Asophix

Hi All! This time, we have two games to bring for you. @ Lord_Chris and @ Asophix played after a week again, this time on a much larger playing grounds of Swamp. On this cross-shaped map there are vast estates, with plenty of marshland in the outer edges of each peninsula and a stone circle guarded by a dragon in the middle. As in previous games, both players were placed in opposite starting positions and the game was played on minimum settings, with added weapons and food. Lord Chris played in the bottom left, while Asophix was put in the top right. Game 1 - On Short Notice The first game brought a very active early skirmish. Right from the outset, both players placed their first few buildings and rushed their Lords to the bottom right village in order to get a foothold. Asophix - in green - came through the swamps and the forest, wetting his stallion's horseshoes. Lord Chris - in blue - chose to ride along a tad longer pathway, and as he reached estate proper much earlier, he started capturing the village. The countdown had still a little while to go though, and as Asophix approached, both lords summoned their aides halfway to gain the upper hand. There was a huge difference in the summoned units' power, and with the countdown broken, the blue player started preparing for the usual cat-and-mouse game to keep distance from tempered Arthurian swords. Lord Chris has however not taken into account that mounted Knights are much faster compared to Shield Maidens, and suddenly he found himself stripped bare of mount, as part of the green group charged him down. As the Shield Maidens ran back to defend and stopped to fight with the green henchmen, Asophix broke out of the fight and used a few Knights and his Lord to assail the exposed blue Lord. The swift strike of three elite units quickly ended the fight in Asophix's favour, in a measly two minutes. Game 2 - Gnashing Teeth After the rather short game, a rematch was immediately agreed. In a rather similar manner, the early game brought sweaty palms for both sides. Asophix decided to rush out with his lord much faster, cutting the map in half rather than going for a quick capture of either estate, as it would risk him being put out of position. Knowing how powerful Knights can prove, Lord Chris assumed as much of a forward position in his estate but held back to defend. The initiative remained in the Arthurian player's hands and using the maneuverability of his loyal guards, he rode up and summoned them in the nearby treeline. The green Knights triumphantly destroyed the initial buildings of the Ice player, causing great disruption but not ending the game right away. After the skirmish, Asophix pulled his Lord back, allowing a breather for Lord Chris, who still had his power off cooldown. Identifying the defensive Stone Circle in the middle of the map, he rode there, softly pressing the green Lord away. As he captured the circle and Asophix decided to develop his economy further, Lord Chris made use of his confidence and leveraged his summons. He bypassed the green Lord, called for his trusty Shield Maidens to stall Asophix long enough to gain a head start, as he was rushing to the nether lands of his rival. He could cut down the granary and a few buildings before bailing out from his adventure. Ever Get that Feeling of Déja Vu? At around 5:30, Asophix ended up on Lord Chris's territory again. Seeing how the green Lord can unavoidably deal damage, for a moment he charged forward to the enemy estate once more. The distance there however was enormous, and he was desperate to turn back and rally back home, as Asophix employed a daring tactic using his Lord and his summoned Knights to take victory by conquering the enemy keep. The Ice player thankfully returned in time and he stopped the countdown successfully. Asophix used the time bought to extend his economy back home. As the Knights timed out, both lords momentarily exchanged sights on the Ice Keep and the green player pulled out. Lord Chris was persistently locked on the troublemaker and chased him all the way back to the green estate. In the meantime, Asophix garnered enough honor to rank up and construct a Barracks along with an Armoury. All the time within arms reach, Lord Chris barely failed to catch his adversary and met the resistance from the first light troops. Thus, he summoned his Maidens to net a few pick-offs and stall the enemy forces, as he rode home. Getting to the Mid-Game Soon came a moment of peace, relatively speaking. The blue player added a lot of iron mines and stabilized his royal food supply, while the green competitor built more on his already established industry. Asophix has sent starting troops to claim the northwest estate and Lord Chris invested a little bit of funds in getting more light troops to build camp in the middle estate, later in the southeastern village as well. Apart from a few skirmishes, the green player managed to sneak in his Lord once again and destroyed the enemy Granary. The Lord traversed out out of the pickle successfully, even though blue Archers killed his mount off. Both players continued reinforcing their first choice of footholds, with Lord Chris opting to fund an army entirely off of gold, and Asophix scraping the bottom of the barrel for a mass industry of Fletchers and Tanners, which was slow to pay off, but the healthy industry could generously fund it. The green adversary was