Modifying the worldmap

M

mphen

First time out of the vault
Is there a tutorial on how to do this? Some of the things I'd like to do are: Removing adding new/cities (adding/removing from the citylist on the worldmap panel too), changing the the whole appeareance of the worldmap (like europe instead of america).

I think some of these things have been discussed (adding cities, i'm sure). Changing the map itself isnt that big of a deal since it's just replacing the .frm files with the ones you want but how to make the world larger/smaller or to change the inaccescible places (ie. making a lake or a river and removing the sea). Probably hardcoded but there must be a way to override them, right?

These are just a few problems I've faced when going through the things I'd have to do in order to make a total modification, that is,ditching the original storyline and starting completely from scratch (well not exactly but you know what I mean)

Feel free to post your own question in this thread too and answers to questions that haven't been asked yet. Maybe someday we'll have enough information to sticky this or even make a tutorial so we won't have people like me asking annoying questions :P
 
Damn. It appers that changing the map IS a big deal since I can't get it to work. Made my map (take a look if you're interested http://koti.mbnet.fi/anal/test1.jpg) chopped it into pieces, converted them to .frm, named them correctly and put them in in data/art/intrface but it didn't work. Then I tried making a .dat out of them and tried running it with FAME but it didn't work either. It seems a can't stop fallout2 from loading the map .frms from master.dat. And the most annoying part is that modding other stuff like dialogue by simply editing or replacing the files in data/***whatever works fine but the worldmap is somewhat kinkier.
 
worldmaps are made up of "tiles" that are 7x6 squares each..
a worldmap has to have a number of tiles that is a A x B number ( ie 4 x 5 = 20 tiles.. 3 x 3 = 9 tiles etc.. )
the number of "tiles" across is set in the ../fallout2/data/data/worldmap.txt file near the end by the line..
Code: 
[Tile Data]
num_horizontal_tiles=4
which imediately preceeds the encounter chance tables for each square on a "tile"...

the frm's should be placed in the ../fallout2/data/art/interface directory

note that any patchxxx.dat you have overrides the content of the ../fallout2/data directory so if the patchxxx.dat contains worldmap.txt, city.txt, or maps.txt files as well as maybe improved worldmap frm's then that might be your problem...


to add or change a city or map, see my site for a tutorial ( link in sig at the bottom.. tutorials also mirrored at both NMA and DAC..)

the blue lables for the buttons on the world map are just frm files

the city names on the map itself are stored in ../fallout2/data/text/english/game/map.msg and start at 1500... just change the name there...


water areas are just done with .msk files that dictate where you can't go.. i've been told the are just black and white pictures converted into .msk files.. ( find the "new worldmap" thread and ask corpse, he did the worldmap and .msk files for out mod.. )#



as a final note, jumping in with both feet might not be the best way to get into the modding "scene".
try joining another mod to get some experience and so that they can give you the benefit of their many sleepless nights and hair pulling sessions...
I had to learn most of this myself, or by working it out in tandem with others like Red bouncing theories off each other and testing them to see how it worked...and now 2 years later i just about have most of it figured out, but even the likes of Red and myself don't have all the answers...
 
Finally figured everything out and I have a brand new worldmap, new .frms .msks and everything. I haven't seen a good complete tutorial on modding the worldmap I might just as well write it myself someday. Many sleepless nights and hair pulling sessions were worth the great feeling I got afterwards "Ah, finally, I DID IT!!". There's a lot to learn when you start from scratch but it's very gratifying when you finally get it right.

By the way, I would have joined an existing mod group but all I have to offer is a highly motivated fast learner and most groups don't seem to be needing new members. And being a sceptic (I don't find it very likely that most of these new total mods will ever get finished) and a total control freak hurt too.
 
I'm from Czech republic and I don't understand it much. My English is bad. Can anyone help me please?

I understand that worldmap is made up of tiles. 7x6 means 7x6 pictures in frm, am I right?

But this is my problem: I need worldmap 8x10. What do I have to change and how?

And what does this mean?
Code: 
[Tile Data]
num_horizontal_tiles=4

I'm not stupid, I'm not a mutant, I'm only from Czech republic and English is my biggest problem. :sorry: :oops:

I need it for my new modification (TOTAL modification).


