Nuke question....

[Red Devil]

1. you should not delete/replace files in patch13.pak with your own edited files. if you do, it will ensure you are not able to join any bz2 games in the Multiplayer server list due to an asset mismatch (kicked due to bad assets).

2. instead, save the file to a folder under the addon folder in your bz2 install. that way, you can move the folder out of addon to play multiplayer games with others.

[stratr1]

Is that why there is no change to my game or just a way to play multiplayer without bad assests?

[Ded10c]

Possibly both. There might be an ODF in your addon overriding the explosion you have created anyway.

Which changes did you make?

[GSH]

Is that why there is no change to my game or just a way to play multiplayer without bad assests?

I added recycler variants as a way to avoid bad assets in MP. If you make a recycler variant, and pick it in the shell before the game, then those files are used in that game. But, other recycler variants present on your system aren't scanned. So, you can make your own private recycler variant, use it, and it won't bother MP.

-- GSH

[stratr1]

There is currently nothing in my addon folder... my question is why when I change the xbmbxpl.odf in the patch13.pak, it does nothing to change it in game. My real life friends and myself play this together, and one of my friends changed a sabre to carry only a mortar which he had also upgraded to be stronger (the mortar). He shared his .paks (patch13.pak and data.pak) with us all and we played just fine. How come when I change the Day Wrecker .odf there is no change in game? <----- this is the question I need answered if anyone knows please.

Possibly both. There might be an ODF in your addon overriding the explosion you have created anyway.

Which changes did you make?

I made several changes to radius, starting and ending colors, animate lifetime, even tried changing some .tga's to see if it would do anything, and nothing.

UPDATE: It does work fine when I create a sub folder in addons and then put my altered .odf inside, but my question now is, to use it with my friends, they only need my sub folder in their addons folder?

[GSH]

Do not change the .pak files that come with BZ2.

Let me repeat that: Do not change the .pak files that come with BZ2. Really. Treat them as a reference. But keep your changes OUT OF THEM. There's been a lot of advice for BZ2 modding that might have barely worked 12 years ago on Win98, but even back then, writing to the official .pak files was a stupid idea.

Doesn't matter whether you think you're doing the right thing. Doesn't matter if you think it's local only. Those files should be treated as read-only by end users. BZ2 has a well-defined mechanism for having replacement files that override files in .pak files. It's had that since version 1.0. And still some people think that .pak files are a good idea to mess with.

Short answer: place your modified files in the addon folder, and BZ2 will read them. Longer answer: open up the bzone.cfg file installed with BZ2, and it clearly shows the hierarchy of where it reads files from. You can create your own folders, paralleling addon, with your own files in them, and launch BZ2 with a custom .cfg that selects your files. Launch w/o that .cfg, and your changes aren't read.

Even longer answer: I suspect that you're on Vista/Win7, and trying to use Pak Explorer to write changes to a .pak installed under Program Files. Windows now treats Program Files as requiring admin access to change (add/modify/delete files). If a program is not run as admin, it'll write changes to a shadow location, and then mostly ignore it when reading. Solution: manually copy those files into addon. As above. There are ways to mod BZ2. Things have changed since Win98. BZ2 modding needs to be done with Windows rules in mind. And, loose files in addon works properly with that.

(Update, later): Another reason to not touch the .pak files: every BZ2 1.3.x patch that comes out will back up (rename) your old addon folder, so that files in there are not lost, but also not used w/o human intervention. You'd just need to copy the files out of the old addon folder and put them in the new to use them. But, the patch13.pak file is utterly replaced ever BZ2 patch. If you have any edits in there, they're going to be tossed away by reinstalling or patching.

-- GSH

[stratr1]

Ok.. point taken.

So can you answer this, if I alter a file/folder and put it in the addon folder, then send a copy of that file/folder to a friend and have them put it in their addon folder, can we still play multiplayer together and will BZ2 read those files in our MP game?

[General BlackDragon]

yes

[stratr1]

Awesome..... Thank You!

[APCs r Evil]

Never saw that explosion before, it does look nice but I'd like to know just how many particles are being rendered there...

Nice work on the ground dust too, whoever made that xpl.