Creating Multi-Level Dungeons (by SiLenTx)
Description: How to create new multi-level dungeons by swapping level entrances and exits through altering the Levels.txt file.
Categories: Tutorials (1.1x) - Map Making
In our mod The Ancients: The Fury Within, we managed to create new
multi-level dungeons by swapping
level entrances and exits through altering the Levels.txt
*Just open-up your Levels.txt
and look for the Vis0-Vis7 columns
(Y-AF columns in excel). As you can see, theres a lot numbers there
that
correspond to the Level Ids (Id column or B column in excel) on
where
the entrances and exits of a certain levels were linked to.
For example in the Forgotten Tower Levels (Look for LevelName column or EZ
column in excel for reference if you're not comfortable looking through
Name
column), we have:
Forgotten Tower
Vis0 = 6 (Level Id for Black Marsh)
Vis1 = 21 (Level Id for Tower Cellar Level 1)
Tower Cellar 1
Vis0 = 20 (Level Id for Forgotten Tower)
Vis1 = 22 (Level Id for Tower Cellar Level 2)
Tower Cellar 2
Vis0 = 21 (Level Id for Tower Cellar 1)
Vis1 = 23 (Level Id for Tower Cellar Level 3)
Tower Cellar 3
Vis0 = 22 (Level Id for Tower Cellar 2)
Vis1 = 24 (Level Id for Tower Cellar Level 4)
Tower Cellar 4
Vis0 = 23 (Level Id for Tower Cellar 3)
Vis1 = 25 (Level Id for Tower Cellar Level 5)
Tower Cellar 5
Vis0 = 24 (Level Id for Tower Cellar 4)
Obviously, you'll notice the pattern that the Vis columns implies. If
you'll
enter the Vis0 from Forgotten Tower, you'll be ported to Black Marsh.
But if
you'll enter Vis1, you'll be ported to Tower Cellar Level 1 and so on
up to
Tower Cellar Level 5. Tower Cellar Level 5 has no entry for Vis1 since
its the
last level and it has only one entrance/exit. Don't ever try to put
entries in
the Vis columns that has originally 0 on them to avoid crashes. So,
Obviously,
the always last levels are those who has only one entries in Vis
columns like
Den of Evil, Cave Level 2, Hole Level 2, Pit Level 2, Crypt, Mausoleum
etc. Now
how can we create multi-level dungeons like in D1? Its so easy to do.
In our
mod, the multi-level dungeons are located in Underground Passage all
the way
down to Underground Passage Level 2 (haven't renamed it to something
else) but
it consists of 15 levels. In this tutorial, we'll make a multi-level
dungeon in
Cold Plains. Now kindly look for Cave level 1 row (Act 1 - Cave 2) and
Cave
level 2 row (Act 1 - Cave 2 Treasure). These are the Cave levels that
you will
find in Cold Plains.
Originally you have these
following values in Vis columns:
Cold Plains
Vis3 = Vis4 = Vis5 = Vis6 = 9 (Cave Level 1)
Cave Level 1
Vis0 = 3 (Cold Plains)
Vis4 = 13 (Cave Level 2)
Cave Level 2
Vis1 = 9 (Cave Level 1)
Cave Level 2 has only one
entry in Vis columns since it is the last Cave level
in Cold Plains. So, what we have to do now is to add levels to that
Cave aight?
We have so many options in order to increase the levels. One is to
insert levels
between Cold Plains and Cave Level 1 and the other one is by inserting
levels
between Cave Level 1 and Cave Level 2. You can actually swap the whole
Cave
Levels with the whole Tower Cellar Levels. But we're aiming to create
multi-level dungeons here so its better to add some Tower Cellar Levels
in the
Cave Levels and you can do all you want once you've already know what
to do. In
our case, we'll have to insert Tower Cellar Levels between Cold Plains
and Cave
Level 1. So, we will cut down the Tower Cellar Levels (Tower Cellar
Level 1-4)
and we'll insert it between Cold Plains and Cave Level 1 so the result
will be:
Cold Plains
Vis3 = Vis4 = Vis5 = Vis6 = 9 (Cave Level 1)
Tower Cellar 1
Vis0 = 20 (Level Id for Forgotten Tower)
Vis1 = 22 (Level Id for Tower Cellar Level 2)
Tower Cellar 2
Vis0 = 21 (Level Id for Tower Cellar 1)
Vis1 = 23 (Level Id for Tower Cellar Level 3)
Tower Cellar 3
Vis0 = 22 (Level Id for Tower Cellar 2)
Vis1 = 24 (Level Id for Tower Cellar Level 4)
Tower Cellar 4
Vis0 = 23 (Level Id for Tower Cellar 3)
Vis1 = 25 (Level Id for Tower Cellar Level 5)
Cave Level 1
Vis0 = 3 (Cold Plains)
Vis4 = 13 (Cave Level 2)
Cave Level 2
Vis1 = 9 (Cave Level 1)
We have now the proper order
of the levels that we wished for but we have to
alter also the Vis columns of the levels that has been affected by the
swapping.