also choosing to rank up fast, so that more siege engines and Royal Table knights could be recruited. The middle estate was eventually stabilized by the blue player, who made use of his estate ownership by erecting a Siege Camp and creating several Fire Ballistae that could pick off probing Siege Towers containing a few crossbowmen. Soon enough, both players showed their true army compositions. Lord Chris steadily introduced Pikemen into his mix, as well as relying on Archers and siege engines to gain a battleground advantage. He started amassing the medium armor by the entrance to the northwest area, however Asophix was vigilant to react to it by heavily investing in a rapid response group of Macemen. Twenty "boys" poured out of the green barracks and made contact with the blue Pikemen, while the estate garrison mainly comprised of Archers provided what ranged assistance they could. The Ice Lord reacted with a squad of Fire Ballistae and Cats, but the Macemen disengaged and turned their attention to them, dismantling them and the Siege Camp into splinters. The concave of blue Archers thinned their ranks out quite a bit though. Tipping the Scales Getting itchy to teach a lesson to his adversary, Lord Chris bought a few Knights and sent a squad of Archers to the northwest estate once again. He rebuilt the Siege Camp too and brought the same siege composition to life, now adding a few Cats to his middle garrison. The rush to the Village Hall proved really mistimed, as the Archers quickly fell to the defense's responsive fire, and the Knights weren't numerous enough to conquer the estate quickly. Asophix used the preoccupied enemy to muster an even larger force of Macemen, who ran interception and killed off a few Carters, as well as the numerous but frail sentries of blue Archers. He also used Sir Percival to dispose of the central forces with a Holy Blast. After the air was clear again, the green player removed all resistance, except those Knights in the northwestern estate. The carters continued to be a valuable target to claim rich meat deliveries. Asophix found himself in the clear and in front of empty protruding walls. His band of Macemen and Crossbowmen quickly took the lead and using the central estate, a green Siege Camp was quickly built and Laddermen soon poured out to conquer the walls, as well as Trebuchets rolled out to bombard buildings from long range. The exposed defender, Lord Chris quickly built forward Siege Camps to snipe the invaders with fiery bolts, as the green troops scaled his walls. This triggered a quick response from Asophix, sending in a band of Macemen to quickly destroy the threat. Blue Pikemen and the Lord also arrived to sweep the area and after the Camp was removed, the Macemen decided to raid the food chains and cause marginal damage along with destroying the Ice Granary. A Test of Willpower and Economy Lord Chris did not waver upon the destruction wrought on his industry. Using his vast real estate, he slowly rebuilt his food production in the back of his Keep, while slowly growing an impenetrable defense comprised of Archers, Crossbowmen and Pikemen. Asophix could not use his leather-armored troops directly in the confrontation, so he slowly tightened the containment and used his Trebuchets and units to destroy whatever building possible from long range. The Macemen went as far as to removing the blue Iron Mines. After scrambling a little bit to stabilize the forward outpost due to Lord Chris's recalled archer groups, the green player decided to bring in his few Trebuchets closer and commence with further bombardment. This maneuver proved however fatal for Asophix, as another guerilla Siege Camp appeared and Fire Ballistae destroyed the now defenseless Trebuchets. Carters worked hard to keep the blue economy alive, and after the second camp was removed, the green Macemen rushed in to desperately cause whatever damage they can. They were no match for the keep's protectors. As the Macemen reinforcements kept coming, Lord Chris decided it's time to roll out a few Frost Giants and confidently march to the green territory. The giants were so fast that they arrived there relatively unscathed, working on crucial buildings, destroying a few in the process. They did not manage to kill the production though. The next 45 minutes could be described as sweaty and stressful for both sides. Asophix maintained the containment, but the lack of trebuchets and a way to directly assail the blue Keep caused him to send droves of Macemen, eventually Swordsmen and Knights without proper protection against it. The lull between two attacks also allowed Lord Chris to muster additional hit squads of Frost Giants and force his opponent to spend badly needed funds into repelling them with Knights and Macemen elsewhere. Eventually, Lord Chris managed to reach a state of impenetrability: he successfully dug himself in, adding the Ice Queen, rebuilding his economy and popping up Fire Ballistae constantly to thin out the sieging army. Asophix tried all kinds of different unit compositions, but all efforts were blunted by freezing attacks and concentrated fire from the defenders. The drawing of the line continued. After 1 hour and 25 minutes, the conflicting forces agreed to a draw and a final charge, seeing how neither side can reach a decisive progress without committing a large mistake. A true testament of power from both participants!

