First let me start by saying that this is going to be a long winded post but I will include the edits I used and will do my best to spell out each step for inexperienced users like myself. Modifying LIFYO files is a completely new experience for me. While I have considerable computer knowledge and experience, I never was a gamer nor was I interested in the inner workings of the files that make them possible.
That aside, I came to modifying LIFYO files because in two months time I had been on 5 different servers that all just vanished into thin air without so much as a thank you for playing.
I loved the people on my last server and enjoyed my short time there very much. When it went poof on the day of the last hotfixes for the new release I like many in my group was very frustrated at having to start over again.
We decided to pay for server space with PingPerfect. This after considerable time of trying unsuccessfully to get Maria Database 5.5 and LIFYO dedicated server to run and actually allow people into my game.
So began my quest for modifications to the game. As much as I loved all the work the Devs put into the changes for the release I hated that our little island world was full of dead trees so I went in search of a tree modification file created by other users.
I found one by user Machine from an older post in january 2015 on the Life is Feudal Forums.
After traveling through my little world and noticing there were many many trees of poor quality, I decided that I would try using this but that I would change quality 80 to 10.
I recommend changing it to 6 or 8 because when I finally ran this at 10 it wiped out 3/4s of the trees on our new server.
So the first thing I ran into was that for the life of me no matter how hard I tried I could not get Heidi SQL to work on my computer or to communicate with my server...took me a few minutes to figure out I didn't actually need it.
Ping Perfect has its own server console that allows me to download and upload files directly. But I actually used FileZilla FTP to do my uploads and Microsoft Visual Studio which is free to use to do my editing. I first attempted to open the files in Notepad but I hate scrolling side to side and Visual Studio is a much better option for me.
I started looking through all the files on our server only to find that many files had the cs.dso extension that I couldnt open for anything. There are very few files that do not have this dso extenstion on my Ping Perfect server or even in the LIFYO dedicated server files stored locally on my computer.
DSO files are from my understanding a Torque 3D specific extension. All my edits have been successful without having to open any DSO files at all.
There were only 4 main files that I actually had access to on my server that I could open that are the heartbeat of my server. They are the World _Config.xml file, New.SQL Patch.SQL and Dump.SQL. The three SQL files are found in an SQL folder on the server. There are also a couple other xml files as well that we will be discussing here that should be in the data folder on your server.
So on to the tree mod by Machine, it looks like this, with my change from 80 to 8 already in it.
DO NOT TRY AND USE THIS FILE WITH YOUR SERVER RUNNING!
DELETE forest, forest_patch
FROM forest, forest_patch
WHERE forest.GeoDataID = forest_patch.GeoDataID AND
forest.Quality < 8;
SET @c442 = 1;
SET @c443 = 1;
SET @c444 = 1;
SET @c445 = 1;
SET @c446 = 1;
SET @c447 = 1;
SET @c448 = 1;
SET @c449 = 1;
SET @c450 = 1;
UPDATE forest_patch
SET Version = @c442:=@c442+1
WHERE TerID = 442;
UPDATE forest_patch
SET Version = @c443:=@c443+1
WHERE TerID = 443;
UPDATE forest_patch
SET Version = @c444:=@c444+1
WHERE TerID = 444;
UPDATE forest_patch
SET Version = @c445:=@c445+1
WHERE TerID = 445;
UPDATE forest_patch
SET Version = @c446:=@c446+1
WHERE TerID = 446;
UPDATE forest_patch
SET Version = @c447:=@c447+1
WHERE TerID = 447;
UPDATE forest_patch
SET Version = @c448:=@c448+1
WHERE TerID = 448;
UPDATE forest_patch
SET Version = @c449:=@c449+1
WHERE TerID = 449;
UPDATE forest_patch
SET Version = @c450:=@c450+1
WHERE TerID = 450;
