Editing Hex Editing - Guide (section)

== Editing HotA Creatures ==
While most statistics of base game creatures can be edited rather effortlessly (using MMArchive to unpack H3bitmap.lod or HotA_lng.lod), HotA creatures cannot be edited this way. Their data is stored at the beginning of HotA.dat. When using custom functions or editing original code, note that all HotA (as well as some SoD monsters) have reference ID above 80, and therefore cannot be checked for using a simple check command, such as 83 FA ID. Instead, you have to use a longer command that accepts a 4-byte value (for EDX that would be 81 FA ID000000).

{| class="wikitable"
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! colspan=99 | Hex String (Start: {{unk}}, End: {{unk}})

|-
| colspan=99 | 08 000000 <span style="color:orange">"monst<ref_id>"</span> 17 000000 <span style="color:red">"Monsters\monster<ref_id>.str"</span> 09 000000 00000000 04 000000 <span style="color:orange">"name_abbreviation"</span> <span style="color:teal">KK</span>000000 <span style="color:teal">"<animation_filename>.def"</span> <span style="color:blue">L1</span>000000 <span style="color:blue">"Monster_name (singular)"</span> <span style="color:blue">L2</span>000000  <span style="color:blue">"Monster name (plural)"</span> 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000 01 74 0000 <span style="color:orange">TT</span> 000000 <span style="color:green">UL</span> 000000 <span style="color:grey">0c556700  00556700</span> <span style="color:turquoise">F1 F2 F3 F4</span> <span style="color:red">80da9e03 60da9e03 30da9e03</span> <span style="color:gold">WC</span>000000 <span style="color:gold">MC</span>000000 <span style="color:gold">OC</span>000000 <span style="color:gold">SC</span>000000 <span style="color:gold">CC</span>000000 <span style="color:gold">GeC</span>000000 <span style="color:gold">GC</span>000000 <span style="color:green">FV</span>000000 <span style="color:green">AV</span>000000 <span style="color:green">GV</span>000000 <span style="color:green">HG</span>000000 <span style="color:green">HP</span>000000 <span style="color:green">SP</span>000000 <span style="color:green">AT</span>000000 <span style="color:green">DF</span>000000 <span style="color:green">DmgL</span>000000 <span style="color:green">DmgH</span>000000 <span style="color:green">SH</span>000000 <span style="color:green">SN</span>000000 <span style="color:red">OO</span>000000 <span style="color:purple">mm</span>000000 <span style="color:purple">MM</span>000000 <span style="color:red">RR</span>000000 <span style="color:red">VV</span>000000 <span style="color:red">WW</span>000000 <span style="color:red">XX</span>000000 <span style="color:red">YY</span>000000 <span style="color:red">ZZ</span>000000 

