Universal Game Editor Module for SSI's "Fantasy General"
PLEASE READ THIS ENTIRE DOCUMENT THOROUGHLY. DO NOT DELETE ANY OF THE
FILES UNZIPPED FROM THIS PACKAGE.
SSI's "Fantasy General" is a great strategy game, putting you in command
of an army of fantastic creatures, attempting to liberate an entire
continent from the clutches of the malevolent Shadowlord. But...it's NOT
an easy prospect. Your resources are limited, the enemy has powerful
abilities and forces to match your own, the terrain sometimes hinders you,
and you only have a limited time to complete each phase of your conquest!
Enter the Fantasy General Universal Game Editor Modules...
These modules are based on Jack Hartman's Universal Game Editor version
1.0. They will not do anything except sit and collect electronic dust
without that program. If you do use these modules, please register UGE
with Jack (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.) if you haven't already.
For those of you unfamiliar with my previous work with UGE, this is actually
the 21st game I have built modules for. Others include: Might and Magic
III, IV, V, Swords of Xeen, Heroes of Might & Magic, Stonekeep, Anvil of
Dawn, Ravenloft: Strahd's Possession and Stone Prophet, Descent I & II,
Shadowcaster (3.5" version only; CD version is encoded), Realms of Arkania
I & II, Front Page Sports Football '93, Druid: Daemons of the Mind, Dark
Legions, Menzoberranzen, One Must Fall 2097, and Castle Of The Winds.
All of the modules I have created are freeware and are available from my
Website (point your browser to http://www.ici.net/customers/overkill/
overkill.htm and choose the "UGE Page" option to get there); all that I ask
is that users register UGE with Jack Hartman; it's well worth the investment.
One user once asked me why I was dedicating this level of time and effort to
creating programs I was getting no money for. My answer's pretty simple: I
make the modules for myself, and figure, "hey, why NOT share 'em?" Enough
rambling...on to the details:
QUESTION 1: "Hey, Dave, what's with the 37 Batch files?"
ANSWER: Good question. Fantasy General is unique in that for its various
battlefields, there's detailed info about the armies fighting on it, which
is the information you want to modify. Unfortunately, the information
STARTS at different places in the saved game file depending on what
battle you are fighting! What these batch files do is to create files that
UGE can use to handle the battle in question.
QUESTION 2: "Are there any limitations on what battle you can modify?"
ANSWER: Yes. You cannot use these modules to modify Randomly generated
Arena maps. You CAN use it for any of the Fixed Arena maps, or any battle
in the Campaign, or any of the Scenario battles.
QUESTION 3: "So how do I get this started?"
ANSWER: Use PKUNZIP or WinZIP to uncompress this file into your UGE
directory. When you are ready to edit a saved game, determine what battle
field you are fighting on, save the game in Fantasy General, and exit to
DOS. Then look up the battlefield's name on Table 1, below, and type the
appropriate number at the DOS prompt in your UGE directory, then press
Enter. The computer will create two modules called PLAYER1.MDL and
PLAYER2.MDL. Now type UGE. After you get past the registration screen
(if you haven't registered yet), type 'A' to ADD a game. A box will appear
on the right. Type "Fantasy General Player 1" or something similar, and
press Enter. Use the up and down arrow keys to highlight the file name
PLAYER1.MDL in the box that appears on the right, and press Enter. Now
use the arrow keys to find your Fantasy General directory (probably C:FG);
highlight it and press Enter. Now scroll down the list that appears using
the arrow keys until the subdirectory SAVES is highlighted; press Enter
again. You should see some file names. Use the arrow keys to highlight
the file you wish to modify:the name will be GAMEx.SAV, where x is a number
equal to the number written on the jewelled button you pressed when you
saved the game in Fantasy General. For example, if you pressed the button
marked "1" to save the game, the file name is GAME1.SAV. If you pressed the
button marked "5" to save the game, the file name is GAME5.SAV. Once it is
highlighted, press Enter again. Your new module should appear on the
menu on the left. If you also want to modify Player 2's army, repeat the
above procedure exactly, except choosing something similar to "Fantasy
General Player 2" in the FIRST box that appears when you press 'A' to Add
a game, and highlighting the file PLAYER2.MDL in the second box that
appears, rather than PLAYER1.MDL. Once these two files are added to your
UGE menu, to use one, highlight it on the UGE menu and press Enter. A list
of fields should appear, showing you information on the army for Player 1
or Player 2 (depending on which module you selected, of course).
