MODDING LAND OF LEGENDS

[Hiro_Antagonist]

Hey all,

I wanted to post this in the event that anyone is interested in experimenting with modding Land of Legends.

But first, a couple of things:
MODDING IS AN UNSUPPORTED FEATURE
I am giving these directions as-is, with no commitments of support. Modding Land of Legends is NOT an officially supported feature, and if it makes your installation stop working, breaks your computer, or eats your baby, I can't be held responsible.

THIS IS AT YOUR OWN RISK
Make sure you have your Land of Legends CD (or installer file, if you bought online) available to re-install Land of Legends if you break something and can't fix it.

NO DOCUMENTATION WILL BE PROVIDED
You are on your own. Things will be pretty obvious in most cases, less so in others. I will try to answer questions, but make no commitments.

ONLINE PLAY WILL PROBABLY NOT WORK IF YOU MODIFY ANYTHING
This is one of the biggest reasons I didn't expose this functionality sooner. If the two players start a game with different data, bad things will happen and everyone involved will be sad. If you are going to play online, I ask that you please turn that UseXML registry setting back to false, and play it as intended.

THE AI (or any other part of the game) MAY CHOKE OR CRASH WHEN USING MODIFIED DATA
It *should* work, but we only tested using the data that shipped with the game. There are nearly limitless permutations of data using mods, and they may break the game and/or AI.

To get started, you need to do 2 things:
1) Create a special registry entry.

-Using the windows registry editor (Start-->Run-->regedit), navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Shrapnel Games\Land of Legends\GameSettings.
-Right-click on the GameSettings folder, and click "New"-->"String value".
-Name it "UseXML". (no quotes)
-Right-click on that, and select Modify.
-Enter "True" (no quotes)

That will tell Land of Legends to look at the XML files for all data, rather than the WAD file.

AT THIS POINT LAND OF LEGENDS WILL NOT RUN UNLESS YOU HAVE THE XML IN PLACE (as per the next step), OR YOU CHANGE THAT VALUE BACK TO "FALSE".

To change Land of Legends back to use the WAD file, as it shipped, edit that registry setting to say 'false'.

2) Unzip the contents of the attached .zip file to the "Mods\Default\Data\" folder. By default, this should be:

C:\Program Files\Shrapnel Games\Land of Legends\Mods\Default\Data\

If you followed those two steps and run Land of Legends, it should load normally. If you want to confirm that it's using the XML files, go modify something small, and then verify it in game. If you see your change reflected, then it's working!

[ichbinsehselber]

Thanks!
My initial attempt to create a new race failed, but making minor modification to race was successful. Made the elves do less damage and then played Elf campaign Level4, which was fun.

This is a great game, modding may add even more to it. Would be interesting to look at the source code, but of course it is understandable, that this will not be given away...

[Hiro_Antagonist]

If you have any specific questions, feel free to ask.

The game engine is actually extremely modable, such that the entire game really is defined in XML and images. But, of course, without a reference I'm sure it's quite hard to figure out.

[ichbinsehselber]

thanks for the offer! I may get back to it later. For now I enjoy reducing the race I am playing and playing some maps of the legendary campaign. Gnome 4 was really hard with all gnomes one skill less than standard.

[beans]

Hello,

Is there anyway to mod Land of Legends to support multiplayer over a home network? or to support playing multiplayer without needing the server?

Thanks

[beans]

Is the Land of Legends server software available anywhere? Can I host my own multiplayer server?

Does anyone know how to get it touch with Hiro_Antagonist?

[Hiro_Antagonist]

Hi there,

Unfortunately there's no easy way for you to get multiplayer running.

If you're a real glutton for punishment and feel like wrestling with C# server code, I have attached a .zip of the source code. But in all honesty, I expect it would likely be a giant headache for you to wrestle with and try to figure out.

You would have to run both the Lobby and Game servers on your machine, and then edit the LOL registry settings of all machines you want to play on to use the IP address of your new server. Further, in order for anyone else outside of your LAN to access those servers, you'd have to run the servers on a public/static IP address.

I really am sorry, but that's the best I have to offer regarding getting multiplayer working in the windows version of LOL.

-Scott