more help with modding the arcanum module

okay, i just extracted a whole lotta files in an attempt to edit a copy of the arcanum module, but whenever i go to see if it worked, it is REALLY huge and it is slow and when i start a game it just shows a black screen with "please wait" on it and that littlr pocketwatch thingy......

it took lots of time to extract and copy those files, so i dont want that time wasted! :roll:

 

RE

well, I think you did just waste a lot of time, because Arcanum is HUGE! Sooooooo, Just stick with making your own.

 

Which files did you extract and where did you extract them to? I have a working set of all the Arcanum files extracted, but I only kept the maps and the essential files on my hard drive. Some of the files will actually interfere with the game running properly if they are in the wrong directories, so that may be what is going on. All the maps should be in the Sierra\Arcanum\modules\Arcanum\maps directory and their appropriate subdirectories.

Any scripts and dialogsl that you extracted should probably just be put somewhere out of the way for the time being because you won't want to have them in your working directories unless you actually make a change to one of them. It makes it too confusing and can cause the game to slow down a lot on loading. I also made a reference mes directory and put all my mes files in it except the ones I actually have made changes to so that I can look at them, but they are not conflicting with the ones in the dat files and slowing down the game loading process.

You don't need any of the ART files extracted at all and shouldn't have them in any of your working directories. If you want to work on ART files, you need to do that outside of the Arcanum working directories, then add them to the appropriate mes files and dat files, but with the current ART converter programs, I don't recommend doing anything ambitious along those lines. So far, I haven't seen very many people who have succeeded in using the bmp2art program to produce decent ART files. This is not surprising, since the author of that program is missing some critical information about the ART file data structures.

I hope this helps some. If not, let me know what you have done and where you put the files and I'll try to give you more feedback.

 

okay, all i did was i copied the arcanum module and i used arcanun to undat all the files in arcanum .dat and i put them into my copied folder.

after that, i opened the copied module with worlded and made a few changes there, and i changed a few scripts, but when i tried to go to the crashsite in worlded, evrything was all blue, and i don't know why. i figured that it was nothing very important, so i just went on ahead and tried to play it on arcanum, but it just would't work...

 

I don't think it will let you do that at all. I've done all my changes to Arcanum by actually editing the original module and saving the maps with the world editor so that it unlocks them. I think the way you did it created a major conflict for the game, so it just did nothing or locked up. Basically, if you want to edit Arcanum, you will have to install it twice. I still don't have a handle on exactly how to do that, but I know it can be done. Chris Beddoes actually gives instructions on how to do it in his Hard Arcanum mod, but I don't have it where I can get to those instructions right now. Maybe Chris will see this and enlighten us.

 

okay, that should help. what i was trying yo do is just make a copy, so i don't screw up the origional module and have to start over... again....

 

RE

hahahaha :lol: . Sorry, but I still think it is a lot better and original and fun when you create your own.

 

yes, but you have to script and trigger and create and dialog and a hole lotta other stuffs...

plus, it would be perdy convenient to put a big old juiced up sword at the crash site, and make it so i could use it to kill people...

 

RE

but what would be the fun in that?

 

to go kill people

 

RE

whatever. but you always play with the violence filter on, so you don't even get to see people's heads get blow off.

 

well, it isn't on right now, because Virgil is lying on the ground, and his head is not on his shoulders anymore, and that red stuff don't look like no kool-aid to me... :lol:

oh, Sinbad, do i need to put my map in C:/Sierra/Arcanum/Modules/Arcanum/Maps directory or the C:/Sierra?Arcanum/Data/Maps directory?

because i tried to put some people on the crash site and they didn't show up...

 

Maps always go in the C:/Sierra/Arcanum/Modules/Arcanum/Maps directory. There should be NO C:/Sierra?Arcanum/Data/Maps directory. Maps only go with modules, not with data.

 

okay, i'll do THAT

but i have tried this before, i think and it wouldn't let me put people or items, just lights and terrain...

 

Well, I've already added at least 50 people, a lot of chests, inventories, items and quite a bit of terrain with associated buildings. I think I'm up to 13 new towns or cities, now, and I've added docks and ships and other modifications to several of the originals towns or cities. So if it doesn't let YOU do it, there is something wrong at your end besides the directory, darkllama.

 

well, how do i fix it at my end????

 

Did you try it yet? If it isn't working and you are using the 1.0.7.0 editor, NOT the 1.0.7.4 editor, then I'm not sure what the problem is or how to fix it. I suspect the you'll need help on it from someone like Dark Underlord. If you are using the latest version of the editor, then that IS the reason it won't let you change much of anything. The new version of the editor doesn't allow you to edit and save your changes to the Arcanum module. You have to use the older version if you want to edit the Arcanum module.

 

well, i HAVE tried it and i extracted the map Arcanum1-024-fixed and it is in Arcanum/modules/Arcanum/Maps file, so everthing seems to be in order... but when i run Arcanum, it doesn't work. nothing is different.

i guess i should go cry to DarkUnderlord now...

 

This is probably old, (Hi I'm new and all that... ad end, ad nausem ) but when you say you have the loading screen stay up - did you try moving the mouse or going into options and changing your brightness? I found this produced a series of tiles similar to what you would expect from a clipping error. I hope someone is able to make something out of this.

-PoEHeavyBlade

 

oh, i figured out my problem. and the clippings and everything is just where the file is too big and/or your computer is too slow to read it.

yeah, all i had to do was delete all the weirdly-named map files in the folder, and it worked perfectly, many thanks to sinbad