Haegemonia LOI/TSH - Modding
-
Wow! Im not alone
Anyway, its bad that this game not so popular. Extremely good one.I have this modding tools pack. In-game system editor is buggy but works. Other soft good too. But this exporter (modelexp4.dle) doesnt work with 2009 and 6 Max: error at max’s startup “can’t load plugin”.
-
Haegemonia (yes, it is hAegemonia) was programmed in the country I am from, and yes, I have quite some experience modding it. At the moment me and a fellow are working on the Vector Prime mod - search modDB for details. (Credits to Sushi for some ships that will be in the next release here)
There are no modding communities. There was one, but as the site went down, the whole thing died.
When it comes to level editors, I have programmed one some time ago, you might want to try that as an alternative. I also have a half-baked random map generator done.
Modding Haegemonia is about as difficult as Freelancer. Some things are easy to do, others are difficult - the engine has its own limitations, particularly with races and weapons classes. Script editing is also relatively hard, at least not easy to get a hang of, and the whole game is filled with Hungarian programmer’s notes and references (which I am proud and lucky to understand).
However, if you make a mistake, Haegemonia will crash on you and won’t give you too much a hint on what your error is, making debugging quite often tedious.
Check the modDB site of Vector Prime for some details on what’s possible. I am planning a new release fairly soon, which will show you exactly what limits can be stretched.
If you need any help, feel free to ask - just don’t expect a quick answer these days, unfortunately I am quite busy - oh, and as a sidenote. Some time ago I have implemented all the Liberty ships (Patriot, Defender, Liberator, Cruiser, Dreadnaught) as buildable ships - just for fun though, as I don’t know exactly what copyright limits does this thing push, it is staying offline on my hard drive for fun. Nevertheless, with some weapon classes trickery, it is possible to make a real FL mod - the ships I’ve mentioned earlier are like a proof of concept.
Haeg is usually straightforward to edit though - just make sure you get the expansion pack, The Solon Heritage.
All the editing tools that have ever been made for Haeg are the modding tools, my level maker and my random map generator. Nevertheless, the modding tools has good tutorials (and I’ve even worked out some of the wreckage animations - to the point that I actually got custom ships to fall apart into pieces)Well, that’s it. Haegemonia is a nice work of a strategy game, and in my opinion deserves a note. I’ve quite often played around with the idea of an FL mod, but never got serious about it because of legal stuff. Nevertheless, I have all FL systems in TSH format, and the Liberty ships as well.
Edit: Read the readmes. For the exporter plugin you need 3DsMax 5.
There are absolutely no importers available. Would be nice though, as that would just help a lot - and the bmod format, as far as I’ve seen is rather simple. Nevertheless, programming a plugin is far beyond my scope.
There is one thing though. There is a (similarly Hungarian) tool called 3D Object Converter. It can read SOME of the bmods, but not correctly, and even if it does, all the LODs get messed up pretty bad. It allows you to export to 3ds and other formats, but it isn’t really worth bothering as it can’t read the files correctly and can only save messed up ones. -
Amazing! Thanks for replying. I saw your Vector Prime mod trailer about 2 years ago. You still working on it?
3DSMax 5… hmmmm… thanks i’ll try…
Ok i found your system editor.
Small trouble - i cant save a map:
http://img186.imageshack.us/img186/1342/42618097.png
Path to TSH is right.
And it shows “file not found” every time i want to create or open a system. Which file? -
2 years ago, the old developers were working on Vector Prime. I just took over… like 4 months ago or so. Technically, I’ve only been doing the Major Updates for the mod.
That is not my editor. That is Tib’s tool. It is more user friendly than my one, but is also more incomplete. I don’t think you will find my editor online anywhere. I will upload it for you.Here, you can find a download link. If it does not work yet, try again in a day or two.
http://www.filefront.com/17293012/Haegemonia-Level-Planner.zip/
Please note that my editor is, although more powerful than Tib’s, well, not as straightforward. Please read all the readme and help files, otherwise you will find it very hard to work with.
The random map generator included is an old version. The new one will come with the next release of Vector Prime. I don’t recommend using it until you are familiar with how the editor itself works.
You can’t open original maps, but you can create your own. It works this way: you build your map system by system, saving each one as a separate file. These are in the editor’s format, and are not yet compatible with TSH. When you are done with all the systems you want, you will have to produce them with the produce button.Because there is absolutely no help on how to produce a working level, I will give you some help here. Also, refer to the question mark buttons everywhere, as much as you can.
Producing is what will convert your map to TSH’s format. Until you get to know exactly how to do things, it is going to be very tedious and hard. Basically, you enter and save level information, then load your systems, merging them one by one. The translation tool allows you to create “inner systems” and bypass the 12 systems limit. If you are doing so, you must uncheck the “include original systeminfo” checkbox.
When you are done with that, you should save a level file - this is still not TSH’s, but the editor’s format. Next will be the Empires… How many you want, what is their diplomatic status, everything.
When you are done, click “generate level” and your level will be converted to TSH’s level.inf format. You will be asked if you want to compress your file - usually it is not necessary and is safe to leave it uncompressed (this is like bini in FL). -
There are no hardpoints involved in map making. You just place the object, and it is there.
Hardpoints are involved with ship/station making. Please give me more detail, so that I can give you a correct answer. What do you want to do exactly?
