HOW TO CREATE A CUSTOM MAP PACK ?

[fcassore]

Hello,
I am a teacher in a secondary school. We plan to use BCS with our students.
I am working with BCS for a few weeks now and I would like to know how I can add my own map to BCS.
How can I create a pack ?
My other question is : How can I create a map and a special tutorial for it ?

Thank you for your help.

Fred'

[Chronic Logic - Josiah]

First use the level editor to create the custom levels you want to include in your map pack.  Instructions for creating levels can be found here:

http://www.chroniclogic.com/pontifex2/pfx2manual/levels.html

Download the map packer here:

http://www.chroniclogic.com/demo/packer.zip

Unzip it into your Bridge Construction Set folder (normally c:\program files\Bridge Construction Set\

Run the file packer.exe.

Enter the name of the map pack you wish to create under NAME, for this example we will call our map pack "custompack"


Enter the name of each of the levels you want to add to the map pack under each LEVEL field.  Do not enter the extension for the file name (.pfl), just enter the actual level name.  So if your files were "custom01.pfl" and "custom02.pfl" you would just enter "custom01" and "custom02".  Leave any extra lines blank:



If you would like to have ending text for when someone completes the map pack click on ENDING at the top of the window and then enter the text in as many lines as it takes on the ending screen:



If you would like to have a description for your map pack click on DESCRIPTION at the top of the window.  Enter the description for your map pack on the lines below description:



When you are finished click SAVE in the bottom right corner of the window.  This will create your map pack file which will be whatever you named it with a .pfm on the end.  So if you named the map pack custompack the file will be custompack.pfm:



Now create a folder with the same name as your mappack (without the .pfm) so if your mappack name was "custompack" you would create a folder named "custompack" in the same folder as your custompack.pfm is located.  Now copy all the level (.pfl) files that you added to your map pack into the folder you just created.  Now your file structure is all ready for distribution.  You can just zip up the mappack (.pfm) file along with the folder of the same name which contains all the level (.pfl) files:




To install the map pack just unzip or copy the map pack (.pfm) file and the folder with the same name which contains the level (.pfl) files into the following folder.

Windows:
"Bridge Construction Set\files\"

OSX
"Bridge Construction Set\bcs.app\Content\Resources\files\

Linux
"HOME\.Bridge Construction Set\Files"

[drtech]

Hi there,

I am trying to install Map Packs on a Mac OSX Leopard and the instructions suggest to place the map packs within the following folders. BUT unfortunately these do not exist. I have tried lookins with the Applications folder and within the Library folders where support files etc tend to be on a Mac. But no joy?

OSX - "Bridge Construction Set\bcs.app\Content\Resources\files\

I must have misunderstood the directions - but could you clarify where I am going wrong?

Thanks,

Alan

[Chronic Logic - Josiah]

The file you are looking for is the same file you use to start the game "bcs.app"  It probably just appears as BCS and is wherever you installed it when you downloaded it.  You have to cmd click on the "bcs" file and select "show package contents" to see the folders inside where you need to place the map pack files.

[fcassore]

Hello,
I have problems using the packer.exe.
In fact when I start the packer program, Vista opens a black window but I can't select anything. Nothing appears in the black window (I test packer with XP also and it leads to the same results). I use only BCS and not Pontifex.
Thank you for your help.

I noticed also that in the level edition mode, the keyboard is switched to qwerty mode (but I still have an azerty one !) Do you have a solution ?

Best regards,

Fred'

[Chronic Logic - Josiah]

It sounds like you are not unpacking the packer.exe into the Bridge Construction Set folder?  Make sure you have Bridge Construction Set installed and you are unzipping the packer.exe into the same folder.

[fcassore]

Hello,

Thank you for this answer but it didn't solve my problem.
I still have this black screen. I am using XP or vista.

I tried to unzip packer in the demo version and it worked; The problem is that my custom level are altered in simulation mode (rivers became mountains)
 
Could you help me in packing my levels ?

Looking for further help.

Fcassore

[Regge]

I am also having the same problem. I have some interesting new levels that I would like to share, but after following the same instructions packer.exe shows a black screen.

I am using Windows XP Professional, SP3. My copy of packer.exe is in the directory:

 C:\Program Files\Bridge Construction Set

When I run packer.exe, I also see a black screen, which my mouse disappears in.

Have other people seen this, or found a workaround?

Cheers,
Sam

[Chronic Logic - Josiah]

Sorry I did not catch this sooner.  I didn't notice the previous post either.  I have updated the packer.zip file to work correctly now.  Just re-download the file and everything should work as described in this post.