HeroSelect V1.6 RELEASED (international language support)

[bleedingcowz]

Um, may i ask a question about using heroselect? how do i keep the original locations of the heroes in the and and only replacing the heroes that i want to replace (because if i do it wrong captain america's head is burning instead of ghost rider's and stuff like that) or do i use characterselect?

[Norrin Radd]

You can use Heroselect to pick the menu locations of the characters. If you know which locations the original team is in, place them there.

To help you know the locations, use this picture that BliZZ provided. It includes all locations except 26 and 96:
http://marvelmods.com/forum/index.php?topic=798.msg14484#msg14484

[bleedingcowz]

thx man that helps

[ZeroNG000]

Hey, I am having a bit of a problem with this...I followed all your directions, put xmlb-compile into my c:/windows folder, the menu copy thing is set up. I'm trying to replace this moon knight guy with cyclops and I seem to be missing character_list.cfg. Because the Characterselect file in my HeroSelect folder has an error, saying character_list.cfg is missing...which it is...Uh, any help would be cool. Thanks in advance.

[Norrin Radd]

character_list.cfg is used for a different function and is not needed for swapping characters (this function is not fully included in the newer versions), it is only needed for swapping skins. If you are using the graphical user interface (the menu represented by the picture on the first post of this thread), then you should never get that error. I haven't heard of anyone getting that error before, but if you still have problems, let me know.

[ZeroNG000]

Actually, I went through and decompiled herostat.engb and made the switch that way...backing up the original before, of course. It worked fine.

[Norrin Radd]

Ok, that really doesn't tell me anything. Unless if what you're trying to say is that you're not going to use this program. Anyways, have fun.

[Cates]

Norrin - I just want to say that this is an incredible program, and has completely revived my interest in MUA. There were so many mods I had never installed that I've now used HeroSelect to check out quickly. It has worked flawlessly from the first install for me. I love randomly selecting 8 characters or so and being forced to build my team from them.

I have one idea. The initial conversations regarding this were related to costumes, and I was thinking: for characters that have  several alternate costumes (such as Wolverine or Iron Man), could you include two herostat entries in the cfg for the same character? You could call it wolverinealt or something, and set up the costumes in the herostat to align with other costumes, like 0305, 0306, 0307, and 0308. Those costumes would be named correctly (Age of Apocalypse, Weapon X, etc.) because those names are defined in the herostat, and would recieve costume bonuses included in the original talent file. Then, when adding the new name to HeroSelect, you just call it Wolverine (Alternate Costumes) or something so you could choose betwen standard costumes and the alternate ones. This would prevent the constant renaming and backing up of igbs and huds to switch costumes in and out.

My questions:

1) A basic one: you would have to set up packages for each of the (for example) 0305-0309 costumes, correct?

2) What would this do the the "random" function? Potentially, the program could select the two "wolverine" herostats, which would then draw on the same animations, mannequin, etc. Will that crash the game? Obviously, you could avoid using random if that's the issue, but it's such a cool function I'd hate to lose it if it could be avoided.

3) Is there some other impediment to this that I'm not seeing?


If this is plausible, I can put together a file with the packages, costumes, and huds along with the alternate herostats as an add-on for those who are interested.

[Norrin Radd]

Thanks for your interest Cates, and good idea. You are correct about 1), like you said you could just insert two entries in the cfg for characters with different names. You are also right about the random part, it may select two of the same character in this case. I don't think it will crash the game (but I don't know for sure), I think when two of the same characters are playing at once the icons don't work for one (or both) and maybe the powers don't work, but I don't know if it will crash the game.

What you might end up having to do is "create" another character using renamed copies of the original character, but there might be an easier way (like not using random, like you said).

What you might want to do is have 2 cfg files, one with those extra skin guys, and one without. Then when you are going to use random characters, use the cfg file with no character copies. When you aren't using random, use the one with character copies. If you are going to do this, it will probably be best if you have 2 copies of the program in 2 different folders, or else you would also need to have two copies of the other files the program loads. So you might have /HeroSelect_extraskins/ and /HeroSelect/ or something like that. Anyway, I'm sure you'll think of something.

[Cates]

OK, some interesting (and promising) findings. I added alternate Wolvy and Colossus herostat entries to my HeroSelect cfg. When selecting my team, I first selected only the versions with the alternate costumes with a full roster and, as expected, it worked flawlessly. Wolvy started the game on the S.H.I.E.L.D. carrier in his AoA skin and I was able to select alternate skins with numbers above the standard xx04.

Next, I tried adding both standard wolvy and colossus herostats and the wolvy and colossus herostats with the alternate costumes. The result? Only one of each character showed up in the menu. There were two "vacant" and unselectable slots (named Captain America, as he was in menulocation #1), but otherwise everything worked perfectly. In essence, the game ignored the second, alternate herostats for Wolvy and Colossus and only made 25 characters playable.

Next attempt: I selected the exact same team of 27, except this time I selected the alternate costume versions of Wolvy and Colossus first. The result? Again, only 25 characters were available (two vacant "Cap" slots again), but this time the alternate costume versions of Wolvy and Colossus were the only ones available, not the standard versions.

So, it appears that the game will ignore the second instance of a character name in a herostat file and go with whichever appears 1st. This is good news, as it should mean the random function will still work even if you have multiple "versions" of the same character's herostat entry in the cfg. You just might end up with fewer total characters, as the game apparently won't allow, say, two wolverines to appear for selection. When picking "random," you might get the standard character with no vacant slots, you might get the alternate costumes character with no vacant slot, or depending on the number of "double" herostats HeroSelect pulls in, you could end up with one or more vacant slots. Nevertheless, it appears the game will function normally under any of those circumstances.

I tried a few times to run random in the hopes of getting both wolvys or both Colossuses to load randomly, but it never ocurred before I had to call it a night. Still, I see no reason why randomly picking two Wolvy herostats would be any different than selecting them on purpose.

[Norrin Radd]

Nice, thanks for the info.

[Cates]

Norrin - Is there a way to re-organize (i.e., alphabetize) the list of names in the user interface of HeroSelect without deleting them all and typing them back in? The new costumes thing has made me think of this, to get the character and his "alt" next to each other. If this is has been answered before, sorry, I haven't seen it since I've been back.

[Norrin Radd]

if its easier for you, you might want to alphabetize the file herolist.hero, which the program reads to know the names. You could either do it manually or write a simple alphabetizing program to alphabetize the names that way

[Cates]

That'll be much easier. I don't need to compile, though, right? Just edit with a text editor and save?

[Norrin Radd]

Yes you don't need to compile, it is a text file.