Revised worldmap for the Baldur's Gate - Big Picture compatibility mod

Version 6.6
Author: Yacomo, King Diamond, Erebusant and Weigo

Attention:

BP-BGT_Worldmap v6.6 is not compatible with Baldurdash!!!!!!

The world map is one part of your Baldur's Gate 2 save game. If you intend to use this mod you have to start a new game, otherwise your map icons might appear at the 'wrong' location! It will however be possible to install new versions of this mod over already existing installations. When installing over a previous version, save games will work, but the locations of icons on the map will not be updated and area link fixes or new locations that were added to the map will not be applied unless you start a new game.

Large Worldmap (4900x3500)	Huge Worldmap (8000x4600)

Summary - What does this mod offer??

· a clothmap style worldmap covering a large part of Faerun - derived from the wonderful Check the Bodies map by CBisson and Valiant, but four times the size and all missing medium and large cities as well as several area labels added

· a full set of coloured Baldur's Gate map icons including all required variations

· support for a growing amount of mods, including BP-BGT and TuTu

· a clothmap style Throne of Bhaal map to spice it up, alternatively you may play Throne of Bhaal using the Shadows of Amn map

Please allow me a few words about my motivation in doing this...

I always loved maps, guess since I first got my hands on the middle earth atlas. I always liked the infinity engine games as well, but those two things had nothing to do with each other...

Well, nothing to do until I started playing the BP-BGT-NeJ-CtB-DSotSC-BH-NTotSC monster in early 2005. I became a fan of the Check the Bodies worldmap immediately and I fell in love with the spirit of the modding community shortly thereafter. I had to give it back something...

What I never liked about the BP-BGT map was the mix of coloured and black and white icons. So I was already tinkering with the idea of creating coloured versions of all the Baldur's Gate map icons when Horred the Plague posted this thread on the former forgottenwars forums...

That was the starter I was waiting for! So I picked up the task, made myself comfortable with GIMP (who needs Photoshop - bah :-) and this is the result - hope ya like it!

Compatibility - What works and what doesn't?

This mod was designed for use with the Big Picture - Baldur's Gate Trilogy compatibility mod (BP-BGT) and was primarily tested in this environment. It should however work with plain Baldur's Gate 2, Throne of Bhaal, TuTu as well as with any combination of mods that are part of BP-BGT, i.e. with The Darkest Day (TDD), Shadows over Soubar (SOS), Tortured Souls (TS), Neverending Journey (NeJ), Check the Bodies (CtB), Secret of Bonehill (BH), Dark Side of the Sword Coast for BP-BGT (DSotSC), Northern Tales of the SwordCoast for BP-BGT (NtotSC),Reign of Terror (ROT) etc. as long as you install them before you install this mod.
TDD
SOS
TS
NeJ2
CtB
DsotSC
NTotSC
SOB
ROT
BP
Tutu

If you experience any problems with this map and any of these mods, please let me know!

This mod will not be compatible with any other mods that replace any of the worldmap files like the G3 Tweak Pack. Several of the mods mentioned above also replace the worldmap file, but all their alterations are already included. This is the reason why this mod must be installed after the large mods.

Installation - How do I get this running and how do I get rid of it?

Megamodifikation

Please install this mod near the end of you installation (after BP, BGT, NeJ, CtB, DSotSC, BH, NTotSC and all small mods etc.). Best place at the end of your installation, but before Setup-GUI.exe

· The areas and links from all other WM v6 supported mods installs during their installation, so their areas and links are ready when you install the World Map.

· The BP-BGT map is packaged and installed with WeiDU and is distributed as a WinRAR archive. To prepare installation, extract the archive contents into your Baldur's Gate 2 folder. In a typical installation your Baldur's Gate 2 folder will be 'C:\Progam Files\Black Isle\BGII - SoA'.

· If properly extracted, you should have a 'BP-BGT_Worldmap' folder, 'Setup BP-BGT Worldmap.tp2' and 'Setup BP-BGT Worldmap.exe' in your Baldur's Gate 2 folder.

· To install, simply double-click 'Setup BP-BGT Worldmap.exe' and follow the instructions on screen.

· After the installer itself is finished, the map graphics will be uncompressed automatically. This last step may take a while depending on your machine. Please do not interrupt it.

BG1Tutu

Please install this mod after the BG1Tutu installation and after SoBH.

Please run 'Setup BP-BGT Worldmap.exe' in your Baldur's Gate 2 folder again to reinstall, uninstall or otherwise change components.

· If properly extracted, you should have a 'BP-BGT_Worldmap' folder, 'Setup BP-BGT Worldmap.tp2' and 'Setup BP-BGT Worldmap.exe' in your Baldur's Gate 2 folder.

· To install, simply double-click 'Setup BP-BGT Worldmap.exe' and follow the instructions on screen.