QUESTION 4: "Okay, I won the battle in the Vale of Sorrow. Now I want to
modify my army when I fight in Cyneheim Valley, but all I get on UGE is a
bunch of gobbledy-gook. What happened?"
ANSWER: Like I mentioned before; different battlefields start in different
places in the save file. So, what you'd do depends on...what you did! If
you:
1.) Went to a different battlefield and saved in the same slot (i.e.
pressed the same jewelled button to save the NEW battle as you did
in the OLD battle):
Exit to the DOS prompt; go to your UGE directory.
Look up the NEW battlefield's appropriate number in Table 1
below and type it at the DOS prompt, then press Enter.
That's all there is to it! When you go back into UGE now (by typing
UGE again), the files should work correctly. On the other hand, if
you...
2.) Went to a different battlefield and saved in a different slot
(i.e. you saved the first battle by pressing the jewelled button
labelled "1" and the second battle by pressing the jewelled button
labelled "2"):
Exit to the DOS prompt; go to your UGE directory.
Look up the NEW battlefield's appropriate number in Table 1
below and type it at the DOS prompt, then press Enter.
Type UGE. Scroll down to select the module named "Fantasy
General Player 1" or whatever you called it. Press the M
key (Modify). Press Enter twice. You should see the list
of files in the directory FGSAVES again. Now use the arrow
keys to highlight the file that corresponds to the button you
pressed to save the NEW battle (i.e. if you pressed "2,"
choose GAME2.SAV). That should do it for that module...if
you also have the one for Player 2 set up, repeat the
procedure exactly (except, of course, have the "Fantasy
General Player 2" or whatever you called it highlighted on
the UGE game menu screen.
When you try to use the modules now, they should work correctly.
QUESTION 5: "Okay, I'm in. Hey, my army only has 20 units, but this thing
goes all the way to 64. What's up with this?"
ANSWER: The maximum # of units you can have in an army is 64. The game
always reserves enough space for that many units, so I made all 64 slots
available for modification, no matter how many units you currently have.
And yes, that DOES mean you can create units out of thin air; just make
sure you don't position them in places that don't exist when you create them!
QUESTION 6: "Well, this covers all of my units. What about my opponent?"
ANSWER: The second module (PLAYER2.MDL) handles the 64 units for your
opponent. Want to cause some serious havoc for your opponent? Go ahead;
reduce all of his units' morale levels to 0; he'll love you for it.
.
QUESTION 7: "Hey, how come I can't modify my leader's advantages or gold
with these modules?"
ANSWER: Too much work; those ALSO vary in starting point from battlefield
to battlefield. Seriously, why would you need gold if you can use these
modules to instantly get ANY type of unit creature or ANY type of magic item?
QUESTION 8: "Hmmm, that sounds interesting...so what can these modules do?"
ANSWER: For either you or your opponent, these modules can, for each
unit:
1.) Teleport the unit anywhere on the battlefield. When you are in
Fantasy General, if you sweep the mouse cursor and watch the upper
right window of the screen, you'll note that the "X" and "Y"
coordinates of the hex the mouse passes over are displayed. By
setting a unit's individual "X" and "Y" coordinates to any set of
coordinates on the map, you effectively teleport that unit to that
spot. Imagine: you've got one unit of Infantry surrounded by
enemies. There is no escape. So, you either: a.) Teleport the
infantry away from the area or b.) Teleport an entire legion of
Cavalry units to nearby locations to ride in and save the day!
Warning: Do NOT try to teleport more than one unit into the same
hex; it would, as Dr. Egon Spengler says, be bad.
2.) Change the TYPE of unit. Oh, so you can't recruit heroes, huh?
Oh, REALLY? Yes, with this field you can make ANY unit ANY of the
182 available creature types. You can have 64 Dreggo the Destroyers
if you want (OUCH!) Got a Light Infantry unit near some Heavy
Cavalry of your opponents, but just out of range? Change your
Light Infantry unit into a Sky Hunter type and go get 'em! And yes,
you can create all the creatures and heroes destined to be part of
the "Bad" side with this feature (Imagine Loric fighting side by
side with Morg the Lasher and you've got an interesting picture,
don't you?) Just type the appropriate number for the type of
creature you wish to make a unit into from Table 2 below to change
it.
3.) Edit a unit's experience amount. Every 100 points gives the
unit another permanent "level." Unfortunately, this only works
up to level 5; anything beyond 599 is ignored...the below feature
for level modification only works until a single battle is fought
by that unit...then it has to be remodified. Of course, setting
all your opponent's unit experience totals to 0 is not NICE.
