Converting other 3rd Party DS1 maps to DS2

Everything up to meeting Karma things in Training of the Hero Alpha2 has gone very well. All the quests in the first town went very well. The vendors are working perfectly. I see on a few of the Ambient Characters I need to write a conversation for. Was thinking for the old man (looks like retired blacksmith or innkeeper) Standing next to the undertaker could say. "No dear I am not dead yet, and I still have all my gear in my house! I was just wondering if you would like to go to the inn for the early bird special. Its two meals for the price of one and all the free ale you and I can drink!" The vendor and the other character standing near Karma work however Karma is speechless. I know clearing the pass of monsters in a snow storm is silly maybe she wants to wait till spring.

Here's an update for Loridan, updating the shopkeepers, radar, starting positions and hireables.
http://www.siegetheday.org/~iryan/files/Third_Party_Maps/DS1_Map_Loridan_Alpha3.ds2res (10.4 Mb)

It's a very professionally made map just let down by lack of content and being unfinished, i.e. no quests and at least the starting town is very sprawling.

As for the other alpha maps, some conversations need to be made up - in the originals many npcs didn't say anything at all.

Now to attend to some points about the major maps why everyone has fun ripping these alpha maps apart. And yes I will fix the poor cows - eventually.

Search for the Past, I noticed the Mucosas where wading through the stairs, Burk has a female voice, so does the Male potion seller in the forest, The building in the forest is not acting as a save/start point. There is a yellow star in the windmill in Resparon but the door would not open.

it is hard to tell what's what as I do not have the DS1 version of this map.

On Utrea the templates 'cow_black_white_mp' and 'cow_brown_mp' are used.
Also the custom templates 'cow_black_white_02' and 'cow_brown_02' exist if you need a cow with a brain (to exectue jobs or flick task possibly).

On several DS1 maps I guess the templates 'cow_black_white' and 'cow_brown' are used, but since these templates in/from DS2 don't really work (unless there is a special animation command), I'm rethinking about to replace/revise these templates from scratch (actually the cows/templates I have in mind already exist).
It shouldn't bother to replace them generally!? I'm not really sure but I can't remember to have met a cow on a DS2 map...

Way cool iryan! I like how with all the people off in another town, you used daughter of the innkeeper, son of the pet seller, and daughter of the reagent sales person. It really adds to the story explaining that their parents went to a wedding but it was to dangerous for them to go. The first character you can hire looks like a good one. So we are off to look around.

I'm glad you liked my little solution for adding extra npcs to the town while remaining true to the premise. It is a very nice map, very well designed architecturally but perhaps a reminder why DS1/DS2 maps are so linear. The starting town at least is so sprawling that it is confusing to know where to go. There's also no quests whatsoever.

Now with these third party maps I'm very reluctant to change or add too many things to them apart from the DS2 additions like extra storekeepers, hireables, radar and starting positions, etc. unless specific permission has been granted by the original authors, which for most of them won't ever happen because they've long left the scene and contact details are now non-existent.
However for Loridan, perhaps a main quest could be considered an enhancement and perhaps for the first town at least, a secondary quest trying to find out where everyone has gone and visiting each area could serve as a sort of guide to the town so new players can find the storekeepers? Any ideas?

The easiest solution is just to make a leaf template for the broken cows inheriting from one of the templates that does work. This approach would work exactly like it does for the monsters in the third party maps, they use the original DS1 template name which inherits from one of the Legendary mod templates. If the Legendary mod isn't installed but at least your Mod-DS1Content resources and terrain pack is installed then they should still work but mostly appear as DS2 monsters.

Cows obviously became extinct over much of Aranna by the time of Valdis but possibily there are other explanations. Dryads certainly don't eat meat and probably not dairy products either, Elves are fastidious to the extreme and wouldn't want to be bothered by such messy animals and the poor humans from Kalrathia had nothing to feed them with and cows need a lot of water to survive as well.

I will work the leaf templates for the cows into DS1_Mod_Logic.ds2res and release it for testing.

Happy you will be able to save the cows by messing with their leaf templates. What kind of leaves do they eat anyway :P
As far as the maps by psycogun2003 he stated on his web site long long time ago, that he was stopping modding and his maps where for everyone to use in whole or part so long as his name was noted as the creator. He stopped modding around the time DS2 came out. We have permission from the author of Realm of Kings to use it and he said he was looking forward to see it in DS2. Now as far as the Loridan map I am still busy searching for the author. Have some traces on a few clan sites that I am tracking down. He exists and I am sure since we are porting it to DS2 and adding to what he did not finish he would be greatly pleased -- but your right I will find him so he can say yes or no.