· After the installer itself is finished, the map graphics will be uncompressed automatically. This last step may take a while depending on your machine. Please do not interrupt it.

Components - Which parts should I install and which parts should I skip?

· Component 1:
1) Revised worldmap for the Baldur's Gate - Big Picture compatibility mod including coloured Baldur's Gate map icons

· 2) Revised worldmap for Tutu
This is the main part of this mod and must be installed.

· Component 2:
1) Original Area Visibility and Travel Times for BG1 & SoA/TOB+BP Family Mods

· 2) Revised Area Visibility and Travel Times for BG1 & SoA/TOB+BP Family Mods

· (See "Worldmap Changes.doc" and changelog document in the worldmap folder)

· Component 3:
1) Large worldmap

· 2) Huge worldmap

· Component 4:
1) Use new worldmap for Throne of Bhaal as well
Install this component if you want to play Throne of Bhaal using the new Shadows of Amn worldmap.

· 2) Clothmap style map for Throne of Bhaal
Install a new clothmap style version of the original Throne of Bhaal map and play Throne of Bhaal using that map. Do not install this component if you installed component 3 above.

·         Component 5:
Convert old savegames
    This component converts all your savegames for the new worldmap. All the new area infos are copied to your savegame files. So you don't have to start a new game.
    If you want to make a backup of your savegames, you have to do it manually.

Known Issues - Are there any flaws?

· the worldmap.mos will not load back into the current version of DLTCEP (6.5e) - this is caused by a limitation within DLTCEP which Avenger will kindly change in the next version

· for the same reason the worldmap.mos cannot be installed with a normal WeiDU copy command, but I found a simple enough workaround, so no need to trouble Weimer with this

· same problem applies to NearInfinity - it needs more memory available in orhugesdf process the larger map
the folder 'BP-BGT_Worldmap/NearInfinity Patch' contains modified start schuge for both regular and beta versions of NearInfinity thhugelve this problem

Contact Information - How can I reach you?

Please visit the The Big Picture - Baldur's Gate Trilogy forum for support or feedback.

Visit the spellholdstudios modding community for information on this and lots of other fine mods in the works.

Thanks and acknowledgements - People without whom this would not have been possible!

· thanks to Valiant for creating the original map and for granting me permission to continue his work

· thanks to CBisson for creating Check the Bodies, which was the first mod to use this map

· thanks to Sir Billybob for integrating this map into BP-BGT, for all the improvements he has done, for granting me permission to work on it and for the initial version of the installer

· thanks to Horred the Plague for allowing me to work on this and for being the high-lord of mod-integration

· thanks to HardenCoonor for creating the original BP-BGT map

· thanks to NiGHTMARE for his encyclopaedic information on missing cities and area labels

· thanks to hlidskialf, King Diamond, Seanas, Sir BillyBob and Ascension64 who have worked hard to make BP-BGT as smooth as possible

· thanks to Per Olofsson (MagerValp@cling.gu.se) for publishing the source code for tispack without which mospack would not have been possible

· thanks to TheWizard and the Blackwyrm team for mirroring this mod

· thanks to the spellholdstudios modding community in special and the modding community in general for still being here after so many years

· thanks to Bioware, Black Isle and Interplay for creating some of the greatest games in history

Tools used in creation - How did you make this?

· GIMP by The GIMP Team

· Near Infinity by Jon Olav Hauglid

· WeiDU by Wes Weimer and The Bigg

· BAM Workshop by Glenn Flansburg

· DLTCEP by Avenger

· mospack by yours truly

Credits and Copyright Information - Credit where credit belongs!

The BP-BGT map is not developed, supported, or endorsed by BioWare or Interplay/Black Isle in any way.

The Big Picture - Baldur's Gate Trilogy compatibility mod was created by Horred the Plague, Baldur's Gate Trilogy was created by Bardez, The Darkest Day was created by Potencius (Max) and Minto - Tweaked by folks at TeamBG, Shadows over Soubar and Check the Bodies were created by CBisson, Tortured Souls and Neverending Journey were created by Vlad, Secret of Bonehill was created by Sir Billybob, Dark Side of the Sword Coast was created by TeamBG and ported to BP-BGT by Sir Billybob, Northern Tales of the Sword Coast was created by Aurelinus and ported to BP-BGT by Sir Billybob. Large parts of this readme were inspired by the ones made by the gibberlings3 team for their mods.

If there are any copyright issues or this statement needs revision then please contact me and advise me what to do about it.

This mod was created to be freely enjoyed by all Baldur's Gate 2 players. However, it should not be sold, published, compiled or redistributed in any form without the consent of the author.

Version History - What have you done so far?

