How to Change Dungeon Types

How to Change Dungeon Types

Description: by Alkalund

Categories: Tutorials (1.09x)


In this tutorial I'm going to explain a modmaking trick that can add great customization to your mod; I'm talking about changing dungeon types. Basically what we're going to do is change what a dungeon level looks like.
For example, once you've grasped the concepts discussed here you will
be able to turn the Den of Evil into an Ice Cave (just like the ones in
Act 5), or maybe replacing the Maggot Lair with even more Palace Cellar
Levels. The options are many, but for the scope of this tutorial I'm
going to show how to make the Den of Evil look like an Act 5 Ice
Cavern.





Two files are required for this tutorial, namely levels.txt and lvlmaze.txt. We will start explaining some of the key columns in levels.txt for this kind of modification:





Pal:
this column control which palette the game is going to use for a level.
It is very important that you set the correct palette here, otherwise
your graphics can turn out weird. Here's what the numbers in this
column mean:





0 - This level uses the Act 1 palette


1 - This level uses the Act 2 palette


2 - This level uses the Act 3 palette



3 - This level uses the Act 4 palette


4 - This level uses the Act 5 palette





LevelType: this colum determines which set of graphic tiles the level will use. To know what the numbers in this column mean, refer to lvltypes.txt. For example, LevelType=33 means the level use the graphic tiles from the Act 5 Ice Caves.





Vis0-Vis7: control how levels connect with each other. Refer to the Creating Multi-Level Dungeons tutorial by SiLenTx to understand how to work with these columns;





Warp0-Warp7: control which warps
a level use. A warp is the object that connect levels; the cavern
entrances in act 1, or the staircases all over the game are examples of
warps. To know what the numbers in these columns mean, refer to lvlwarp.txt. For example, Warp 64 is the stairs connecting Travincal to the Durance of Hate level 1.





I'll now detail the process of making the Den of Evil look just like an
Act 5 Ice Cave: Open levels.txt, and find the Den of Evil row; it is
the row called Act 1 - Cave 1. We want to use Act 5 graphic tiles for this level, so we put 4 in the Pal column, in order to avoid palette problems. Next we need to change its LevelType; as stated before, the Act 5 Ice Caves are LevelType 33, so put 33 as the LevelType of the Den of Evil.



After that, we need to modify the warp used to connect the Den of Evil
to the surface. To do this, you will modify values in the Warp0
column. Check the Warp0 value for the Den of Evil. It's 4. To see what
kind of warp this is, open LvlWarp.txt. Warp Id 4 = Act 1 Cave Up, as
expected. The one we want is Id 73, Act 5 Ice Caves Up. So, simply change the Warp0 of the Den of Evil from 4 to 73. This is all we will modify in levels.txt (for now). Save it and exit.





Now open lvlmaze.txt. The important columns in this file are SizeX, SizeY, and Rooms. Originally for the Den of Evil (Act 1 - Cave 1), we have






Rooms = 1


SizeX = 24


SizeY = 24





We want to change the Den of Evil into an Ice Cave; have a look at the column called Act 5 - Ice Caves 1, at the end of the lvlmaze.txt file. These are the values you will find:






Rooms = 10


SizeX = 16


SizeY = 16





To complete the modifications, change the Rooms, SizeX, and SizeY columns of the Den of Evil to 10, 16, 16 respectively (exactly as the ice cave). Save and exit.






You are now ready to enter the game and test the changes to the Den of
Evil. If all was modified correctly, the Den will look exactly as an
Act 5 Ice Cave!!




There is a small problem though, and you will soon notice it: the
original Den of Evil has only one warp (the one leading to the Blood
Moor). However, the Act 5 Ice Caves have 3 warps.
That means when you change the Den into an Ice Cave, you will get 2
extra warps!! You have to make sure the extra warps are connected
somewhere. In our example they aren't connected anywhere yet, and so
Diablo 2 will give you this warning uppon approaching one of these
warps:





Warning


Location : C:\Projects\Diablo2\Source\D2Common\DRLG\RoomTile.cpp, line #686


Expression : ptWarp







Ok, so we need to go back to levels.txt and do some more changes (again I refer you to the Creating Multi-Level Dungeons tutorial by SiLenTx, knowledge on the Vis columns is required for the
following changes). We must link these two extra warps somewhere; this
is totally up to you and your needs, but I'll detail here how to:





1) use one warp to connect The Den of Evil with the Underground Passage Level 1


2) use one warp to connect The Den of Evil with the Underground Passage Level 2





The following diagrams show what we will accomplish with this change:






Original level disposition





Stony Field


|


v


Underground Passage 1 -> Dark Wood



|


v


Underground Passage 2





Level disposition after the changes





Stony Field


|



v


Underground Passage 1 -> Dark Wood


|


v


Den of Evil <- Blood Moor


|



v


Underground Passage 2





Start by opening levels.txt and looking at the row called Act 5 - Ice Cave 1. This level uses the Vis0, Vis1, Vis2 columns. Since we've changed the Den of Evil into a level of the same type as this one, we must use the Vis0, Vis1, Vis2 columns for the Den of Evil as well, otherwise it won't work. The changes in the Vis columns will be:





Act 1 - Cave 1 (Den of Evil, Id = 8 ): Vis0 = 2, Vis1 = 14, Vis2 = 10



Act 1 - Cave 3 (Underg. Passage 1, Id = 10): Vis4 = 8


Act 1 - Cave 3 Treasure (Underg. Passage 2, Id=14): Vis1 = 8





You also need to enable the Warp1 and Warp2 in the Den of Evil, simply put Warp1 = 74 and Warp2 = 75
in the Act 1 - Cave 1 row, exactly as what is found in the Act 5 Ice
Cave row. Save and exit, the warps problems are now solved and you can
test it going to the Den of Evil again. This time, there will be no ptWarp warning, and the extra warps will be connected to the Underground Passages, levels 1 and 2.





This completes the modifications, you have now a working Ice Cave in Act1!





I'd like to add some comments though:





1 - The value in the Rooms
column indicates the size of the dungeon; the bigger the value, the
bigger the dungeon is. You can change this to whatever you want, but
keep in mind too small values may not work in all cases. For example,
if you left Rooms = 1 for the Den of Evil and changed it into an Ice
Cave, you would get this assertion uppon entering the game and
approaching the Den:






FILE: C:\Projects\Diablo2\Source\D2Hell\SRC\Archive.cpp LINE: 59 --------





File Read Error


Location : C:\Projects\Diablo2\Source\D2Hell\SRC\Archive.cpp, line #59


Expression : 0






In this particular modification, using Rooms >= 2 works fine.




2 - What we did was basically only change the graphic tiles the
level uses. Objects that would spawn in an Act 5 Ice Cave (like Evil
Urns for example) will not appear in our Icy Den of Evil, unless we
also modify the ObjGrp0-ObjGrp7 and ObjPrb0-ObgPrb7 columns in levels.txt; they control what objects can spawn on a level.

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[url=https://www.d2mods.info/forum/kb/viewarticle?a=203&sid=1867132690e9a273eb8a24c917fa1340]Knowledge Base - How to Change Dungeon Types[/url]