Please help me.
 
It's only a part of the forum that requires registration.

EDIT: Done. Unregistered users can read it now, it was my mistake with permissions.
 
Another thread back from the dead...

ColJack said:
...water areas are just done with .msk files that dictate where you can't go.. i've been told the are just black and white pictures converted into .msk files.. ( find the "new worldmap" thread and ask corpse, he did the worldmap and .msk files for out mod.. )#
Click to expand...

From DAC...
Temapercl said:
Here is a small utility that should convert between MSK and BMP files. Just use pak <FileToCovert> . It should automatically determine which way to convert for you (based on first letter of the file's extension). (Or if you prefer, you can just drag the file to convert onto the app's icon and it should do it for you.)

You still have to remember to do the vertical flipping yourself, but this should stop you from having to insert and remove the header yourself.
Click to expand...

Both links to the mentioned program 'pak.zip' and 'pak.exe' are dead (2-4 years old, I wonder why?) so trying the manual way. I found this tutorial also:

http://falloutmods.wikia.com/wiki/Editing_the_world_map and made .MSK files this way - Monochrome bitmap with black for water (blocking?) and white for accessible areas, then change the extension from .bmp to .MSK

When I tested it, the masks are blocking me along the East edge of 00, 04, and 08 for sure. As if the whole 350x300 section is blocking. I tried flipping the images vertically also and that didn't work either.

The only other thing I noticed is that all the .MSKs I extracted from Master.dat were 12.8 KB (13,200 bytes) in size. The ones I made are all 12.9 KB (13,262 bytes) I tried 2 different paint programs and both generate the same resulting size. Don't know if this is the problem or not.

I do realise I'll need to edit worldmap.txt for encounter types, but I can't even get it playable yet. I hope someone can figure out what is wrong. Some step I've overlooked?

Thanks.
 
Everyone go the F2WB thread in the bottom of my signature and read Grayswandir's posts if you want to know how to do this. I've already released a downloadable worldmap that puts small towns where Klamath, the Den, New Reno and Gecko are located. Plan to do Vault City soon.
 
Many thanks, Kanhef! 'MSKTools' was just what I needed. I was looking in the graphics section for a converter and didn't see those under mapping. :oops:

*** Just to clarify then, the images do not have to be flipped vertically before converting with that program?

Another thing is that my blocking is exactly matching the coastline, but I can still drive out onto the water 10-15 pixels before being stopped.

Following the coast I also kept getting stuck on the edge. I have to back away directly East before continuing South, even at an angle. Adding in an additional area of blocking seems to smooth this out, and also solve the problem of moving past the coastline. Not sure why I'm having this problem. Might be something else left out of that tutorial?

(Red is added Black area)

blocktest17.gif
 
Right, no need to mess with the vertical orientation.

The original game has the same issue of getting 'stuck' on the coast. Note that the MSK just defines which areas are passible or impassible; it doesn't need to match the visual coastline exactly. It could also be used to make inland lakes, or impassible canyons or mountain ranges.
 
It's working fine now, not flipped, and with the edges smoothed out somewhat it isn't as sticky to travel along. :)

A new question though...
Other than Worldmap.txt, and WRLDMP FRM / MSK files, is there any other place where important world data is stored?

worldmap.dat cannot be opened by dat_explorer, but it seems this is a file created when playing and doesn't contain design info.
 
Worldmap.dat appears to be a cache file. It contains information on which cities are visible, which of their entrances are open, what parts of the world map are visible, and which special encounters have been found. Maybe they thought it would be better to write it into a file when it's not being used, rather than keeping it in memory. The contents get written into save.dat files when the game is saved.
 
This info must be around somewhere... but I haven't found it yet.

How big (how many tiles) can you make a map in the FO2 engine? Could you make it 2x big as FO2 (i.e., add FO to the bottom?) Could you make it stretch to VB's Colorado?
 
The tile frms are named WRLDMP**.FRM, which implies that at most 100 tiles can be used. FO2 uses 20 (5 high, 4 wide), FO1 is about half the area, so adding that would make it perhaps 8x4, or 32 tiles. Stretching it all the way to 10x10 would cover the western half of the US. Trying to fill that expanse with decent content could keep a dev team busy for years.
 
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