The programs needed to create a custom size map include: Age of Empires (the game), DigiT's compressor & uncompressor programs (available at
http://www.digitization.org/download/zlibnoh.rar) as well as a hex editor. DigiT's compressor & uncompressor programs must be in put a path without spaces in any of the folder names, preferably a short-named directory in C:\.Before making a map with custom size, you have to create TWO empty tiny plain deep water maps using the in-game map editor. Then, you could simply save the scenarios and exit the game. What you should do now would be to open ONE of the maps with a hex editor. In the hex editor, remove the first 28 bytes of the data and save the altered file to the folder containing DigiT's compressor & uncompressor programs.Afterwards, you have to type and run the following command, either in Run under start menu or in MS-DOS mode:
C:\ "directory name" \uncompr.exe "filename.scn" "filename.hex" e.g. The command, C:\aoe2data\uncompr.exe size.scn size.hex, would convert size.scn (the altered scenario file) into size.hex (uncompressed scenario file) in C:\aoe2data (where DigiT's compressor & uncompressor programs are stored at).Subsequently, open the uncompressed scenario file with the hex editor. Search for the hex values "9DFFFFFFFF" and until you go to the fourth (and last) instance, after which you should find two long data with value as 72, or "4800000048000000" in hex values. These are the length and width of the map, while the many pairs of "160100" following them are tile data, in the format of a byte for terrain type and a short for elevation level. In this case, you should have 72 x 72 = 5184 sets of "160100" here. In order to modify the map size, you could just change the two "48000000" into another value (two must be the same and not bigger than 256) in long data type you want, then insert or delete a several amount of "160100" data after that in order to make the sum meet the square amount of the length/width. If you have finished the modification, you can go back to enter the command:
C:\ "directory name" \compr.exe "filename.hex" "filename.scn". (e.g. C:\aoe2data\compr.exe size.hex size.scn) Finally, use the hex editor to open the scenario file again, and insert the 28-bytes-data you have deleted back at the start of the file (That's why you have to save the map twice before - one of them is for you to copy these data). Now, put the file into the game scenario folder and enjoy your map with custom size!
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[This message has been edited by scenario_t_c (edited 04-07-2006 @ 10:43 AM).]