TOEE world editor discovered in official Polish patch

Re: Official ToEE WorldEd discovered in Polish patch?

This is indeed an interesting find from our fellow member. It's also interesting that in twelve years it is the first time someone experimented in this unusual way (installing a Polish patch on top of an English game) and came up with the least expected results.

The existence of an accidental leak of this tool was known to us for some time, but unfortunately, we were unable to release it publicly before. We had an opportunity to obtain a copy of WorldEd before from a limited collector's edition (or maybe not - see note below) Polish release of the game that shipped on two CDs plus a bonus CD. For the reasons of: a) it being proprietary software [that we are not allowed to freely share]; b) being a possible oversight affecting only a particular limited game release that was, in essence, an internal NDA violation within the game release team; c) us not knowing the extent of this oversight and the possible legal implications for us if we released the tool openly, we were unfortunately unable to release the tool here and share it publicly on the Circle of Eight website.

Now, however, that it was found lying openly in a different location, I can say I am glad to see that the program is now public knowledge and, moreover, can be downloaded from a public location on the Internet without anyone having to worry about the shady aspect of potentially releasing it to the public otherwise.As for the tool itself:
a) I can confirm that it definitely works.
b) It's a quirky and crashy and somewhat limited tool compared to what you may expect - while it does indeed open up additional modding possibilties and can speed up the process of map development, do not expect it to work miracles. To get it working, make sure you have the game module .dat file (toee.dat, for memory, though I don't have an active game installation at the moment to test) extracted. Otherwise, you won't be able to load any maps. Also, do not expect the "New Module" button to work properly - that feature is actually left over from Arcanum and does not work correctly for ToEE. Ditto the "Multiplayer" button and many other things. Navigating the map in WorldEd can be a little bit tricky too - the program has no mouse scrolling support and you can only use the numeric keypad to navigate (you have to have Numlock on). The program also likes to crash a lot, especially if you click the wrong things, so make sure you make backups and save often if you work on anything serious in it.

I'm not sure if WorldEd will make a world of difference in ToEE modding due to its quirky and limited nature, but I will only be happy to see new modders come along and use this program to contribute to what ToEE has to offer.

EDIT: Some Polish users inform us that the game release Worlded was a part of was standard Polish three-CD release, not a limited release. While I can't personally confirm or deny that, if it is indeed so then it's all the more ironic that no Polish user ever deemed it relevant or important to notify anyone of this interesting find.

- Agetian

 

You'll probably need to learn Polish. I take it the problem (if it's expressing in Polish) is in the unzipping? I just tried it following the instructions of the OP and had no problem - WorldEd stands out like a sore thumb, too, but I guess people don't normally install to an empty folder.

To get it going, follow Agetian's instructions in THIS thread: and be aware, guys, we will doubtless merge the two threads at some imminent point.

Edit: OEwotyniea Pierwotnego Zazwodonu (or whatever that said) is 'Temple of Elemental Evil" in Polish. I suspect you didn't navigate to your new blank folder I'd suggest:

- make blank folder
- copy address line (mine was C:\Users\Ted\Desktop\Polish, yours won't be )
- run the patch and paste that address into the relevant box when the moment comes.

Let us know how it goes because you won't be the only one trying!

 

Merged threads from GM and ToEE Discussion.

Let me state this now, emphatically and clearly: neither this thread nor any thread here at Co8 is going to be allowed to devolve into bashing. Discuss it all you want, but nothing less than civility will be tolerated.

 

1. In my experience, the improved functionality lies in more precise sectoring tools than WB has to offer. Also the DAG stuff, but the limitations there are profound in that you can't create new clippers, only use existing ones. That makes some degree of hacky DAG work possible with enough effort, but no more than that. The interface is pretty poor as well - no way to 'audition' clippers, etc.

It's also better for positioning mobs and scenery, etc.

WorldEd is by no means a complete solution, or even a tool that really approximates most modding tools people are familiar with, like with NWN. I mean, it doesn't have a proto editor, you don't create scripts or dialogues from within it, you don't 'build' maps, etc. Most of that side of ToEE modding would be untouched by it, and anyone modding without it won't see much difference except in the ways mentioned above. It's not the holy grail of ToEE modding by any stretch.

2. We've known about it for a very long time. It's essentially irrelevant though, because for the reasons Agetian stated above, we've never been at liberty to share it. A little dose of reality here - ToEE itself is not a game that ever had modding 'authorized' for it, so we've always actually been on thin ice legally just releasing modpacks. Taking the liberty of publicly distributing proprietary development software would just be reckless beyond the pale, and it would jeopardize the very existence of the modpack and all the hard work that's gone into it over the years so that people can play a better version of the game.

 

Thanks for the sentiments guys, but let's avoid making this bashy in any direction. Basically we can have a productive discussion or not about the actual topic, inasmuch as anyone's legitimately curious or needs help, and we'll leave it at that.