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Is there an up-to-date tutorial how to add to the worldmap?


jastey

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I would need some kind of instruction or tutorial how to read (and of course, write) the links.tbl of a mod that adds areas to the worldmap.

Why can there be two neighboring areas be specified for the same cardinal direction, what does this mean in the game?

If an area is added via links.tbl to an area that didn't have a neighboring area in the original game, does it mean there will be travel triggers automatically or what am I supposed to do to add them (because in my game it doesn't work)?

Thank you in advance.

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Not a tutorial but the most recent mod to add a new area to worldmap was *Southern Edge* with the new town area in Athkatla.

May be worth to look at that code.

 

(My own Sandrah mod may not be a good reference, it does what you require, but it enforces the use of the BP-BGT_Worldmap (because it has areas outside of the usual game terrain), Therefore I use a mix of old and new code for this special purpose.)

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Thanks. I think I have a severe understanding problem what the worldmap actually does.

 

What does the link.tph define, is it only the place of the icons on the map?

How are the links/transitions between the areas defined, is it somewhere in the .are or the seach map of the area?

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Thanks. I think I have a severe understanding problem what the worldmap actually does.

 

What does the link.tph define, is it only the place of the icons on the map?

How are the links/transitions between the areas defined, is it somewhere in the .are or the seach map of the area?

Do you mean link.tph in which case I have no idea because thai is mod specific,

Or Links,tbl where you define how areas connect and where you enter the area on arrival and if there is an enroute encounter "you have been waylaid...". Also the travel time in 4 hour steps.

 

That second one adds to worldmap.wmp

Here is a screenshot of how you find those links in NI (for EET)

You start from the worldmap by selecting an area (Slums in my example), you get the area flags and links in the screen that opens, you click on one of the links (one of the north links in my example) and you get the very detail level (which is corresponding to those entries in links.tbl)

 

post-5210-0-92332600-1507152245_thumb.jpg

 

It maybe best to open some example like above for yourself, take a links.tbl entry from some mod and just see how it fits together and how you use it. I could never find any really useable description but figured it out by those means pretty fast.

 

You can also add travel areas to the are files themselves but I never fumbled around with those except where two areas have a fixed transition without providing the choice of the worldmap (I use this to connect the town areas in Waterdeep or Bezantur - the end of a street always connects to the same entry in the next area, you cannot jump around like in Athkatla.).

Edited by Roxanne
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Why can there be two neighboring areas be specified for the same cardinal direction, what does this mean in the game?

 

Hitting the edge of the map drops you onto the worldmap screen. The links determine which areas are now available--think of the City Gates in BG2. Firkraag may tell you about the Windpsear Hills and add them to your map, but you can't travel there until you leave from the City Gates, because the Gates have an actual link to the Hills. Links can also reveal areas, like when you're just wandering around the BG wilderness.

 

If an area is added via links.tbl to an area that didn't have a neighboring area in the original game, does it mean there will be travel triggers automatically or what am I supposed to do to add them (because in my game it doesn't work)?

The wmp file has two sections: a list of areas, and a link table. Much like adding an ability to a spell or item and its attached effects, you need to add entries to the link table and then index them in your new area entry. G3 Anniversary contains about the simplest worldmap addition you're going to see, as it adds a single area and one link to the worldmap.

 

The tbl files you're worried about are all of the BP compatibility stuff--it's basically a handful of files where you describe what you're adding to the worldmap so that a later mod (like BP) can integrate all of your mod changes when it changes the worldmaps

 

 

 

.

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Thank you both. I understand a lot more now.

Still two questions: if an area search map doesn't have the "world map travel region" attached to it, there won't be any travel posibilities from this area, right?

 

How is for some areas defined that they will not be revealed by reaching the neighboring (defined by the worldmap links) area but *only* if revealed by dialogue. Is it some flag in the are file I didn't notice until now?

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Thank you both. I understand a lot more now.

Still two questions: if an area search map doesn't have the "world map travel region" attached to it, there won't be any travel posibilities from this area, right?

 

How is for some areas defined that they will not be revealed by reaching the neighboring (defined by the worldmap links) area but *only* if revealed by dialogue. Is it some flag in the are file I didn't notice until now?

The default behaviour of any master (outside) area is, that selecting the map edge opens the worldmap, i.e. you only have to do something if you want to block this.

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Thank you both. I understand a lot more now.

Still two questions: if an area search map doesn't have the "world map travel region" attached to it, there won't be any travel posibilities from this area, right?

 

How is for some areas defined that they will not be revealed by reaching the neighboring (defined by the worldmap links) area but *only* if revealed by dialogue. Is it some flag in the are file I didn't notice until now?

The default behaviour of any master (outside) area is, that selecting the map edge opens the worldmap, i.e. you only have to do something if you want to block this.

 

Yep. There's a flag in the area listing, bit 1 at 0x30. IESDP calls it "Area visible from adjacent" but Near Infinity describes it better as 'Reveal from linked area'.

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Two more questions.

1. If the links.tbl lists connecting areas that are from a different mod which is not installed in the game, will these areas just be ignored (if present, they will be accessible, iof they are not, nothing happens) or could this lead to a crash?

 

2. As far as I understood, adding to the worldmap can be done in two ways: a) Provide the links.tbl and the areas.tbl for the Worldmap/map_mods_areas.tbl. Let bp-bgt-worldmap.exe do the rest. b) Use ADD_WORLDMAP_TBL and add the new areas to the worldmap directly? When do I which? In the mod I am working with, the ADD_WORLDMAP_TBL is used for EET but not for BGT. Does someone know why? What are the risks if I use ADD_WORLDMAP_TBL directly, is there a good reason why the player should run bp-bgt-worldmap.exe at the end of his install?

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Two more questions.

1. If the links.tbl lists connecting areas that are from a different mod which is not installed in the game, will these areas just be ignored (if present, they will be accessible, iof they are not, nothing happens) or could this lead to a crash?

 

2. As far as I understood, adding to the worldmap can be done in two ways: a) Provide the links.tbl and the areas.tbl for the Worldmap/map_mods_areas.tbl. Let bp-bgt-worldmap.exe do the rest. b) Use ADD_WORLDMAP_TBL and add the new areas to the worldmap directly? When do I which? In the mod I am working with, the ADD_WORLDMAP_TBL is used for EET but not for BGT. Does someone know why? What are the risks if I use ADD_WORLDMAP_TBL directly, is there a good reason why the player should run bp-bgt-worldmap.exe at the end of his install?

Caution, this is not based on insight with the code but sole hands-on experience:

 

1. Missing areas are just ignored - I only encountered crashes from travel areas in are-files that directly connected to entries that do not exist. Never saw that happen with worldmap. If the target area is not on the map, you cannot access it.

 

2. EET creates its own link and area tables similar to the ones used by BP-BGT worldmap. EET uses all vanilla data and mod addons to worldmap.wmp to create such files. EET allows to use either its own worldmap or the ones provided by the worldmap-mod. For EET you therefore can add areas just via tp2 code and do not need to provide the table entries in addition.

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