I am modding up a campaign from scratch using the existing maps from ToEE, but with all new characters and stories. I have created several connected areas on the world map using the vignette maps and the ogre cave map, and populated them with lots of objects like monsters, treasures, dealers, and recruitible NPC's and such. I'm really enjoying writing the .dlg scripts. But today I wanted to use a larger area map, and I attempted to empty out Nulb and repopulate it from scratch. So following the same process I had been using in the other areas which learned from the tutorial, I deleted all the .mob files from all 15 map folders in Nulb (under \Temple\modules\ToEE\maps). But to my surprise when I restarted a new game and entered Nulb many of them were still there, like Bertram and Preston to name a few. Does anyone know where are these guys are spawning from? I think it may be because these particular NPC's have waypoints or standpoints, but I still can't find the source of their creation. Any help would be much appreciated.
I kept the entry unchanged in \Temple\modules\ToEE\rules\MapList.mes {5051}{Map-9-Nulb-Exterior, 507, 360, Flag: DAYNIGHT_XFER, Flag: OUTDOOR, Flag: UNFOGGED} If I make a new entry in MapList.mes, like {5122} or {5250} or whatever, I won't be able to get it to show up on the World Map because I think game.areas[3] (Nulb) has a hardcoded correlation to map {5051} in temple.dll. (If I am mistaken, and can somehow make game.areas[3] on the World Map correlate to a new map number in MapList.mes please let me know.) I also tried to keep {5051} but give it a new name and folder like {5051}{My-New-Nulb}, but the people are still all there. Anyways, so then I deleted the .mob files from the 15 map folders for Nulb: \Temple\modules\ToEE\maps\Map-9-Nulb-Exterior \Temple\modules\ToEE\maps\Map-9-Nulb-Interior-Boatman \Temple\modules\ToEE\maps\Map-9-Nulb-Interior-Generic-Nulb . . . \Temple\modules\ToEE\mapsMap-9-Nulb-Interior-The-Water-Hostel-2nd-fl I also just now tried the same process on the original GoG version (the version with no signpost, no brothel etc.) and the same thing happens - many of the people are still there. Once I find out where these "ghosts" are coming from I will be very happy. EDIT: Just finished inspecting all the sector files for static objects, but there were only a few doors, and bunch of bushes.
Ah, in that case that's no mystery: it's the MOB files from inside ToEE.dat. If you want them to go away, while retaining the map entry, then instead of deleting them, override them with MOBs that are flagged OF_OFF. (i.e. extract ToEE.dat and edit the files in WB, then put them in the \modules\ToEE\maps\[xxx] folder) As for the worldmap entry, IIRC it is indeed hardcoded.
And there it is, yes! The clue was that the Co8 creatures which were added to Nulb weren't appearing, like Otis's vendor and Mother Scrang's vendor on the 3rd floor. So it was drawing them from the original .dat files. Thank you for the help.
The only real hardcoded map number > game area info is in the area names in saves. You can change game areas and their descriptions in gamearea.mes. (It goes in the modules/ToEE/mes folder though, not data/mes.) If you want to add an area, you'd have to use the Worldmapper tool (see the sticky thread in this forum), which assumes the use of a certain level of custom .dll coding that Co8 did. In other words, the tool won't work with the vanilla temple.dll or earlier modded versions.