Modding in Locations

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Sirellyn
Posts: 12
Joined: Sun Aug 25, 2019 6:28 pm

Modding in Locations

Post by Sirellyn »

I realize this is a work in progress feature you guys are working on. I've put together a rough tool for previewing all the models in game and referencing them with tags. (To make it easier to custom create dungeons and locations.)
2019-09-22 14_20_02-.png
2019-09-22 14_20_02-.png (334.38 KiB) Viewed 1748 times
(Yes this will be cleaned up before release. I'm just proving functionality right now.)

I'd like to put this out there and let people test locations they've created. I was starting to create a location generation tool as well. But I have no idea what way you guys intended this to be done when you are finished. Could you give me a hint so I could do this in a way that aligns with what you guys intended?

1.) Add a location in some sort of location folder in streaming assets WorldData (or something else). There's no code even pointing to how you'd like this to work. Nor would it allow any priority by mods, or even protection of plot locations.
2.) Edit Maps.BSA - This is messy, and also stops it from being a mod, and more of an overwrite. But hey, I don't have to overwrite DFU files.
3.) Companion ExtendedMaps.BSA - Adds on locations. But not based on mods, and have to compile everything into a big mess data file still. Yuck.
4.) Insert the new information with an index at runtime. I'd still have to hijack ContentReader.cs or MapsFile.cs (which I don't want to do.)

Is there any better way of doing this?

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Uncanny_Valley
Posts: 221
Joined: Mon Mar 23, 2015 5:47 pm

Re: Modding in Locations

Post by Uncanny_Valley »

I worked on this myself. I recently created an editor that can be used to inside Unity to edit interior locations.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lbXhWmm15aI

There are currently some support to override location (only interiors, such as houses, shops, inns etc) by placing files in StreamingAssets/WorldData, but its not well documented. There is also support to include these files inside a mod file (.dfmod), so they are basically unpacked when the mod is loaded.

This will probably be extended in the future, but there are no decided plan on it.

Sirellyn
Posts: 12
Joined: Sun Aug 25, 2019 6:28 pm

Re: Modding in Locations

Post by Sirellyn »

Uncanny that looks great!
I was going to just allow use of prefabs in the hopes they will upgrade to nested prefabs eventually. Hrm, I haven't been using JSON.
I had no idea what others were doing so I just wanted to create a simple tag to ID interface to allow people to easily search through the database, add their own custom objects and keep track of it all later when it's put together.

Even if the existing bits of the daggerfall dungeon model sets are tagged properly it would be pretty easily to create a much better procedural dungeon generator, or even a dungeon assistant.

I wouldn't mind combining efforts if you are interested. Frankly I'd just like to have a tool for DF modders to create locations, place them in the world and share them as a part of their mod (or stand alone.)

Daggerfall is a world the size of the UK. I wouldn't mind seeing some custom replacements for the original procedurally generated dungeons and locales.

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