18 replies to this topic

[PlasticFork]

When I start up the Editor, a box comes up saying:

Quote

Cant open "MSSQLSERVER" service:
The specified service does not exist as an installed service.

I've got S2, and S3 (Gold Edition), with the S2 and Editor 1.2 patches installed .

[Knan]

PlasticFork, on 18th October 2005, 2:37pm, said:

When I start up the Editor, a box comes up saying:
I've got S2, and S3 (Gold Edition), with the S2 and Editor 1.2 patches installed .

You need Microsoft's MSDE installed, I think.

http://www.microsoft...ds/default.mspx

Knan

[KoMik]

You can find it from the CD also. Try to find a folder "BIN". Editor's Manual describe the installing...

[Zombie]

First of all, where can I find this so-called editor!?! Everyone talks about it, yet nobody says where it can be found. It's not in our files section, at least, I don't think it is. I looked in my Gold Edition discs and don't see anything resembling an editor. Is it in the Tools folder in the Silent Storm directory? If so, that's a poorly named folder.

Once this is established (and only after this is established), then I have another question.

How do I install this stupid MS SQL Server thingy? I found it on the first disc in the Bin --> MSDE folder but there are no real install instructions. What do I click on? "Setup.exe"? I don't see an "Editors manual" either. Where is that? (Murphy's Law dictates it's probably on disc 3 which I don't have have installed).

Also, why do I need MS SQL? Why wasn't the editor programmed to be a stand-alone application rather than requiring other (useless and unnecessary) programs to run? Why is the data in S2 in a database rather than encoded into an xml or text file? Why make it so hard for a modder?

- Zombie

[Knan]

The editor is an option that must be selected during game install. At least on S2 standalone, don't have Gold.

And yes, you need MSDE. Just use setup.exe and reboot, there's really no UI to it.

Can't be much more helpful, as MSDE won't run on Linux, thus no editor for me.

[Zombie]

I performed an uninstall/repair on S2 and the Editor is indeed installed. Just for giggles, I installed S3. Same deal, the editor is installed (however I can't start S3 for some reason). Both have a "tools" directory, which is where I assume the editor should be. There are four files in there: DataImport.exe, FontGen.exe (fonts), PkgBuilder.exe and TexConv.exe (textures). Is this so called "Editor" named DataImport or PkgBuilder? Again, if it is, it's a stupid name for an editor. Tried running both of them at a command prompt, but there are issues. The PkgBuilder requires parameters (pkgFile and a source directory), which I know nothing about, and the DataImport file causes the command prompt screen to hang forcing me to do a ctrl-c to break the loop.

Please don't tell me this editor is a command line driven utility. C'mon, Nival couldn't create a user interface for it? Plus it requires "bloatware" (MS SQL) too? I'm at a loss for words really. All this song and dance just to edit a few values? Certainly isn't modder friendly, that's for sure. Heck, X-COM is more mod friendly then.

- Zombie

[Knan]

Huh? It definitely is right in front of your nose somewhere. Not in tools at all (though there are utils there you'll need after you get acquanted with MapEdit if you get into modding)

There's a menu item in the windows menu called "S2 Editor" here. Which points to MapEdit.exe in the main S2 directory.

I also have a EditorManual directory, which you were searching for?

Did you install the editor patch as well, btw? There's a game patch v1.2 and a editor patch v1.2. No idea if they are needed with Gold.

[Zombie]

MapEdit? Yeah I have that. Kind of ill-named though, no? Anyway, it's running now. Looking to edit stats and MapEdit doesn't do that I'm afraid. It mostly deals with sound, maps, character loadouts etc.

I haven't installed any patches to the game or the editor. Not even sure if they are really necessary, but my Gold edition of Silent Storm says 1.1.

- Zombie

[Knan]

Hmm. Editing stats of items, etc would be
http://www.strategyc...ding-t3136.html

I think. +S2AddMod if you want your new, wonderful mod to affect existing saves.

Save game editing as such? No idea, never tried that on S2.

And yes, you'll want the patches, then.

[Zombie]

Well, I upgraded to v1.2. Surprisingly, my troops are getting very familiar with their weapons now. It's almost intolerable. My hero scout used a Combat Dagger to kill a couple enemies, then trained the melee stat with it for the rest of the mission. She's up to a familiarity of 7! In one stinking mission! I'm not complaining, but it seems like the fix went to the opposite end of the spectrum to eliminate a problem. A question though: can a unit be familiar with more than one weapon? Say, proficient in a knife and a pistol? I tried training shooting with a sniper rifle but my scout still has a familiarity of 0 for it. Guess not. Still, it would have been nice to get proficient in more than one weapon class.

Haven't been able to pull stats from the game though. Got as far as configuring my computer to use MS SQL (it's running in the background right now). Beyond that though, I'm lost. The instructions are too complicated and poorly written. Plus they focus on MS Access which I do not have.

- Zombie

[Kizmiaz]

Zombie, on 16th April 2009, 4:18am, said:

A question though: can a unit be familiar with more than one weapon? Say, proficient in a knife and a pistol? I tried training shooting with a sniper rifle but my scout still has a familiarity of 0 for it.

