Dark Legions Editor Modules
Army Editor & Game Editor
Both by David Melanson, using Hartman Util's UGE 1.0
Both of these utilities are for use with SSI's great strategy/
action combat game "Dark Legions." Ever just wished you could take the
computer on and massacre it, no matter how viciously underhanded it got?
Ever wanted to set up a truly insane scenario with an entire LEGION of
monsters of all types? Here's your chance!
Module #1: Dark Legions Army Editor
This Module modifies the files with the extension .arm (Armies).
The default file is SLOT0.ARM (the first saved army slot), but you can
change that through UGE's main menu.
This one's pretty simple and straightforward. Now you can have
as many of whatever types of monsters and/or traps as you want, without
having to pay for them. One stipulation: trying to create an army with
more than the stated "maximum number of controllable creatures" (75) will
probably cause the game to crash. But hey, if you want to make an army
of 75 demons (OW!) without spending a red gold piece, go right ahead!
(Note: You also better have a BIG map you're playing on if you get THAT
many creatures or you won't have any room!)
All fields are self-explanatory. They simply control how many
of each type of monster, ring, or trap you have. The first field is how
much gold you "spend," and no, it really doesn't matter if you spend any
or all of what you've got. Just remember a few things when buying rings:
1.> Your orb holder can't have any rings
2.> Certain character types find certain ring types useless, as they're
already maxed out. Certain others can only use so many of one
type before they max out.
3.> Each character can normally have a maximum of five rings.
4.> If you get a vampire, buy him 5 Regen rings (or use Module 2!)
(KNOWN BUGS: If you modify a bought army, the game seems to think the
ones you already bought are still "there." In other words, when you
finish placing your modified army, you may wind up with an error message
which reads "You have not placed all of your characters!" even if you
really have. Click on the check mark to continue; the game will be
unaffected by this warning message. I'm not sure what causes this
problem...yet.
So, there's still some planning involved. But you should be able
to make life easier for yourself with this module. And then, once you've
got everybody placed, move on to Module 2...
Module #2: Dark Legions Game Editor
This file edits Dark Legions saved games (files with the
extension .GAM). The default is SLOT0.GAM, but you can change that
with your UGE main menu.
Basically, this one's just plain for cheating while in the game.
If your lead beast is surrounded by vicious enemies and low on power, hey!
Why not just bump up his/her/its health to something higher, increase its
stamina, regeneration rate, etc, etc, etc...
This time, not everything is self-explanatory. "Appearance" and
"Type" are USUALLY the same number. Actually, the neat part of this is
the official "surprise" mode. You can actually make any creature look
like any other creature with this, and even change what type of creature
you have in any particular spot at any time! A table for creature types
has been detailed below in Table 1. Check this out: Let's say you have a
demon. You use the editor to change its "Appearance" value to that of,
say, a Wizard. To your opponent, it looks like a wizard. It MOVES like
a Wizard (walking, though with the movement limit of the demon). BUT, if
some character of his takes it on in combat, it's a demon in combat, AND
if you use the "Special Move," (in this case, the Demon's Scream Of Terror),
the character briefly changes into the demon and does THAT special move,
NOT the Wizard's Freeze special move. Chaos personified! And you thought
the Shapeshifter was a nasty idea!
Current HP and Maximum HP are actually "Life" points (same thing).
Set 'em to max levels when your creatures are hurt, or even bump up their
health points to higher than they can normally have. I know you can reach
at least 150 (that's the vampire's maximum) but I don't know if they can
go any higher than that. Regeneration is the number of Life points the
character regenerates per turn. You'll note any vampire's is some number
like 251+. Set it higher than 0 (up to at least 10 is okay) to get a
positively-regenerating vampire with no need for zombies to fuel it.
Cool, huh? Especially if you like vampires as much as I do.
Stamina is also pretty obvious-the maximum amount of stamina points
that character can have in battle. Reg. Limit is a bit different; this is
the number subtracted from 100 to determine what percentage of a character's
Stamina is regenerated at the change of a turn. Set it to 0 to get 100%
regeneration per turn.
Strength is straightforward-the character's strength rating. Set
it to 10 for demon strength. Higher is possible (a demon orb holder has
12), but I don't know if the machine'll crap out if you go too high.
Frozen is a wonderful situation...if your characters keep getting
frozen by enemy Wizards, set this number to 0, then look at your Appearance
field...it should be your character's natural appearance rating plus 30.
Change it back to the natural appearance number, and when you restore (if
you also changed the frozen field), your character is instantly unfrozen
and ready to go! (Ain't I a stinker?)
Existence? Seems a bit strange, but with this field, you can
instantly change Illusionary characters or Conjured characters to REAL
characters. Points of note: Changing a Conjured Character (will show 2
in this field) to a REAL character (0 in the field) will NOT prevent the
character from losing health points every round, so it's probably not
worth it. On the other hand, changing an ILLUSIONARY character to real
(plus bumping up its hit points, since all Illusionary characters are
listed as having 1 for Current and Maximum HP) is VERY useful in the middle
of a game. Illusionary characters have a "1" in this field normally. By
the way, just bumping up the HP without changing the status doesn't work;
the beast'll still get killed with any one shot. Note: Please don't try
to change your orb holder into either an illusion or a conjured creature!
Finally, we have movement points and "Move Rounds." Want to
end a game quicker or get some heavy cavalry across the field at high
speed? Change the appropriate number for a particular character.
I've set this to 20, and gotten a demon halfway across a subcontinent in
one turn. There are two appropriate fields: "Move Points," which change
the number of squares that character will be able to move for every turn
following the one currently being played, and "Move Round" (at the end),
which change the number of squares the character will be able to move
in the turn currently being played. Loosely translated, let's say
character #1 is a Demon (move base 4, no speed rings). Both the "Move
Points" and "Move Round" fields for character 1 should read 4. If you
change Move Points to 10 and Move Round to 15, when you restore your game,
character #1 should be able to move 15 squares on that turn. On the next
turn and all subsequent turns, character #1 should be able to move 10
squares per turn. Just try it; you'll like it.
Table 1: Monster Types (For use w/"Appearance" and "Type" fields)
0.> Wizard 1.> Illusionist 2.> Conjurer 3.> Orc
4.> Berserker 5.> Phantom 6.> Troll 7.> Seer
8.> Templar 9.> Water Elemental 10.> Fire Elemental
11.> Thief 12.> Vampire 13.> Wraith 14.> Demon
15.> Shapeshifter
Note to users: Do NOT attempt to set any creature's appearance to 15
(Shapeshifter). This INCLUDES any Shapeshifters you create! The reason
is that shapeshifters have no "Natural" form they can have on the field,
so the character will be unrecognized for movement. Always set appearance
as a number 0-14.
Well, that should do it for now. Hopefully, this'll help you whip
the computer (or your friend's) butt at D.L. Good luck, and keep watching
for new module releases!
Feel free to send questions, comments, observations, flames, or
whatever to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Thanks.
-Dave Melanson
Files : 5, NeW:NONE, oLD:NONE
uL Node : 1, NFo:NONE, D?Z:NONE
