In my effort to start Modding Black & White 2. I have ran into my share of troubles (Caesar Cipher Encryption on the Shaders, Missing info in the .ter files format, Ect.). But all Modding of a game has to start somewhere and at some stage. This is my effort to help out the Modding Community and help it get a jump start. I have designed afew tools to make my own life abit easier for when I want to setup a new map / mission. I will release these only if there is a demand for them within the community. (Currenty I do NOT have a Working Map Editor at this time so the only Modding I have been doing is to the existing lands and where objects are placed upon them.) Part 1 I want to explain the .bwe files found in the '\data\landscape\BW2\' folder. [CODE] Directory: \Black & White 2\Data\landscape\BW2\*.bwe What Does the File Do: Creation of Buildings, Villagers, Objects, Towns, Tech Level. Basic File Layout: Version(3.100000) I imagine this is inserted by there World Editor. SET_LAND_NUMBER(1) Tells the Engine What Land Number this is (aka level?) LOAD_LANDSCAPE("data\landscape\bw2\Land1.ter") Tells the engine what .ter file to load up for this level. SET_DEFAULT_SOUND_SURFACE(14) No Idea what this does yet. START_CAMERA_POS(1041.910645, 128.266327, 883.260254, 1042.020264, 128.023911, 884.224182) No idea why the engine needs two sets of X, Y, Z Coords. SET_DAY_LENGTH(10.000000, 10.000000) I would imagine this controls how many mins it takes to make a whole day in the game. CREATE_TOWN(0, "884.05,1492.74", "NEUTRAL", "GREEK") First number seems to be a grouping number. All belongs of one two have the same group number. Neutral Can be replaced with Any Faction (PLAYER_ONE, PLAYER_TWO, Ect.) Greek can be replaced with any Race Name (GREEK, JAPANESE, AZTEC, ?) SET_TOWN_NAME(0, "BW2T_PLACENAMES_AZTECCITY_1") Grouping Number BW2T_PLACENAMES_AZTECCITY_1 seems to mean the first name for AZTECCITYs in some file. SET_TOWN_TECH_LEVEL(0, 0) Grouping Number Tech Level (0 through ??) CREATE_BUILDING(0, "884.05,1492.74", "Greek_ABODE_A", 2844, 1000, 0, 0, 0, 0.010000, 0) Grouping Number X & Y Coord for placement Building Type / Model to use ?? 0.010000 = The Status of the building as far as being built ?? CREATE_TREE(0, "820.96,1435.56", "Palm Tree", 0, 0.000000, 1.000000, 1.000000) Grouping Number X, Y Coords Tree Type / Model to use ?? CREATE_FLOCK(0, "1091.13,1368.40", "Rabbit", 15, 0, -1, 0.000000, 1.000000, 122.730003, 0.000000) Grouping Number X, Y Coords Model to use Number of Creates in the Flock ?? CREATE_MICROCLIMATE("1249.85,1662.60", 2, 190.000000, 20.000000, 190.000000, 5, 16.340942, 20.000000, 0.000000, 24.000000, 0.300000, 0.000000) X, Y Coords Weather Type ?? [/CODE] Anything that is marked as a ?? I have yet to figure out what it does / stands for. The above is just a *small* part of what a .BWE file looks like. The .BWE file handles all the placement of Ore, Rocks, Tree, Buildings, Villiagers, Ect so they can be very large in size if the map is very detailed. By editing the .BWE files (Do so AT YOUR OWN RISK) you can setup some interesting maps to play around with. Right now I am working on a Stand Alone Tool that will allow for easy creation of .BWE files via a Graphical User Interface and drop down lists. (If time permits I plan to add a little mini map to the tool that will show the 11 different maps and make finding coords abit easier to do aka point and click to get coord infomation) My next major task is to figure out the BW2 .Ter File format and see how similar it is to a standard .ter formated terrain file. Depending on the differences and such I might / might not be able to create a Map Editor for the game. Modding Community Part 2 I plan to cover the walk.xml file and possibly the .pat (Pathing Files). The biggest Hurrdle I see right now is figureing out how to decompress the everything.stuff file to gain access to the scripts, models, ect. for editing the missions design and such. If anyone has any infomation on the everything.stuff file please post a reply here.