In our case the affected levels in terms of warping are Cold Plains,
Tower
Cellar Level 1, Tower Cellar Level 4 and Cave Level 1. So what we'll
gonna do is
change the Vis columns of these levels to indicate the proper level
warps that
we're wishing for...
Cold Plains
Vis3 = Vis4 = Vis5 = Vis6 = 21 (Tower Cellar 1)
Tower Cellar 1
Vis0 = 3 (Level Id for Cold Plains)
Vis1 = 22 (Level Id for Tower Cellar Level 2)
Tower Cellar 2
Vis0 = 21 (Level Id for Tower Cellar 1)
Vis1 = 23 (Level Id for Tower Cellar Level 3)
Tower Cellar 3
Vis0 = 22 (Level Id for Tower Cellar 2)
Vis1 = 24 (Level Id for Tower Cellar Level 4)
Tower Cellar 4
Vis0 = 23 (Level Id for Tower Cellar 3)
Vis1 = 9 (Level Id for Cave Level 1)
Cave Level 1
Vis0 = 24 (Tower Cellar 4)
Vis4 = 13 (Cave Level 2)
Cave Level 2
Vis1 = 9 (Cave Level 1)
*Note that Cold Plains have four the
same values for Vis3-Vis6. You have to
change all the four columns also with the same values if you'll link
them to
different level warps*
Those Vis values from the
right that are pointed by the arrows are the right
values of Level Ids that we're wishing for in order to get this to work
without
crashes. You should replace original values with them. So easy aight?
But we're
not yet done. Some mod makers has not been successful making this one
because
they always forgot this last part. Remember that we had cut down the
Tower
Cellar Levels? Since we removed the Tower Cellar Level 1-4, Tower
Cellar Level 5
should now be linked directly to Forgotten Tower to avoid crashes or
errors
like:
Warning
Location : C:\Projects\Diablo2\Source\D2Common\DRLG\RoomTile.cpp, line
#686
Expression : ptWarp
So this is what
you'll gonna do:
Forgotten Tower
Vis0 = 6 (Black Marsh)
Vis1 = 25 (Tower Cellar Level 5)
Tower Cellar Level 5
Vis0 = 20 (Forgotten Tower)
You can always swap levels as
much as possible without crashes as long as you'll
never forget to properly arrange also the chopped levels like The
Forgotten
Tower in our example. Always attach the level which has only one entry
in Vis
column to the last level of you multi-level dungeons. And it is most
advisable
to write down the levels that you are swapping with like what we've
done above
than swapping the levels directly in your excel. You can easily trace
the errors
that you've done wrong by doing this. And for the last one, always
create a
backup of your mod before making new modifications...
How about if I want to rename
the map names?
No problem. Just change the name in one of your tbl files located in
data\local\lng\eng\*.tbl... string.tbl for CD2 maps and
expansionstring.tbl for
expansion maps. And to remove those Entering Cave Level 1 (for example)
message, they are located in data\local\ui\eng\act*\*.dc6. Replace it
with
corresponding dc6 file with a blank one (R,G,B = 0,0,0)..
Link to this article: Select all
[url=https://www.d2mods.info/forum/kb/viewarticle?a=167&sid=cbf3c7c9fb69030ac787966ebbb9dfc3]Knowledge Base - Creating Multi-Level Dungeons (by SiLenTx)[/url]