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Adding new areas

Sillara of the Tamari

By Sillara of the Tamari
in Modding Q&A

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Sillara of the Tamari

Sillara of the Tamari

Posted
Posted

I want to add a "new" area to my new mod. It offers the opportunity to do a bit of planar traveling, and, having NO designing skills whatsoever, I thought it would be fitting to borrow a couple of Torment areas. I made a copy of the area I wanted, removed its actors and script via NI, and then I tried to install it, just to see if it would work at all. This is what Weidu said to me:

 

[saerileth\Areas\NSAR110A.are] PARSE ERROR at line 1 column 0-13

Near Text: AREAV1.0AR0806

syntax error

 

[saerileth\Areas\NSAR110A.are] ERROR at line 1 column 0-13

Near Text: AREAV1.0AR0806

Parsing.Parse_error

ERROR: parsing [saerileth\Areas\NSAR110A.are]: Parsing.Parse_error

 

 

I do not know what that means. I tried altering the Wedfile, which sort of looked odd, but no matter what I did, it never got anywhere. (The current Wedfile is 0AR0806.)

 

What my .tp2 says is this: COMPILE ~Saerileth\Areas\NSAR110A.are~ .

 

What have I done?

 

:):D:rolleyes:

 

Sillara

 

Edit: I realized, after poking around some more, that this is NOT enough to put in the .tp2, but I still do not know how to do this. Would I still get this problem if I tried to cannibalize areas from BG2 itself? I do not want to do that, really. :D

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Smoketest

Smoketest

Posted
Posted

Don't know if you know this or not, but here's what you need for an area:

 

TIS = Tileset; the area's background graphics

 

WED = World Editor Data or somesuch. Responsible for drawing the area using the main TIS and overlay TIS, along with 'walls' for keeping the characters from walking through things, and door open/close overlays.

 

ARE = the stuff that makes the map come alive. Make sure you copy all Animation BAMs and Ambient WAVs you want along with your area. You'll have to change the song data too unless you copy those ACMs over as well.

 

MOS = the overhead map of the area

 

BMP = the Luminosity map (brightness levels), Search map (pathfinding) and Height map (pseudo 3d, like walking up ramps, attacking from a 'high' point to a 'low' point, etc.) for the area

 

BAM = animations that are plugged into the ARE file. Things like fountains, chimney smoke, etc.

 

WAV = sound effects that are plugged into the ARE file. Things like city sounds, animal sounds, people sounds, dragon growls, wolf howls, rat noises, wind, etc.

 

Spawn Points and Rest Spawns also refer to CRE files that you may wish to eliminate.

 

Containers may refer to ITMs you don't want. NI will let you add and remove items without harming the container, or you can delete the container too. You'll have to use something else, like IETME, to create new containers.

 

Another thing to consider is that some structures, like Rest Spawns and Info triggers, have strrefs into a TLK file. You'll have to add your own strings if you keep these messages.

 

As for the differences in the data from PST (or another game) to BG2, you should be able to identify possible trouble spots by comparing file format data in IESDP.

 

Once the area is done and tested, all you have to do is put it in a copy folder and tell WeiDU to copy the files straight into the override folder. You can assign scripts and whatnot to the ARE file beforehand, but you'll have to assign new strings to any Info triggers (or other structures that use strings) you copy/add.

 

Hope this helps a little.

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Domi

Domi

Posted
Posted

Here is a couple of links to Area editing discussions (maybe irrelevant, but I like to keep it all together). Below the links I have a log of an explanation Dorotea graciously gave me some time ago, when I was wondering just how one uses all these complex tools. I do not know just how helpful it is, since I have not yet gone there myself, but I would be greatful if this thread continues and turn into Area adding tut for noobs like me :rolleyes:

 

 

http://forums.gibberlings3.net/index.php?showtopic=1919

http://forums.gibberlings3.net/index.php?showtopic=1514

 

I used Infinity Explorer to pick an area and then followed a rather weird set of instructions on the TeamBG site. I used a few tools including DLTCP and IE Tile set editor. Then tis were compressed for me. DLTCP has an area extracting editor.

 

So I first opened IE Tile set editor and tried to access IWD with it.

 

It did not work because they are compressed so I used DLTCP to uncompress the area I liked. It dumps everything into the override; in this case -- IWD II override. You will get the files there, then open IE Tile set editor again. Switch to new area mode and try to open your area in the override. Then you can use ze button to strip it of all actors and containers if you wish and save/rebuild as BG II area.

 

TBG Forum had a nice walkthrough pinned actually on how to do it (gone? or new link?)

 

 

The files you need to have at the end are:

xxx.mos

xxxx.tis or xxx.tiz -- compressed version

xxx.are

xxx.wed

xxxHT.bmp

xxxSR.bmp

xxxLM.bmp

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