Version 6 'code age'

· extend map to the east and to the south, so that both large lakes are completely covered

· new WeiDU code, no more hex patching. The complete installation code was transformed into a user friendly WeiDU format. Now you can change travel times, exit names, encounter areas, coordinates of the icons and much more (everything depending on the .wmp format) easy in the .tp2 code.

· you can add new links and areas on an easy way directly in the Setup BP-BGT Worldmap.tp2 file.

· fixed the wrong travel times in BGT

· added some new missing links

· installs only the areas and links from SOA, ToB all other mods install their areas and links during their installation

· removed some Areastrings, because the name is still on the painted map

· Italian translation by Ilot

· Polish translation by Hesus

Version 5 'thanks to mz friends' - 2005.12.04

· added compatibilty patches for upcoming BGT-WeiDU beta 5; these patches were kindly written for me by Ascension64

· fixed a crash when moving from AR9500 to AR9600 on all versions of BGT-WeiDU. The offset 0x25BB4 had a reference to AR5700, which was still the classic BG name of that area. It was be changed to AR4800. Thanks to Ascension64 for pointing this out.

Version 4 'escape from the wipping' - 2005.11.04

· german translation added by Weigo

· deprecated option to choose between making all map icons visible and making only the default icons visible since it caused more harm than good

· upgraded installer to WeiDU 185

· removed all named entry points for DSotSC area links between areas DSC001 and DSC002 and replaced them with proper entry location flags, this will hopefully make the map compatible with all DSotSC versions currently around

· watcher's keep is now always visible on map

· added 'can be visited' flag to TDD areas Eshpurta (DD2300), Purskal (DD1900) and Trollford (DD9000)

· moved AR0602 (starting area of BG2) onto the water so that it no longer overlaps with AR0700 (Waukeen's Promenade), also changed the map icon

· added compatibility patch that replaces some random encounter areas (AR3525 and AR3526) that were added to BG2 areas by CtB with stock BG2 random encounter areas if CtB is not installed; otherwise the game could crash if CtB was not present

· fixed a typo in a random encounter area reference from AR043 to AR0043

· updated readme to properly reflect the translation from forgottenwars to spellholdstudios

Version 3b 'sense of the future' - 2005.06.25

· added compatibility for upcoming BGT-WeiDU 0.99

· upgraded installer to WeiDU 184

· fixed entry point when travelling from AR7500 (Zomkbie Quest) to AR7900 (BG Bridge), party entered to the south while it should enter to the south, thanks to KingDiamon for pointing this out

· fixed the link between Garrotten and Garrotten Castle (Bonehill) that caused players problems to reach the castle

Version 3 'shrinkage' - 2005.04.09

· recreated the worldmap using smaller city icons and labels, they were really too large

· incorporated the nice new miniature graphics of Baldur's Gate and Athkatla that SirKill kindly donated

· moved Ulgoth's Beard to it's own island as it should be

· moved Berdusk and Iriaebor farther to the east

· moved Murann a bit to the south

· minor adjustments to some icon locations to suit the modified worldmap graphics

· added an addtional option that allows playing Throne of Bhaal with the large map, of course you cannot use the clothmap style Throne of Bhaal map then

· added missing map link that made it impossible to reach Eshpurta in the TDD part of the game

· added compatibility to 'old' BGT without the CtB compatibility fix from Sir BillyBob; two BGT areas (AR3500 and AR3600) were renamed starting with DSotSC since they were also used in CtB

· fixed a serious bug introduced in v2 concerning the visibility flag for Irenicus Dungeon (AR0602); that bug that made it effectively impossible to enter Waukeen's Promenade (AR0700) via the map, you had to clua there :(

· updated to mosunpack 0.92

· updated installer so that it is not possible to install optional mod components without installing the main worldmap first

Version 2 'ballet' - 2005.03.19

· wrote a mos compression tool (mospack) in order to significantly reduce download size

· the mod now detects if it is installed within a TuTu environment and patches the map appropriately

· added clothmap style Throne of Bhaal worldmap as an additional optional component

· added modified start scripts for NearInfinity so that you can use it to edit save games using the new map

· there is a flag in area links that describes on which side of the target area the entry ends if no explicit entry point is defined; this flag was set to the same value (north) for all Baldur's Gate areas - it is now set properly for all those areas

· fixed area links for AR3300 (where you rescue the cow from the Xvarts), at least one of them could cause a crash to desktop; thanks to Sir BillyBob for pointing this out

· fixed bug where Watcher's Keep would appear twice if Check the Bodies was not installed, thanks to King Diamond for pointing this out

· moved Trollford to the west of Umar Hills, thanks to Chevalier for pointing this out

· moved Suldanessalar to the immediate south of Forest of Tethir and moved both closer to Underdark Exit, thanks to Chevalier for pointing this out

