FAQ

[Stevie D]

- FAQ -

This is where I'll compile an on-going collection of Q&As about the FO2 editor that appear on the Fan Fallout forum.

I've deliberately left the thread closed so that it isn't spammed. Please open new threads on the forum for questions or any other relevant stuff you have.

The idea is that sooner or later there'll be enough material in here to base a bells 'n' whistles webpage upon. And with that at the community's disposal, more creative but technophobic types will be tempted to have a bash at writing FO2 mods.

And that's good news for you, sir!

Where to find the editor
In case you haven't found the links from the Duck and Cover front page, here's...

The Fallout 2 Mapper/Editor.

Where you can find the Editor Introduction and Fallout Key Layout

What to do next
Do I just need to download the Editor to be able to Edit Fallout?
No, unfortunately you'll need to do a few more bits, first. This tutorial will show you what you need to do next.

Be advised that the more experienced editor users on the DaC forums will almost certainly assume that you have gone through the processes in this tutorial already. Either with the program DatMan! Light, or one very similar.

HALT!
Before we go on, it is assumed that you have brought your copy of Fallout 2 up to date by installing the last official patch. If you haven't - do so NOW before doing anything else!

Find the last official patch on this page.

OK, we can continue now... phew!

There are three large files in your ...\Fallout2\ directory that you'll need to extract (or open out). The files within them contain the blood and guts of Fallout 2, and that's what you'll be up to in your elbows in your more advanced adventures with the editor. The three files are master.dat, critters.dat and Patch000.dat.

Unfortunately, extracting the files isn't a double-click on Winzip away. You'll need one of the specialist DAT unpacking tools on this page. (Scroll down to DAT Utilities).

I can't speak for all of the DAT Utilities on the DaC boards personally, although others can. However, I have had good results with DatMan! Light, the readme for which can be found here. Don't worry about the odd file extension on the readme (.nfo), it opens perfectly well in Wordpad.

The following tutorial uses DatMan! Light to perform the extraction, Doctor. Scalpel!

DOWNLOADING AND INSTALLING DATMAN! LIGHT

1. Download DatMan Light! here.
2. Now, you can follow the readme to get it installed properly, but I've put the details here, too.
3. Unzip DatManl.zip to the directory you want it to live in.
4. One of the files unzipped into that folder will be zlibtool.zip. In turn, unzip this one into your ...\Windows\System folder. Select 'Yes To All' to overwrite the files it needs to replace.
5. Use 'Find ==> Files and Folders' to find regzlib.bat and double-click on it. (in other words, execute the file).
6. Open DatManl.exe in the folder you unzipped DatManl.zip to, to execute the program.

EXTRACTING THE FALLOUT 2 MASTER DATA FILES

1. Open DatMan! Light.
2. Click on the 'Open' button on the toolbar. The second one from the left.
3. Find and open your ...\Fallout2\ directory
4. Double-click on master.dat
5. Wait for DatMan Light! to 'Retrieve DAT DirTree Information'. When it's done, the main window on the left will show you a root directory of all the files in master.dat. The one on the right will show you a list of all the files in any directory you select.
6. Click on the 'All' button on the toolbar. The fourth one from the left.
7. Select a folder you'll be easily able to find in a minute. Something like My Documents, for instance. Doesn't really matter. Hit 'Extract'.
8. This next stage takes a while. It's where DatMan! Light extracts all the files, and there's upwards of 23 thousand of them. It will make a folder called master.dat itself and put all the extracted files in there.
   
   While you're waiting, go and fix yourself a drink and look out of the window for a bit. Go on, wave to that neighbour you never usually speak to.
   
   Right, the files in the main, master.dat compressed file should be unpacked by now.
9. Now minimise the DatMan! Light window and find and open the master.dat folder in the directory you extracted the files to.
10. Select, and cut, all the files in the folder and paste them directly into your ...\Fallout2\data directory. Hit 'Yes To All' in the window that comes up, to replace any old files in the directory with the new, extracted ones.

Now that’s done, you need to do the same with the other two files, critters.dat and Patch000.dat.

Follow all the steps in the above section, except you need to go through all the stages using the critters.dat file in your ...\Fallout2\ directory before Patch000.dat, instead of master.dat. Once critters.dat has been unpacked, finally you need to unpack the Patch000.dat file. It is vital that Patch000.dat is unpacked last, since it updates many of the files within the other two, big .dat files.

