Editing Hex Editing - Guide (section)

=== Editing HotA Heroes ===
Hota heroes are coded in the HotA.dat, in the following order: (names written in quotes are coded in plain text)

07 000000 "hero<ref_id>" 12 000000 "Heroes\hero_<ref_id>.str" FACTION "#large_portrait_file_name.pcx" 0c000000 "#small_portrait_file_name.pcx" XX 000000 "Specialty_Name" YY 000000 "Specialty Bonus: Object" ZZ000000 "{Full Object}" 0d 0a 0d 0a (number of 0a 0d repetitions may differ) "specialty_description" PP000000 "HeroName" QQQQQQQQ "Biography" 00000000 01 5c 0000 (number of zeroes may vary) GG000000 RR000000 HH000000 SO000000 OL000000 ST000000 TL000000 SB000000 SP000000 U1000000 U2000000 U3000000 PS000000 PL000000 R0 AS C0 00 00000000 00000000 1m000000 1M000000 2m000000 2M000000 3m000000 3M000000 08000000 I8000000 TT000000 ID000000 AA000000 DD000000 DM000000 U4000000 U5000000, where:

* FACTION = 09 000000 00000000 0b 000000 for Cove heroes and 09 000000 00000000 00000000 07 000000 for Factory heroes,
* #large_portrait_file_name.pcx, #small_portrait_file_name.pcx: # and the appropriate file name, f.e. #HPLP06.pcx  
* XX = {{unk}}
* Specialty_Name is f.e. "Sea Dogs" or "Nix". 
* YY = {{unk}}
* Specialty Bonus: Object refers to the following types of text: "Spell Bonus: Air Shield", "Creature Bonus: Sea Dogs", etc. 
* ZZ = {{unk}}
* {Full Object} is a text in curly parentheses {} stating again the specialty, f.e. "{Estates}", or "{Pirates, Corsairs and Sea Dogs}". 
* specialty_description: Plain text description. 
* PP = Hero's name's length. 
* QQQQQQQQ = {{unk}}, seems to be some sort of an ID as it seems to be unique for each hero; it is not, however, the reference ID. All QQ values are around 300 (dec). 
* 1m = minimum number of the first creature type in hero's starting army
* 1M = maximum number of the first creature type in hero's starting army
* 2m = minimum number of the second creature type in hero's starting army
* 2M = maximum number of the second creature type in hero's starting army
* 3m = minimum number of the third creature type in hero's starting army
* 3M = maximum number of the third creature type in hero's starting army
* I8 = reference ID + 8 for heroes before ref ID 178 and reference ID + 7 for heroes after ref ID 178 (essentially, 0xb9 is skipped)

Heroes in HotA.dat start at 0x23dd and end at 0x9886. Note, that for editing text itself it's best to use programs such as [https://github.com/sake12/HotA-editor/releases HotA Editor], instead of a direct hex-editing.