Knights and Merchants.net Forum

Is it possible to use a saved game as the basis for a new map? If so, how is it done?

I have played KAM since the initial release long ago. One of the things I have come to enjoy is just building a town and optimizing everything. But one eventually runs out of resources--stone, iron, fish, etc. I would like to be able to open a saved game in the map editor and restock the resources. (And there are, of course, other possible uses for this method.)

No that isn't possible.
But maybe it will be one day with dynamic scripts

OK, thanks for the fast response.

@Skypper: Dynamic scripts have nothing to do with Savegame -> New Mission conversion.

@Towermax: You can use TSK cheats on existing savegames in KaM Remake. The house pattern and adding +10 of each ware.

i meant that maybe would be possible to make infinite resources.
There was a while ago discussion about dynamic map titles, if that would be possible you could make infinite resources

Infinite resources can be made using dynamic scripts on new maps, e.g. by having the code alike "if Store.WareCount < 1000 then Store.AddWare(500);"

What is a "dynamic map title"?

changing mape tile i mean the coal iron and gold tiles from ehaust to full state

I don't remember, can we have a script that just adds +1 coal to any coalmine each 20sec or so?

A while a ago there was something mention in the dynamic script idea topic like this.
"action.replacetitle"
It will replace a map title with a different map title, so you can replace every 10 minutes a full Iron/coal/gold with the previous one.
but it was never implemented

Right--that works just fine. Still, hope that someday I can just edit saved games, as I do in Stronghold.

Save games hold a huge amount of information that the map editor doesn't know about. For example units walking between tiles, serfs carrying things, arrows flying through the air, which unit lives in each house, exactly how old trees are, how hungry units are, how injured units are, etc.

So if did let you edit save games then things will be quite different after you edit it. Units will not have a home or a task, everything will be reset. Basically you would only get stuff like: the terrain, the location of houses and units, and the wares inside houses. So it wouldn't really be a save editor. I don't see the point in such a feature to be honest.

@Skypper: Terrain editing from script (without crashing the game) is not a simple task. It's still on our todo list and might be implemented for the next release if we have time.

If that is how KaM works, then I understand your point. In Stronghold, for example, I can edit a saved game and do the following:

- Add or destroy buildings -- when this is done, the units assigned to those buildings either appear or disappear when you load the edited save.
- Change terrain
- Add or destroy plants and wildlife
- Add or eliminate various resources -- stone, iron, wood, food, weapons, etc.
- Add or eliminate various troops
- Change the game plan -- enemy numbers, types, and attack timing, natural disasters, good events, etc.
- Create new scenarios that start with partially or fully-built environments of many types. (This is commonly done by fans to create new scenarios for everyone to play.)
- And many other possibilities.

When the new scenario is loaded, all existing activities continue from where they left off in the saved game. Units continue walking to their destination, arrows continue to fly, trees keep growing, etc.

Now, I understand that KaM is not Stronghold, and I don't expect it to be. They are very different games, and are programmed differently. I merely am pointing out that there are many interesting things one can do by editing saved games. If this is not possible in KaM, or would require too many changes, no problem. KaM has its own strengths that make it a fascinating game.

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Sounds like Stronghold doesn't differentiate between map/mission files and save files, so when you start a mission/scenario it's actually just loaded a save. That's an interesting design decision. It would make it difficult to do rapid changes like we do since new features require changing the save format and it's hard to keep that backwards compatible (and making a conversion program is not simple either). But if you don't plan on making any significant gameplay changes then the format won't change. It means you don't have to handle a map/mission format, and there's no limit to the level of detail you can put in a mission file (for example starting the game with arrows in the air).

Yes, in Stronghold you can convert a save file to a map file simply by changing the name from XXX.sav to XXX.map and moving the file to the map directory. Then you edit the new map file with the map editor.

The main campaign scenario files and their saves are locked and cannot be changed--however, there are user-made tools available that allow even these to be unlocked.