Edit: Just to contribute a little to this nice FL community who accept a thread for another game as well:
-
Ow My God !! A freelancer mod for Haegemonia!! Amazing!!
-
It’s not a mod, just a proof-of-concept, that the thing works.
Hardpointing:
Refer to the tutorial found in the modding tools “Docs” and “Haege_tutorial” folder. However, because they are somewhat hard to read I will help you out.To place a hardpoint, you need to place a dummy object (small square) or a point object (small cross) and name it appropriately. Refer to the example file of the corellian corvette for the basics. For the advanced stuff, refer to the human cruiser example file. Dummies are found in the create object –> helpers section of 3ds max. Read the max tutorial for details.
Hierarchy is very important. Use 3ds max’s assign command to set up a hierarchy tree, and refer to the tutorials and the human cruiser for details. However, I will try and help you; a standard hierarchy looks like this:
Dummy01 (helper, dummy)
–> hull (geometry, mesh)
–>–> lp_hull (geometry, mesh - low poly hull. This is the ‘sur’ file)
–>–> hpengine01 (helper, dummy)
–>–> hpweapon01 (helper, dummy)
Dummy02
–> wing01
—>—> lp_wing01
—>—> hpweapon02The base of the ship should be named “hull”. The “wing” is an object that can fall off the ship.
You must (should) always create a base dummy and link it to a piece of geometry.Animation for parts falling off is an advanced topic. If you are interested, I can help you, but you should try to get a ship working in-game first.
Ship sizes:
~20 3ds max units: fighter
~200 3ds max units: cruiser -
BBalazs wrote:
Dummy01 (helper, dummy)
–> hull (geometry, mesh)
–>–> lp_hull (geometry, mesh - low poly hull. This is the ‘sur’ file)
–>–> hpengine01 (helper, dummy)
–>–> hpweapon01 (helper, dummy)
Dummy02
–> wing01
—>—> lp_wing01
—>—> hpweapon02How to create this
Where to look the hierarchy and how to edit it -
You have created your mesh (name: hull) and your dummy (name: dummy01).
1: Select your mesh
2: Click the assign tool (find it in the toolbar near the select tool)
3: Click the dummyThis will create the following hierarchy:
Dummy01
–>hullYou can check this by entering the select by name tool and clicking the display subtree checkbox.
-
I have also tried yesterday, but I had no luck. I attempted capturing a Solon Leech - so I started a skirmish, built one of the things, pressed F12 to capture. Capture was finished in a very short time, but when I imported it to max, well, only the planets got imported, and even those were distorted. I have no idea what I’ve done wrong.
Nice to see that military base extracted. I still have the opinion that the Haeg models are very beautiful.
-
BBalazs wrote:
only the planets got imported, and even those were distorted. I have no idea what I’ve done wrong.Maybe planets is big and you didnt find a ships?
It exports some strange planets, i deleted em and pressed a Z to center view on other objects.
Yes, objects scaled down in one of the axis… use “scale” to make them normal.-
find em
http://img176.imageshack.us/img176/9808/87204239.jpg -
delete a planet and look to ships (Z button is useful)
http://img36.imageshack.us/img36/484/74675753.jpg -
scale by one of the axis to make scene normal
http://img176.imageshack.us/img176/1254/89185717.jpg -
delete all except you need and center the model
http://img99.imageshack.us/img99/6691/65596217.png
-
-
Bretonian Carrier! X)
-
Thanks - turned out I didn’t look close enough.
Too bad it doesn’t export animations - that way, we’d have template files to use any kind of animation in custom models.It’s so sad this game never got that famous. Building slightly on Master of Orion 2, it’s far better than any other space RTS in my opinion.
-
If things you capture look distorted then check you are using the correct fov values on the import plugin for max. Usually there is a recommended value in a drop down tab if the plugin is working correctly.
-
I love Darzock and Kariaks ships!
-
Hiyo.
Found my old CD and installed a game again with modding kit and and wanna make a map for myself.
Having such trouble: game works perfect, but i cannot enter the editor. When I press Shift+F10 it starts loading, but when it finishes game shows error and closes.
Win 7 x64, c++ redistributable 2008 and 2010 installed, .net framework 4.5 too. What may cause such thing? -
Well, back in those days I did come across exactly this problem myself as well. I never really managed to solve this though, because I had built my own level editor tool from scratch instead…
However, an intelligent guess from experience is that the error MIGHT be caused by the game’s inf files being compressed/encrypted. If you replace your .inf files with the ones provided in the modding tools (the package contains unencrypted inf files), things just MIGHT work. Never tested, though.
If you want to try, please be careful in the sense that the unencrypted inf files in the modding tools are NOT the same structure as the encrypted ones in the game. The modding tools files use ‘include’ statements, while the ones shipped with the game have everything embededded in every single file. This means you can’t just ‘copy over’ the original files, technically you have to carefully replace each file structure out there, and there is no guarantee it might ever even work.
Consider using Tib’s editor (less powerful but more straightforward and easier to use) or my editor, Haegemonia Level Planner (more powerful, but less straightforward and requires a degree of understanding how levels work in TSH).
It’s been a long time since I’ve worked with Haeg. However, should you need help, I’m happy to answer.
