I have found out a way to link new outdoor areas to each other as you can see in this two screenshots below.

This two areas are both preset outdoor areas (one ds1 file each). I have no monsters in this screenshot, but monsters can walk to the other area and shot you from one preset area to the other.

Outdoor Area 1

Outdoor Area 2


How is this done?
First you need to know how to add a new outdoor area. You can read more about that here.

I have in this test added two outdoor areas that are 7 x 10 in size in levels.txt (8 * 11 in win_ds1edit). The first outdoor area need to have two different vis (i used vis5 & 6). The first vis can be linked to a cave or what you want to use it (to get to this outdoor area). The second vis is added as a hidden vis, why add a hidden vis? We will use this vis to link it to the other outdoor area. By adding a vis to another area it will load the other area, this is very important to make the linked outdoor areas.

The second ds1 file will contains one hidden vis also (i used vis 6). You will need to link the first outdoor area with the second one, using their respective hidden Vis.

I discovered today that OffsetX/OffsetY (in levels.txt) is used to place the ds1 file(s) in the world map. This is what Paul has wrote about in this post earlier. That explains what worldspace are.

Some notes about offsetX/offsetY. If you use -1/-1 as value the game will use its hardcoded reference to calculate its position in the worldspace. You can use 0/0 and up to place your maps into the worldspace. This offsetX/offsetY is important to remember to change. I did earlier today the mistake to copy/paste some levels and both my levels used the same offsetX/Y and it didn't worked to well. But, the good part was that i discovered how offsetX/offsetY worked. What happen is that the tiles and objects of my 2nd cave was put into my first cave, wich makes it a mess for both caves, as you can imagine.

I have added the following offsetX/Y for my ds1 files.

First ds1 file: offsetX = 1000, offsetY = 1010
Second ds1 file: offsetX = 1000, offsetY = 1000

What we do here is to add the ds1 files side by side. By this we can make a huge world that are built up by several ds1 files.

To have an idea of how big you can make this world, remember that Tristram is 44*47 tiles in the ds1 editor, and that you can make ds1 of 250*250 without problems, so you can make 1 ds1 30 times bigger than Tristram, within just 1 ds1.

EDIT:

I discovered one more important thing. The hidden vis is even more important than i first thougth. I had accidently added the vis side by side. I tried to move them into another location and the link into the other area didn't work anylonger. So, you need to add the hidden vis in the both ds1 file side by side. This vis actually connects each area to each other, since they are placed side by side. You make a walkable path for you and your monsters.




Thanx paul for this nice ascii art down here


The 1st ds1 file (A) cover the tiles area (1000, 1010) - (1006, 1019) (inclusive)
The 2ndt ds1 file (B) cover the tiles area (1000, 1000) - (1006, 1009) (inclusive)

So if I want to insert a new outdoor area between Black Marsh and Tamoe Highlands, I would have a new vis for one of these area (e.g. Tamoe), set my new area in Levels.txt with offset -1,-1, then connect vis of Marsh to the adjacent vis in the new area, set new vis of Tamoe to that adjacent vis in the new area?

Existing:

Marsh (vis 5) <----> Tamoe (vis 5)

New (with vis 6 in Tamoe not already used):

Marsh (vis 5) <----- New Area (vis 5)
New Area (vis 6) <----> Tamoe (vis 6)

Then, since there are three orientations into Tamoe (and therefore three possible exits from Marsh of interest), I would need three versions of this new area's exits---or is that automatic once the vis linkages are established?

You can't use offset -1,-1 since that tells it to use it's hardcoded values. Also to break the existing link between two outdoor area's you need to make the other outdoor area as a cave or turn it into a preset area.

But, adding a new area to an existing one should work as long as you can find a way to link them. The easiest way should be to turn a level like "Black Marsh" into a preset level. Then you don't need to take care of several versions.

So, what you mean is that we can have more outdoor areas in a mod than in the original game?

Yes, we can have new outdoor areas (as preset). I'm already using several new outdoor areas in my mod.

What happens when you step on the warp tile? Will there be a black screen shortly and will your character be "warped" to a new position, like when you enter a cave? Or is there a smooth transition like when you pass the border between two overground areas.

Too bad we can´t add to existing areas...

It will be a short glitch when you step into the next area. But, that glitch are ok for me atleast

We can add into existing area if we turn that area into a preset area or find a unique tile that always are added att the edge.

As always preset solves all randomized problems

So does this mean that you can not rearrange outdoor random areas?
(ie make the stoney field and the dark forest directly connect,
or move the monestary entrance to connect to the black marsh instead of the tamoe highlands)

Thats correct, we can't rearrange random generated outdoor areas. What you can do is to turn the random generated outdoor areas into preset areas and use the way i did to link new outdoor areas together.

