A Few Questions

[Kyomizero]

Ok, before you all start griping, DONT! These are simple questions that don't require a bunch of commentary.

I'm learning how to be a developer for this mmo's private server, I'm also a huge fan of Perfect World and love playing it, which is what got me interested in private servers. I'm also running a private server atm which is currently in beta testing. Mind you I've figured out a lot of stuff and I would only post if I couldn't find an answer after searching this forum and Google < My best friend! And I'm a CIT student and fast learner so talk computer lingo if you need to. And I wont have a problem if you guys just give me hints in the right direction. It's difficult to test these since my server is live 24/7, so no riddles please.

So here goes, these questions are mainly for either 343 or Romulan since they're the two I trust the most with this, no offense to anyone else, and if you know the answers please by all means post and I'll definitely add you to the trusted list.

Also please bare in mind I'm using 343's PW Package

Q1: I understand that 343 removed certain functions within the interface when he perfected the HUD for his release, if I were interested in altering it for some custom interests, what files would I need to be looking through/modding? (Both the look and function please)

Q2: I keep seeing people talking about opening the newest PWI version element.data version 1.4.4, I know it has something to do with downgrading it to a lower version in order to allow sEledit to open it. How would I go about downgrading it? I've checked the forum and google for an answer, no luck. Also, would downgrading it remove certain strings of data that may be important for developing or does it remain intact?

Q3: If I were interested in editing one of the forges, say the aerogear forge to allow upgrading of mounts currently not associated with it, would that involve solely modding the tasks.data or is there more to it? And for that matter is the system setup to allow upgrading of mounts (both ground and flying) past their preset maxes (ie 3.00 for flying; 10.0 for ground) or would I need to do some more editing for that as well?

Q4: Boutique: This one has been driving me nuts, if I edit the boutique say add new items the images don't show up. Like when you click on a Kirin it shows a picture of that Kirin in the description. Would I be correct in assuming it has something to do with the icon field within the editors?

Q5: If I wanted to setup an npc in game that handles the purchasing and selling of 'cubi gold' for the boutique much like how PWE has in Battle of the Immortals, would that be a simple task of editing the elements and tasks, or would I have to create a seperate script of some kind in order to create such a function? And if script involved, where might I be placing it to allow it's application in the elements for a new npc?

Q6: What sort of program should I get to open and view .dds files, I've tried several on the net but none seem to view the files properly, specifically the ones in surfaces.pck?

I think that's all for now.

[MentaL]

[Kyomizero]

Q4: Boutique: This one has been driving me nuts, if I edit the boutique say add new items the images don't show up. Like when you click on a Kirin it shows a picture of that Kirin in the description. Would I be correct in assuming it has something to do with the icon field within the editors?

Ok I figured this one out, it is the icon field.

Q6: What sort of program should I get to open and view .dds files, I've tried several on the net but none seem to view the files properly, specifically the ones in surfaces.pck?

I also found an editor to open/view and edit .dds files. (paint.net)

Q7: What type of .ecm files are they using? I know it's a highly compressed file format, but .ecm is so general it could be anything. And what type of program should I use to edit it?

[avalanche3]

Ok so u figured out some things already. Now figure out that u can downgrade PWI elements.data 1.4.4 to 1.3.6 with sEledit's export function. Simple as that.

Q3: If I were interested in editing one of the forges, say the aerogear forge to allow upgrading of mounts currently not associated with it, would that involve solely modding the tasks.data or is there more to it? And for that matter is the system setup to allow upgrading of mounts (both ground and flying) past their preset maxes (ie 3.00 for flying; 10.0 for ground) or would I need to do some more editing for that as well?

Only understood second question here, it seem's like u haven't worked with sEledit at all or worked very little and that's the main PW edit program o0 There u can change mount / aerogear speed...

Q5: If I wanted to setup an npc in game that handles the purchasing and selling of 'cubi gold' for the boutique much like how PWE has in Battle of the Immortals, would that be a simple task of editing the elements and tasks, or would I have to create a seperate script of some kind in order to create such a function? And if script involved, where might I be placing it to allow it's application in the elements for a new npc?

Search!!! This question has been asked few times! Also i don't know the answer because i never had the need to make npc that trades cubi and never bothered to look at these threads.

[Swoosh91]

You can use infran view with plugin to view dds.

[Romulan]

@Kyo
Most of the things you want to do are elements.data editing (like forges, aerogear speed, making a new npc that sell thins,...)

For ECM editing you just need any text editor... I suggest notepadd++ since it's support GBK encoding and it's easier to read chinese path inside the file.

[Drakaer]

For DDS editing I used:
Irfanview thumbnail viewer - IrfanView - Official Homepage - one of the most popular viewers worldwide - I use this to browse the pck to find the dds I want. Its so much faster than translating the pck or opening each dds individually. In the irfanview options enable unicode so you can view Chinese file names.
DDS Converter 2 - dds_converter_v21.exe - I use this to convert the dds image to png then open in my favorite image editor (used to be GIMP). After I was done editing I would use DDs Converter 2 to convert back to dds.

There is a dds plugin for photoshop and gimp. I never got the gimp plugin to work however. Photoshop plugin is in ddnut's pack.
http://forum.ragezone.com/f694/dds-edit-tools-659472/

You can also use xnview image viewer to view thumbnails as well but I found this program rather slow and Irfanview is way better.

