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1995-12-19
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11KB
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245 lines
Durandal Object Placement Editor v1.1
By Eric Bennett (ericb@psu.edu)
I like to pronounce DOPE as "Dopey" :-).
==============================================================================
What's New in 1.1 (12/19/95)
==============================================================================
- Open file ---> try to load file but run out of memory ---> never close file!
This is now fixed.
- Now recognizes the full range of objects (to my knowledge) available in the
release version of M2.
- Previous version sometimes allowed selecting "close" from the file menu when
nothing was open, corrupting memory.
==============================================================================
General
==============================================================================
This program does for Marathon 2: Durandal what the original OPE did
for Marathon.
Have you played Marathon 2 over the network enough times that you're sick
of seeing the same aliens/items repeatedly? This program allows you to
change:
-how many aliens/objects of each type are initially present on a level
-how many aliens/objects of each type are present during play
-whether aliens/objects are placed randomly or in specific locations
-how often aliens/items are replenished
Although these changes are primarily useful for modifying net play, you can
also use this program as a cheater in the regular game by adding objects
or removing aliens.
==============================================================================
License and (lack of) Warranty
==============================================================================
This program is freeware. You don't owe me anything for DOPE.
The author (Eric Bennett) in no way warrants that the program will perform
as described in this manual (or any other document). USE THIS SOFTWARE
AT YOUR OWN RISK!
You may NOT redistribute beta releases of OPE under any circumstances. DOPE
betas should be available ONLY from DOPE's home pages on the World Wide Web
(http://www.amug.org/~ope).
You may redistribute full release versions this program provided that you
include the original, unmodified application and readme files and NOTHING
ELSE. You may charge duplication fees for distributing this program, but
your fee may not exceed the basic cost of media duplication (you are not
allowed to make money by distributing DOPE). You may place this
program on an online service as long as downloading the file incurs only
standard connection charges.
DO NOT DISTRIBUTE DOPE TO THE FOLLOWING SITES:
sumex-aim.stanford.edu
America Online (Macintosh Games Forum)
ftp.amug.org (well, I suppose you can, but I will put it on AMUG's web
server, so why bother?)
I will update these sites myself, so please don't send them extra copies.
The author specifically grants permission to the maintainers of the
archives at Sumex-Aim.stanford.edu to include this program on the CD-ROM
distribution of the archive.
==============================================================================
Special Considerations--READ BEFORE USING!
==============================================================================
You should NEVER have to change the amount of memory allocated to DOPE in the
Finder. If DOPE needs more memory, it will obtain it from the system
software. In other words, if you open a 3.5 meg map file and DOPE has only its
standard 390k of memory, your system software will expand to use an additional
3.5 megs of RAM. "About this Macintosh..." under the Apple menu in the Finder
will reflect this increase in memory use. As soon as you close your file in
DOPE, the memory will be released for use by other applications.
You should be able to use maps from the Marathon 2 Demo or the commercial
version. Maps from the original Marathon will load, but the descriptions of
characters and items will be wrong, so you should use the original OPE
(at version 1.32b of this writing) to edit those map files.
EDIT ONLY A BACKUP COPY OF YOUR MAP FILE. This program is not based on solid
information from Bungie; it uses information uncovered by Tom Klancer and
myself.
==============================================================================
How to use DOPE--Basic Editing
==============================================================================
After loading DOPE, select "Open..." from the file menu and load your map (you
can also drag-and-drop a map in the Finder). DOPE will scan the file for
valid levels.
Now select the desired level under the "Levels" menu.
You can select which character/object you wish to edit by selecting it from
the "Characters" or "Objects" menus. In the main window, there are six
edit fields:
-Placement method
If you place a 1 here, objects will be placed randomly on the level.
Net levels work in this way. Regular game levels have a zero, meaning that
aliens are placed in specific places on the level. Changing the default
value on a given level from 0 to 1 should not cause problems, but I don't
know how Marathon responds when directed to placed objects in specific
locations when they're usually random.
If you use a value other than 0 or 1, OPE substitutes a 1 because 1 is
guaranteed to work.
-Initial # of object
The object will be placed this many times on the level before game
play begins; objects are placed depending on the value of the first field.
-Minimum #
Marathon will do its best to keep this amount of the object in play.