Hi All! The icy blades of two veteran soldiers has been tested, in the frozen wastelands. @ Lord_Chris and @ Asophix have battled it out in the map Fjords, a balanced four-player map, where each estate is interconnected with narrow bridges. It is rather tricky to create a defensive encampment, as seen in the coming paragraphs. As an added difficulty and newfound experience, the game was played on the lowest rank, with no resources and consequently a very limited initial tech. Some food stocks were added to allow some breathing room, and random events haven't bothered the participants to allow for more of a fair fight. Setting Out It's only a folly to think that the inability to build a barracks and having no starting troops warrants a peaceful early-game. Right in the first minute, both players took arms and coincidentally headed towards the top-left estate to gain some ground, with their Lord. As Lord Chris arrived with his first and started claiming the village, while also exclaiming, Asophix decided it is best to summon Shield Maidens to delay the estate's capture, as well as in an attempt to unhorse the enemy Lord, making for an easier capture of the other neutral village. The red Major was however vigilant and cleverly disengaged, while also summoning his own Maidens. After both sides' Maidens were exhausted, Asophix's Lord could not reach the second estate in time to complete the capture and in fear of retaliation, he pulled back to his home estate to avert damage at home. Lord Chris did use the opportunity to seize the other estate. Building Up The next 5 to 10 minutes passed in relative peace. As both sides built up their initial economy and worked through the first few ranks, Asophix was rather reluctant to sit on his bottom and after building a bunch of Seal Holes and four Wood Camps with a modest stone and iron production, he used whatever gold he could to buy up royal foods for providing honour and recruit 10 starting archers and men-at-arms. The green archers reclaimed the second village estate from Lord Chris, while iron and meat production was greatly extended. Lord Chris at the same time opted for a more balanced approach, covering all possible economic branches consistently. For the Pantry, all three food production buildings were established, however raw material production lagged a little bit behind. What he correctly identified however, was the importance of honor and therefore kept his honor income consistent. He also used his own Lord to cut down the small band of archers and retook both estates again. Probing Attacks Having enough of the constricting situation, Asophix decided to scan the enemy home estate for vulnerabilities and take the initiative. Not minding the status quo, he invested a whopping 110 honor to erect an Ice Tower and recruit a single White Witch. The Witch was sent directly across the map, above the enemy royal food production to at least partially disrupt it. While this prompted a brief response from ~ 10 red Archers and the threat was dealt with rather quickly, Asophix used the opportunity to build the production for Crossbowmen and candles in preparation for the Church. The next round of skirmish came a little later, as Asophix created a band of 17 White Wolves and sent them to contest the firstly occupied estate, which was under the guard of a light red Archer group. The Wolves quickly disposed of the garrison, however reinforcements were not much far behind. Lord Chris sent a band of men-at-arms recruited from the initial supply, and this group arrived fast to the scene. Even though they were quickly decimated, the Wolves' ranks were thinned out considerably enough that a relief force of ~15 Crossbowmen pushed the invading canines out of the red territory for good. A follow-up harassment force of 3 White Witches was the nail in the coffin for Asophix's direct threats. As Lord Chris had a nicely running economy that could easily fund cheap units to repel intruders, he started building engine towers overlooking the outer perimeter, with Dragon Harpoons added on each one. The red estates were in relative safety from this point on. Counterattack in the East Using his superior funds, the Red player opted for a two-pronged attack. Using White Witches to secure the bridges and a Siege Camp in his other estate, Lord Chris constructed a few Catapults to lightly pummel the walls where the green defenders were rallying. In lieu of immediate response capabilities, Asophix had to spend yet another 200 honor on white wolves to run interception and maul the devilish engines to scrap before they could do much damage. Struggling with the lack of a proper frontline, Asophix doubled down on weapon production and added