I’m trying to achieve a simple objective - to remove one non-breakable rock and foliage around from default map. I installed the Dev Kit and I can run it with no problem. I created a new folder in Mods and copied a content of TheIslandSubMaps to it. I loaded TheIsland.umap from my mod directory. I loaded B1_Far_WIP.umap and B1_Near_WIP.umap from Levels dialog, I found required rock and foliage and I deleted it. Then I saved the levels.
Now I have a problem to get it working in singleplayer game. I tried to cook it as a custom map (TheIsland.umap), I loaded it to Steam Workshop and I subsribed it. But size of the mod is still in few kbytes only. When I start the game, I see it in a list of mod/custom map but when I start the game, the rock is still there. Any advice how to make it working? I went through topics here in forum but I did not find an answer. It must be something easy but I cannot get it. You help is appreciated.
Well yes and no. Thanks to I was able to create a new map using TheIsland as template, implement my removal of rocks and foliage, test it in editor and prepare it for cooking and upload. But it is huge process - the map is being cooked for 3 hours every time I change something and it has over 2GB in steam workshop - so it is pain to upload for me and download for users of our server.
Isn’t there any smarter way - something like Total Conversions what would allow me to overwrite the single updated sub-level umap file of default TheIsland which is about 1.5MB?
I think the problem with cooking TheIsland is that it also cooks all relevant assets - meaning blueprints and what not.
Would cooking only the edited sub-map(s) as a mod (rather than a map) work as telling the game to replace only those sub-maps?
@is right, finally there are only map files in cooked folder. However what @Sench said is relevant. I can see in a log that it goes through complete list of all assets during cooking - maybe verifying some dependencies etc? And that is the reason it takes so long. And yes, total size is 2GB just in map files. You can check the original \Maps\TheeIslandSubMaps that the original size is 2.3GB as well.
@uzumi, I use ARK Dev Kit 210.1, latest one downloaded through Epic Games Launcher.
@Sench, I’m going to test making a mod with updated umap files.
No, you can do it for single player but not for multiplayer, as the players would have a different map then you would, either way you need to cook “theisland” so that the foliage umaps you edited remain a submap and not a persistant map.
Do note only the first cook will take a long time, after that it will only cook what you changed
Just to share results of tests. Making mod to deliver map sub-level does not work. The map files are not exported when cooking mod. Making TC did not help too - the original umap sub-levels cannot be “overwrite”. I would need to go with full map, same like said. And that is no go - 2GB mod for removing few stones is stupid. It is easier to make an installer which users can download and overwrite the original umap file every time there is a new version of the game.
do note it will only do a full cook once, after that its only the differences that gets cooked, and it only needs to be updated each time ark has an update, so about 3 times a day
