Importing FRUA Designs: Difference Tables

[Shadow Stranger]

Difference tables enable a lot of customization, "hacking", to occur in FRUA. When a scenario is loaded, if it has a diff table, the (UA Shell?) program reads the entries in the table instead of the original bytes of the FRUA program. Hence to import a FRUA design that has been hacked you must import the contents of the diff table.

As for a spreadsheet that easily translates the hex in Diff.tbl to decimal numbers, the process is as follows:
(1) open the file in Word or whatever
(2) change the spaces to tabs
(3) change the paragraph marks to paragraph marks followed by some sign or other, I use tildes myself
(4) paste into an appropriate spreadsheet.

Step (2) means the three numbers on each line occur in different cells in Excel.
Step (3) means the pasted data is treated as text not numbers, this stops the problems with certain hex numbers being interpreted as exponential decimal numbers.*
In the Microsoft Word Find and Replace box, enter "^p" in the Find what field and enter "^p~" in the Replace with field, omit the quotes.
As for an appropriate spreadsheet, I use the Mid function to isolate the hex digits one at a time, then I use the Concatenate function to combine the digits into a whole hexadecimal number. This can then be translated into a decimal number. It should work for hex numbers of five or fewer digits.

Step (4), what if only some parts of a given table have been altered? For example the alterations to the Cleric and Paladin spell tables found in AT1: Dark Alliance. Use the vlookup function, unaltered entries will be reported as #N/A.

*It seems that if a hex number is mostly composed of digits, 0 thru 9, and ends with "E#", the Excel program will regard it as an exponential decimal number! (Not only that, it regards it as an exponential number with an exponent two magnitudes greater than #!?) That this effort is needed is not surprising, Excel hex numbers are an add-on only.

I will upload a spreadsheet later on.
Edit:
Here is a hopefully helpful spreadsheet, version 2 has a few slight tweaks

[Shadow Stranger]

First decryption has been done, it is for AT1 Dark Alliances. As new decryptions are done they will be added to the zip file.

Scenarios with no diff tbl files to decrypt:
Heirs of Skull Crag, heirs.dsn
The Temple Of Elemental Evil, 1temple.dsn

Diff tbl files have been decrypted for the following scenarios, the differences are fairly minor:
FR1: Night Of The Basilisk, Basilisk.dsn

Diff tbl files have been decrypted for the following scenarios:
AT1 Dark Alliances, Alliance.dsn
DL1, Dragons of Despair, 1DL.dsn

[Shadow Stranger]

Here is a much better method for entering any hex number into an Excel spreadsheet:
In Word, use Edit > Replace to change paragraph marks to paragraph marks followed by at signs: "@", omit quotes. Replace All is a sub-function of Replace.
Paste into an Excel spreadsheet.
Change @ to '@, using Excel's version of Replace All. The apostrophe turns the hex numbers into "text".
Delete all @, again using Replace All. To Delete All, make sure the "Replace with" field (of the Replace dialog box) is empty. This leaves all cells filled with hex numbers preceded by apostrophes.
Now you can use the function hex2dec on the text and it will still work.

Edit:
An improved version of the above method:
Drill for dealing with Excel's problems in pasting Hex numbers:
· In Word change paragraph marks to paragraph marks followed by apostrophes and at signs: '@.
· Paste into Excel
· Delete all @, again using Replace All.
The @ sign must be there to stop the apostrophe being lost upon pasting into the spreadsheet. Also, Excel Replace All won't recognize an apostrophe in the Find what field.

[SilentThief]

Just as an aside question, would this apply to any goldbox games, or just hacked FRUA games?

ST

[Shadow Stranger]

Only FRUA has diff tables, so only it would need the method here.
If you were going to convert Gold Box games to FRUA format and you needed to do calculating work you would use a different format.
Edit:
FRUA has been decrypted to a fair degree. As far as I know, the other Gold Box games have not been. You could modify them with diff tables and a proprietary version of UA Shell but you would need to know what you were doing, you would need to decypt them first. I am working on Dark Queen of Krynn because that will be one most like FRUA, hence the easiest. (As the latter seems to be a derivative of the former, it may shed more light on it.)