Extracting a Scenario from the Campaign

[Legata-Quaestora Svania Invicta]

Hello everyone,

So, I've been trying to modify and edit the Return of Rome campaigns (Trajan, etc) but I have found myself completely unable to. If I do it to the AOE2 campaigns, it works just fine.

But if I do it with the Return of Rome missions, the campaign editor tool just doesn't read/see them.

I suspect it might have to do with the fact that the regular campaigns end with,

'aoe2campaign'

But the AOE2 Return of Romes one end with,

'aoe2campaign.gpv'

Regardless, I'd be so grateful if someone more tech-savvy than me found a solution.

Thank you!

[Avifir]

The gpv files are encrypted (presumably to dissuade piracy, otherwise you could just play them as custom campaigns) - the game decrypts them when loading them into memory. Since the game does this on launch it is possible to either dump the decrypted aoe2campaign from memory or find the decryption keys if you can do a bit of reverse engineering, but it's not trivial, and I'm not sure if the team would be happy about people sharing specific details (and, obviously, sharing the decrypted versions or the keys themselves is right out).

[Legata-Quaestora Svania Invicta]

Thanks, Avifir, but unfortunately it makes zero sense. The OTHER DLC (in AOE2) campaigns aren't encrypted, and even if one were to decrypt them, they'd still be missing the actual DLC to play the civilizations and the campaign.

If you try to play a DLC mission without the civ, it tells you that you 'Don't have the civilizations used in this scenario' and boots you out anyway, so having an encryption specifically to prevent opening it in the editor is ... very useless?

All that would be would be the map itself and the voice acting, which is sort of what I wanted to do to make them co-op available and more difficult.

[Crossil]

Origineel geplaatst door Sekhmet:

The OTHER DLC (in AOE2) campaigns aren't encrypted

Last I heard all the DLC campaigns are encrypted. only basegame AoE2 DE games can be unlocked and used through the editor, but all the DE DLC campaigns (Lords of the West, Dawn of the Dukes, Dynasties of India, Mountain Royals, Victors and Vanquished) aren't accessible.

Did something change?

[Avifir]

All the DE DLC campaigns are encrypted, though most of the original/fe ones aren't (I'm not sure why cam0 and cam1 are, maybe they were updated to use DLC civs?)

You can play campaigns with civilisations you don't own, you just can't edit them without having the DLC. It's not very good as an anti-piracy measure given all the other avenues that exist, but that's the only reason I can think of for them to do it.

I have decrypted the DLC campaigns for personal use - once they are decrypted they can be edited just like any other campaign - but I'm unsure about publicly sharing my tools.
I can say how to find the keys and what encryption algorithm (AES-256-CTR with a custom s-box where each DLC has the same key/iv pair for every campaign, to find them either place a breakpoint where the DLC are being read in and dump the memory, or bruteforce the unpacked exe where the AES keys and iv are stored with TEA encryption and test them against the gpv files until you get a valid aoe2campaign) but that likely doesn't actually help anyone except those who don't need the help in the first place.

Sorry I can't be of more help. Ideally I would make my tools public, if I were certain it wouldn't cause any upset.

[Legata-Quaestora Svania Invicta]

It's okay, I'll have to make do with and just not remake their missions for co-op. Sucks.

[Crossil]

Origineel geplaatst door Avifir:

All the DE DLC campaigns are encrypted, though most of the original/fe ones aren't (I'm not sure why cam0 and cam1 are, maybe they were updated to use DLC civs?)

You can play campaigns with civilisations you don't own, you just can't edit them without having the DLC. It's not very good as an anti-piracy measure given all the other avenues that exist, but that's the only reason I can think of for them to do it.

I have decrypted the DLC campaigns for personal use - once they are decrypted they can be edited just like any other campaign - but I'm unsure about publicly sharing my tools.
I can say how to find the keys and what encryption algorithm (AES-256-CTR with a custom s-box where each DLC has the same key/iv pair for every campaign, to find them either place a breakpoint where the DLC are being read in and dump the memory, or bruteforce the unpacked exe where the AES keys and iv are stored with TEA encryption and test them against the gpv files until you get a valid aoe2campaign) but that likely doesn't actually help anyone except those who don't need the help in the first place.

Sorry I can't be of more help. Ideally I would make my tools public, if I were certain it wouldn't cause any upset.

Damn, bruh. I would love to see the Victors and Vanquished scenarios in the editor simply because of just how much the normal gameplay is changed in those.

Hey, can you tell me which unit is Chosokabe Kunichika in the Nobunaga scenario modified from? I can't tell from the modified stats and I haven't found how else to check what the base unit is aside from the replay, but that only tells me it isn't any basic unit with a description. Mostly asking because of the wikia, where I'd like to list what is the base unit is modified to make him.

[Avifir]

Origineel geplaatst door Crossil:

Damn, bruh. I would love to see the Victors and Vanquished scenarios in the editor simply because of just how much the normal gameplay is changed in those.

Hey, can you tell me which unit is Chosokabe Kunichika in the Nobunaga scenario modified from? I can't tell from the modified stats and I haven't found how else to check what the base unit is aside from the replay, but that only tells me it isn't any basic unit with a description. Mostly asking because of the wikia, where I'd like to list what is the base unit is modified to make him.

The base units are:
Oda: Dinh Le - Nobunaga
Takeda: Dmitry of Moscow - Le Lai
Uesugi: Duke D'Alençon - Minamoto (already on map, not spawned via trigger)
Mori: Edward Longshanks - Dragon Ship
Otomo: El Cid - Bui Bi
Chosokabe: El Cid Campeador - Kitabatake

[Prosecutor Lurker]

I was hoping when I have some time to come back to aoe2 ai scripting and scenario editing, I can take a look at the new scenarios and analyze how they were done.
Awesome job here

[Avifir]

Dunno if you're still interested, but I've decided to release my tools:

https://github.com/Niedzielan/aoe2_gpv_decrypt_py

It does require a little bit of technical know-how to get it all running. At some point I might try to get it into a one-click-and-done program, but it's rather low priority.

[Cyber Cake]

Hi Avifir,

Are you aware of anyone who have used your tool to convert encrypted content? I have been informed, that the tools is still not sufficient for converting original campaigns into co-op.

[Avifir]

Origineel geplaatst door Cyber Cake:

Hi Avifir,

Are you aware of anyone who have used your tool to convert encrypted content? I have been informed, that the tools is still not sufficient for converting original campaigns into co-op.

I've updated my tools for the latest update now. Currently only the Cheat Engine method 1 script works - I'll update the others when I get time.
I know a few people I've shared it with have decrypted the campaigns correctly. I don't think anything has been made with them, but they can be loaded just like regular campaigns for editing so there shouldn't be any limits on what can be done.