Hi all!
Have a question I was hoping someone may know the answer to.
In the dev’s post about map extensions they say: “A “Map Extension” is, effectively, a set of sublevels that either adds-to or overrides regular “ARK” sublevels. As examples, this could be used to override “PersistentGameplaySublevel_DinoSpawns” and completely change the existing spawn zones (or override “PersistentGameplaySublevel_SupplyDrops” for the supply drops)”.
It clearly says that you can “OVERRIDE” an existing sublevel. Does anyone know how you actually override and not just add to it?
All I want to do is add 1 new supply drop to the existing volumes and spawn points which I have successfully accomplished by making a copy of the PersistentGameplaySublevel_SupplyDrops level file and adding my crate as a “linked” crate in each SupplyCrateSpawningVolume’s details section and it spawns my crate as expected. However, the issue I am having is that it is loading the default supply drop sublevel in addition to my edited version and causing loads of other drops to spawn. I think I counted 35 while hovering on a bird and I know there were more out of view range! Sometimes there will even be 2 crates on one beam lol. I tried removing all the other linked default crates from my edited sublevel but all that did was make my crate spawn all over the place instead of a variety.
Any insight into a way to actually override the default sublevel would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks,
P0k3 out!
I think to override you may need to edit the vanilla sublevel and cook only that sublevel as a map extension? I would expect it’s akin to changing things on the vanilla map and cooking, but instead of the whole thing, you only need to cook the sublevel you’ve modified…
Otherwise did you change the name at all?
I can’t say for certain as I’ve not needed to look at them as they don’t work for custom maps - not that I know of anyway, but may need to get Drake in here to confirm.
Hey from my experience with overriding the LandscapeSublevel it works like WM said.
Make a new mod folder for the extension. You can probaly leave this empty if you don’t have any new assets, if you have(for example your modified supply crate) put them in there. Make a backup of the sublevel you want to override, then edit the original sublevel. In the cooking window select you mod folder and then add the name of the sublevel you want to override in the “Maps” section.
Something i noticed but is probably not important in your case: if you want to override and add a new sublevel you have to put the sublevels to override first in the “Maps” input: LandscapeSublevel,MyAdditionalSublevel
I was thinking that may be the case so I guess the next step will be to try it! And yes I did change the name which is what I have for the “map” in the cook dialog and I can see it load. I will go ahead and edit the vanilla and see what happens. Worst case scenario I’ll have to verify the devkit so here goes!
Thanks WM
That’s all you can do, is try, but Mezzow has corroborated my guess so it should work. The main reason why I asked if you changed the name of the sublevel is because doing so, it will treat it like a new sublevel, or rather one to add to the map, which would explain why both the vanilla and your drops were happening concurrently.
Mezzow must have still been typing his reply while I was because it was not there when I responded to you. And you’re correct, it does work that way. It just doesn’t “feel” right. Isn’t it going to overwrite my edits when the devkit verifies or updates? I’ll keep a copy but it seems weird to me.
Note: I tried putting the stock sublevel first then mine as Mezzow suggested to override the default but both still loaded so the only way it seems to work is straight up editing the original.
Thank you both!
WM, I have something somewhat related and instead of making a new or resurrecting an old thread I’ll ask it here. I used the graph below you posted In this post: Make Spawning announcement - ARK: Survival Evolved - Epic Developer Community Forums for the new crate and it works great for the announcement. The custom icon, text & sounds work awesome. However, for some reason the crates are spawning on the ground, without a particle beam and are inaccessible. If I remove the graph nodes they work normally. I’ve read up a bit on graphs since you helped me out with the projectiles but still have a lot to learn and was hoping you may know why it changes the way the crates spawn. Is it because the “event begin play” is overriding the spawn event or something like that?
Yes, verifying or updating will replace your edited sublevel, but aslong as you’re doing via the launcher and not manually, it’ll back up the sublevel. It’s not ideal, but it may change later when they can shift focus to the modding community.
Supply crates, yeah, not familiar with them at all, but it’s very possible that is what is happening. Try, in the level BP, seeing if there’s an ability to bind an event or something to a supply crate spawning? Then becomes the issue of if you’re trying to conditional the notification - in regards to say the level of the supply crate or the location it’s spawning - any event binding doesn’t give you any references to the actor or object associated with the event, which sucks.
Perhaps mezz or someone else who’s actually worked with zones and the supply crates can chime in to give better advice.
