Custom Deck Help

[Huggybaby]

I apologize if this is not the correct forum to ask these questions. I tried the search function to find the answers but receive 10K+ results. Again, I apologize.

I am running the DotP 2013 SE Theta version with the latest (1.0dc120919) patch. No matter what I try I can not get custom decks to work. They just don't show up. I have the Gib Tools, extracted & packed decks. I have changed the uid's. I have even tried extracting the Chandra deck, adding 1 card, repacking it and trying to play & the deck does not appear.

In terms of trying to modify the games system files I did the Hex edit to remove the WAD "checking" from the EXE, tried to Hex edit the EXE to use the custom steam_api.dll by changing the storm to steam. All attempts failed.

What am I missing or doing wrong? I also have 2014 game version but don't really like how it's set up, it's quite different from the previous games but I'm trying to get used to it. Am I better off just trying to create custom decks for 2014? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[RiiakShiNal]

If you are using the Theta 1.0dc120919 version then you don't need to do any hex editing. You also don't need to extract the wads using Gibbed Tools.

The Theta version you are using already has the wad check disabled so all you should have to do is put the mods for DotP 2013 in the game directory and start the game. Note that only mods designed for DotP 2013 will work properly if you try to use mods for other versions of the engine then you will encounter problems.

If you haven't already looked at the Wiki for DotP 2013 then you might want to do so as it has editing guides (including a step-by-step intro to modding tutorial), links to many of the mods available, and links to the various tools available specifically for modding DotP 2013.

[kipper667]

I've officially given up on the 2013 version. I've now been playing DotP 2014. Editing decks is much simpler. I've even added new cards such as a Mox Emerald & Mox Pearl. Adding card images, editing decks & adding custom cards is pretty easy but I'm having 1 problem. If I create & add a new deck, it shows up but is locked. Even if the always available string is added & changing the Steam UID. No matter what I do it stays locked. Is there another file somewhere that must be edited? Such as a save game hat has which decks are unlocked & playable or something similar? I added 2 custom decks, 1 I made from scratch & another in which I just copied the header (the beginning few lines of data, not sure what it's called) from the Garuk deck, changed the UIDs & added new cards. Both appear as locked. What am I missing?

[thefiremind]

Giving the same Steam ID as the game is usually enough to have the decks unlocked, adding always_available="true" should really make it 100% sure, so I don't know what you are doing wrong. If you are doing it manually, you may want to try Riiak's Deck Builder (see his signature up there), and after you made a deck with the software, you can look into it and see what's different (if there's any difference).

[kipper667]

Here's an example of a Chandra deck I edited. All I did was changed the UIDs, changed the steam IDs, added the always available and changed the cards.

Attached is an example of a deck in question.

The second deck I edited, I did all of the above except editing the cards. Both appear but are locked. I know I'm going to slap myself for not seeing the problem but for the life of me I can't see it.


Note: File is in txt because XML isn't allowed for attachment. I would have just pasted the text but it was telling it looked "spammy" and wanted me to get rid of the URLs and there were no URLs. So hopefully an attached txt file will roek.

[RiiakShiNal]

I put your XML there into a deck directory and loaded up the game and it showed up unlocked just fine (well minus the cards I'm missing). So the only things I can think of that could cause it to be locked for you would be (may be one or more of the following):

• You loaded up the game at one point prior to adding always_available="true" to the deck (which would cause it to remain locked in your profile even after adding the attribute). Solution: Delete your profile (will reset all progress).
• You are on a different platform (iPad or Android, which would cause it to ignore the steam_id_1 attribute). Solution: Use an id that you have to put into the appropriate attributes (NOTE: we don't know the ID that will unlock things by default on iPad or Android so you may need to play with things some).
• You are using something like GreenLuma which gives the game a different AppId which would prevent the value of 213850 in the steam_id_1 attribute from unlocking the deck. Solution: Change the id in the steam_id_1 tag to match the AppId that GreenLuma gives the game.

[kipper667]

Well, at least I know I'm not an idiot..LOL

I'm running it on PC & I'm not using GreenLuma (Don't know what it is) or any mods.

If it is locked because I loaded before adding any rules into the deck could I just delete the deck then create a new deck (with the same cards)? Actually, I'll just try it out and I'll let you know.

Thank you so much for your help, seriously. I owe you a beer or a pie if you don't drink. Everyone loves pie!

[kipper667]

Well, I built a new deck & it still shows up locked.
I think I might know what the problem is, but I'm not sure so I'll run it by you.

I have the Skidrow version. The original crack unlocks all the decks. To bypass this problem you first must install Steam. Then when copying over the crack you only copy over the DotP_D14.EXE and the SKIDROW.ini. The steam_api.dll and SteamClient.dll are NOT copied over from the crack folder. I believe this is where the problem is coming from.

I believe one of the original DLLs has to be edited since they weren't copied over with the cracked versions but I don't know where to begin. Do you know or know where I could find the information? Or if you know of someone I could ask I can send them a message. Thanks again.

[RiiakShiNal]

So you are only running part of the crack? In that case your game probably is probably contacting Steam (through the steam_api.dll) and Steam says you don't have the AppId so the steam_id_1 more than likely won't help you. As for creating a new deck with the same cards, that might work if and only if you use a different uid for the deck because the game already thinks the uid 99999 is locked. Though because you are only running a partial crack I can't guarantee anything as the official steam_api may be preventing you from getting things to work properly.