Book II Character / Map Editor v1.0.1 (April 15, 2014)

[raverdave2k]

I've been having great fun playing with your editor making a few mods for Book 1 and II but I'm having a bit of a problem with the mini map on maps I've done for Book II (both those edited and created from scratch).

The problem is when I first enter these maps the minimap is scrambled s in this picture.



As you can see how ever as I walk around the level with a high cartography the map fixes itself as I go, if I do this with a lower level cartography which only draws outlines then these are drawn but the scrambled effect shows through them.

Any ideas?

[raverdave2k]

Right I've worked out the issue, as well as the main map file there are two other files required for each screen, a .ent file which contains details of all the npc and .opq which seems to be related to the mini map.

I was able to fix my problem by coping an .opq file out of a brand new saved game and renaming it with the same name as each of my maps.

If any one else needs a blank .opq file I've uploaded one here:
clean .opq file

[xolotl]

Right I've worked out the issue, as well as the main map file there are two other files required for each screen, a .ent file which contains details of all the npc and .opq which seems to be related to the mini map.

Ah, right - I've actually been meaning to chime in on this. It's quite odd, actually, that that's happening, because the editor doesn't actually touch the .opq file at all. The .opq files, FWIW, are actually just PNGs. If you renamed them to "foo.png" you'd be be able to open them in any app that understands how to load graphics. (Well, the renaming wouldn't be strictly necessary in many circumstances, but you get the picture.)

Anyway, indeed - quite odd that you were seeing that kind of distortion in there.

Unrelatedly, now that there are actually a couple of Book II mods available, I think I'll start keeping track of them in the first post here. Just FYI and all!

[IJBall]

Unrelatedly, now that there are actually a couple of Book II mods available, I think I'll start keeping track of them in the first post here. Just FYI and all!

Just so you know, I'm also keeping track of the Book I mods in the "Strategy Central: Links for the Perplexed" posting in the Book I forum.

I dunno if Randomizer is keeping track of them in his Book II "Strategy Central" post, but if you keep track of them too, that's a second place for people to go looking for a directory of the various mods...

[Kreador Freeaxe]

Right I've worked out the issue, as well as the main map file there are two other files required for each screen, a .ent file which contains details of all the npc and .opq which seems to be related to the mini map.

I was able to fix my problem by coping an .opq file out of a brand new saved game and renaming it with the same name as each of my maps.

If any one else needs a blank .opq file I've uploaded one here:
clean .opq file

FYI, I think in the latest version of your Port Kuudad expansion, you didn't get a clean .opq file in for Port K itself. When I just bought cartography, the minimap became that nice mess you showed before.

[raverdave2k]

Ah yes I knew there was something I ment to do The latest version of that mod was done before I worked out what the problem was, I ment to return to it once I finished the Treasure of the Orakur map but managed to forget. I shall upload an ammended version tomorrow.

[Kreador Freeaxe]

Ah yes I knew there was something I ment to do The latest version of that mod was done before I worked out what the problem was, I ment to return to it once I finished the Treasure of the Orakur map but managed to forget. I shall upload an ammended version tomorrow.

Speaking of your Treasure of the Orakur map, are you supposed to be able to pick up the bucket of cold water?

Oh, and when you loot the chest near the spiders, it vanishes. Also a bit annoying to have a minor random chest secured with such a powerful trap.

[raverdave2k]

Speaking of your Treasure of the Orakur map, are you supposed to be able to pick up the bucket of cold water?

Oh, and when you loot the chest near the spiders, it vanishes. Also a bit annoying to have a minor random chest secured with such a powerful trap.

No not supposed to be able to pick up that bucket, though it does have a purpose.

Just had a look at the map and it seems I set the option on that chest which is for use on the white sacks, I've just fixed that and dropped the trap to something a bit less lethal, just uploading now.

[xolotl]

I was about to create a small island, but it is quite time-consuming to do one thing may be good, when you create a new blank map, you can automatically selected, if it is with some of the floor, such as water orgrass, full of.

Yeah, there actually is a "Fill Map" option, in the Edit menu I believe, which will let you fill an entire map with a certain kind of floor. I agree it'd be nice to be able to select whole areas and just fill that, rather than having to do the whole map; we'll see if something like that ever gets added. :)

[Advize]

So I've been looking at the names of the maps in my saves folder and it looks like the maps are named based on their x / y coordinates on the world grid.

For example, the tile / area you start in at the beginning of the game (eastwillow / Yoma River Valley) is 5050.map, while Port Kuudad is 2 tiles north and 2 tiles east, making the name for that map 5248. The upstairs for houses in Port Kuudad is actually considered an exterior location and is named 5248_up. All interiors are named based on the name of the zone.

I've yet to experiment with the map editor but I'm under the impression one could create new world spaces by making map files with the appropriate names. I'm hoping that as long as the files are created already then the engine would assume you've been there and load the files rather than try to create the files itself from the datapak file and fail. As for custom interiors, I'm not sure how to go about doing this yet. I'm going to guess staircases and the like have scripts that would directly reference the interior cell's name.

It's been a long day and I'm about to go to bed. Testing will have to wait until tomorrow. If this is already common knowledge, ignore everything I just said. I'm new to this game.

Edit: So I fought sleep, downloaded the map editor, and managed to create a 5052.map and traveled to it, whereas the game previously told me there was nothing there and to turn back. YUSSS!!! It appears creating new exterior locations is possible.

Edit 2: I apologize for my excitement, it looks like this is mostly documented already on your website(http://apocalyptech.com/eschalon/map.php). I'm surprised there aren't more mods for this game, particularly ones that utilize the ability to create new exterior maps.

[raverdave2k]

Edit: So I fought sleep, downloaded the map editor, and managed to create a 5052.map and traveled to it, whereas the game previously told me there was nothing there and to turn back. YUSSS!!! It appears creating new exterior locations is possible.

You are indeed correct, I have utilised this in my Treasure of The Orakur mod, which has a couple of new exterior maps in it.

[Advize]

Edit: So I fought sleep, downloaded the map editor, and managed to create a 5052.map and traveled to it, whereas the game previously told me there was nothing there and to turn back. YUSSS!!! It appears creating new exterior locations is possible.

You are indeed correct, I have utilised this in my Treasure of The Orakur mod, which has a couple of new exterior maps in it.

Seriously? I downloaded your mod yesterday to check the map names and they all appeared to correspond to existing map locations. I didn't have time to play it but I did note there were new interior maps. I sort of just finished this game yesterday and hopped right into modding it before coming to these forums to see what the community had already achieved. I'll be sure to play through your mods later today.

[raverdave2k]

There are actually two new exterior maps in there somewhere, I shan't spoil the fun by telling you where

[raverdave2k]

In light of the issue mentioned here I have a minor request if there is another version released.

When creating items on the "Misc Attributes Tab" can the "Number in Stack" option be set to default to 1 instead of the current 0?

[scannerfish]

Newb question. I point the character editor for book II at eb2.cfg and it's telling me:

unpack requires a string argument of length 4

Am I even looking at the right file for this? Or do I need to do something with my character file?


If it helps I'm playing on the steam version.