I want the game to load level 7 as the only level

As stated in the thread below I'm developing a mod for level 7. I currently am using a 100% complete save file but I want to be able to test things with level 7 not completed yet. Is there any way I can have level 7 be the only level the mod recognizes when I start a new game?

This probably won't work, but you could probably replace level 1's .p3d's and other files with the files from level 7 and give it a go. Its worth a shot. If it is possible, that'd be cool to know.

In that case I would have to go and rename ALL the dynaload files and I really think there'd be an easier way!

There is sort of a way to do this, but sadly it's not very...efficient.

By forcing the game to load a renamed LX_TERRA and a modified doorstar P3D, it's possible to have the game load a different Level than the first one. In your case, you'd rename Level 7's L7_TERRA P3D to L1_TERRA (or use FileRedirections), and you'd edit the doorstar P3D from Level 4 (this is because Level 7 ends up reusing Level 4's doorstar P3D) to refer to Level 1 in it's composite drawable and it's multi controller.

The downside to this is that it's a little buggy:

- You basically need to have a "Mission 0" for this new Level 1. No exceptions. Attempting to remove it any of the "AddMission(mX);" arguments at the very star of the level.mfk will make the mission listed first become the new "Mission 0".

- The game seems to be confused upon initially loading the new Level as it uses Level 1's "bird chirping" ambiance, and it doesn't go away until you reach a new part of the map and come back. No clue what causes this.

- Since the game hardcodedly loads Level 1's music, you have to use a little bit of file redirection magic to get Level 7's music to play properly. Not that hard of a fix thankfully, but every RMS file save for Level 1's doesn't have any data for a Mission 0 track, so it'll just play general ambiance while in the car.

- The conversations would have to be manually restored since the game still thinks you're in Level 1, so you'll have to do that "porting dialog over" thing Gib taught you how to do earlier since you're technically in Level 1 but the dialog is just for Level 7.

- The game is also looking at Level 1's text since it believes you're in Level 1, so you'll have to replace that as well by hand.



To show that this sort of works, here's a screenshot of a private mod created by Jack Powell (one of Lucas' closer friends) that replaces Level 1's map with 3's:


And here's a mod I'm working on (that's already been announced in the last Donut Team announcement video) called Late Night at the Kwik-E-Mart, which swaps Level 1's map with Level 4's:



If you're curious about this, I compiled a very simple sample mod that does the bare minimum amount of work required to get Level 7's map into Level 1. Keyword: Very simple.

The sample mod does the following to get Level 7 working over Level 1:
- Uses CustomFiles.ini in order to load Level 7's default music.
- Uses CustomFiles.ini in order to load L7_TERRA instead of L1_TERRA.
- Changes the total number of missions so Level 7 has a Mission 0. This is done so the game's vanilla Level 7 missions are all accessible from Mission Select.

Other than that, this mod doesn't really let you play through all of Level 7,but does let you start it. I haven't gone ahead and replaced Level 1's mission names with Level 7, M0 is a copy of M1, and I haven't ported the dialog over either. All I've done to get L1M0 and L1M1 to work is remove all the dialog stages in the scripts. This means L1M2 and beyond WILL give you the "endless staring contest." Don't try them unless you're aware of this or you've removed the dialog stages beforehand.

Here's the download link to it:
mega.nz/#!jIFC0DTS!qUU4KGoFI4XTpGxcaJGHLCPp5Nsn97Ldkd7hsZ6RzDI

If you need more help, please let me know. I apologize if some of my explanations aren't clear enough here, as I'm trying to push this out as soon as I can so you have a sample mod to work with and a semi-acceptable explanation as to how this works.

@Kenny Giles

Thanks for sharing this, however I think if this is the easiest way for it to be done than ill just work on completing a save file up through level 6 and do it that way. I may try to do this once I actually release the mod so my testers won't have to do the same!

That being said, I haven't talked to you since you shared the "Level 7 Restoration" Mod with me. I actually have implemented that map into my mod and tweaked my missions accordingly to fit said map. Thank you so much for sharing that with me! It's greatly improved my mod.

I do have one question for you though. I've been trying to create a street race with all the competitors using the "fone_v" (racecar). I've gone about doing this the same way you implemented the second fire truck in M7 in L7R, that being copying the fone_v.p3d file twice and naming the copies "fone_v2" and "fone_v3". I've also included them in the CustomCarSupport.ini file and filed them under indexes 102 and 103. However, my game crashed when I try to load the race. It works fine with just one racecar opponent, but not with three? Anything I'm missing with this?

I'm also very excited for Late Night at the Kwik-E-Mart! The idea of having "shifts" is interesting to me and I can only wonder how these will differ from regular missions.

If you're concerned about "testers" having to work there way up to Level 7, I'd encourage that you either provide an any% file that has all of the missions completed up until Level 6, or give the mod I gave out a try. It shouldn't be too much work to transfer your mod files to the sample mod I gave. Just make sure the CustomFiles.ini has the changes necessary in it, make sure the edited l4_doorstars is in place and you should be good assuming level.mfk wasn't edited too heavily. Just put all of the scripts you've edited so far into the "level01" folder. You can also make it so that Hit & Run - Finale Spectacular is not a Main Mod in Meta.ini. This is controlled by the "Main=1" setting in there, and it tells the Launcher to use separate saves for that mod. If it isn't there, the Launcher uses the vanilla game's save files instead.

Did you rename the other fone_v's with the built-in Car Renamer included with Lucas' P3D Editor 4?

Go ahead and open up fone_v2 (as well as the others) and there should be an option under "Tools..." that will let you rename the skeleton of the car. Go ahead and do this, then try saving. You should also make sure the cameras for the car inside of the P3D use the proper number you set them to, but even then these aren't required for AI cars. I have a feeling this was overlooked and it's probably still using the normal "fone_v" skeleton name.

As for Late Night at the Kwik-E-Mart, I really do appreciate it. However, I think I should put a disclaimer and state that Homer won't be running "shifts" each mission. The text "Shift Complete!" was meant to be a little "tongue in cheek" nod towards the general "Mission Complete!" text, but since Homer finished his late night shift at the Power Plant the text adjusted itself accordingly. Late Night at the Kwik-E-Mart will still have a fairly familiar mission structure, but I'm going to try to aim for a couple of things to help it stand out. One of which, of course, is telling a completely new story that doesn't involve aliens like SHAR did, as well as a small "Challenge Mode" which is a reward for clearing the mod once. The mod's name actually comes from where most of the plot takes place, but you'll hear more about that later.

@max_power998 About the 100% complete concern there are also a few sites where people have put theirs up for download.

@Kenny Giles
Oh yeah, I didn't know about that whole skeleton thing :p I'm still a babby modder. Thanks! As for LNATKEM, I love the idea of a new story and an 'extra mode' always pleases me.

@The Butter Donut
Yeah I have a 100% save file i got offline that I'm using right now but I'm looking for one that has everything up through level 6 completed since I want to test my shops.

In my Springfield Grand Prix mod every car is the OWR, you can see how I did that if you download it because its decompilable if you want to

@DouglasColvin

I actually managed to figure it out thanks to Kenny, but thank you for offering! Your mod was actually where I got the inspiration for this street race.