Help to fix missing sound in Wb2

Hi all. Pls help to fix missing death sound for barbarian wardog in Warlords Battlecry 2. Will be be very grateful for help. Wait for reply...

The Wardog is simply not tagged to perform a death sound, same goes for in WBC3. The likely reason is because there are no appropriate death sounds for a dog. The only one I could see fitting would be the "small monster" sound. (Death sound 3)

You can set a death sound using Dal Gurak's unit editor by editing the number in the "death" box to any non 0 value (I say use 3) in the file ABDX.arm, found in GameData.xcr.

You can also use a Hex editor to set this by changing the value on the 6th column along the line 0x100 to 0300 from 0000. (Still the same file as mentioned above - ABDX.arm)
But you'll need to export the file first before you can modify it with a Hex editor, unless you are using an XCR editor that has an in built Hex editor.

I would normally link to these tools, but the forum that hosts them is becoming more unreliable every day - you need register and log in to access their attachments, but there is currently an issue preventing logged in users from even being able to view the forum! But there certainly are other sites that house these tools, but I don't know them exactly, as I've never needed to know them. :p

Thanx for soon reply... The thing is that the unit editor mentioned by You, Kharn, is not starting properly - I doubleclick it, but nothing happens, the program is not starting though the process of this prog is present in windows task manager (In winXP x32 as well as in win7 x64 - I started of cource by admin)...
So, I used extractor 2.5 to extract ABDX.ARM...
May I use II ARM editor by Marc Wrench to edit the file? Or maybe You can tell me how to deal with that Dal Gurak's unit editor to force it start?
Used the following site for tools:
warlords.h1.ru

Moreover I extracted the wardog death sound from WB3 and now it can be imported in SoundFX.xcr of WB2, so the matter is how to run unit editor to make correspond it with a new imported death sound...

So will u help me , Kharn?

Afijak wrote:

Moreover I extracted the wardog death sound from WB3

Exactly what sound are you referring to when you say that? As far as I know, the only unique death sounds are the dying Sheep, and to some extent, the Cow. Regardless, WBC uses a series of hard codedly defined generic death sounds which the units in game use via a single number reference. This means you can't include any random sound file and start using it for an entirely new death sound - so you would have to use one of the already defined sounds. (Although, to be honest, I've never actually tried adding in a new death sound but I would imagine it works this way since everything else does)

As for Dal Gurak's unit editor, it needs to be placed within your main WBC directory to use. However, as it was made for WBC3, it may only work within a WBC3 directory. But you can then browse from that directory to the WBC2 files and do what ever editing you see fit.

Well I extracted from SoundFX.xcr of Wb3 the Death16.wav - it is exactly the death sound of wardog when playing Wb3...
Hmm, and what if I use the whole SoundFX.xcr of Wb3 where I extracted the wardog sound from - for WB2? and simply tag it in ABDX.ARM of Wb2?
Logically, they made a new game of Wb3 by adding new sounds to Wb2 SoundFX.xcr and there should not be any missings - but additions only...

Pity - the unit editor doesnot start even when I put it to the Wb3 directory...
It is loading some files (as I can see a loading bar where some files are loaded one by one) and then simply nothing... but as before I can see the process of the program in task manager...

May be the problem is like this - I use GOG version of both WBs, and the Wb2 is prepatched to 1.04 and Wb3 - to 1.0324 (unofficial patch)?... And unit editor wants original games?

Kharn, may I ask you to make all necessary "mutations" with that tool to fix a sound for me? I could give you my Wb2 (patched to 1.04) GameData.xcr with ABDX.arm inside as well as SoundFX.xcr... And after all manipulations you could give me those files back...
I would be very grateful if you could do such a favor...

At last, good news:)
Found and installed original (not GOG) version of WB3 and woilla - unit editor has started normally. So, already fixed needed sound.
Thanx a lot, Kharn, for help and your patience.

Afijak wrote:

Well I extracted from SoundFX.xcr of Wb3 the Death16.wav

Interesting - unless I've missed it, the highest death sound in the standard release of WBC3 is 13. Perhaps this is another change by the GoG team?

Yes, they added many sounds and one of them - for wardog under the number 16...
Now found in WB2 one more missing sound - it is high elf Scorpion (manticora). There are no any selection sound of this unit in game. Could it be fixed, because can not find in unit editor selection sounds?

I made my own sounds for the Scorpion / Manticore some time ago, although they were just the Balista's sounds but slightly modified.

Anyway, in WBC2, new speech files need to be placed in GameSpeech.xcr found in the language folder. Afterwards, modify the Scorpion / Manticore through the unit editor to have a number of speech files equal to the number of sound files per action. So if you have 3 selection sound and 3 attack sounds, you would give it 3 for the number of speech files.

Also, the unit editor will list the WBC2 Scorpion as "Manticore" when viewing GameData.xcr, as it complied its unit list from the WBC3 directory, taking their names for the ID's.

Thanx, Kharn. Now fixed scorpion... Took ballista's sounds, renamed them to scorp ID and imported back using encoding.

But... there is one more question about scorp...
As I can hear there is no any scorp hit sound. Projectiles just hit objects silently. For instance, elven archer also have "arrow" combat sound but it still has "boom-like" hitting sound when the arrow touches enemy/building.
Some ideas about this?