Pikeman equipment production, reaching 120 population. Since this took a lot of time to take effect, the Red adversary used his time to funnel additional forces into both of his villages. As Swordsmen and Pikemen rushed forth to the icy village halls, the total map domination of Lord Chris grew impossible to challenge head-on. Yet another group of red catapults appeared and started working on the Green player's outer defenses. As Asophix was desperate to build a Lookout Tower to provide bulk and height for his crossbowmen, the White Wolves also lead a second counterattack. This defensive measure proved costly however, as Crossbowmen loyal to Lord Chris had now a safe firing position from the village hall. Out of 25-30 White Wolves only 5 retreated home safely, telling tales of their defeat, provided they could speak a human language. Using Asophix's own method, Lord Chris scanned his area for vulnerabilities and decided to send a group of 10-15 White Witches around the defenses. There was one area not properly covered with Dragon Harpoons, so the witches were able to successfully pass through unscathed and unleashed their enchanted arrows on ant-like civilians. A second wave of Witches arrived and caused temporary loss of production in the enemy ranks until the hole was sealed and a Dragon Harpoon cleared home skies. Trouble Brewing Lord Chris had his siege camp still up in the second estate, which eventually weighed in the decision of building out a semi-impenetrable foothold there. As the Red ruler continued developing his economy and constantly strengthened his garrison, Asophix smelled blood. In a daring and ultimately costly strategic decision, he called the Ice Queen forth and sent her on a long march along a remote path to the foothold estate. She passed through undetected and the cold-hearted woman unleashed her icy wrath just on the edge of her ability range. Even though she came under fire, lots of red troops froze to death in their encampment. After the skirmish, Asophix decided it's time to go full evasive mode. Using his gold coffers and his last reserves of honor, he was desperate to find an angle. Replenishing his lost White Wolves and recruiting another 25 White Witches, the icy commando was running and flying around the perimeter, but there was no infiltration point: Lord Chris has built a well-maintained defense network of Dragon Harpoons and Crossbowmen. A band of 40 green Archers was unsuccessful the same way, but they could be repurposed as defense, as the red containment grew stronger. Eventually, the Red Siege Camp spawned catapults again, this time supported by durable wooden Cats. As troops being repositioned around the Lookout Tower were moving about, the catapults netted juicy shots, thinning out the defensive garrison considerably. A quick response of Asophix's White Wolves was successful dismantling the siege engines and the siege camp, but they all died in the process. All Hell Breaking Loose In the next 10 minutes, both sides built up their forces wherever needed. Although the focal point remained in the second estate, the other side got some reinforcements too, which Asophix tried to deter by arming to the teeth with crossbowmen. He also got his core army of 65-70 Pikemen, which he immediately deployed to the frontline. As the pikemen were congregating, Lord Chris also grabbed his colorful garrison and decided to create a combined-arms type of composition with multiple fire ballistae and additional cats. Asophix also deployed a handful of fire ballistae of his own and started taking potshots at the enemy ranks. This prompted Lord Chris to pull his forces together, while a small band of Frost Giants and Polar Bears marched steadily in their might. What he did not expect was the presence of the Ice Queen, whose icy attack temporarily stalled the towering colossi, then the rest of both main forces arrived. Snow fell from the Ice Queen's hands, White Witches rained down bright arrows, and careful maneuvering resulted in a second clash, this time with support from Lord Chris's pikemen. With the battle in full rage, Asophix's full attention was caught up in it. He reveled in control and concentrated on dispatching additional reinforcements from the nearby barracks. What he overlooked however was his other defensive front. Lord Chris sent in ten mighty Frost Giants, who easily walked through the thin walls and the endless rain of crossbow bolts, finding their way in the heart of the enemy stronghold. After two minutes of pure destruction, Asophix realized the error in his ways. Overlooking the loss of his town, he committed suicide rather unceremoniously to escape suffering. Congratulations to @ Lord_Chris for his victory!