Just like good ol' B&W1...

Heh 2 days to get this far. Seems kinda slow :P . Hehe I'm kidding.

Ooh cool, like the .txt files in B&W1 for skirmish lands. I hope the modding community grows strong and prosperous \V/. Perhaps a sub-forum could be created? It's kind of crucial that we get a way for skirmish maps. If not by the devs, then by the community. edit: You will also be interested in the fact that LH plans to release a lot of modding tools.. that's what they said in the recent dev chat anyways.

Two Days :/ I have only had the game for about a day and already I have spent about half the day playing the game. The other half was spent on the creation of 3 different tools for modding and trying to decode there .ter format. A Sub-forum would be nice to have. Who knows maybe the mods will make us one.

 Quoting: ThomasOliver

START_CAMERA_POS(1041.910645, 128.266327, 883.260254, 1042.020264, 128.023911, 884.224182) No idea why the engine needs two sets of X, Y, Z Coords.

Tilt, perhaps? X, Y, Z, vertical axis tilt, horizontal axis tilt? That seems unlikely with the numbers being so similar. Or movement? Start the camera at this set of coordinants, and move it to that set? Then again, that seems a bit strange, because this example would just shift the camera a little. All in all, it doesn't look radically different from BW1. You're right, though, that everything.stuff file is going to be a *delight* to deal with.

 Quoting: Davros

Tilt, perhaps? X, Y, Z, vertical axis tilt, horizontal axis tilt? That seems unlikely with the numbers being so similar. Or movement? Start the camera at this set of coordinants, and move it to that set? Then again, that seems a bit strange, because this example would just shift the camera a little. All in all, it doesn't look radically different from BW1. You're right, though, that everything.stuff file is going to be a *delight* to deal with.

Actually I think It is a Camera point and then the target point. Like say this XXXXXXX XXCXXXX XXXXTXX XXXXXXX

Great work

i was looking at the C:\Program Files\Lionhead Studios\Black & White 2\Data\Balance files, there all .txt and im shure pritty easy to figure out. i just have to play with them a little.

Hmm, nice one, saves me some time Remember of course that BWS will probably be releasing some nice tools for our use, so don't waste TOO much time, but if you can get some good stuff out, it would be ace. I have code written already for certain aspects of BW2 modding, so if you can get all that done, it would be great

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I have no idea what I am talking about

work. Hey Dero I thought of an idea for your first B&W 2 project - I would do it myself but not having the game yet and the fact I'm lazy might prevent me... We could make our own config editor which gives people a nice interface for editing the config file to enable gfx options which won't go on under autodetect. Save people who don't know what they are doing from having to fiddle with it. I was going to do this myself but seeing as I may not get my game for a while (have I mentioned how much I hate Amazon) and that I am fairly busy as it is I thought I'd throw the idea out there

Heh, I'm not about to do that because there are reasons why certain options are disabled, besides, I still don't have the game, so I wouldn't be able to test it. I don't get back with the game until late tonight, as I'm going into London to that event to get mine.

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I have no idea what I am talking about

I must remember to tell a friend about this thread... He simply loves modding... Far too much.

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So...does this mean that I can force my people to be Japanese? I prefer their building and unit/people style than the greeks. I suppose I'd need to start a new game to have them from the start, but once I get my tiger and the patch is released, I'll be doing that anyway.

Don't see why not, you would just need to change the building allocated to your people on each land to japanese ones and the villagers too... changing the build menu's to correspond might take more work (I don't even know if they change with different races come to think of it).

Not sure myself. I only know that once I captured a race's town, I could drag blueprints off their towns and expand as their race, but anything I built from the menu was greek.

Sam is demoing the game in London today. I'll make him make you all a forum next work day (Monday). On Monday we'll also have a better idea of what Mod tools we'll be releasing and when, so I'll let you all know then. -Kalev

 Quoting: Kalev

Sam is demoing the game in London today. I'll make him make you all a forum next work day (Monday). On Monday we'll also have a better idea of what Mod tools we'll be releasing and when, so I'll let you all know then. -Kalev

very cool.