In my experience the scout seems to raise their sniper skill very slowly, so I usually focus them on melee and silenced weapons.
On the other hand, I just completed the Mysterious complex in Ural mountains with a sniper equipped with the silenced Mauser M98 and a Welrod. I finally managed to get a few familiarity points with the Mauser, happily sniping renegades in the perimeter,  but they rapidly went down to 1 when I got inside the complex and started to use the Welrod, despite that I had both equipped.
I know the Fast familiarity perk speeds up increasing and decreasing but this seemed ludicrous.
(And I never got any familiarity with the Welrod)

[Knan]

Nope. Have your sniper cut down a forest with a machete, and sniper rifle familiarity will drop towards zero, then machete familiarity will start to rise. You can only have familiarity with one weapon at a time.

(though dynamite, grenades, mines and bare hands have no familiarity, afaik, so they might not mess things up for you.)

[Zombie]

I know for a fact that bare-handed melee attacks have no familiarity associated with it so you can use them freely and not worry about it affecting other weapons. That's nice, though bare-handed melee attacks really don't do much damage. At least, not at the levels I'm at now. It'll be hard to give up the combat dagger with it's quicker AP cost and bigger damage range in lieu of melee too.

- Zombie

[Knan]

Bare-handed melee has the very nice bonus that it may knock an enemy unconscious, though. I just noticed in this game.

*stab* *stab* *not enough ap, so left-handed punch* ... falls down, knocked out, bleeding, at critically wounded. Good thing, since he had a sten gun.  

Probably also works with the various clubs.

[Zombie]

I'll have to give this a try next time my scout is within range. Her melee is something like 62 now, so a few sucker punches should be a piece of cake. I seem to remember that Melee attacks can kill though. Hmmm...

The Billy Club and Black Jack Club both should do critical damage (assuming I'm understanding the stats correctly) so maybe those aren't the best for knocking units unconscious. But they do have very low numbers for the critical hit bonus (5), so maybe that is just the ticket.  

Edit: you may be right with the Melee attack not doing critical damage. I found the same thing: stab, stab, melee, melee --> unconscious. Needs more testing though. Oh, and I think HTH Melee attacks reduce familiarity of current weapons. My Combat Dagger dropped from 10 familiarity to 7 after a bunch of HTH attacks.

- Zombie

[Knan]

Huh? I never said that, as such.

But yes, there's a chance it may knock people out. Perhaps as a replacement for normal critical hits, perhaps in addition. Look for them collapsing and remaining in one of the "wounded" states, not "unconscious" (as that's generally an euphemism for ran out of health, will never rise again - point-blank machine gun victims are also "unconscious" when you mouse over them).

In testing, I had it happen to my grenadier. A third of the health bar still green, but collapsed and had his name turn red. Needed to be carried back to base.

Fun stuff.

[BlunterII]

Hi, folks.

If I remember correctly - one can't modify character values in S^2, S^3 without accessing the database. For that you'd need MS Access.
In Hammer and Sickle (H&S) you'd be able to modify those and any of the other values (Weapon Statistics, Character base values, etc., etc.) from within the editor (no MS Access needed)

Again, in S^2, S^3 - each character is able to increase/decrease familiarity with only one weapon regarless of weapon class.
In contrast in H&S everyone is capable of developing familiarity with one weapon from each class, i.e. 1 melee, 1 handgun/pistol, 1 SMG, 1 rifle, 1 heavy weapon. Don't know about the Panzerkleins, they were removed from H&S. Thank goodness...
In S^2/S^3 hand to hand combat does decrease familiarity with any other weapon, while not having its own fam value.
I don't think it's the case in H&S though...

Hand to hand combat may indeed cause unconscious state unless a critical is scored.
In case of a critical you will see a "head explosion" in UK version of S^2, S^3 (nothing special in the US puritan release)  and with the medic's "see enemy health" perk there will also be something like "-3478" in health values. I am not sure about the possibility of reviving that person if you carry them to base, but huge negative health values in a enemy will fail the mission if that enemy were to be captured "alive"/ made uncoscious.


Just my 2 cents

Blunter

[Zombie]

Those 2 cents are made of gold. Great stuff, thanks for the explanation!

So, I can't access the database without MS Access? When I purchased my computer way back in 2002 I upgraded to MS Office Business which came with everything except for Access and Powerpoint. To get that, I would have needed to fork over at least $100 more which I wasn't prepared to do. (At the time I had no use for either one of them too). Is there a freeware program out there which functions like MS Access?

Sorry if I'm sounding like a broken record here, but Nival sure in heck didn't make S2 easily modable. I mean, how many people could afford the full MS Office Suite? (Or to purchase Access separately). Not only that, but if there isn't a free substitute out there, Nival was excluding a good portion of the prospective modders since you'd need a one-of-a-kind program to open up that section of the game. Baffles me beyond belief and is really annoying too.

- Zombie

[Knan]

You definitely can make mods without Access. Been there, done that. (MSDE + that blueshell data guy thingie)

But I don't think you can edit save games without it. I may be wrong, of course, it might just be even more involved.