New mapper in need of help.

[Mr Stranger]

Hi, I'm kinda new to mapping and I need some help on a number of issues. Firstly...

I want to make a series of singleplayer levels for Unreal Tournament in the vein of Operation: Na Pali and the like. I just finished working on the first level, saved it and then I tried to re-open the file in UnrealEd. When it loaded the map, all I got was an empty void with no brushes, actors or anything, even though it said the level was loaded (I'll add a screenshot if needed) and asked me if I wanted to save any changes before quitting.

This is the second time in a row this happened and it "corrupts" all previous files for the same map, even if they didn't have the same name.

If it's any help, the last bit of info I have on this issue is that the map's name automatically changed when I pressed the save button (the same button I had been using during the level's entire development). It went from DM-PreemptiveLZ to DM-P. Sometimes when this happens, the file type changes from ".unr" to "file" and may or may not contain the level when I change it back to an ".unr" file. (Side-note: I used the "DM-" prefix so I can test it without the editor being open.)


The less important second issue I have is that I'd like to have human allies in some of these levels, but the only ones available are bots (no problem with that) who are always hostile to the player. I lack coding / scripting experience (but am willing to improve if I have to), and I can't find any help on this anywhere.

Can anybody help me with this? I'd love to start making impressive maps for single and multiplayer, but I'm not willing to spend days on a map only for it to delete itself. Thank you in advance!

[OjitroC]

Hi, welcome to the forum - enjoy your stay.

On your first issue, the first thing to do is to have a look at the Unreal Editor log for any indications of what may be happening.

It could be that the path to the map is too long (too many characters) and/or the path contains spaces - so check that out and possibly post the path here.

Utilising human allies is certainly possible - I've seen them in a few SP maps - I think Project Xenome has them at some point and there are others but, unhelpfully, i can't remember which (I do remember one which is very similar to the Unreal campaign which has an Unreal Female as an ally/follower). Possibly search this forum for NPC and see what comes up. Also hopefully someone else will be able to point you in the right direction.

Good luck, always nice to see new SP campaigns for UT.

[Hellkeeper]

I just finished working on the first level, saved it and then I tried to re-open the file in UnrealEd. When it loaded the map, all I got was an empty void with no brushes, actors or anything, even though it said the level was loaded (I'll add a screenshot if needed) and asked me if I wanted to save any changes before quitting.

This is because something is missing and prevents your map from opening.
After opening your map and getting a blank editor, open the command prompt.

There should be a line (or several lines) saying something like "can't open package XXX". This teels you what is missing.

[Mr Stranger]

Thanks Hellkeeper, apparently that "DM-P" file having that exact name was absolutely essential and changing the name back to DM-P fixed it. Looking at the log helped significantly and now I've got the map again.

Also thank you OjitroC for the welcome and advice on friendly AI. I'll definitely look into that and see what I come up with in the next few weeks. I'll post screenshots of the map later this week (in the screenshots discussion) when I fix the lighting.