OK, I am not a complete noob. I have a softmodded box. Halo2 works fine. I can edit maps and they work. My problem is, I want to make new maps like the ones found in Mimesis. I can get them to show on the maps list, but they fail to load. I also don't have a screen shot for the map. I am assuming that there are more files other than ?.map and the mainmenu.map files that I need to edit/create. But I don't know where to begin. My current project is containment. Anyone please help me.
It all depends on what kind of mod your trying to create. Right now we can only rebuild maps with other single player bsp's. No custom bsp creation is possible yet. Also when trying a 1st grade mod, you ned to make sure the maps tag structure is solid. In other words, no broken idents and correct placement of all in-game tags. Also you must make sure to properly re-sign the maps before ftping them over. Unless your making a map with a changed internal name, you dont need to do anything to the mainmenu.map file. And if you did chasnge the name, double check to make sure the map name is pointed to correctly. I count how many times people have not entered it correctly. Example.. scenarions/multi/coagulation instead of scenarios/multi/halo/coagulation
OK, I have signed the maps. My mods work, except when I go a little overboard and make an smg that fires rockets. I know that there must be a way to edit the map and give it its own slot rather than edit it and overwrite the original. I want to make maps like the ones on Mimesis. I have downloaded all that I can, and can't find a way to make my own maps work. I am sure it has something to do with the contentimage.xbx, contentmeta.xbx, and possibly the patch.lvl files that I have found throughout most of the map folders. Thank you anybody who can shed a little light on this matter.
Ok, lets start simple. To make a map you modded a stand alone new map, you need to download a hex editing program. Then open the map you modded with the hex app and look for the two sets of text that look like this.... scenarios/multi/waterworks/waterworks. You need to change both waterworks in this example to make the map a stand alone. But you can only change the name to something with the same amount of characters. The new map name canot be longer or shorter that the origonal. Then you ned to open the mainmenu.map file with Dothalo, and add a map slot under the MATG tag. After that resign both maps and ftp them over to the xbox. If you get stuck let me know! My MSN is B4M_Twinreaper@Hotmail.com. If you want, look for me late at night like around 2am, and hit me up for live help!
thank you, I missed the step for editing the main menu.map in dothalo on the tut i downloaded. I don't really have time to try it out before tomorrow night. I will keep you posted as to whether or not I am successful. What time zone are you in? I am in Germany, so I am about 6 hours ahead of eastern. Thanks again. don't have msn, but my gmail notifies me whenever the thread is updated.
yaay, kinda. OK, so I renamed containment. Just to see if I could get the placement down. Edited the mainmenu.map in both the hex, and in DotHalo. Put the map in slot 12. Put in a value of 450 (figured it wasn't being used, and my tut suggested that number). .... Re-signed both maps, but I had to check the map key against my backup because CMR V1 doesn't have the key for mainmenu.map. FTP'ed both signed files over to xbox. Failed to load the map. And to make it even more interesting, I get a screenshot of zanzibar. Not containment or Warlock, but Zanzibar. Tried putting the map in its own folder, no luck. But they show in the main menu, descriptions and all. Oh, and I also no longer get the whole "content you have downloaded may be damaged.....blah, blah, blah". So, I have either made a step foreward, or I am completely screwed up. And how is Containment still there if I removed it from the mainmenu.map file. I overwrote the filepath for it using a hex editor. Shouldn't it have vanished when the new map appeared. Not complaining, I want the mod and the original, but if these processes involve overwriting the original code in the file that comprises the main menu of the game, how is containment still there? I must be missing something.
I see two mistakes. 1.) You dont need to hex edit the mainmenu file. 2.) You need to add a new slot for a modded map, not overwrite an existing slot.