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! colspan=99 | Description

{{HEXrow|c=orange    |monst<ref_id>| The monster's reference id in decimal, f.e. monst154}}
{{HEXrow|c=red       |Monsters\monster<ref_id>.str| {{unk}}}}
{{HEXrow|c=orange    |name_abbreviation| The 4 letter abbreviation of the monster name. Never appears anywhere ever again. Note that not all abbreviations are just beginning or consonants, f.e. Haspids are written as "aspi" and nix as "nixx". This abbreviation doesn't seem to have to be unique, as Sea Serpent and Haspids have the same 4 letters here.  It is worth pointing out, that base game creatures also use 4-letter abbreviations in a similar table located in h3hota HD.exe around 0x275500}}
{{HEXrow|c=teal      |KK| The length of the animation_filename + 4 (and therefore the length of the entire "animation_filename.def"}}
{{HEXrow|c=teal      |<animation_filename>.def| The file name of the set of animations, saved as .def in HotA.lod or HotA.lod.}}
{{HEXrow|c=blue      |L1| The length of the monster name (singular)}}
{{HEXrow|c=blue      |Monster_name (singular)| Text string of the singular monster's name.}}
{{HEXrow|c=blue      |L2| The length of the monster name (plural)}}
{{HEXrow|c=blue      |Monster_name (plural)| Text string of the plural monster's name.}}
{{HEXrow|c=orange    |TT| The reference id of the town the monster belongs to. 0x09 for Cove, 0x0a for Factory, FFFFFFFF for Neutrals and I bet if HotA ever releases a new town, it will have 0x0b as its faction code.}}
{{HEXrow|c=green     |UL| The unit level -1 (sidenote: this is an example of numbers being used in a list with a zero-based numbering). FFFFFFFF for monsters with no level (f.e. Citadel / Castle Towers)}}
{{HEXrow|c=grey      |0c556700<br>(and 00556700)| These point to a similar table with creature sprite, text and other references in h3hota HD.exe and is probably used to insert the HotA.dat's creature table into this part of the exe.}}
{{HEXrow|c=turquoise |F1| The first creature ability flag
* 01: 2-hex unit
* 02: Flying
* 04: Ranged Attack
* 08: Fire breath
* 10: Living
* 20: Can attack city walls (cyclops, cannon)
* 40: War machine
* 80: Slayer (Basic)}}
{{HEXrow|c=turquoise |F2| The second creature ability flag
* 01: Slayer (advanced)
* 02: Slayer (expert)
* 04: Mind immunity
* 08: shoots beam (?)
* 10: No melee penalty
* 20: {{unk}}
* 40: Fire immunity
* 80: Attacks twice}}
{{HEXrow|c=turquoise |F3| The third creature ability flag
* 01: No enemy retaliation
* 02: Morale has no effect
* 04: Undead
* 08: AOE melee attack (Hydra)
* 10: AOE ranged attack (Magog), AI flag only. 
* 20: {{unk}}
* 40: {{unk}}
* 80: {{unk}}}}
{{HEXrow|c=turquoise |F4| The fourth creature ability flag
* 01: {{unk}}
* 02: {{unk}}
* 04: {{unk}}
* 08: {{unk}}
* 10: {{unk}}
* 20: {{unk}}
* 40: {{unk}}
* 80: Dragon (for the sake of Mutare's specialty and vial of dragon blood)}}
{{HEXrow|c=red       |80da9e03<br>60da9e03<br>30da9e03|{{unk}}}}
{{HEXrow|c=gold      |WC| Wood Cost to recruit the creature}}
{{HEXrow|c=gold      |MC| Mercury Cost to recruit the creature}}
{{HEXrow|c=gold      |OC| Ore Cost to recruit the creature}}
{{HEXrow|c=gold      |SC| Sulfur Cost to recruit the creature}}
{{HEXrow|c=gold      |CC| Crystal Cost to recruit the creature}}
{{HEXrow|c=gold      |GeC|Gem Cost to recruit the creature}}
{{HEXrow|c=gold      |GC| Gold Cost to recruit the creature. Note that all aforementioned cost values have 4 bytes to play with, so the maximum unit cost is 2147483647 gold (or of any resource).}}
{{HEXrow|c=green     |FV| Fight Value}}
{{HEXrow|c=green     |AV| AI Value}}
{{HEXrow|c=green     |GV| Growth}}
{{HEXrow|c=green     |HG| Horde Growth}}
{{HEXrow|c=green     |HP| Hit Points}}
{{HEXrow|c=green     |SP| Speed}}
{{HEXrow|c=green     |AT| Attack}}
{{HEXrow|c=green     |DF| Defense}}
{{HEXrow|c=green     |DmgL| The low end of the damage range}}
{{HEXrow|c=green     |DmgH| The high end of the damage range}}
{{HEXrow|c=green     |SH| Number of shots per battle}}
{{HEXrow|c=green     |SN| Number of spell casts per battle}}
{{HEXrow|c=red       |OO| {{unk}}}}
{{HEXrow|c=purple    |mm| Minimum number of units when randomly spawned by the map generator}}
{{HEXrow|c=purple    |MM| Maximum number of units when randomly spawned by the map generator.}}
{{HEXrow|c=red       |RR<br>VV<br>WW<br>XX<br>YY<br>ZZ| {{unk}}. Sometimes they take up 28 (!) bytes (such as for Ayssids), and sometimes don't appear at all. I suspect they reference some sort of abilities the creatures have, or their descriptions.}}
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