· reorganized installer, so that a normal player can just say 'install all' and get what he expects instead of some strange debug install

Version 1 'genesis' - 2005.03.10

· doubled map in size, except for the exploded maps (Baldur's Gate, Athkatla and Lendore) - from 2388x1800 to 4776x3600 pixels

· applied minor and major graphical adjustments to several parts of the map (guess it has seen at least one jpg-compression too much :-)

· fixed label of exploded Baldur's Gate map from 'Baldur's G.' to 'Baldur's Gate'

· added all? missing medium and large cities as well as some smaller ones and a few missing area labels

· added scale indicator to map

· added cloth-map style effect to map

· coloured all 52 Baldur's Gate map icons, including their different animation variants (totalling 676 frames)

· added / fixed missing animation variants for sequence 102 (Academy of Kuldin) and sequence 82 (currently unused)

· changed Rauthym Island to use the unused sequence 82

· completely rebuilt bpbgtmap.bam, eliminating any unused or duplicated frames, the amount of frames was reduced from 3007 to 1144 this way - the file is now usable again in BAMWorkshop II ;-)

· compressed bpbgtmap.bam using DLTCEP, this together with the rebuild reduced file size from 9022kb to 1679kb - partly compensates for the giant worldmap.mos that I introduced

· updated the worldmap.wmp file from Bonehill 1.8 for the new map size

· created a debug variant of worldmap.wmp with all map icons visible

· created a small WeiDU installer

· wrote this fine readme

Future - Will you continue working on this mod?

Absolutely!!! With the release of this version I am by no means finished with this project. I would especially love to see this map becoming some kind of 'standard' to which new mods add their locations. So if you are a modder and would like your mod supported, please feel free to contact me! I am also more than willing to create new custom map icons for your mod!

Apart from this I already have several things planned listed below. Since I believe in the release-early-release-often paradigm, the amount of changes per release will be rather small, but development cycles will also not span ages ;-).

These are my plans for the next releases:

Planned for v7:

· add the following new icon types for use in Lands of Intrigue and other mods:

o 1x abbey

· 1x monastery

· 3x mountains (two for the Cloudpeaks, one for the range east of Saradush)

· 1x pair of dormant volcanos (in the Smallteeth range)

· 2x Amnian villages

· 1x Amnian city (Murann)

· 1x tower of an evil sorcerer

· 1x district of Athkatla (the trades district)

· 1x ancient, ruined city

· 2x forest

· 1x Tethyrian village (Ithal Pass)

· 1x fortified Tethyrian town (Kzelter)

· new city icons for Selgaunt similar to those used for Baldur's Gate - for usage in Sir BillyBob's Classic Adventures

· fix some instances of non-black icon-borders, i.g. the grey variant of the NW part of Baldur's Gate

· fix the icons for the Baldur's Gate city districts, their border is one pixel too wide at the moment

· make the Baldur's Gate icons more Baldur's Gate 2 style, they should really be much more 'greyish'

· change the highlighting animation of the Baldur's Gate 2 and Throne of Bhaal icons to the slightly modified highlighting now used for Baldur's Gate

· attempt to apply the clothmap style effect to the map icons as well in order to 'blend' them better with the background

Planned for v8:

· fix the geographical errors on the map, i.e. dragonhead currently really isn't a head at all; in more detail:

o fix location of cities

· fix coastline and lakes

· add / fix rivers and main roads

· add missing hills and mountains / fix existing ones

· diversify plains according to their region - Which are real plains, which deserts, swamps, wastelands etc?

· put the right plants into the right regions - unlikely that all trees in Faerun look alike

· change style of city icons to match the local architecture

· most likely I will create a whole new worldmap graphic based on the original Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting instead of further fiddling with the current map graphic

Planned for v9:

· write a bampack utility to shrink the size of the included bams

· add a small tool that allows to extract the worldmap graphics as jpg

· add the missing rivers to the BG1 areas

· add some 'props' to the map to make it more interesting to look at

· make all unreachable locations invisible when using TuTu

· as an optional component offer to add additional location names / tooltips for those areas that do not have them yet, especially the Baldur's Gate areas

Planned for v10:

· research if it is possible to show a larger part of the map in the worldmap GUI

· try to convert all the worldmap entries for the various mods to xnewarea.2da entries and create proper xl3000.2da style files for area links - if successful this should significantly ease future map modifications

Planned for later releases:

· add more and more locations for additional mods...

· incorporate worldmap fixes from other mods as long as I get permission to do so (G3 Tweak Pack comes to mind), especially traveling times need revision

· create additional map icon types and update at least some usages of duplicates to new unique ones

· add more props to the map, streets, special locations, you get it...

· expand the map to cover more of Faerun, especially the northern (IWD) areas

· in the very far future: create loading screens for special locations

· in another very far future: add additional random encounters