I've not really gone into this in detail, but I would assume that all random areas are actually built up from combinations of preset areas. For example the dark tower in the Black Marsh always looks the same but is in a random position each game. It should be possible to pin down the area where the Vis is located and change that (small) preset area and still let the game generate the (bigger) random area for you. How else does the game manage to tie two random areas together without having ds1 files already there with pre-defined Vis combinations (eg. Black Marsh to Tamoe Highlands).

The same can most probably be done to add a shortcut (or longcut if you wish) between existing areas. Find a preset area within the random area, add the new Vis, link it up to you own (modded) preset area/s, then add the last pearl in the chain back to the existing end destination random/preset area. An example would be a second exit from the dark tower, going through various underground cave areas and coming out at the small area between the Monastery Gate and Outer Cloister (a preset area inside the random Outer Cloister layout IIRC).

All area's is built up by different ds1. A preset area is containing only one ds1, while a random generated area is containing several ds1. In a random generated area some ds1 is unique and only appear once in that area. This unique ds1 can be used to add something special, like a superunique, a new entrance or what you want to add that only is going to appear once.

You can also increase a ds1 in a random generated area. But this will have a sideeffect that if the original size of the ds1 is 8x8 and you increase the size to 16x16 the game will add this 16x16 as long as it has room for it. When it generates the area it still adds 8x8 ds1 and when it draws the 16x16 ds1 it needs room. If it havn't room it will skip to draw this ds1.

When the game links outdoor areas together it handles this in the code, and since we don't have access to the code. This isn't easy to change from our part. This is done in the same way as when it adds unique ds1. It will only add the link to another area once.

Maybe I'm just stupid, I cant get it to work in the way described.
(in most trys I get a DLRG stairs exception)

A few questions to give me a hint, please:

* in which direction counts the X coordinate from east to west or vice versa?
* is there a maximum size that the both preset outdoorlevels can have together (like 200x200)?
* I dont write anything in the appropriate Vis and Warp columns, do I, or do I have to tell the levelnumber in the visfields and let the corresponding Warps to -1?
* is the orientation (11 or 10) of the vis important? shall I take the complete same vis on each side, or for example two vis 6 with orientation 10 and a different number?
* maybe it's the problem, that my levels are "normally" linked together with a trapdoor (this is how I tested if my second preset is working fine)
* shall the vis stand complete alone at the border with no visible tiles to their left and right?

thanks in advance!

King Pin the links aren't working for me. Could you please fix them?

In game, here are the directions :

And here are the coordinates (X, Y) :




Areas used here are preset ds1, which can use 250*250 (maybe a little more, but 255*255 don't work in any case)... but trust me 250*250 is really huge. *Each* ds1 can be 250*250.


Th Vis are required, that's how the game know how to link levels. The warps, I'm not sure, maybe you can set them to -1.


As far as I know, no. Just for the Warp you're setting to them. If the warp is not for both direction but just for one (L ord R), it must match.


You have to make 2 hidden Vis (not object there), and be sure that the ds1 are connected side by side, as well as the Vis tiles. If you keep the same Vis numbers in both ds1, you can have a trap door AND a hidden Vis, and the player will (should ?) be able to use them both as expected, but for simplicity you can remove the trap door link


The player must be able to walk to that Vis tile, so put walkable tiles around the Vis, and under the Vis too.

Yes we can add to existing areas ask AA, in his nez mod he made some changes to some of the undergrounds places in act 1 like the Den of Evil so that it was larger then blizzard made it in the oringal d2.

That is a maze change, which is easy. (So easy I included it in the Beginner's Guide.) All you do is increase the number of rooms in Lvlmaze.txt.

This discussion is about going from one game level to another, not changing the individual level's size.

Ha, I finally succeeded!
That was my working setup:
area1: former cave treasure 2, offsetX and offsetY as default (1500,1624), size in levels.txt: 124x124
area2: former cave treasure 3, offsetX and offsety as default (1500,1748)
size in levels.txt: 124x124
I used two vis 6 with warp 19 on both sides.
(the kind of warp has definitely some influence)

And I dont see any short glitch, when I step from one area to the other, it looks as about coldplains->stonyfield to me: really smooth, the only thing that looked quite stupid at the transition at the first time, was that I enabled rain on one area but not on the other.

One more thing: you have to apply the same colorpal at the two areas, else, the color looks always right from the area in which you start, but in the other not. (with normal warps the colorpal gets always resettet with each warp)