unzipped "chwm3" folder you will see a "gs" folder open it and select your new "unittype.gs" and hit "OPEN". This will bring up an interface "Folder Name..." asking that you type in the folder name you want this file installed in your .mpq file. Since we deleted the original "unittype.gs" file from the "gs" folder in the gs.mpq it is important that we put this new one back exactly the same spot. Type gs\ in the "Folder Name" interface and hit "Open". Do not forget to add the "\" symbol after the "gs" when you are telling WinMPQ where to add the unittype.gs as this is part of the path. You should now see in the gs.mpq the updated file is present as "gs\unittype.gs"
• Step 2: Click "Add" on the WinMPQ toolbar again, this time navigate to the same unzipped "chwm3" folder and open the "gs" folder again. Select the "chwm3.gs" file and hit "OPEN". The "Folder Name..." interface will again ask you what folder you want this in. You will see the old "gs\" still in the input bar- delete this "gs\" folder path and type in units\   … You will now see the chwm3.gs file is present as units\chwm3.gs in the gs.mpq file. 
  
• Step 3: You are now done with the gs.mpq so in WinMPQ hit the "File" menu and scroll down to "Open". Navigate to your LOMSE folder and select the pic.mpq this time.
• With pic.mpq open hit "Add" on the toolbar. Navigate to the unzipped chwm3 folder and open the "PORTRAIT" folder so you can select the "chwm3p00.lbm" and hit "Open"
• Once again the "Folder Name..." interface will ask you what folder path do you want this file in, type in: PORTRAIT\   and hit "OK"
• If successful you will see the new .lbm file as PORTRAIT\chwm3p00.lbm in your pic.mpq.
• Step 3: You are now done with the pic.mpq so in WinMPQ hit the "File" menu and scroll down to "Open". Navigate to your LOMSE folder and select imp.mpq this time.
• With imp.mpq open scroll down and find the iface\chicons.imp. With iface\chicons.imp selected hit "Delete" key on your keyboard or right click and select "Delete"- it will ask for confirmation so hit "OK"
• Scroll down and find iface\chicons.h and also delete this file
• With imp.mpq still open hit "Add" on the toolbar so we can add the new chicons.imp and chicons.h files. Navigate to the unzipped chwm3 folder and open the "iface" folder so you can select chicons.h - Hit the "Open" button to once again bring up the "Folder Name..." interface. Type in iface\ into the prompt and hit "OK"- you should now see iface\chicons.h is back in your imp.mpq
• With imp.mpq still open hit "Add" on the toolbar. Navigate to the unzipped chwm3 folder and open the "iface" folder so you can select chicons.imp - Hit the "Open" button to once again bring up the "Folder Name..." interface. Type in iface\ into the prompt and hit "OK"- you should now see iface\chicons.imp is back in your imp.mpq
  
• Step 4: Now to add the last 4 files that actually contain the new sprites- With imp.mpq still open in WinMPQ. Hit "Add" on the toolbar. Navigate to the unzipped chwm3 folder and open the "units" folder then the "imp" folder so you can select chwm3a.imp - Hit the "Open" button to once again bring up the "Folder Name..." interface. Type in units\imp\ into the prompt and hit "OK"- you should now see units\imp\chwm3a.imp is now added into your imp.mpq
• Repeat Step 4 with the other 3 files: chwm3b.imp, chwm3a.h & chwm3b.h - one at a time with each ending up in the same path file units\imp\ of imp.mpq as chwm3a.imp 
  
  • If done correctly you will see in the imp.mpq the following files added in as such:
  units\imp\chwm3a.h
  units\imp\chwm3a.imp
  units\imp\chwm3b.h
  units\imp\chwm3b.imp
  
  
  You can exit WinMPQ and open LOMSE to enjoy the new sprite! Right now the only way to access it is through the "Cheat Command" with "CTRL+C" and typing in Werewolf. I realized while typing out this guide how complicated it can seem if you have not modded MPQ files before so I may indeed upload my modified gs.mpq, imp.mpq and pic.mpq however I have a lot of experimental stuff going on so I will need some time to mod the original newest version of the GS mod files accordingly and will try to upload pre-modded versions of the .mpq files in the comment section of this thread. This guide is so that no matter what version of the GS mod you have you can install the new Werewolf sprite.
  
  DISCLAIMER:
  This new sprite is in the beta testing and basically almost done, what I need help with is feedback of any of the problems as detailed in this thread: impz.proboards.com/thread/2176/great-masters-necropian-abyss-summon
  
  
  
  

• Sprite "wobbling"
• Sprite "Hotspot" selection bugs
• Health Bar issues
• Color issues, loose pixels
• Any other "wonky" or "janky" issues

Also, any other feedback is greatly appreciated, I am still working on adding functioning shadows. I thought of using a simple circle or line shadow but the perfectionist in me is also trying to get the exact shadows. It is cosmetic but lack of shadow breaks emersion so I eventually would like to fix this.

WISHLIST: to make this sprite better integrated, Maybe, only Boaster would be the only person knowledgeable on this subject in the whole world but if anyone has any ideas, I am all ears.

