Converting other 3rd Party DS1 maps to DS2

I believe I may have fixed the issues with the way maps are displayed in DS2 in the map selection menu

I basically copied the map_chooser.gas from Broken World and adjusted the coordinates so it would fit in the smaller 800x600 resolution of DS2.

The map info information is now displayed correctly for each map and the font is smaller so that all the map names will fit on one line. I tested up to 26 maps successfully displayed so I believe this mod will fix the issues with maps in DS2.

However if this mod is used in Broken World, the map selection menu will still work properly but of course everything will be distorted due to the change in resolution between DS2 menus and Broken World's. It would be nice if DS2 v2.2 menu could be made to display automatically in a higher resolution.

I will play around with it a bit more before releasing it.

Search for the past, after roaming the forest I still need to find a way into the town. The Monster generation for the map areas need a MAJOR overhaul. Braaks in the forest should be Phraks and forest trolls. Klaws need to be Forest Klaws and there should be a LOT fewer Mini-Boss's.

That looks great.
So far I often had to shorten map titles to make them fit (it doesn't look good if a 2nd row is occupied I think).

Have you also tried to combine the v2.2 interface with the larger list-box from the addon?

As experienced myself it's tricky to merge interface from v2.2 and v2.3, however I had the impression that an interface of 800x600 will be automatically centered in the addon, while the addon UI makes more problems/work in v2.2.

In this context here, rather by incident I noticed recently that it's possible to re-enable the row starting with 'onselect=...' in v2.2 to display the map description there too.
It's strange that GPG disabled for v2.2 - there were no warnings/errors in the logs when enabled.

However from what you are saying about how it distorts the Broken World map selection menu, I would guess you would have to make it a separate mod for people playing the Legendary Map Pack using DS2. That is unless we can figure out how to change the default 800x600 resolution of DS2 to 1024x768

Sigofmugmort remember this is a very early alpha map and the monsters at present are a lower priority than getting the NPCs set correctly so that they are the correct types of shop keepers, give quests when required and allow you to hire them when they are to be party members. There are 3 party members besides yourself Jane, Burk and a woman in the town you have not yet figured out how to enter. More are really un-necessary. Now to how to get into town.
(spoiler Alert) when you are at the town gate and facing the three guards go to your right, watch the cliff wall on your left. There is an opening blocked by rocks a short distance away. That is your way in.

The last few days I've been playing this map myself (because I never had) to better follow the posts, not expecting to have anything to contribute, but I find I do have two points to comment on. I played an English-language version of the map under original DS1 (non-LOA).

First, I obtained the side quest to find the man in the ice cave when I first arrived in Mounine, early in my game, when he was still worth hiring (for free, unlike the combat mage in the inn). He had a melee weapon (random?) in his inventory, he just wasn't using it. He also had some melee skill. Looks to me like Kroduk re-cycled.

(I thought it best, by the way, to take monsters in the same order as in Ehb, which meant going to Mounine before chasing into the first town's side forest after bandits.)

Second, I too cannot get the transporter by the two waterfalls to work. There is an NPC up in the town (would it be too much of a spoiler to say who? someone who looks to be missing from a DS2 screen shot posted earlier) who told me I had to give two items to the statue. One of them, by the way, is the jewel that the guy hired in the ice cave suggests looking for in the forest and swamp, which is a reason to go back to the first town and pick up the bandit-hunting quest. I have both items but no matter what I tried I could not make the statue take them.

The first-mentioned NPC did say I'd have to be "as brave as" the old hero, suggesting a level dependency. My main character got to level 60, as a ranger. (My other party members were at 48, 38 and 38 respectively, showing I'd let my hero take an undue share of the experience going, and I had been everywhere including the unadvertised side area from the desert.) I hope the dependency isn't one, such as high Strength, that only a melee character could meet.

If you where able to take out the dragons that the oracle spoke of you are ready for the old hero, ranger, melee or mage. Note The quests after meeting the oracle are all interrelated and should be taken on the order given.

Here's the DS2 Map Selection Menu Fix I came up with. Thanks to Darkelf, Hardless and KillerGremal for suggestions about map_chooser.gas which this mod modifies.
http://www.siegetheday.org/~iryan/files/UI/DS2_Map_Selection_Menu_Fix_v1.zip
- Map names can contain at least 40 characters
- Map Info Descriptions can occupy 4 lines of 36 characters each
- The number of maps that can be displayed is untested but I managed to have 26 maps displayed

While it will run in Broken World the map selection menu will be justified to the left of the screen.

Yes that's basically what I did but in a roundabout fashion. I copied the broken world's map_chooser.gas and adjusted the rect coordinates (which is why the menu is distorted if used in Broken World) and added a couple of blocks to the file that were used in DS2.

I think the rect coordinates is what's stopping it automatically centering if used in Broken World. I looked at other UI files but couldn't see anything that enables such a behaviour. Still there's no reason to use this mod in Broken World as there's nothing wrong with Broken World's map selection menu in the first place.

