Unprotecting a .w3m file - MPQ editor shows only .xxx file

[Darentei]

Topic title sums it up.

What trickery is this? Apparently xDep will only accept .w3x files, and renaming didn't work.
So naturally I try it with an MPQ editor. Shit doesn't work, and after trying several OTHER editors, I finally manage to open up the map, only to find:

File00000008.xxx

And nothing else.

Unconfuse me please.
What kind of protection is this and how can I counter it?

[Senethior459]

The "protection" is that you don't have a listfile for the map. I suggest using Ladik's MPQ Editor. I know for a fact that it supports .w3m. However, you can just change the thing in XDep. Go into the config file, and change all instances of .w3x to .w3m. I've done it before, it works.

[Darentei]

So I need a better listfile for opening it?

Well, the thing is... The only editor that I could actually see anything (the.xxx file) with, was the one you mentioned. I was able to do this by using the internal listfile which, surprise, is empty. This must be a clever trick to prevent haxxing it...

Anyway, using another listfile (I have 2 relatively small ones) crashed the editor.

After doing some research, it seems that the map itself in .w3m format is actually an MPQ archive that was renamed to .w3m, and contains a .w3x file or something, hence it does not work on ROC, which I can confirm.

About the config file for xDep, I never thought of that, since it's kinda in russian... I'll try I guess.

[Senethior459]

The things that actually matter are in English. Descriptions are in Russian, but you can either use a translator or just guess at the meaning of each. Their names pretty much say what they do.

Try using RMPQEx to get a better listfile for the map. It uses storm.dll - if it can't open it, then the map is corrupted enough that WC3 can't, either.
You say it's a .w3m, but it doesn't work in WC3? It could be that the author was an idiot, and thought that renaming the map from .w3x to .w3m would make it work. Try changing the extension type to .w3x. See if it works then. If not, send me a link, I'll try it.

[Darentei]

It works fine in WC3. It's not like the author didn't know what he was doing; rather he used a clever method of protection... According to him it would stop noobs from deprotecting with xDep, so it was more of a countermeasure. The map was not renamed... As I wrote, it is apparently inside an MPQ archive named .w3m.

I'll try some more methods... If they still fail I'll just post it as a request and link it here.

[Senethior459]

So what you're saying is that he embedded the entire map inside of an empty map? Interesting. Maybe you could use RMPQEx to open it, and extract the map back out.

What map is this? I'd like to try to break the protection, I'm very curious about this system.

[Darentei]

Heh. Well, I was surprised it nobody requested it yet.

The map is Warlock 083. Seems I wasn't completely mistaken about this method being unique?
Anyway, the few hints I found was posted on their forums, in a thread names 'w3m'.

EDITS: RMPQEx found a bunch of files. Most of them are normally found in maps, but there was also a bunch of more .xxx files.
The Auto Search function was able to reconstruct all of them! Phew... Now I just need to... Well I'm still a newb at this point. What exactly am I supposed to do now...?
Tried to add what I found to my listfile. Didn't work. xDep wouldn't accept it in neither .w3m nor .w3x. sfmpq.exe crashes. .w3i not found, etc. Still unable to open anything with the MPQ editors I currently have.

EDIT: Tried adding the files to the xDep folder... Apparently it was successful, but World Editor doesn't seem to agree. xDep hardly even started the process before it was ended.
I'm out of ideas... Again.
Additionally, re-doing the process with xDep fails in the same way that happened the first time I tried it.

[Luciferianism]

Heh. Well, I was surprised it nobody requested it yet.

The map is Warlock 083. Seems I wasn't completely mistaken about this method being unique?
Anyway, the few hints I found was posted on their forums, in a thread names 'w3m'.

EDITS: RMPQEx found a bunch of files. Most of them are normally found in maps, but there was also a bunch of more .xxx files.
The Auto Search function was able to reconstruct all of them! Phew... Now I just need to... Well I'm still a newb at this point. What exactly am I supposed to do now...?
Tried to add what I found to my listfile. Didn't work. xDep wouldn't accept it in neither .w3m nor .w3x. sfmpq.exe crashes. .w3i not found, etc. Still unable to open anything with the MPQ editors I currently have.

EDIT: Tried adding the files to the xDep folder... Apparently it was successful, but World Editor doesn't seem to agree. xDep hardly even started the process before it was ended.
I'm out of ideas... Again.
Additionally, re-doing the process with xDep fails in the same way that happened the first time I tried it.

My suggestion: Beg Shamanno to tell you how to unprotect it. I doubt anyone here besides Ozzapoo or JJ2197 or Aero would be able to hack this map properly. As far as I know, Shamanno1 is doing the protection for the map, which means the level it's protected on is far greater than mine, and I'm pretty damn good... Also, I really don't think Shamanno will tell you how to unprotect it. I'd say just give in...

[Darentei]

Well that would be the case... Makes it abit more complicated.
I guess I'll just see what I can find, if anything, for now. At least I got some of it right... I think...