Incidentally,once you've cut-and-pasted the extracted files into your ...\Fallout2\ directory, it's OK to delete the three folders created by DatMan! Light when you extracted the three .dat archives.
By Stevie D.

Why the extracted files go into '...\Fallout2\data' instead of the Fallout 2 root directory
Thanks Red.

The engine is actually built to read the data files from ...\Fallout2\data first (Well, that's how fallout2.cfg sets it by default...) and failing that, will read the ...\Fallout2\ root directory.

Of course, this causes problems since when you put the extracted files in ...\Fallout2\data, Fallout2 likes to delete most if not all the files in ...\Fallout2\data\proto, so you need to make them read-only. Yet if you want to be able to edit them, they should NOT be read-only... Quite a pain in the ass huh?

I [Red] haven't found any clever workarounds...The danger in putting the extracted files in the root instead of in ...\Fallout2\data is that I think the original .dat files would actually have priority over them... While the extracted files in ...\Fallout2\data have priority over the .dat files.

[Stevie D]

Fallout Key layout for the editor and game
Written by Red!

Can also be found here.

- [ Introduction ] -
When there's a slash ("/"), the left part is in game mode (F8 and usually works
in the normal game), while the right is in the editor. Most of the normal game
function still work in the editor - moreso in the game mode of course. The M key
is especially useful for selecting critters as it doesn't have the issue of
"clicking a bunch of time until you hit the critter" problem mentioned in the
documentation since you know exactly where you click. If there's a third slash
in the command, the third command is actually available while in the dialogs
with NPCs. When there's a slash with nothing in front or after it, it means the
command isn't available in that mode.

- [ Key mappings ] -
A: Attack/
B: Switch attack weapon/Fix map objects to PIDs (same as menu)/Barter
C: Character/Copy
F: Toggle FPS display
Switch light level look of map (day, night et al)
E: /Edit selected proto
I: Inventory/List scripts (same as menu)
K: Kill critter (and recucitate!)
L: Lock (doors)/Give 500xp to OBJ_DUDE
M: Mouse-Hex cursor toggle
N: Switch attack mode/Advance 1 month
O: Options
P: Pipboy/Find selected item or tile under cursor
Q: Make walls transparent (like steam transparancy)
R: Toggles roofs on and off
S: Skilldex/
T: Advance 1 minute/Open edit mode menu
U: /Use item (open or close doors)
S: /Place location script
W: Worldmap (Note: if PROs are read-only, it crashes)
Z: Rest/
?: Display game time
[/]: /One step change of daylight
+/-: Adjust brightness level/Move proto list right and left
,/.: Rotate OBJ_DUDE left right/
Keypad +: /Move proto list up by 10
End: Go to last item in proto list
Del: Go in delete mode (same as button in UI)
Page up/Page down: Change map level
Up/Down/Left/Right: Move POV
Home: Return POV to map level origin
Esc: Cancel menu/Cancel menu or quit editor

Left-Click: Move to, look/Select Item
Right-Click: Change attack mode/Cancel current action

Alt-A: Save As
Alt-B: Edit OBJ_DUDE (Notes: as in the menu, and as with the menu,
when exiting this function it leaves the screen mostly black!)
Alt-F: File menu
Alt-G: Shift map (use Left/Right/Up/Down keys to move map)
Alt-H: Crashes app
Alt-I: Load text map (disabled? - same as menu)
Alt-N: Erase map
Alt-O: Open map
Alt-P: Save text map (need to have a (saved) named for the map first or crash)
Alt-S: Save
Alt-T: Scripts menu
Alt-V: Tools menu
Alt-W: Set map script
Alt-Y: Use pattern

Ctrl-F: /Disable sound effect cache
Ctrl-I: /Pipboy map
Ctrl-J: Give object to OBJ_DUDE
Ctrl-L: Load savegame
Ctrl-N: Advance 1 month
Ctrl-P: Pause
Ctrl-Q: Quit/
Ctrl-T: Adance 1 day
Ctrl-S: Save game/
Ctrl-V: Version
Ctrl-X: Quit/
Ctrl-End: Go to proto 0 in list
Ctrl-Up/Ctrl-Down: Rotate critter North/South
Crtl-Left/Ctrl-Right: Rotate crirtter Left/Right

