Replacing Enemies And Items In Mercenaries Mode

I was looking around some arc files and I think I found all the files which control enemy and item placements for all the different mercenaries maps and modes.

If you look in s400.arc (stage for public assembly) and go to stage\s400\soft you'll see 4 directories: merce, mercex, vsm and vss.

Each directory contains all the files which define all the enemy placements, where they spawn from, which enemies should spawn, which boss to spawn, and where all the items are (like time bonuses, combo chests, herbs and etc).

Merce is normal mercenaries. Merceex is no mercy mode. vsm is versus slayer, and vss is versus survivor.

The files used in these directories won't actually crash the game if the game can't find and load them. So you can see the effect with any of them turned off. I did a little test like that to figure out what each file controls:
s400\soft\merce\fsm\EmStArea0 (defines enemy spawns in the northern region of the map)
s400\soft\merce\fsm\EmStArea1 (defines enemy spawns in the southern region of the map)
s400\soft\merce\fsm\fix\AtkRights (unknown)
s400\soft\merce\fsm\fix\BossEmSet (contains boss data)
s400\soft\merce\fsm\fix\StartEmSet (defines enemies which spawn on the map right away (including the chickens))
s400\soft\merce\s400_em## (didn't test any of them, but I'm pretty sure these defines the enemy types on the map)
s400\soft\merce\s400_fsm (not sure but I think enemies stopped spawning when this was gone. does it define spawn locations or regions?)
s400\soft\merce\s400_IDF00_Ins (defines locations of explosive barrels and ladders)
s400\soft\merce\s400_IDF01_Ins (defines locations of chests, breakable boxes and time bonuses)
s400\soft\merce\s400_Item (defines items just lying around at start of match (combo bonuses in chests, herbs lying around, grenades lying around))
s400\soft\merce\s400_noitem (unknown)
s400\soft\merce\s400_sce (unknown)

Now then, since I never get an error message if they can't be loaded means that I don't know what extension they're supposed to have. So I haven't been able to replace any of them yet. The header of the files says "XFS", but giving the files that extension seems to have no effect. I'm really eager to figure this out, since this may mean we can turn normal mercs into no mercy (thus allowing coop for it), or if we figure out the files themselves we can try to spawn lickers, big majini, or whatever in public assembly or any other map.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SnQsoZqwhtM - Here's a video with all the files for mercenaries not loading.

Good to see someone else other then me is looking at this
I've been toying around with these files since Benchmark, but never focused on it hard enough to really edit it to any significant amount. But I do remember that there is a file in there somewhere, where we can add new spawn files to go even more crazy

Why do i get the feeling that you're going to get Wizard Assignment to RE5. xD

Seems like files with the XFS header never have the extension XFS even though they're all the same format. DMC4 has the same thing.

I tried some extensions for other XFS files (jex, aef, cef, ads) and none of them works.

Darnit, I feel so close, if I can just figure out that extension @_@

This sounds promising, I used to mod but I never take the time to mess with it much now days. I suppose by time i'd get around to it, others have already done it lol. I think mercenaries mode could use more enemies but it'd also be nice to do the same to story mode because there simply isn't enough enemies in man spots of the story.

I liked chapter one because of the spots where you get swarmed by many enemies and don't have to run around just to find a small handful of enemies.

I'd also like to find the character selection menu location to try to add Jill & Wesker to story mode as selectable characters rather than mods that have to be removed to go back to normal. I know the cutscenes and some audio might be chris & sheva still but that's going to be anyways.

Oooh, that gives me an idea. Normal stages chapters has to have similar files. If I'm lucky I can try changing those and see if I can get error mesage.

Too bad they didn't create RE5 with intentions of mods & real DLCs like Fallout 3 had. That game was extremely easy to mod in virtually any way desired, even as far as new stories, quests etc. I know about hex editing but I never have been all that interested in the time it takes to locate what goes to what and make changes and make it all work properly.

*weep* No error messages when changing XFS files in stage100.arc . Figuring out these extensions isn't easy...

And yeah, it's a shame the game doesn't have an official SDK. But at least it is more moddable than most other games out there.

so your saying that you can do one of those mass boss or mass enemy mods again? hoping that works for single player as well so we can have a mijini spam lol.

Sectus you are doing an unbelievably good job trying to mod RE5 bro. What you're talking about with Mercs mode would indeed be awesome if you can pull it off! I would LOVE to be able to replace some enemies with others in Mercs! Being able to fight say, the Chainsaw guy in Public Assembly *as well as* the Executioner and some of the fat black guys, all while using the bow and arrow while playing CHRIS would be nothing short of orgasmic lol!!!!!

One new idea for trying to figure out the correct extensions. I just realized that Lost.Planet.ARC.Exctactor.exe gives unique extensions for each type of extension (even though it's obviously not the right now.

It gives the mercs files these extensions:
15302EF4
65B275E5

If we can find other files in any other arc files with the exact same extension, we can try to force an error message with those which will hopefully give us the right extension.

Hm. I've noticed those fucking .xfs files. They're used in regular swaps as well.

Anyways, if we can find those extensions, we can get ourselves a co-op No Mercy... or wait... which player does it choose the spawn list from? The Host I assume...

Yeah, I'm pretty sure it's the host who controls everything regading majini and items. If both players have the same files, that should guarantee it would work.

Think I may have a working No Mercy Duo, need someone to test it with though. Not bad for my first 2 hours of modding

No mercy online coop:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DWHu71CQ0iQ

I made this video with seye. He figured out how to replace the mercs item/enemy definition files. The trick is to simply inject them back into the arc after editing them (we still don't know their correct extensions).

Unfortunately, right now there's one big drawback and that's the 150 kill limit is still in place. I dunno how to change that.

I'll have more info about this posted later as I do random tests.