Fun, yes. Nice, no...
4.) Magical Item possessed by a unit. With this feature, you can
give every single one of your units a magic item, whether it be a
weapon, armor piece, artifact, or whatever. Hmm, a group of
Skirmishers all armed with Swords of Death...interesting method
of dealing with opponents, wouldn't you say? To give a unit a
particular item, just type the appropriate value from Table 3 below
to produce it for them.
5.) Unit name. Really a formality, this doesn't matter much as you
can change your units' names in the game at any time, but if you
want to use the Player 2 module to change your opponent's troops into
something like "1st Crybabies" just to get a laugh, feel free!
6.) Unit Level or Grade. With this option, you can take the wimpy
0-level unit and instantly make it into a hulking 5th level war
machine. Or even higher, actually; 5 is not the maximum level...
however, setting the value to 10 may cause the game to crash, so
I'd sugget you experiment with the levels carefully. Oh yeah, and
the shield symbols for levels beyond 5 won't show up...but they're
there. TRUST ME. Unfortunately, as stated above, this ONLY works
for ONE battle, unless you've set experience for the unit.
7.) Unit morale. Every unit starts off with 100% morale; this will
reduce over time with battles fought & distanced travelled, and
raise again with victories and rest periods. With this, you can
set morale to anything you want at any time; go ahead; set it to
200% for all the units and watch how the Melee scores increase!
8.) Kills and Wounds. So, your prized Infantry unit managed to beat
the Sky Hunters, but you've only got 3 members of it left? NO
PROBLEM! As long as you have one member of a unit left alive, you
can reduce these values back to 0, and suddenly, instant healing
and resurrection for dead unit members. Better yet, you can use the
PLAYER2.MDL to severely weaken or out-and-out KILL your opponent's
units (go ahead; give 'em 14 kills, then charge your Cavalry at 'em.
That'll REALLY make your opponent nervous).
Now then, for the Tables of information:
TABLE 1: Battlefield choices:
Type (#) if you are fighting in (Battlefield)
1 Scarlet Plain or Fareach Valley
2 Hoareot Forest
3 Caerovia or Drake Forge Valley
4 Rhotmere
5 Cape Havoc
6 Sundered Plains, Giant's Throw Island
7 Vale of Sorrow
8 Cyneheim Valley
9 Crystalwood Vale, Glacier Falls, Skyreach Mountains
10 Serpent's Cauldron, Noiraneskap, Demonforge Gap
11 Harbinger Valley, Shard Plains, Boreal Vale,
Wolfshead Valley, Shattered Mountains, Fellbourne
Swamps
12 Flaming Tongues, Bloodrock Furnace, Labyrinth Valley
13 Slag River Valley, Painscape Cauldron, Burel's Wall
14 Seething Moors, Stonewraith Flats
15 Bearded Mnts, Cloven Foot Pass, Cracked Spine Mnts
16 Asphead Mountains, Whip River Valley
17 Blackmoon Fens
18 Shrike River Valley, Shadow Cliff, Crimson Sands,
Widowsthorn Thicket, Glowing Sands
19 Devouring Swamp, Bleeding Mountains
20 Claw River
21 Wyrm Gullet Gorge
22 Deadwood Marches
23 Blue Fang Ice Shelf
24 Ice Cauldron
25 Drakehorn Gap
26 Gaothaire Heights
27 Scar Valley
28 Mandragora Steppes
29 Sundry Shadow Coast
30 Southbender Island
31 Island of the Watchers
32 Hunter's Isle
33 Agraksa Island
34 Burning Heights
35 Desolation Gorge
36 Stoneflow Valley
37 Vale of the Shadowlord
TABLE 2: Creature Types:
1=Militia 2=Auxitia 3=Javelinmen 4=Ashiguers 5=Berserkers
6=Apprentices 7=Conjurers 8=Healers 9=Fire Wizards 10=Druids
11=Earthmasters 12=Warbands 13=Swordsmen 14=Pikemen 15=Legionarii