1:Use Sneak skill/Goto bookmark 1/Answer 1
2:Use Lockpick skill/Goto bookmark 2/Answer 2
3:Use Steal skill/Goto bookmark 3/Answer 3
4:Use Traps skillGoto bookmark 4/Answer 4
5:Use First aid skill/Goto bookmark 5/Answer 5
6:Use Doctor skill/Goto bookmark 6/Answer 6
7:Use Science skill/Goto bookmark 7/Answer 7
8:Use Repair skill/Goto bookmark 8/Answer 8
9:/Goto bookmark 9/Answer 9 (can there even be 9 answers in a dialog?)
0:/Goto bookmark 0/Exit dialog

F1: Help/Items
F2: /Critters
F3: /Scenery
F4: Save/Walls
F5: Load savegame/Tiles
F6: Quick save/Misc
F7: Quickload savegame
F8: Switch to and from game mode
F9: /Rebuild item protos (Librarian menu - need librarian=1 in cfg)
F10: Quit/Rebuild proto lists (Librarian menu - need librarian=1 in cfg)
F11: /Rebuild all (Librarian menu - need librarian=1 in cfg)
F12: Screenshot

Alt-F4: Real game only - Quit
Alt-F7: /Does some weird POV teleport of some kind and takes a screenshot

Ctrl-F1: /Toggle Items display (doesn't upate UI)
Ctrl-F2: /Toggle Critters display (doesn't upate UI)
Ctrl-F3: /Toggle Scenery display (doesn't upate UI)
Ctrl-F4: /Toggle Walls display (doesn't upate UI)
Ctrl-F5: /Toggle Tiles display (doesn't upate UI)
Ctrl-F6: /Toggle Misc display (doesn't upate UI)
Ctrl-F7: /Delete script

Shift Commands note: If a command is assigned in the game with the normal key,
then using it with the Shift key ends up using that command as in the game, but
within the editor. If that command doesn't exist, then it will use the command
in the editor instead, except for [Special thanks to temaperacl about the Shift
which I didn't check thinking it wasn't used]:
Shift-A: /Destroy all scripts
Shift-L: Gain level
Shift-C: /Copy All (Same as UI: copy critters, scenery and misc)
Shift-W: /Assign hotkeys (?)
Shift-K: /Kill critter and choose death

Shift-F9: /Edit AI packet for critter (Notes: Crashes on second try,
you'll need the packet AI number as the game always pops up the same,
when selecting "Done" without selecting any item in the various lists
it usually pops up a dialog which permits you to type the string
instead of selecting it in the menu. If you type an non-existing one,
the editor will create a new entry for you!)
Shift-F11: /Edit stats for critter

- [ Map keys ] -
You can use the 0 though 9 keys to acces any of the defined entrances on a map
(accessed from the worldmap on any other occasion then the first). This will
work regardless of wether you can see the entyr point on the map or not and also
works in the normal game (sadly...)

- [ Generic Keys ] -
The options menu can be driven using the first letter of the button you wish to
select. The same can be said with Yes/No dialogs, as well as the real game's
main menu and various sub-menus (ie: load menu, create new char menu, etc...)
Lists can be handled with Up/Down buttons, as well as Page Up and Page Down when
the list has more items then the area can display.
In addition, various element lists (such as a file list) can be controlled by
typing the first letter of the item you're looking for (for example, type D to
skip to the first D file in the map list when loading a map).

- [ Librarian mode ] -
The librarian menu can be toggled on with override_librarian=1 in the cfg, note
that while it's enabled you can't save your map.

- [ Loading saved games ] -
You can load games into the editor, note however that the game's files are used
instead of the ones found in the directories and/or the DATs when possible. Also
note that if you extracted and modified PRO files in your "working" directory,
chances are loading the savegame will delete them so you'd need to make them
read-only - also see the W key above about this. Additionally there seems to be
problems in using editing PROs in savegames.

- [ Editing PRO files ] -
Getting the PRO files to be editable: On the same drive you installed
Fallout2 (well, I don't know, it might be the same you installed the mapper,
or in which master.dat is found in mapper2.cfg, I haven't toyed enough with it
since it works for me and probably will for you too since that's how most people
install the applications), create /fallout2/dev/proto, and in it place the
directories critters, items, scenery, tiles, walls and misc. Once that's done
you can edit the PRO files, simply by Right clicking on them with the mouse and
clicking the Edit buttong (or pressing E). You also need to make sure that
librarian is set to 1 in the cfg (and preferably librarian_override still set to
0 if you still want to be able to save maps).