As Lady_Femme said, your screen resolution has no impact on the menu. In DS2 it will be 800x600 in the menu even if you use an ingame resolution like 1920x1080.

Thanks, I had already gotten into the town and have started marking a couple of places( there are broken cows here too :silly: :goofy:
I opened the gate to make the journey shorter, However the program is now crashing whenever I get near this building or this part of town

I am still looking at the DS1 maps to find where the quests are, it has been problematic as the real world keeps getting in the way. With luck maybe some time today.

I can not believe that it has been almost 2 years since I started this thread. In any case I have been walking about the DS1 versions of Loridan and Realm of Kings looking for places to put in vendors, save points, resurrection shrines, hire-able characters, quests and so on. Now with the realm of Kings and Loridan there where never any quests to speak of. So I will have to put on my thinking cap and figure out what the quests should be. If anyone has played the original maps and has some ideas for quests I would dearly love to hear them.
Also have been busy tweaking some of the other DS1 mods that I have so they are compatible with Standard characters as most of my DS1 mods are cat mansion specific. Have run into some weirdness with mod compatibility that I did not have when I was running Legends of Utrae and Cat Mansion Adepts. So I am having fun figuring out why armor and skins look strange. I doing this I have had to reload DS1 twice and LoA once, but never mind that as the whole package lives on a DVD that is always in my bag.

There is a cave in the first town where the bad guys have the advantage

If you take a close look at where the arrow is pointing you will see within the cave enemy rangers on both sides that are on a second level. They can not be reached by a melee character and only with very careful placement of a high level ranger or combat mage can they be attacked as there is no path to their level. There either needs to be stairs to reach their level or they need to be removed.

Here are a few screen shots as to where to place some vendors and a quest. The town has no inn could be why most of the town left to attend a wedding in another location. So placing an NPC to hire anywhere would be useful.

I got a long way into Realm of Kings once - Corlfire, the third and final (?) town. Now I'm trying again from scratch and doing much better this time. This is in pure DS1 (just Zhixalom's for keeping all the gold I'm earning).

It is a great map, one that puts the Siege into DS. (75 hours in and counting, on the Bastonian Plane -sic- after killing the Gom lookalike and the boss drake yesterday, but I'm a slow player.) My impression is the map assumes players will need no prompting to go out and kill monsters; the four quests (that I know of) are about exploring the towns a bit, looking for certain NPCs, rather than just hit the shop and move on.

What are your ground rules for extra quests? What feedback are you looking for? NPCs with suitable dialog already there? Places where more guidance might be useful?

Probably the best ground rule is that extra quests need to fit into the flow of the map and be interesting yet easy enough to implement without a lot of work from my part otherwise they won't get done.

You're right about the lack of prompting in the map. If you look at it in Siege Editor there's generally a short path to the next section of the map and another path to masses of monsters. Since there's little direction provided within the map it can be random where a new player will wander to, they could find the short path and be in the next section or town in 15 minutes or wander around lost for a hour or more.

So perhaps this could be used in making new quests, give the player an incentive to explore the wilderness.

I actually like this type of design in a map assuming that the paths were better marked. I believe it's a little over the top that in most rpg games the paths and roads between towns are always full of monsters. I prefer the approach of Bethseba with the Elder Scrolls games like Oblivion where if you stick to the roads between towns you rarely run into monsters but do meet other npcs like guards and merchants. You have to leave the safety of the main roads and enter the wilderness and find dungeons, etc. to find monsters and the quests in the game provide the incentive to do so.

There is a Crash problem in Search for the Past I have been communicating with Iryan and the problem has been localized for fixing, right now to avoid the crash stay out of Resparon

I have played the DS2 version of Search for the Past from start to finish without any errors or crashes. Where in Rasparon did you have the crash, so I can try to duplicate it.

There's a new alpha of Search for the Past which hopefully fixes the Resparon crash bug. Was caused by a template containing non-existent references.
http://www.siegetheday.org/~iryan/files/Third_Party_Maps/DS1_Map_SearchforthePast_Alpha2.ds2res

There's a more substantial update to Search for the Past. An update to Training of the Hero is forthcoming as well but I just have to tidy up the starting positions.
http://www.siegetheday.org/~iryan/files/Third_Party_Maps/DS1_Map_SearchforthePast_Alpha3.ds2res

Shopkeepers should be done and extra ones added to several points before the only town in the game.
Recruitable characters are partly done so won't work yet but are in place.
Start Positions should be done. This includes enough starting positions for a full party and automatic saves at several points through the map (basically wherever there's a stash or innkeeper).
Miscellaneous leftovers from DS1 should be gone.
Quest structure is in place but not implemented.
It's quite untested apart from verifying that it will load.

Untested? Not for long. :twisted:

Hi Iryan,
I updated the start of the forum to show the current version of Search for the Past. I have been looking around the chruch and talking to the vendors. looks like they are all present. The save point at this location is very nice. So far everything that should be working is working. I like it.