SET @c442 = (SELECT Max(Version) as max FROM forest_patch WHERE TerID = 442 ORDER BY TerID);
SET @c443 = (SELECT Max(Version) as max FROM forest_patch WHERE TerID = 443 ORDER BY TerID);
SET @c444 = (SELECT Max(Version) as max FROM forest_patch WHERE TerID = 444 ORDER BY TerID);
SET @c445 = (SELECT Max(Version) as max FROM forest_patch WHERE TerID = 445 ORDER BY TerID);
SET @c446 = (SELECT Max(Version) as max FROM forest_patch WHERE TerID = 446 ORDER BY TerID);
SET @c447 = (SELECT Max(Version) as max FROM forest_patch WHERE TerID = 447 ORDER BY TerID);
SET @c448 = (SELECT Max(Version) as max FROM forest_patch WHERE TerID = 448 ORDER BY TerID);
SET @c449 = (SELECT Max(Version) as max FROM forest_patch WHERE TerID = 449 ORDER BY TerID);
SET @c450 = (SELECT Max(Version) as max FROM forest_patch WHERE TerID = 450 ORDER BY TerID);
UPDATE terrain_blocks
SET ForestVersion = @c442
WHERE ID = 442;
UPDATE terrain_blocks
SET ForestVersion = @c443
WHERE ID = 443;
UPDATE terrain_blocks
SET ForestVersion = @c444
WHERE ID = 444;
UPDATE terrain_blocks
SET ForestVersion = @c445
WHERE ID = 445;
UPDATE terrain_blocks
SET ForestVersion = @c446
WHERE ID = 446;
UPDATE terrain_blocks
SET ForestVersion = @c447
WHERE ID = 447;
UPDATE terrain_blocks
SET ForestVersion = @c448
WHERE ID = 448;
UPDATE terrain_blocks
SET ForestVersion = @c449
WHERE ID = 449;
UPDATE terrain_blocks
SET ForestVersion = @c450
WHERE ID = 450;
It was said that I could put this at the end of my Patch.SQL file since I had no query or ability to use Heidi SQL with my rented server.
I did this after downloading a copy of Patch.SQL from my server to my computer. I scrolled all the way to the end of Patch SQL and pasted it just above the last word in the file which is END. That word must stay there as you find it in the file.Then I went into my server and renamed the old Patch SQL file to Patch.old and uploded my modified Patch.SQL file.
Then I restarted my server.....no tree removal was evident after a quick visit to our island.
So, I took the server down again, that is when it dawned on me that there is a NEW SQL file on my server and I said to myself could that be for adding new commands to the server I wonder? So I downloaded a copy of it to my computer and again scrolled to the end and pasted this code in there the same way as I did in the Patch SQL file.
This time however instead of just starting my server back up I ran a repair on it and then I ran the steam update program that also is located in my server console.
I fired her up and waited patiently for my server to come back online and I'll be damned it worked this time! We had bald spots all over the place no more dead trees!
Then after a day or two I started to notice new tree regrowth....to my horror it was the same dead trees coming back to life and regrowing and no no no this will not do!
It was this that started my fever to understand all I could about the programming of my favorite game, and in these last few weeks I learned a lot.
I started reading through the hundreds of thousands of lines of code stored in the patch, new and dump sql files and a pattern started to show itself to me.
There are three levels of tree health in our game 0 being sickly or low quality. 1 being average to mid quality trees and 2 being high quality above average trees. There were thousands of trees listed in the new sql file and the dump sql file that had O tree health. There are actually 2 sections of trees with this in it. The first one you do not want to edit. The second set however is tied to the map positions in which they sprout.
For my next discussion I will walk you through those entries and explain to the best of my ability how these entries work and where in the files they are located so that you can correct your regrowth as well.
In the meantime you can always start planting new trees so the dead ones don't have the ability to take hold!...I promise i'll post again very quickly so you don't have to fly around in gm mode like I have been. replanting trees while I learned to edit my files.
Larainan
PingPerfect:KIN.KillerClan.Com Feudal Renaissance
http://kinkillerclan.enjin.com/home