Long War mod discussion

[ElYanqui]

Hey, hey, finally got a result.

 

I typed in the -x "d:/..." directory path and -c "Config.xml" file directly after doing the installation and the command prompt seemed to run with no errors. I ran the game and it started up.

 

Going to do some tests to see if the mod did actually install.

I'm not sure what you are doing there. Could you explain a little more fully please zylios?

[ElYanqui]

 

Put quotes around the the path/filename if they have spaces.

 

Oh ... that's right, XComEUModHelper.exe may refer to your registry to find the files, too; if so, it won't work for your installation. Instead, you'll have to hex-edit xcomgame.exe to make the following three changes.

 

Read XComGame.upk from CookedPCConsole Folder without size check

78 63 6f 6d 67 61 6d 65 2e 75 70 6b

to

77 63 6f 6d 67 61 6d 65 2e 75 70 6b

 

Read XComStrategyGame.upk from CookedPCConsole Folder without size check

78 63 6f 6d 73 74 72 61 74 65 67 79 67 61 6d 65 2e 75 70 6b

to

77 63 6f 6d 73 74 72 61 74 65 67 79 67 61 6d 65 2e 75 70 6b

 

Read DGC.ini from config foldier instead of from internal exe resources

25 00 64 00 00 00 00 00 49 00 6e 00 69 00 56 00 65 00 72 00 73 00 69 00 6f 00 6e 00 00 00 00 00 2e 00 2e 00 5c 00 2e 00 2e 00 5c 00 58 00 43 00

to

25 00 64 00 00 00 00 00 49 00 6e 00 69 00 56 00 65 00 72 00 73 00 69 00 6f 00 6e 00 00 00 00 00 2e 00 2e 00 5c 00 2e 00 2e 00 5c 00 57 00 43 00

 

What is this for Johnny? Do you do this before trying to install 12 beta 5 so that the mod helper can find the correct path?

[johnnylump]

No, those hex changes are what modhelper does to your exe.

[ElYanqui]

So moving those files and making the hex changes would manually do what the mod helper does for those of us with 2 steam library locations?

 

And what is meant by "Folder without size check" (Read XComGame.upk from CookedPCConsole Folder without size check

[dubiousintent]

So moving those files and making the hex changes would manually do what the mod helper does for those of us with 2 steam library locations?

Yes.

 

And what is meant by "Folder without size check" (Read XComGame.upk from CookedPCConsole Folder without size check

If you sort your 'CookedPCConsole' folder by file extensions (in detailed view of the Windows Explorer; you have to enable the display of extensions) you will find some UPK files have companion files with the additional extension of '<name>.upk.uncompressed_size'. An example would be 'Startup.upk.uncompressed_size' for the 'Startup.upk'. These are checked by the EXE to determine if the hash check is needed for that UPK file and what the valid hash value should be. Those 'uncompressed_size' files related to the UPKs specified by Johnnylump earlier need to be removed or renamed so the EXE will then use the mod's unpacked version of the related UPKs.

 

Do not remove ALL of the 'uncompressed_size' files. You don't want to create possible problems unrelated to the instructions.

 

-Dubious-

Edited November 5, 2013 by dubiousintent

[ElYanqui]

Thanks to all for your help but I think there's just too many moving parts for me to handle. I'll just have to live with beta 4 or move the xcom game to the standard C drive library and start over at some point.

[zyllos]

If you have your Steam library in a different place from the default and XCom is in that different library, do this instead:

 

After selecting the "../Steam Library/common/" directory to install Long War at, let it finish and fail to run XComEUModHelper executable. Let the installer finish.

 

After this happens, go to:

 

Win XP:

Windows Start Button > Run > Type in "Command" in the text box and hit enter

 

Win 7:

Windows Start Button > Type in "Command" in the text box at the bottom > Click "Command Prompt"

 

Once running this, a command line prompt will open up, which will look like a black box window. Here, type in:

 

x:

 

X should be the driver letter that XCom is installed on. If the command prompt is already displaying "X:\...>", which is the drive you want, you can skip this. For example, if your XCom is installed in drive D, then type "D:" and hit Enter. This will set you to the root of drive D.

 

Now you need to navigate to the XComEUModHelper program, which is located in the "Long War Files" folder in the XCom directory in which you installed the mod to. To do this, use the "cd" command in the prompt (stands for Change Directory).

 

cd x:\...\Long War Files\

 

The "..." is your directory path to this folder, so it is unique to every installation, thus you need to find this path and type it in your self. For example, if you installed XCom in the "F:\Games\Steam Library\common\XCom-Enemy-Unknown\" directory path, you would type in "cd f:\games\steam library\common\xcom-enemy-unknown\long war files\" at the command prompt to navigate to it.

 

Now, type in "dir/w". This will display whats contained in the directory, and the /w command makes it print out in wide mode, used to display directories with many files in it. It also helps with readability.

 

Make sure the "XComEUModHelper" file exists. Once this is verified, now you need to execute the program with some special flags, that is utilized by the XComEUModHelper program. Type this in:

 

XComEUModHelper -x "..." -c "Config.xml"

 

The "..." is the directory path to where your XCom-Enemy-Unknown is installed at. The "-x" flag says "use this directory path for attempting to run this program" and the "-c" flag tells what config file to use. So, for example, if your XCom game was installed at F:\Games\Steam Library\common\XCom-Enemy-Unknown\ then you would type in:

 

XComEUModHelper -x "F:\Games\Steam Library\common\XCom-Enemy-Unknown\" -c "Config.xml"

 

After typing this in, you will get a list of echo'ed commands, telling you what was modified.

 

And just an FYI, some of these steps might be wrong, I am at work and I don't remember off the top of my head the "exact" steps I took.

Edited November 6, 2013 by zyllos

[johnnylump]

Thanks, zyllos, I'll add these to the readme for the next update.

[ElYanqui]

Thanks for that zyllos.

 

Do you still have to move the files and do the hex editing after that procedure?

Edited November 5, 2013 by ElYanqui

[zyllos]

Thanks for that zyllos.

 

Do you still have to move the files and do the hex editing after that procedure?

 

No, you do not.

 

The installation moves all the files to the correct spot (I think) and the XComEUModHelper edits the files with the Config.xml as the instructions.