An important note is that each PRO contains it's own PID in the file. If you
copy a PRO file to overwrite another one or reate a new one at the end of the
list, you'll need to make sure the internally contained PID matches the it's own
critter.lst line number. You could hex edit it, or:
- edit the proto, thus creating the text file reference;
- rebuild the protos (F9, see above, though you might need to use F11);
- edit the proto again.

Here's a sample of how it looks on my drive for reference (in hopes it looks
good in whatever media you read this in...)

Code: Select all

E:\ 
\---fallout2 
   \---dev 
       \---proto 
           +---critters 
           +---items 
           +---scenery 
           +---tiles 
           +---walls 
           \---misc

- [ Recording mode ] -
In the game's main menu hit Ctrl-R. This will ask you to load a map and then
select a name (for the recording). You've now started a recording and to exit
you'll need to hit Ctrl-R again. Once recorded, Fallout 2 will play the
recording every other time instead of the main movie. If there's more then one
recording it'll iterate through each of them (as well as the main movie - thanks
to Temaperacl, again, for verifying this). You can also use this trick to load
the map you wish and play it in the real game by saving the game, quitting the
recording and loading your recently saved game.

[Stevie D]

Can the Worldmap be changed?

Q: Can the sector tiles be changed?

A: Yes, they're just FRMs (with a bitmask whether you can traverse them, the MSK files I think?)

Q: Can new locations (The Green circles) be added?

A: Yes though you have to be careful as if you add more then the game allows cities then it crashes. TeamX released a patch to add cities to rectify that problem but it involves changing Fallout2.exe (well, the patch changes it for you)

Team X's city patch can be downloaded here.

I think there's another problem with extra cities: they won't show in the little scrollie on the right with the taped tags. They might show up actually since I never checked, but I'm quite sure they won't.

Q: If not, can current locations be renamed and replaced with user made maps?

A: Yes

Q: Can, and i'm not expecting anything, the world map size be increased? IE: can you add sector tiles?

A: Yes

Answers provided by Red in this thread

[Stevie D]

Roof/Floor Tiles?

Q: I seem to be having problems with making my floor tiles on ground level, my floor tiles seem to be on roof level, is there an easy way to change this that I am missing?

A: Page 5 of the Editor PDF guide, the Roof button (in the art object toggle panel) should be off (in) for laying floors, on (out) when laying roofs.

Answer provided by requiem_for_a_starfury in this thread

[Stevie D]

What do the functions in the Script tab in the hidden menu bar do?

* List all scripts
The green text lists all scripts in the map, including those attached to objects.

* Set Start Hex
This sets the default "spawn point" for the player. If the map sending the player here does not specify the tile the player is to spawn on (or whe entering from the world map), then he spawns here. It can be overridden by the map script forcing the player to spawn at a given position. NOTE: the editor does not take any notice of where the start hex is when you go into game mode (f8) and simly spawns the player in the center of the screen.

* Place Spatial Script
This is a script that is essentially attached to a hex and triggers when an object enters the radius specified. These are placed on the ground and look for when an object enters the set radius of it, a good example is the lifts in the vault, and so on.

* Delete Spatial Script
Still need to work this one out myself - sorry!

* Delete *ALL* Spatial SCRIPTS!
You use this option to delete a spatial script you have placed. Since you can only delete tiles / scenery and so on while in the relevent category using the delete button, and since spatial script markers are not in any category, you cannot simply delete them as you would a piece of wall you have placed. So you need to use this option.

The spacial scripts are only "attached" to a Hex and are triggered when you enter it's defined radius. Since they aren't attached to anything they needed special commands to toy with them and one of those commands is to delete them all.

* Create Script
The "Create script" button doesn't seem to do anything. It was possibly a function which was meant to load a script editor of some kind for BIS which was either removed for this release or never implimented.

* Set Map Script
There are map scripts in the list that come up when you hit this button. The main difference between types of scripts is how they are used and what they have within them- there might be implentation limits that would prohibit it, but there isn't any reason (based on the scripting language itself) why a script couldn't be a map script, a spatial script, and a critter script all at once (Not that I'm suggesting doing that).

* Show Map Script
Shows the script that has been set by Set Map Script

Answers provided by Temaperacl, Red and ColJack

[Stevie D]

Q: What's the best way to fill holes in walls, or better yet, prevent making walls with holes in them?

A: Two of the wall units are invisible items that will block the hex. The tiles are 620 and 621.

