Starting Your Game

If you have customised the text files that control on-screen messages, then you must start a game in a certain way in order for the new messages to be seen. Just starting Heretic II the usual way and then executing the 'game Newgame; map Map1' commands won't do the trick.

One way is to create a BAT file that is used to start the game. Create the following file in a text editor (save it with a .BAT extension) and place it in your new directory ('Newgame' in this example):

  echo off
  cd..
  heretic2.exe +set game Newgame +map Map1
  echo You Can Now Close This Window

Or just create a shortcut on your desktop. Right-click on the desktop and choose the 'New - Shortcut' commands. Paste the following into the Command Line:

  "C:\Program Files\Heretic II\Heretic2.exe" +set game Newgame +map Map1

Again, change the words 'Newgame' and 'Map1' to whatever you have called your game directory and first map.

Either of these methods will start Heretic II in such a way as to load up your custom messages. If you also have a custom skin that goes with the game, you can add the command '+set skin Skinname' after '+set game Newgame' and before '+map Map1' (where 'Skinname' is the name of your new skin). New skins go in the \Newgame\\players\male\ or \newgame\players\female\ directories, depending on whether you are using the Corvus of Kiera models.

The advantage of the shortcut is that you can also link it to your own icon, and it can be copied to the desktop (the BAT file must stay in you own game directory; \Heretic II\Newgame\). The disadvantage is that some people may not have installed Heretic II in the default location (C:\Program Files\Heretic II\). If you intend to distribute the add-on, providing both a BAT file (called something like 'Start.BAT' or 'PlayGame.BAT') and the desktop shortcut as well is probably the way to go.