However, if you have nonrandom placement (first field) on and you ask for
more objects than the map has placement positions, Marathon may not be
able to replenish fast enough.
-Max #
This represents the total number of the alien or object that can be
present on the level at once. For example, a value of 10 in the record
for napalm canisters means that at most 10 canisters can be in play (held
by players or sitting on the floor) at any one time. Or, suppose Min# of
missiles is 4 and Max# is 8; there will always be 4 missile packs in play,
and there may be up to 8 (the speed of the increase from 4 to 8
depends on the replenishment field; see below). Note also that if Min# is
greater than Max# then Max# is irrelevant.
[NOTE! for aliens, the M2 demo seems to ignore this field; you will
always have "Minimum #" aliens present]
-Extras
The total number of objects which Marathon will add over the course of the game
in addition to the minimum number which must always be there. An example explains
this better: suppose Min# fighters is 2, Max# is 4, Extras is 10. There will
always be at least 2 fighters; fighters will be added until up till four are present,
but only ten times--after this only the two required fighters will be present. Or
you can think of the Min# field as having precedence over the Extras field. 65535
supposedly represents infinite replenishment (as if anyone would play long enough
to exhaust 65534 items...).
-Replenishment freq.
The higher the number, the more often Marathon will add the object in an attempt
to reach Max#. Values are from 0-65535.
If you want none of an object, set both min# and max# to zero.
If you enter a value less than 0 or greater than 255 for Initial# or Max# or Min#, OPE
will substitute ZERO.
To clear all characters or objects from the level, choose "Remove all aliens"
or "Remove all objects" from the special menu. "Clear All Records" does both.
==============================================================================
How to use DOPE--Level Randomizer
==============================================================================
Currently disabled. It would probably make you crash since I haven't
rewritten it for Marathon 2 yet (I need to change a few constants but haven't
done so yet; the randomizer is really pretty bad anyway so I doubt anybody
used it in the original OPE anyway). I plan to rewrite the randomizer
from scratch at some point, but I don't know when.
==============================================================================
How to use DOPE--Sets
==============================================================================
If you have several map configurations that you like to use, it's probably
annoying to keep multiple large map files around just to preserve these
configurations. DOPE can extract the object placement information from
a map file and save it in a much smaller file, called a "set file." This
file records the placement information for EVERY LEVEL in the current map
file, not just the level you're currently editing.
Once you have a map file open in DOPE, choose "New set..." from the
Special menu. DOPE will ask you where to save the set. The set file that
results contains all of the information that OPE is capable of changing--the
contents of the six edit fields in the main window for ALL entries in the
Characters and Objects menus for ALL levels in the current map file. When
you want to put this object placement configuration back into your map file,
simply load the map file, choose "Load set..." from the Special menu, and
choose the desired set.
DOPE does not currently support drag-and-drop opening of set files.
==============================================================================
A KNOWN BUG IN DOPE
==============================================================================
If you create or edit map files with some of the full-fledged map editors,
OPE use to report garbage for the names of the levels you have edited. This
is a consequence of the way OPE/DOPE read level names. I will fix this
sometime. This should be fixed in OPE 1.35, soon to be released, but until
I get the Marathon 2 map file specs I can't fix this in DOPE.
==============================================================================
Version History
==============================================================================
12/19/95 v1.10 Open file ---> out of memory ---> never close file!
This is now fixed.
Now recognizes the full range of objects (to my knowledge)
available in the release version of M2.
Previous version sometimes allowed selecting "close"
from the file menu when nothing was open, corrupting
memory.
10/22/95 v1.00 Several people have downloaded v0.00d and nobody
found anything wrong, so here goes...
10/16/95 v0.00d first version I compiled as DOPE. Should be stable since
it's really just OPE with modified constants.
==============================================================================
HOW TO REPORT BUGS
==============================================================================
If you find a bug, please figure out how to reproduce it, then send me a bug
report at EricB@psu.edu.
==============================================================================
Special Thanks
==============================================================================
Thanks go to:
-Tom Klancer : provided information on the map file format that I used in
both OPE and DOPE.
-Bungie Software : created Marathon and Marathon 2.
-Staz Software : published my S'pht, FutureBasic.
-Patrick Gray : knew what names some items were supposed to have.
Less specifically, thanks to everyone on the 'net who sent me suggestions for
new features and icons etc.
[end of file]