I have limited knowledge when it comes to projectiles but I don't think you can fix this one. Projectiles contain a lot of predefined hard coded values and evidence suggests that the impact sound is also one of them, despite all projectiles using the same sound for impacts.

The newly added poison arrow projectile in WBC3 also lacks an impact sound. Was this intentional or was it yet another over looked bug, just like the Scorpion's newly added projectile in WBC2?

Anybody else know how to fix scorp projectile impact sound?
As well as wisp/ansient wisp build-finishing acknowledgement sound?
And dwarf mortar firing sound?

Afijak wrote:

As well as wisp/ansient wisp build-finishing acknowledgement sound?

This one's easy - just add a couple of sound files into GameSpeech.xcr with the names AEAXBuild.wav and AEAXCantBuild.wav for the Ancient Wisp. Then AEBXBuild.wav and AEBXCantBuild.wav for the Wisp.

Of course, you'll need to provide the sound files as there has never been any of those for the 2 Wisps.

Kharn, and how about dwarf mortar firing sound. This dwarf building lacks firing sound. Is it possible to fix it manually not touchind the code?
And once again about elf scorp... Is it possible to entirely change it by ballista (put ballista building picture, text description, animation and all sounds, because ballista has proper profectile impact sound as well). It would simply be as if high elfs had ballista instead of scorpion, how about such a radical decision? If yes - could you please post here info how to do it step by step?

Ha, look what they wrote about some issues on other forum:

"No idea whether it's possible to fix the Scorpion projectile impact sound. I think it should be possible but the unit's .ARM file may need to be edited with an appropriate editor to give it a sound.

Unfortunately for the Mortar I believe getting access to the source code may be required in order to edit its .BUI (I think it's .BUI anyway) file to give the projectile a sound."

Could You inspect those propositions and say your answer if it is possible to do? They say that it is possible to fix scorp by somehow editing .ARM file, but how, what exactly to do with it?
The same is with mortar .BUI...

I've done some hex editing of bui files in the past to decipher the values and believed to have identified them all. BUT I had never thought about testing them for attack sounds!

From what I recall, out of all the buildings that can attack, only the Swarm's Watcher in WBC3 makes an attack sound. Considering that the Dark Elves Void uses a similar attack projectile (black lighting) but doesn't make a sound, then it's highly likely that the electrical sound heard when the Watcher attacks is not apart of the projectile but instead is called by the building it self. This will need some testing and if it turns out it is true, then we can solve that soundless Mortar. (Wouldn't it be awesome if the sound it played upon firing was it's actual building sound - you know, that "kaboom" sound? However, I believe this would be one of those instances where you can only choose predefined sounds for the respective case.) However, I don't know when I'll next be doing WBC related stuff, so I am may not be able to give you a response to this any time soon.

*EDIT*

Just done a quick test of changing the Watcher's projectile. After doing so, it no longer had an attack sound, although it then gained an impact sound that it previously did not have. As such, it looks as if no building in the game actually has an attack sound and any that seem like they do, are actually caused by the projectile. This also means that projectile impact sounds are (as I thought) tied to the projectile and have nothing to do with the unit/building that launched them.

Afijak wrote:

And once again about elf scorp... Is it possible to entirely change it by ballista (put ballista building picture, text description, animation and all sounds, because ballista has proper profectile impact sound as well). It would simply be as if high elfs had ballista instead of scorpion,

You mean just replace the Scorpion for a Ballista? (Which wouldn't need any more modding than a simple XCR editor and windows notepad.) Alternatively, you could just change the projectile on it to that of the Ballista's.

So could you pls write in steps what should exactly be done to entirely replace the scorp for a ballista?
And how to change only the projectile on it to ballista's one?

To change the projectile of the Scorpion:

Using an XCR editor, open system.xcr, then army.cfg found within that file. If the XCR editor you're using does not support text editing on the fly, then you'll need to extract army.cfg and modify it outside of the XCR editor. You can simply open army.cfg with windows notepad.

Upon the initial list you are presented with when looking through army.cfg, look for the Scorpion's line. (It should be unit 111 on the list) In the middle of that line is the Scorpion's projectile that it will shoot (P:EMA6 ). Just change this to P:EMA4, which is the projectile used for the Ballista. Of course, this will only change the projectile itself, meaning the Scorpion model will still display the large collection of bolts prior to firing.



To replace the Scorpion for the Ballista:

Pretty much follow my instructions in this post, but look for the High Elves build tree, instead of the Fey's, and instead of looking for the Dryads ID within it, look for the Scorpion's (Which is ASSC ) and replace that for the Ballista's ID of ADNX.

And then again replace the Scorpion's ID for the Ballista's further on down in the building.cfg, as also mentioned in that post.

Hi all!
Now tried again WB2.
But again after all fixes proposed by Kharn found one more thing...
This is missing impact sound and splash of dark elf archer. This unit has initial poison arrow ability. So I think this is the cause of impact absence.
Please could someone help me to fix that problem for the unit, or if there is not possible to do that - to change the poison arrow of the dark elf archer to have default arrow as the other elf and human archers have...
Please can someone help me what to do step by step, because I couldnot fix it in Army.cfg (which is archived in System.xcr) the same way I previously fixed Scorpion projectile and its impact mentioned in this post.