And before anyone thinks Kalev is crazy, he/she is a dev from the looks of the IP. You need a red name!

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I have no idea what I am talking about

Kalev is a dev - as well as everything else we're looking into what tools we can release and what work needs done to release them.

Was Kalev not also in the X-Fire chat? And I rekon it will be a while before we get any official tools guys - there's the patch to finish first. Then after that they need to decide what to release. Then probably change the tools for release to the public and all along write documentation. Lots of work for our poor Devs. It'll be worth it in the end though

Oh wait, you're right, he's the one I asked about the mod tools in the first place silly me for forgetting.

kalevtait: Any more mod questions? derobrash: will I be able to write a plugin for the map editor, or just make a complete map generation tool? kalevtait: So far, I've just been working on the script language side of the mod development. kalevtait: I'm meeting with Jonty and Sam on Monday to start figuring out the rest of it. derobrash: Well if you want any help, you know where to call kalevtait: I'll certainly bring that up as something that we will try and let people do.

Whatever happens, I need the full map file format for what I'm planning, so either they release it, or we work it out. (I haven't got the game yet, so I can't look at anything, the plain text stuff is 'meh', not interested, but I want the real meat of it, like the heightmap etc)

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I have no idea what I am talking about

And for those of you can't wait till we release official tools and need to start editing the .bwe now, now, now, here are some of the blanks filled in: [code] START_CAMERA_POS(1041.910645, 128.266327, 883.260254, 1042.020264, 128.023911, 884.224182) As was suggested, this is both the position and the focus (position first) SET_DAY_LENGTH(10.000000, 10.000000) Day Length and Night Length (in minutes I believe) CREATE_TOWN(0, "884.05,1492.74", "NEUTRAL", "GREEK") Greek can be replaced with any Race Name (GREEK, JAPANESE, AZTEC, INDIGENOUS, NORSE) (I'm not actualy sure if indigenous works) SET_TOWN_TECH_LEVEL(0, 0) Grouping Number Tech Level (0 through 2 (I believe)) CREATE_BUILDING(0, "884.05,1492.74", "Greek_ABODE_A", 2844, 1000, 0, 0, 0, 0.010000, 0) Grouping Number X & Z Coord for placement <- in the BW2 world, y is up... Building Type / Model to use Angle Scale Food (not sure if this actually does anything) Wood (not sure if this actually does anything) Ore (not sure if this actually does anything) 0.010000 = The Status of the building as far as being built Level (deprecated, now always 0) CREATE_TREE(0, "820.96,1435.56", "Palm Tree", 0, 0.000000, 1.000000, 1.000000) Grouping Number X & Z Coord for placement <- in the BW2 world, y is up... Tree Type / Model to use Whether or not this is a 'scenic' tree. Angle Scale Final Scale (not sure what this does) CREATE_FLOCK(0, "1091.13,1368.40", "Rabbit", 15, 0, -1, 0.000000, 1.000000, 122.730003, 0.000000) Grouping Number X & Z Coord for placement <- in the BW2 world, y is up... Model to use Number of Animals in the Flock Whether or not there is a flock 'leader' (not sure if this does anything now) Town ID (town's grouping Number) Angle (not sure if this does anything) Scale (not sure if this does anything) Radius Altitude CREATE_MICROCLIMATE("1249.85,1662.60", 2, 190.000000, 20.000000, 190.000000, 5, 16.340942, 20.000000, 0.000000, 24.000000, 0.300000, 0.000000) X & Z Coord for placement <- in the BW2 world, y is up... Weather Type X radius Y radius Z radius point count height reposition rate time on time off follow scale variation [/code] With that last one, I'm not too sure what most of the values actually do, but I hope the names gives you some help. I hope that keeps you busy till Monday when I'll have more information for you. -Kalev

I like your work people, +rep.

I just wanted to think Kalev for taking the time to post all the missing infomation and helping out by pointing out that I was wrong on the X, Y Coords (Its X & Z cause Y is considered UP in BW2). *Goes back under his rock to continue working on his BWE Editing Tool (tBWE) and trying to decode the .ter format.