Hi @ stev ! All of the options use the mouse wheel to edit the values. 🙂 Many other events use this option in the same manner, regardless of war/peace mission. Also, keep in mind that Viking ships don't have a wrecked state and the ship simply stays in place if "Turn into Wreck" is chosen.

When you click the "Edit Scenario" button in the map preview pane, you can edit all options, including the trader settings. It doesn't matter which mission type you choose, the scenario editor should always be available. By default all goods trades are turned off, which you need to manually turn on per type. Alt + ' apostrophe ' can also bring you up a panel for starting gold, rations and tax levels as well. Explore the settings a bit and you'll find how much you can influence your missions. 🙂

Hello! Your assumption is right: iron is only placeable on elevations. Paint a section of the map with mountains, then paint the plateau with iron, which will now appear. The inverse applies to grass, as you can only place it on ground level. Everything should work fine with the in-game editor. I don't know of any standalone editor, but frankly, you shouldn't need any.

Thanks @ Planewalker ! Theoretically, any castle size should suffice. The stock Firefly maps are often ill-suitable for large castles though, which is a let-down. It's a Firefly syndrome to include way too small playing areas. 😕 According to my findings, either the AI is prone to block itself (got it on The Snake), or the estates are way too confined to fully construct a large design in them. Most of my tests involved the map "Fair Fight", but even there, I was forced to relocate the starting locations on the map due to the proximity of forests. Either way, the same limitations apply as in the predecessor editor, e.g. a 100x100 grid is where the AI's castle is to be built. I'd rather the keep is left on center location in the AIC, and the maps themselves were designed properly. 😄 Addendum: the AI only builds wood camps near "Tree 2". Fair Fight includes the wrong type of tree in all estates and I also replaced the forests there. I am considering collecting all limitations and showing them in the Help, in a coming version.

Hello Everyone, I am pleased to announce that a public release of the Castle Editor is made available! https://www.stronghold-nation.com/downloads/file/698-ai-castle-editor/ This program is a recompilation and a vastly improved version of the old SHK community editor intended for SH2. With this program, you can edit and introduce castle templates for all Legends bot characters. The AI Editor includes a few quality of life changes, while preserving the style of its predecessor, such as: File History of the last 10 templates visited or used Automatic save function (can be turned off) Tile indicator for easier building placement Automatic keep placement in the center for new designs Flood-fill deletion for removing large chunks of wall, moat and pitch ditch sections Support of "Open With" feature for .AIC files on Windows In order to use the program, simply unpack the .zip package on to your file system and run the .exe in the attachment. The program relies on Java to run, but everything necessary is bundled, so you don't need to install anything else. It is highly recommended that the file structure remains intact, or you may encounter weird program behaviour! Version 0.7 marks the first release, but it is not the final one, as it will continue to see fixes and improvements for the foreseeable future. You can submit feature or bugfix requests in a comment by the file's Download section, or directly to me! Many thanks for @ Lord_Chris and @ Planewalker for testing the application and providing feedback on it! Happy Editing!

Thanks, quite well! I would consider the ability to build almost complete. Every lord can be given a functional castle without misplaced buildings or differences, you can do it as well. I updated the overhead building images and implemented a reposition of the camera upon zooming in. It is very rudimentary so it may not work in all positions (more of a math problem). Markers are the only thing left to update, so I'm going to finish them as well and provide a new update, shortly.

Interesting findings. I'd be more interested in more complex layouts as well! Given how buildings can be rotated and have different access points (such as seal holes have only one entrance on the platform), there may be cases where certain farms perform better than others. In some Youtube match recordings, I've seen people go for loads of chicken coops after building a variety of all farms (presumably for early honor). Could you see those being superior despite? Cheese may be marginally better, but chicken farms come online faster so you can trade food for gold earlier with them.

Yes, it would 100% work! The AI has a robust enough economy that they can afford weapons for their troops. I have not found how a Lord is given a faction, but theoretically they can build any unit, if the recruitment building is available for them. This program is only a Castle Editor right now, and you have no influence over the AI troop roster. Much like the SH2 editor, you can define rally points for the preset groups, between which the AI tries to spread troops evenly. There is a Lord Editor in the works, for which development has just been started. The grid toggle option is available for the SH2 editor as well, it is unchanged here! 😄

Thank you @ Lord_Chris for the acknowledgement! It feels good to be here!

Hello Everyone! I have been developing an AI Editor for Stronghold Legends. The aim is to get as much liberty as possible over the design of an AI, making them more competent and fun to play against. I also hope that any user can have a smooth experience, while designing a dream castle! This project is a recompiled and modified variant of the original Stronghold-Knights SH2 AI Editor, adapted for Legends. Currently it knows a little bit more than its predecessor, with a few quality-of-life features added: Working directory and save file history up to ten files. Zoom in and out with the mouse wheel. As the development's initial focus was to get a robust adaptation for a foolproof planning, the utility and its design in particular can still feel a lot 2005-ish. I have plans to upgrade the app with a lot more features and supply it a more up-to-date look and feel, with responsiveness in mind. If you want to participate in testing, please message me on my profile! Any remarks are also welcome under this post. 🙂 As an inspiration, see an excerpt of Mordred's slightly edited vanilla castle:

Hi, that is all very interesting what you have found. As far as I know, the AI can be reinstated the civilian services, if you add these buildings to the template. Looks like gamerules.dat governs how the AI builds and maybe even what troops they use, so that's why replacing this works. If I remember correctly, the CD version has the original release notes and changelogs in a Word document that details everything. For example, fire ballistae used to autoshoot until 1.3.1, while torture devices also didn't give honor until a point. Are there other notable differences regarding the AI armies and castles, or are these more or less unchanged?

Hi All! If you could have the ability to give any AI a castle/town, what kind of layout would you give to them, so that they summon a feeling and atmosphere true to their character? For example, King Arthur has always been chivalrous and noble, so he would use few traps and lots of imposing towers. Another could be Vlad with lots of spike traps, flame and lookout towers. All these ideas would eventually be used for adding a refreshing look for the AI players, while also making them more competent at defending. Perhaps I could even make your ideas real? Anything goes.

This is literally one of the cases I tested. Should be fine according to the screenshot.

Thanks for the attachment! I quickly tried out directly modifying the zip in Total Commander, as well as unpacking to a test folder, modifying there, and packing it right back in. I only modified rules.xml with the variant you sent me, and it works spiffingly in both cases! I don't understand what went you wrong. You could use Google Drive or another file sharing site, and drop a link to your assets.v, if you're up for another round of inspection.

Should be normal. I had a false memory of assets.v being larger. Try sharing your edited assets.v and I could compare it in detail.

If you used the V-maker on your zip and copied assets.v back to the original folder, then the next thing coming to mind is data integrity. Your .v should be around 450 MB large after the process (Firefly bundled with a less space efficient algorithm). I encountered black screens frequently when toying around with the scripts. What changes have you made in the .v exactly?

You need to directly modify the bundled assets in C2. For that, use the V-maker utility found in this guide. After you feed assets.v to the maker (remember to create a copy and rename the extension to .txt first), unpack the archive or use Total Commander to edit the archive directly.

Take a look at rules.xml to modify unit stats (beside goods and random events). Popcap - and game rules in general - is mostly governed in the script file "game_settings.lua". The numbers depend on player. Find these two rows and you can override the limits. I think the array elements follow each other from 2 to 8 players present. There is also the file "options.xml" in Documents/My Games/Stronghold Crusader 2, where you can alter the absolute hard cap of buildings and units per player.

Hello @ Alfred The Baker , I had to suspend development due to private matters. The project is slowly getting into shape, with the intent of getting more features in so that the app is more 2023 than 2005. 😄 The castle system from SH2 is almost the same and carries over. Tiny and other fallback options are used if no castle layout is valid for the AI character. 01-04 are still the numbers you need.

Legends has a "SH Legends data.csv" file in the SHL installation folder. There you can find a somewhat messy table full of references and values. Most notably, you can view all unit, building and goods stats there. These stats can be modified too, if you want to play with balance! I don't know how this can effect multiplayer matches though.

V-Maker is not at fault, rather the way you did zipping does not work. If you right-click on one file and zip that way, only the one file will be included in the zip. Add all folders to the zip selection and try again!

Dances are independent from any event and all you need is 4 cloth (not wool!) in the stockpile and a working Lord's Kitchen, from where the pages will ferry the Lady the materials. The lady sew dancing dress in her idle time, between feasts. That's when she is also having a bath, so long the pages deliver her cloth. Normally the Lord takes part in any castle activity he can. If you move the Lord and return him to civilian duties, then you can abort the event in-progress and have him move to the next one instead, but you won't get any honor from it. I think the Lord only visits the Lady if he has no other events to attend. Jousting tournaments and masses can all take up his free time, so that the Lady is never visited. Keep in mind that both these events give you 6x20/200 honor compared to the 2 from the Lord's visit, so the game may prioritize these over the latter.

FSB audio relies heavily on the data structure files (.feb or .bank), which govern the file size directly. I am not sure what free editor there is to edit files without problems. The tool works this way: extract a .v file: .XXX => .v create a .v file: .XXX => .v So you must rename your zipped .v to something else (.zip for example), so that it won't get overwritten. Total Commander is very helpful for editing the package directly.