Search for the Past, The merchants and save points I have reached so far are grate. The first NPC you reach( I think it's Lana) is in Black and Yellow armor and all the breakable/open-able containers and chests after her operate but many do not do a treasure drop.

It's a secret chicken level! (It ain't over 'til the fat roster sings.) Click the statue without two specific items both in inventory, it revolves, nothing else happens. Click it with them, it revolves, something else happens very unobtrusively. The teleport can now be worked - by something other than a big button in the middle, which is why I missed it last time.

A village NPC says what the two items are. Yes, they are jewels/special stones. One comes from the back of the pyramid.

This is in the DS1 original, which (as I mentioned before) has a secret lava cavern also - secret only in that nobody sends you to look for it. That one you just walk into.

Finally a more substantial update for Search for the Past
http://www.siegetheday.org/~iryan/files/Third_Party_Maps/DS1_Map_SearchforthePast_Alpha4.ds2res

Everything is theoretically in place but of course I've only tested up to the first recruitable character.
There are some triggers that may not work that I may need to revise. Comments and suggestions are as always welcomed.

Hi Iryan
I have been having a look at the Alpha 4 version. So far it has been totally beyond my expectations. The quests are all working and the first two Hire-able characters seem to be working as I expected. Jane is a fairly good nature mage with some nice equipment. Burk is a relatively good melee fighter, however he comes with little in the way of armor so tends to get knocked out often until the first armor vendor. The save points are spaced out good.
Now for the only real "problem" is that the second innkeeper is female and speaks with a man's voice. I do not think it needs to be fixed unless someone is offended by a character that has had a recent sex change.

I now have the games running on both my desktop and my laptop. The laptop does not meet some of the system requirements for DS2BW, but it still works. Now I will have to make sure I have the same files with the same revisions on both. So I can move saved games between the two and maybe then I will have a bit of time to actually finish a map before it is updated.

I'm glad there's little problems with Search for the Past so far. I will look at tweaking the auto equip script in time, it is suppose to be random but sometimes you may get inferior gear or even none (happened once with Jane).
Anyhow here's a major release of Training of the Hero.
http://www.siegetheday.org/~iryan/files/Third_Party_Maps/DS1_Map_TrainingoftheHero_Alpha2.ds2res

Like Search for the Past, all npcs should be done, as well as recruitables, quests, radar and start positions. It's a more complex map so there's more likelihood of something being amidst. For instance several doors only become accessible at different stages of the quests with the Oracle, I put a barrier to stop players inadvertently knocking off the Dragon Queen before rescuing the Fort - this barrier should disappear automatically once you rescue the fort and speak to the Major, just like Old Man's Fossile's quest with the Rat, and there's a portal that should activate at the end dungeon after finishing off Gorabur, which will take you back to the start of the map so you can finish the secret dungeon (though the secret dungeon mightn't work yet).

I'm not sure also whether there's a need for session portals. If you think so, mark the coordinates where you think one should go and I'll put it into the map.

Search for the Past.

First off, Yes Jane's figure is correct for my config. You must recruit her to get the quest and you must recruit burk to complete the quest, you need to buy one extra slot to have both. However, if you just recruit Burk you still get the Quest completion.

This one Moth is stuck in the rock and often does not attack. and the 2 barrels never seem to drop anything.

During the battle I was able to step partway into this pillar :woot:

All the save points work well as do the merchants.

Hi Iryan.
I have arrived in Respador with Jane and Burk in tow. The first thing they wanted to do was visit the grave yard, to look for Jored in his DS1 hiding place. I kept yelling the star shows on the inn not the grave yard! but they did not listen. So after they explored the grave yard in detail we went to the inn for an ale and to speak with Jored. We discovered quite quickly that Jored was not on the ground floor so we went up stairs to the second floor and as Burk and Jane ran ahead they disappeared into a void and I could not follow them. I tried to switch to one of them and nothing occurred, so I went down stairs and they ran down the stairs after me.

I think there is something preventing us getting onto the second floor and speaking with Jored.

The cows are also broken

It appears that the cows are very twisted creatures in Training of the Hero also. Where are you when we need you sjr? cows have become twisted did you ever do a ds2 cow?

They must be in pain. No if I recall correctly the cows on the Utraean Peninsula maps are not twisted or where not in the past.

Yes there is something wrong with the cows in these maps, the ones in the Utraean Peninsula work but are based on different templates.

Remember I haven't played these maps so if I stuff some placement things up, please be lenient. I'll move Jored to the graveyard straight away. As for the second floor of the Inn I don't know why that occurred for you. I did notice in the Editor that it was completely bare of any furnishings at all. Weird.

Hi Iryan,
I promise to be lenient, just pointing out where things are a bit weird. I know you have not played the map my friend. The testing if for those of use that can not create the way you and KillerGremal do. Like Sig and Drake and me. If I recall the second floor of the inn in the DS1 map was not there but you could not get there either. Like the gate fence around the giant rat. until you get the quest. have a good night