Here's a minor update to fix the poor cows. We don't want to get into trouble with the society for prevention of cruelty to animals after all.
http://www.siegetheday.org/~iryan/files/Betav30a/DS1_Mod_Logic_Beta30e.ds2res

It was interesting that just updating KillerGremal's ambient_cow_ds1.gas with the updated leaf templates didn't work. I had to use ambient_cow.gas with just the two leaf templates in it for it to work. So certainly the container file's name is just as important as the enclosed templates when it comes to overrides. In this case DS2's ambient_cow.gas had priority over ambient_cow_ds1.gas from DS1_Mod_Logic.ds2res. Then again this is the approach I use with the DS1 monsters, I've just forgotten as it has been so long since I first incorporated backwards compatibility with the old DS1 monster templates into it.

PS. As long as we feed Dungeon Siege cows with GPG leaves they'll be happy. Otherwise just give them some grass.

A few notes about the third party maps.
First let me say I did take screen shots, but instead of uploading them I deleted them That happens when you are cat ranching.

Training the Hero

The quest to find the "Pierre de Skone" no longer completes.
I think this is preventing some of the later quests from completing.
From previous notes Karma can not be hired.
Things fall apart on reaching Mounine.
The door to the inn and the door to the church do not open. So can not speak with the orical or the innkeeper. This might be do to not having the Pierre de Skone in inventory? The rescue mission that yolanda sends you on does not complete after saving her brother. I stopped at this point.

Search for the Past

Things work great up to the point of entering Respador. There are several door that will not open.
1. The mill (windmill) door will not open and this prevents you from talking to the quest giver/hire-able NPC/etc.
2. from previous notes you know there is no second floor in the inn.
there are other issues but I can not remember them do to the screen shots getting erased.

Loridan

Looks great so far. In searching for the author I discovered that there are at least 3 German clan sites that have their own versions of the map. The author is Minotaurous and for each of the maps changed from his original he was happy since they had added quests that he never did. so I guess it would be okay to add quests to our version of the map. It appears that most of the sites he posted on or created are archived and I could not find a real name to trace an email address.

I found another village and Harold working for an old lady that wants to give everyone buttermilk. Yuck, so I quickly hired Harold and we three ran off down the trail. Loridan is a cool map with the upgrades you did to it iryan.

Realms of Kings has now received a more substantial update and should be more playable.
http://www.siegetheday.org/~iryan/files/Third_Party_Maps/DS1_Map_Realms_of_Kings_Alpha3.ds2res (38 Mb)

Store keepers and recruitable characters have been added as well as town save points and a scattering of session portals around the regions. Let me know if more are required (probable) with coordinates of where you think they should go. The radar has also been updated.

Quests have also been added and loosely linked together so there's always a quest open throughout the map. This require adding a couple of new quests, otherwise there would be long expanses with no quests going at all. Note that the main quest really doesn't kick in until you reach Dromnar but the early secondary quests lead up to it.

The map is extremely large and interestingly designed. The architecture isn't to the standards of Loridan but the use of moods and the natural foggy nature of the game helps disguise this. It is extremely combat intensive and the original map used veteran and elite monsters in the later regions. There is also a large number of minibosses as well.

Search for the Past shots

good spot for a Mana bush

good spot for a Health bush

The deeper water area covers labels including potion drop markers

The mist layer around this rock blocks missiles and ice bolt

You can walk through the cage sides

Door does not open and a yellow quest star is inside as Bare_Elf posted

The Radar map is incomplete in the underground area

I have updated the forum so that all the maps show at their current revisions.
I will check out Realm of Kings and let you know what I think. Yes the map does have a lot of high level monsters and it is extremely combat intensive so be ready with good weapons and armor or you will not make it.
Once again iryan thank you

The first quest where Jessica asks you to find out what is killing the chickens on the farm. Once you have killed the small group of Krug return to Jessica and tell her so the quest will complete. It does not say in the quest description that you need to talk to her again.
I have made it as far as getting the second quest, hiring the first NPC a half giant, Great location for a session portal by the way. Now things will get nasty if the number of monsters is still the same as before. Hope I have enough arrows ha ha. So far iryan things look great.