16=Samurai 17=Heavy Spearmen 18=Lizardmen 19=Werebears
20=Lionmen 21=Elephantmen 22=Air Warriors 23=Treemen 24=Giant
25=Earth Elemental 26=Sandmen 27=Monks of Meo 28=Bronzemen
29=Iron Giant 30=Warlord Mechanus 31=Elf Bowmen 32=Longbowmen
33=Pistoliers 34=Gunners 35=Fire Archers 36=Royal Archers
37=Slingers 38=Staff Slingers 39=Scouts 40=Foresters
41=Huntsmen 42=Trail Runners 43=Squires 44=Heavy Cavalry
45=Chariots 46=Cataphractoi 47=Power Lancers 48=Phoenix Knights
49=Fire Beetles 50=Centaurs 51=Ogre Centaurs 52=Centaur Knights
53=Unicorns 54=Elf Chariots 55=Hydra 56=Turtle Dragon
57=Ghost Rider 58=Nightmare 59=Rolling Man 60=Steamphont
61=Rolling Fort 62=Thunder Tread 63=Light Cavalry
64=Elf Knights 65=Juns 66=Riders of the Bow 67=Spirit Riders
68=Knight Gunners 69=Catapults 70=Ballistae 71=Chain Guns
72=Cannons 73=Mortars 74=Pit Cannons 75=Spatter Guns
76=Mercury Guns 77=Steam Belchers 78=Wall Blasters
79=Eagle Riders 80=Griffon Riders 81=Ogre Griffons
82=Wing Riders 83=Pegasi 84=Dragon Knights 85=Flying Snakes
86=Wyverns 87=Green Dragons 88=Lion Dragons 89=Silver Hawks
90=Phoenix Hawks 91=Silver Dragons 92=Black Dragons
93=Screamer 94=Bronze Dragon 95=Steam Hawks 96=Seekers
97=Hawk Riders 98=Roc Knights 99=Dragon Knights 100=Pegasus Riders
101=Balloon Hangers 102=Balloon Riders 103=Bicycle Riders
104=Cloud Ship 105=Bronze Gliders 106=Naptha Droppers
107=Sky Splitter 108=Steam Castle 109=Corporal 110=Sergeant
111=Lieutenant 112=Captain 113=General 114=Borric
115=Sir Kalador 116=Loric 117=Shandel 118=Valira 119=Krindel
120=Dreggo 121=Malric 122=Xyphon 123=Priest of Handola
124=Goblins 125=Skeletons 126=Ratmen 127=Gripper
128=Lava Men 129=Mummy 130=Orcs 131=Ogres 132=Cobramen
133=Trolls 134=Ogre Knights 135=Shadow Warriors
136=Slave Archers 137=Goblin Archers 138=Orc Archers
139=Orc Longbowmen 140=Skeleton Archers 141=Steam Gunners
142=Skeleton Slingers 143=Goblin Scouts 144=Orc Scouts
145=Shadows 146=Ogre Hunters 147=Serpent Riders
148=Undead Cavalry 149=Mastodon 150=Rhino Knights
151=Knights of Fire 152=Shadow Knights 153=Wolf Riders
154=Barbarian Riders 155=Boar Riders 156=Bear Riders 157=Flamer
158=Disease Throwers 159=Black Ice Throwers 160=Flying Monkeys
161=Gargoyles 162=Shadow Wings 163=Lava Dragons
164=Shadow Dragons 165=Serpent Griffons 166=Lightning Throwers
167=Fire Barge 168=Zeppelin 169=Barbarians 170=Air Stammer
171=Witch of Icethorn 172=Pale Marshal 173=Keaekvar
174=Claw the Assassin 175=Grimal the Rat Lord 176=Malkin Nightwing
177=Morg the Lasher 178=Deathlord Rapax 179=Leech King
180=Goat King 181=Eagles 182=Harpies
TABLE 3: Magic Items:
1=Magic Sword 2=Magic Axe 3=Magic Shield 4=Magic Armor
5=Magic Bow 6=Magic Crossbow 7=Magic Sling 8=Magic Staff Sling
9=Magic Javelin 10=Amulet of Resistance 11=Cloak of Hiding
12=Staff of Fireballs 13=Wand of Fireballs 14=Amulet of Protection
15=Ring of Regeneration 16=Sword of Death Wounds
17=Stone of Eagle Eye 18=Boots of Rapid Movement 19=Storm Staff
20=Amulet of Blessings 21=Ring of Free Movement 22=Staff of Winds
23=Wand of Sickness 24=Skull of Crang 25=Staff of Confusion
26=Staff of Fatigue 27=Staff of Healing
Hopefully, this is enough to get you started on the road to victory
over the Shadowlord and his minions. Comments or questions are welcome via
e-mail to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., but...
PLEASE...NO REQUESTS! I don't have every game, and not every game is
editable. Good luck, and good battling! See ya!
-David Melanson (Overkill/Mortuai)
Files : 45, NeW:NONE, oLD:NONE
uL Node : 1, NFo:NONE, D?Z:NONE
