Why do some maps need to be started from the command line and can some other be properly added to the game?
Is it possible to replace the main campaign with a custom campaign so it can be played regularly?
Why do some maps need to be started from the command line and can some other be properly added to the game?
Is it possible to replace the main campaign with a custom campaign so it can be played regularly?
Well, you could do that, but to trick the game into displaying them you'd have to change all the filenames to match the original campaign files and then write new STR Briefing files, etc... to avoid a lot of confusion. It's not really a good idea. If you just modify the included GoG shortcuts from the "Becoming of Nemesis" package and change the Drive Letter from C: to D: on all of them, then they should work fine. Or as Metal Gear Rex suggested, you could generate your own shortcuts using his list of names. It's just how the old game works. The -q -level switches tell the game engine that you want to play a custom campaign level and that is cool that they did that for us back then. If not, we probably wouldn't still be playing this thing after all these years.
But aren't there maps out there you can simply download, place into the right directory and play from the skirmish menu?
Sure. They are designed that way by selecting the proper type in the Level Variables when the map is designed. Campaigns are not. So you can get Multi-Player, Skirmish and MPD maps to show up in the various menus, but not campaigns. But at least Bullfrog Devs gave us the -q switch to tell the engine that it's a custom campaign map.
That worked perfectly. Thank you very much!
There's lots of problems here actually unless the map is specifically designed to be a Skirmish / Multiplayer map.
1 Player maps cannot be accessed from the S / M menus, period. Supposedly you could add a computer player in the corner of the map but that does look weird and can lead to an additional problem as written out below.
S / M maps have a global setting for availability in terms of creatures, etc that's applied to all players. The default settings being based on whatever Red Player has. This means you can't have different availability settings for different players (there's some technical exceptions here with units / things that aren't normally attractable / buildable but that's irrelevant).
The AI settings for a S / M map will overwrite the custom AI settings for a map. This is pretty significant sometimes if the AI relies on certain settings to say, build rooms in harsher looking terrain. In many versions of the game (I think things past 1.3), not setting an AI for a player will result in that AI player dying from the start, but either way, there's a minimum of at least Blue getting modified.
There are hardcoded things in S / M maps in regards to win / lose conditions. Killing all other Keepers for example will force a win. Additionally, if the Time Limit setting is used (the only timer that is displayed ingame), the game ends automatically when it hits 0. This is the problem that exists even in a 1 player map, as it means there isn't a possibility for say a timer before a Hero Invasion. The only work around this would be funky as hell, something involving a repeat command to constantly reset the Time Limit so it never hits 0, which would be confusing / look weird.
I think I covered all the issues but it's possible still that I left something out. Still, I think I made my point. This is why you can't really utilize the S / M menu for most maps.
Dungeon Keeper 2 Patch: With More Balance and Pie [Hiatus]
Forever Hiatus. Probably. Latest Version: 3.5 w/Levels 1-11 Revised.
The Awakening: GM Powers Activate!
Tesonu is napping!
@DemureGirl, another thing you should look out for is: always check for updates on campaigns. I just uploaded an update for Becoming of Nemesis just now.
Reply to Metal Gear Rex:
That's a lot of good info. Thanks. The only other way I have found to get custom maps in the menuing system somehow is with Single Player maps. You set them to MPD type levels. They will then show up in the extended list of maps. The only problem is they all display the map name as "Torment" so the only way to tell them apart is by the map size (unless you know something different?). Kind of funny, but it is one way of getting them in there. Thus far I have not seen any issues when testing single player maps that way. Personally, I don't use that method in my own games. I have a number of scripted menu groups that I set up on my own machine that work quite well. My machine is kind of funky (max'd-out Surface Pro 4) so I have done some extra things to get games running smoothly on it. It's not the ideal game machine, but I love the small footprint and portability of the machine so I have tweaked the hell out of it to make it work. If anyone has questions with regard to gaming with Intel HD or Iris integrated GPU's give me a yell.
@DemureGirl - Good point about checking for those updates. Glad you got your shortcuts working now!