Realm of Kings v3. I have entered Dromnar and delivered the message to the sister who is a baker, quest completed. She told me to go to the Inn to find out about the next quest is real or just drunken rumblings. However the Door to the inn and many other buildings are locked/stuck/broken as they will not open. Here are a few screen shots of the doors with locations marked. Think it must have something to do with the range of the door switch. As I can get close to the door can not touch it.

The remaining doors in Dromnar appear to work, think I checked them all.

On a side note Jessat who is in the forest before Dromnar is a vendor but has nothing to sell.

She could be a traveling shop keeper that has weapons/armor/spells. things that a new character might need low to medium stuff.

Think I will now leave Dromnar and go down into the first pit and kill lots of monsters just for fun.

Search for the Past suggestions

Suggested possible locations for Mana/heath bushes or Incantation shrines.

not sure if this shrine should be active or dead

The boundary of the stairs allow for very amusing situationa, like dead sticking out of walls or hanging in mid air :woot:

By looking in the windows of the Inn I was able to talk to several people through the walls since the door will not open. When I spoke to Simon I could hire him so I did and then tried the door from the inside, still not working so I looked about for the quest and had Simon talk to Tharbolg to get the quest then had Simon use his summon teleport spell which blasted him out of the inn and back to the start point of the map. Then went back to my main character and saved the game in Dromnar. Exited the game, restarted the game and all three party members where back at the farm house and then I activated the session portal and we three are now back in Dromnar. I know that the path is a bit twisted and not intended but I now have a party of 3 and can move on with the next quest. Just as a side note Simon Tonvar's icon is not working he is just a pink blob, in his portrait.

Iryan,
I am just wondering if what you said applies to Realm of Kings or just the other 3rd party maps. I believe you said that any place there was an innkeeper or a stash (yellow trunk) and you did a save you would start there next time. It appears to work in both training the hero and search for the past and Loridan, However you always start at the homestead in realm of kings and then when you use the session portal it takes you back to the last direct connect teleport location not the last town you where in. I made it all the way through the first king's castle and on to the town just beyond. Saved there and when I started again I was back Just outside Dromnor. So will have to journey through the forest again to get back to the castle. Not really an issue since it has been many a year since I explored this far into the Realm of Kings.

Woops. I'm not sure as I'm writing this from work but I suspect that I haven't filled out correctly the starting_group_toggle block which updates the new starting positions. I shall endeavour to get that done asap and upload a new build, together with fixes to the doors and poor Simon's portrait. If the fixes to the doors work then they should work when applied to the other maps as well as I believe your suspicion about the use points being too close to the doors is correct.

No worries Iryan,
It was entertaining getting Simon out of the inn and if you had filled out the starting_group_toggle block correctly I would have never been able to get Simon out of the Inn using the summon teleport spell as it would not have worked if Dromnar had been set right. Anyway I have made it to the direct connect teleport in Thornvale Valley and headed for the second of the seven Kings. Would never have made it that far with all the monsters if it where not for the level adjustment mod. Thank you for that KillerGremal I will keep moving this party along, and when you have the update I will run another group through to Dromnar to verify the doors. Silly use points being to close. However that seems a common thing when something is converted from DS1 to DS2. Running through the old maps I discovered mostly of psycogun2003's maps you almost had to ram your head through the doors to get them to open. Was not an issue with the ds1 version of Loriden or realm of kings if I recall correctly. Anyway the hunting has been great, the forests pretty, etc. Its 12:41 AM here so I think I will take a nap before I have to go to work @ 7:30 AM. Oh Joy another day, without any thing to do but sit and watch old people fart and complain.

Here's a quick update to Realms of the Kings hopefully fixing the borked starting positions
http://www.siegetheday.org/~iryan/files/Third_Party_Maps/DS1_Map_Realms_of_Kings_Alpha4.ds2res

I also attempted to fix the doors in Dromar, it turns out that none of them have use_points. Now in the original maps it is true that some doors, like to the Inn for example, don't have use points, most do. Taking in account DS2 fickle handling of bounding volumes, it would appear that use points are a must.

I also attempted to fix poor Simon's portrait. Don't know why it's not working as it refers to one that is included in Mod_DS1Content.ds2res and as far as I can tell it's named correctly. So I made a dds version instead so it'll be interesting to see if it now works. Now many other npcs also use portraits contained in Mod_DS1Content.ds2res, so let me know if this occurs elsewhere.

I've run out of time to apply the door fix elsewhere or change the npc next to the caravan to a merchant as I thought it was important to get this fix out the door. If it works then it will be useful information.

