Modding in Axeoth

Hello Heroes!

Discover today a little guide to use the various content of the Lost Tales of Axeoth in your own maps.

1. Getting Started

First things first: you need to be in Unreal Mode to have access to the advanced features of the map editor.


Open the Content Browser (Ctrl + Shift + F).

Look for the LostTales_Pack folder, located under Mods. Right-click on LostTales_Pack and select Fully Load.


Your Content Browser should now look like that:

2. General information

Here are some of the things that might interest you:

• Axeoth_factions: you can assign these to players and heroes, if you want them to have custom icons and faction names (for instance Preserve instead of Sylvan with the Tree of Nature icon).
• Buildings: a number of new / variant buildings you can use on the adventure map.
• Campaign_heroes: the unique characters of the Lost Tales of Axeoth. Feel free to use them in your own adventures.
• Creatures: want to use the mighty White Tiger in your maps? Here it is J
• Custom_artefacts: a selection of new artefacts from Heroes IV and its expansion packs.
• Custom_heroes: More than 80 new Hall Heroes. We explain how to add them to your map’s Hall of Heroes below.
• Customtowns: Some variants of the usual Heroes VII towns, with slightly different town trees and lineups.

In general, you only need to drag and drop the Archetypes on your map to use them. In the case of heroes, creatures, and artefacts however, you’ll sometimes have to first place one of the regular H7 heroes on the map, and then open its properties in the Unreal Editor. Find the Hero, Creature or Artifacts field, select the new archetype you want to replace them with in the content browser, and then click on the small green arrow to use it.

3. How to add the Axeoth characters to the Hall of Heroes

Still in Unreal Mode, click on View, and then World Properties.


Go to World Info > My Map Info > Map Pools


Here you can customize which Spells, Weeks, Artefacts and Heroes are available in the map in the various random spots.

Open this file and copy paste the whole text: Hall of Heroes (right click, save link as)

Then right click on the line Custom Hall of Heroes and select Paste Properties from Clipboard.


Presto! 80 items are now added to your map’s Hall of Heroes. You can now add or remove some of them to fit your needs.


The other advantage of doing that is that all these Heroes will now also appear in the Hero Tab of the Heroes VII editor.


Here are other properties we’ve used in the Lost Tales and that you can use as well, especially if you don’t want Ashan-themed items to appear in your map:

• Forbidden artifacts (right click, save link as)
• Forbidden heroes (right click, save link as)
• Forbidden spells (right click, save link as)
• Forbidden weeks (right click, save link as)
  
  

4. How to use the Heroes IV music in your maps

In Heroes VII, each terrain type is tied to a specific music file. You’ll therefore need to edit the terrain types used by your map and make sure to bind them to the terrain archetypes used in the Lost Tales of Axeoth.

Go to Unreal Mode and open the Landscape Mode.


With the default Paint tool still selected, scroll down to the list of terrain textures available. For each terrain you want to modify, click on the small magnifying glass icon next to the texture preview. This will highlight the corresponding terrain layer in the Content Browser. Right-click on that item and open its Properties.


You now need to replace the Layer Game Data field with its equivalent found in Mods > LostTales_Pack > axeoth_layercelldata


When you play your map, that particular terrain will now use the Heroes IV music. The following tracks are used in the Lost Tales, under license from Rob King and Paul Anthony Romero:

• Hope for Grass terrains
• Desolation for Forest terrains
• Wandering for Road terrains
• The Prayer for Wasteland terrains
• Floating Across Water for Water terrains

That’s it :) Happy mapmaking!

Download Links

1. Lost Tales custom lists (see 3. How to add the Axeoth characters to the Hall of Heroes.)

• Full package including:Hall of Heroes, Forbidden Artifacts, Forbidden Heroes, Forbidden Spells and Forbidden Weeks.

2. Official Map Editor Guides (editor "?" button, also available on "Might and Magic Heroes VII\Manual\")

• Map editor overview
• Modding basics