I would like to make this Werewolf unit recruitable from a building like normal units are. How can I do this? Probably need to add some text\building files for description then I am assuming modding the building.gs somehow. But honestly, I have no idea and have failed to summon it without the cheat code menu.

I would also be okay with a certain scroll or artifact being the only way to summon the Werewolf. Maybe take a wolf unit and a Barbarian unit into the Chaos special building and have a feature similar to the summoning of the Death Lichen?

Also, it is not available in Summon Creature spells nor in Polymorph Self/Others, that might be a nice touch.




chwm3.zip (557.08 KB)

[eyesodilated]

Here is the link to my husband's Google Drive with the already modded .mpq files compressed into one zip for those unable to get WinMPQ to work properly, not sure how long this link will last. Unzip the file and place it in your LOMSE folder. Please make backups of your imp.mpq, pic.mpq and gs.mpq as they will be replaced by the new modded ones containg the Werewolf. Backing up is important as I quickly made this zip file, should be the same as latest GS MOD but with Werewolf unit.

WerewolfMPQ.zip

[lemminkainen]

What a great time to be alive! I never thought a decade ago that one day we'd actually see people making new units from scratch for Lords of Magic! I hope you can keep improving this and collaborate with Boaster to include this in the mod. It actually blends nicely with LOMSE esthetics and lore.

[Boaster]

Adding brand new units is not a simple undertaking.
This will require all files to be added and made downloadable. Sndfx.mpq, PIC.mpq, IMP.mpq.

If I were to add things to the mod, it would have to be done in bulk. That's gathering a lot of things together.

[eyesodilated]

Nov 6, 2022 14:31:10 GMT -6 Boaster said:

Adding brand new units is not a simple undertaking.
This will require all files to be added and made downloadable. Sndfx.mpq, PIC.mpq, IMP.mpq.

If I were to add things to the mod, it would have to be done in bulk. That's gathering a lot of things together.

Agreed. I feel like I should make as many as possible to make it worthwhile to include as a downloadable. The .mpqs are quite large. I ran into a huge problem with the air calvary when I added it in the game.
Earth calvary actually had a file in the gs.mpq whereas Air calvary did not. Not entirely sure how that works but adding aicava.h and .imp files crashed my game where no sprites had portraits.
Also to make it worthwhile I need to add shadows. I have a way now, tedious but better than nothing.
As it stands, this is the average time per unit:

24 hours to make a 3D model and rig it with armature.
24 hours to animate the new unit and render images.
24 hours to sort, rename and fix pallette issues.
I would add another 24 hours to fix the shadows.

LOMUT can turn the images into an .imp file in about 5 seconds. But I need about a full day to make .h files and tweak the .gs files, test etc.

All said it takes about a week to make a single unit since the B sprites take time too. Without the shadows it can be said I have not made a 100% complete unit yet. Also 24 hours is because of work and school. If I was lucky and nothing went wrong then I could push out a new unit in one day if I did nothing else. I have a semester off in spring possibly as I transfer universities.

I would like to replace at least the clone calavry. I just noticed Fire has a clone infantry too! In all my years of playing it never occured to me that fire has two clone units!
I'm still working on ways to automate what I do. Making a batch file to change all pallettes of 600 images at once shaved a whole days work off for me. If I can do same with the rename of files would also help.

[Boaster]

How about for the Fire Infantry, a red colored Lizard? I always thought that would've made for a better fire Infantry. It would be a clone of Water's infantry or missile troops, but would be red at least. Look the same, without being exactly the same.

Someone suggested Scorpion riders for Fire, holding a big axe.

Any thoughts on replacing Water's serpent? I would move the Serpent to WAWM3 and create something more land-based for Water. I'd likely do the same with the Kraken, moving that to WAWM1.

[eyesodilated]

Nov 17, 2022 7:18:38 GMT -6 Boaster said:

How about for the Fire Infantry, a red colored Lizard? I always thought that would've made for a better fire Infantry. It would be a clone of Water's infantry or missile troops, but would be red at least. Look the same, without being exactly the same.

Someone suggested Scorpion riders for Fire, holding a big axe.

Any thoughts on replacing Water's serpent? I would move the Serpent to WAWM3 and create something more land-based for Water. I'd likely do the same with the Kraken, moving that to WAWM1.

You read my mind, I just mocked up a red lizard for fire infantry the other day. Also great idea about moving Serpent and Kraken. Water was always inhibited by the lack of land units and these sea monsters were mostly for show, as other faiths rarely used boats.

Eventually I would like every faith to have one or two of sea-based creature just for more hijinks in the oceans and rivers of Urak.

Death: Saltwater Crocodile (fits Deaths Swamp terrain)
Life: Dolphin
Chaos: Shark/Pirahna 
Order: Swordfish 
Earth: Giant Tortoise (mythological turtle with island on back)
Air: Electric Eel/ Narwhal
Fire: Red seahorse/ Anglerfish (drawing blanks on this one!)
Water: Orca/ Mermaid


Just some thoughts, I may drop some test units on the. imp dumping thread of possible Water units.