OVERVIEW – GETTING STARTED The Jagged Alliance 2:Unfinished Business map editor is the very tool that was used by the developers to create Jagged Alliance 2 and Jagged Alliance 2:Unfinished Business (JA2:UB). With this tool you will be able to expand the main campaign, adding new custom sector maps to the country of Tracona, creating your own version of a cam- paign that contains new combat challenges and rewards. The “Set JA2UB Campaign” Utility As you can probably imagine, there will be different campaigns made by various Jagged Alliance 2:UB players. To simplify things, each set of these campaigns is treated as separate version of the game, and therefore the related map files are stored in separate folders. To make it easy to manage, we have included a utility program en- titled Set JA2UB Campaign that allows you to select which cam- paign you wish to play or create. This utility will allow you to choose an existing campaign (either the original or a custom version), or create a new campaign folder. The utility will also allow you to view a description of the campaign, or create one. Jagged Alliance: Unfinished Business 1 Rules and Limitations As you plan your own modifications and additions to the country of Tracona, keep in mind what you can or cannot do. You can do the following: · Name the campaign. · Add a custom map for each sector in the JA2:UB Tracona country map (see exceptions) · Replace a pre-existing campaign map with a custom map (see exceptions) · Block a pre-existing campaign map from being playable (see exceptions) · Create all the terrain and buildings in your map · Add items to the map, specifying the chance of existence for each item · Control the statistics for each enemy · Control the overall number of enemies for each map by dif- ficulty mode · Specify the chances of the enemy re-invading that sector once it is under the player’s control · Name the map and specify which loading screen the player sees when the map is being loaded You will not be able to do the following: · Modify any of the original sector maps that are part of the main campaign and were included with the game; these maps are not accessible. You can replace them, however, or pre- vent them from being playable in the campaign (with the exception of H7, the starting sector). · retain any NPCs or civilians that exist in sector maps you replace · add civilians or NPCs · create or modify quests 2 Jagged Alliance: Unfinished Business Important Considerations Because you’ll be adding to the main campaign (creating your own version of the campaign), each sector that is added needs to be adja- cent to an existing map or the player’s squad will be prevented from traveling to that sector. Therefore, preparation is fairly important. We suggest you don’t create new sector maps until you have played through the main campaign that was included with the game. Once you have played through, you’ll have a good understanding of the sectors used in the game, knowledge of all weapons (including those new to JA2:UB) and a good feel for how enemy invasions affect game play (which is significantly different in JA2:UB compared to JA2). Also, since you can’t place NPCs in the game, if you replace any pre- existing sectors that contained NPCs, those NPCs will be absent from the game, as will the quests associated with them. Jagged Alliance: Unfinished Business 3 Travel Exceptions Due to the level design of the original Unfinished Business campaign there are obstructions which limit where you can travel. These limita- tions must be taken into consideration when planning the maps you wish to create. Sector H7, the landing zone, cannot be customized or made unplayable. Whatever campaign you create, sector H7 must be the starting sector. When deciding where you would like to place the map you have cre- ated, you must keep the following in mind: · From sector H10 mercenaries cannot travel east. · From sector H11 mercenaries cannot travel west. · From sector I13 mercenaries cannot travel east. · From sector J13 mercenaries cannot travel east. · From sector K15 mercenaries cannot travel to any adjoin- ing sector. These limitations apply only if the sector in question is an original map from the Unfinished Business Campaign. That is, you have not replaced them with a customized map. If you do replace one of the original maps with a customized one, just make sure that the map is accessible from all directions. Sectors with travel exceptions: arrows indicate invalid travel direc- tions using original Unfinished Business campaign maps.Basic Steps for Adding a New Sector Map 4 Jagged Alliance: Unfinished Business 1. Use the Set JA2: UB Campaign utility to create a new cam- paign, or choose an existing custom campaign. This step basically tells both the game and the editor which folder to place the individual sector map files in. If the selected cam- paign is the default “Unfinished Business” campaign, you will not be able to enter the editor (as it will not know where to store maps that you wish to create) and you will receive a message to that effect. You only need to do this step once per campaign. 2. Decide which sector you want to add and make sure this sector is adjacent to a playable sector in the game (whether the sector was part of the original campaign included with the game or a player-created map is irrelevant). Take note of the sector location on the grid and the directions that the player could enter the new sector from (i.e. G7 would be on sector north of H7, the starting sector in the game). Make sure the travel exceptions listed above are not an issue. 3. If you wish to create an underground map, you must ensure that there is a way of entering that map; either via an adja- cent customized underground map or a customized aboveground map. 4. Run the editor, select your tileset, and create the terrain (in- cluding buildings and furniture if desired). 5. Place any desired items in the sector. 6. Place the required 32 enemies. 7. Specify starting number of enemies for all difficulty modes and enemy invasion data. 8. Specify the entry and exit data for the map. 9. Save the map with the proper sector ID name (e.g. G7.dat) and exit the editor. If you want to stop an existing map from being used, name it <sectorname>.nomap (e.g. G7.nomap) 10. Start JA2: UB, check for any error messages, and play-test the custom map. Jagged Alliance: Unfinished Business 5 Testing Your Work When you start a new game of JA2:UB, the program will check for custom sector map files in the current campaign folder and add them to the internal list of sectors that are “playable” for this campaign. If there are any errors or missing information in the sector map files, you will receive messages to that effect. You can also load a saved game as long as it was part of the same campaign and made before any of your mercs entered the customized maps you wish to test. Make sure you don’t load a save where your mercs have already entered the pertinent map(s) or you won’t be able to test your latest changes. In order to facilitate the loading of saved games, the game will deter- mine which campaign is appropriate to the save selected and use it. This however, will have no effect on the JA2UB Set Campaign utility setting, which will remain set to the campaign you last selected (i.e the next time you start a new game or enter the editor, the game will use the former setting). NOTE: If you hold down the CTRL key in the Load Game Screen, you can see the game settings related to the saved game, including the campaign name. 6 Jagged Alliance: Unfinished Business THE MISC. TAB: When you first enter the editor this is the panel that will be at the bottom of the screen. Moving the cursor over any of the icons will give you a description of its purpose. For now, only the left side of the panel is relevant. The right side will be explained later in the document. If you wish to load or save a map you have already cre- ated, simply press the icons identified for that purpose, or use CTRL – S (save) and CTRL – L (load). When you start the editor, you will begin with a bare slate. Should you want to abandon a map or start a new map, choose the NEW MAP button to wipe out all existing unsaved information. Basements and cave levels work a little differently so for now we will concen- trate only on above ground maps. If you wish to leave the editor, press the RED X icon. The first thing you will need to do is to select a TILESET. You can choose from any tileset that was used in JA2 and JA2:UB. Press the icon with the cactus on it, and a list of possible tilesets will come up. Passing the cursor over the list will highlight the choices. Left click- ing the mouse over a highlighted choice will load it into the editor. Loading the graphics make take a few seconds. In the space marked SECTOR DESCRIPTION you may give the sec- tor a label that will appear on the map screen in the actual campaign (i.e.