These will also help. There is a dds viewer plugin that allows you to view dds images in explorer. This didnt seem to work well on my Vista PC though.
Legacy Texture Tools | NVIDIA Developer Zone

If paint.net works fine for you then use it. These are just some other options.

[Zorno]

Most of the things are anwered. So i dont go deeper into it.

For DDS editing you can simply use Photoshop or GIMP. You only need the nVidia Plugin for that ( you can download it for free at nVidia homepage )

[Kyomizero]

@avalanche3

Ok so u figured out some things already. Now figure out that u can downgrade PWI elements.data 1.4.4 to 1.3.6 with sEledit's export function. Simple as that.

Your wrong in this assumption. It is designed to downgrade from V1.4.2v283, attempting to downgrade from 1.4.4 only gives an incorrect rules fileset error. And nice try but I had already attempted this, that's why I asked. Try again.

Only understood second question here, it seem's like u haven't worked with sEledit at all or worked very little and that's the main PW edit program o0 There u can change mount / aerogear speed...

Then learn to speak English.... And that's not a proper answer to the question I asked, not even close.

Search!!! This question has been asked few times! Also i don't know the answer because i never had the need to make npc that trades cubi and never bothered to look at these threads.

I did genius, read the information before the questions. If I had found an answer I would have no need to ask. And if your not going to give a redirect or don't even know the answer then save space and don't reply.

Lose the attitude dude.

@Romulan
Thank you for your response, I wasn't sure if there was more than simple element.data editing involved in most of these. And thank you for the info on how to edit .ecms, I wasn't sure what type of file it was.

@Everyone Else
Thank you for your prompt and POLITE responses. You were very helpful.


However, I still require answers to questions 1, 2 & 5.
Q1: I'm pretty sure it has something to do with editing the elementclient.exe and possibly the surfaces.pck or interface.pck, but not sure.
Q2: Still need a way to downgrade a V1.4.4 element.data file.
Q5: I know how to create new NPCs of all kinds including shops, but there isn't exactly a said function to allow NPCs to sell Cubi-Gold or items to grant Cubi-Gold, that's why I asked if there is another way or if it's something I'm missing.

[avalanche3]

Your wrong in this assumption. It is designed to downgrade from V1.4.2v283, attempting to downgrade from 1.4.4 only gives an incorrect rules fileset error. And nice try but I had already attempted this, that's why I asked. Try again.

Then learn to speak English.... And that's not a proper answer to the question I asked, not even close.

I did genius, read the information before the questions. If I had found an answer I would have no need to ask. And if your not going to give a redirect or don't even know the answer then save space and don't reply.

Lose the attitude dude.

Then i won't bother answer u anymore. I will only say that my "assumption" about elements downgrade was correct.

[Kyomizero]

Then i won't bother answer u anymore. I will only say that my "assumption" about elements downgrade was correct.

Then by all means please explain how an editor can downgrade a V1.4.4 file without the proper presets, Mr.Smart guy.

Btw, as for the Cubi-gold question, your thinking of granting Cubi upon sign-up which is a common thing for most PW-PServers, I'm trying to setup a Cubi-Gold NPC in-game<<<< I was thinking maybe using the Auction House NPC as a template and then using her functions to setup an NPC that sells a certain amount of Cubi for a certain amount of coin.... I prefer not to setup an auto-refill function for the Action House's gold page, and just leave that to players.

[Romulan]

For Q1, what do you want to do exactly with the interface? o.O

For Q2, At the moment, there's no way to convert 1.4.4 to 1.3.6 version. sELedit seems to stuck at something when converting the file to the 1.3.6 version. That's why the server gives a weird error when you try to start it with the converted file. Unfortunatly this weird error given by the server is not accurate and I still can't determine why it does that.

For Q5, I think that what you want to do isn't possible. It need to change and recompile the source of the gamed core wich we don't have. I suggest you to try the basic and common way that most private server use or make an auto-refill script.

[Kyomizero]

I'm not sure what I want to do with the interface just yet actually. But knowing what he did and how he did it would allow me to toy with it later, if I decided to customize some things, or perhaps add some stuff.

I figured that was the case with the 1.4.4 files, never the less, someone seems to have figured out a way as I have a copy of their npcgen. It's referencing a bunch of values that where set for the 1.4.4 element.data. That's why I was asking if anyone else knew how they accessed it.

So no go on a freeform Cubi-NPC, darn guess I'll just have to set up something to auto-refill the Auction-House, though I'm not sure how I'm going to do that just yet....

[343]

That, or just use what I included w/ my release, GetGold, granted it's web based and not in the game.

Nice thing about GetGold is, since you set the coin~gold ratio, you have more control over the economy (by default it's 900,000 coin per gold, only because I set it to what it was on PWi at the time of initial release, but ofc you can change this to be whatever you want it to be)...

[Kyomizero]

Now that I think about it, I was interested in re-enabling the head gear fashion slot. How exactly would I go about doing that? Not to mention the Fairy slot.

And I would prefer not to have it setup where people access the CPanel to retrieve such things. I want them to buy it from in-game, so I'll just set it up so that the Auction House has Cubi-Gold.

One problem, the Auction House is giving me an "Import Data Error' when I try to sell the Cubi. Any thoughts?

[Romulan]

Now that I think about it, I was interested in re-enabling the head gear fashion slot. How exactly would I go about doing that? Not to mention the Fairy slot.

Not possible with our client version. Server could handle it I think but not the client.

1.2.7 version from p2p in china could handle it but need severals fix on the server to make him able to connect to the server.