Resparon in Search for the Past

Lorebooks need to become readable

Another door does not open

The cows are now fine :silly:

Just a poor attempt at conversations.

I think those conversations are just great! As for the lore books what do you think should be in them?

I will give the quick update a quick look and let you know what I find -- thanks for the rapid response.

I downloaded "Realm of Kings 4", Made it to Dromnar using all the direct connect teleporters and as soon as I was outside the inn and before checking the doors I saved the game. Exited the Game and then restarted I was back at the homestead. used the session portal and was back at the save point by the bridge just before going up the hill to the house by Dromnar. Went back into town and tried to open the inn door and it was still blocked. Once again hired Simon through the window. Switched to Simon who's icon is still pink. Got the quest and used the summon teleport spell to send him back to the homestead. Stopped at this point so that I could report no change. I checked that version 4 and version 3 where different in size which they are but I did not take it farther. once I post this I will go back to Dromnar and check some of the other doors.

update

I checked Simon's template and I discovered the following:

portrait_icon = portrait_icon = b_gui_ig_i_ic_c_simon;

The double portrait_icon was also there in version 3.

I will take one out and test again.

update 2

Okay using the icon you added did not work so I went back to what existed in version 3 with the change of removing the extra portrait_icon as follows:

portrait_icon = b_gui_ig_i_ic_c_em-02-01-13;

And I now have this:

Since the icon from version 3 worked I removed the art folder you added to contain the simon icon as it appears not to be needed any longer.

Since I went as far as Dromnar and saved while at the door of the inn I guess the fix for the start locations still is not working. Now it is back to Dromnar to check the other doors.

another update

The Doors of Dromnar are still broken. I will move on look for the other hireable characters and the other kings.
It seems that the top step before the doors when pointed at gives you icon that looks like the street sign for Do Not Enter (the red circle with the slash through it) So it has to be a use point issue.

I've finished - at last!- my game on the original map in DS1. It would be nice if the DS2 version could improve on three things at the end.

1. In the final chamber are three kings (Narkos, Ryn, Phreen) with no soldiers, no courtiers, no food and no visible way in or out (since they would not have come the way you do).

2. The kings need extra conversations to cover the possibility you might find your way to them before finishing the Quest. (As I did, scouting the ledges around where the Myriad is - I hadn't even seen it when talking to them. At least I had killed Lozule first so that much of the conversation did pertain.)

3. When you do fight the Myriad, your character is standing inside the middle of the enlarged animation used, so looks to have been swallowed whole and trying to kill the thing from inside its stomach.

Iryan after I fixed Simon's Icon I re-tanked the map and labeled it 4a just to keep it separate from the one here on the site. We have now arrived in Thornvale. This town has no doors at all on any building! Most of the characters that are sellers, hireable and so on do not have the proper icon over their heads or any icon at all. King Baneth has a question mark over his head. But talking to him does not advance or end any quest. Found Oren Nimos by luck. Her Icon is also pink, I will look to see if it is the same issue as Simon had. It appears that it is not the same issue as Simon.

[t:template,n:realm_male_oren_nimos]
{
category_name = "act2_npc";
doc = "act2 hireable: finala, cmage";
specializes = base_hero_elf_female;
[actor]
{
current_active_skill = corrosive_eruption;
portrait_icon = b_gui_ig_i_ic_c_ef_02-01-12;
is_male = false;
race = elf;


Update
I tried 4 similar icons from mod ds1 content 10u and and they all failed.
Since Oren is based on Finala I used her icon from DS2 and it works.

There's a fix on the way but I've run out of time to release it now and after the last botched release, it's probably best.

There's a few things I want to fix around Thornvale but the doors are now present and work and nimos's icon is working, was just another minor grammar error. However I don't like the icon so will look for a better one. The main quest works but the secondary one is broken as well.

Loridan radar map slightly odd

The radar map is black but clears as you explore, Icons show in the black area.

I do not know how I missed the "_" instead of "-" in Nimos icon. I thought I went over it character by character. I had all the image names displayed in one window and Nimos's template open in another and I did not see any difference. When I have time I will have to go get my eyes checked :). Just to make sure I checked the other hireable characters templates and all their Icons display correctly.

What exactly fixed the doors iryan? I mean in what file was the problem and how did you fix them, both the doors that did not open and the ones that where missing. So should I encounter this type of issue again or on some other map I will know where to look for a possible issue. Even though I am blind and did not see the problem with Nimos's icon.

Not sure but I noticed that too. Seems to act like a fog of war. Not sure its worth bothering about.