620 = Normal wall (well, normal hidden wall )
621 = Shoot Through (that's what the s. t. means), Used like windowed walls.
Thanks Red.

One shows up on the pipboy map, the other doesn't. If the walls are placed correctly, just put that invisible blocker in the appropriate spots to plug the holes.

Answers provided by Temaperacl and ColJack in this thread

[Stevie D]

Script Compiling
Written by TryKos in this thread.
Edited by Stevie D

The Fallout 2 Editor comes complete with all the source script files from the game in the .ssl format. This format makes sense to a script-writer, and allows him to edit them in Notepad.

However, once he is finished editing the script files, they need to be compiled into the .int format, which looks like gibberish when opened up in Notepad, but is the format Fallout 2 recognises.

Using a free, third-party program, here’s how to compile your finished .ssl script files. It should work on any version of Windows and has been tested on XP and 98.

Getting and installing the compiler

1. Get the OpenWatcom preprocessor from the Open Watcom site. The download can be found here (~850 Kb only, and no need for megaton MSVC installations at all! Thanks to ABel, who pointed this out).
2. Unzip the contents of the downloaded archive into any temporary directory, then cut-and-paste all files from …\temp\binnt (where temp is the name of the folder you chose to extract the download to) to your …\Fallout 2 Mapper\scripts folder. The important ones to transfer are wcc.exe, wcc386.exe, wccd.dll and wccd386.dll.
3. Open the file P.bat found in …\Fallout 2 Mapper\scripts in Notepad.
4. Find this string:
   @rem Watcom 11 users uncomment the following line:
   …and change the string to read like this:
   @..\wcc386.exe temp.c /pc /fo=temp.i /w4.
   
   Find this string:
   @rem The path in the following two lines should point to the Fallout 2 folder:
   …and edit the following two strings to point to your …\Fallout2\ folder. This is the path of the folder where your compiled scripts will be placed.
   
   However, I didn't immediately want to replace the existing scripts in my …\Fallout2\ folder with compiled ones, so I created the folder CompiledBIS on a second hard disk drive, and edited the strings to change them to:
   @md “D:\FalloutStuff\CompiledBIS�
   @copy temp.int “D:\FalloutStuff\CompiledBIS\%1.int�
   
   If you have already created a destination folder manually, you can delete the first of these strings - it will make the compilation process a little faster.

Compiling your .ssl scripts

1. Read the WARNING below first!
   
   Edit any script from the … \Fallout2 Mapper\scripts\(something) folders and save the finished result there.
2. Run the file with extension .bat from within the …\scripts\(something) folder where your edited script lies. (If you want to compile only one script - look in this file and make your own, it’s quite easy). It will compile all scripts from this folder, place the compiled results in .int format in the folder you chose in Step 4, above, and output any errors in the err.log file.
3. If you already set the output directory in Step 4, above, to point to your …Fallout2\data\scripts folder, you can skip this step.
   
   Otherwise, copy your compiled scripts to "Fallout2\data\scripts" directory now, before running the game.
4. Run the game and see how your modified script changed it!

WARNING! The source files shipped with the editor are from version 1.0 of Fallout 2. So, if you blindly compile any .ssl file that came with the editor and stick it into the game - be ready for the full spectre of glitches from the 1.0 version of the game. (missing car and so on).

Check first; if the script that you want to modify is present amongst the files in Patch000.dat, bad luck. You will need to learn how to use the Noid compiler/decompiler (not too difficult). If not, the altered and compiled script will probably work with the patched version of Fallout 2.

If your script is not amongst the files in Patch000.dat AND not on the following list - you can alter and compile it without fear of adding any bugs (except the bugs of your own modifications!)

Outdated Scripts
AHELDER.ssl
AHHAKUN.ssl
COWBOMB.ssl
DCADDICT.ssl
DCBILLY.ssl
DCCUSTMR.ssl
DCFRED.ssl
DCORPHAN.ssl
DCREBECC.ssl
DCSLAVE.ssl
DCSLVRUN.ssl
DCSTORY1.ssl
DCSTORY2.ssl
DCVIC.ssl
DEPOLV1.ssl
DIBONES.ssl
DIDIARY.ssl
DIFLKBOX.ssl
DISLVCRT.ssl
DIVICTBL.ssl
GCLENNY.ssl
HCMARCUS.ssl
HSCELLDR.ssl
KCSULIK.ssl
NHMYRON.ssl
QCSECBOT.ssl
SHTANDI.ssl
ZCSLAVE.ssl