Making your first DK2 map tutorial - Dungeon Keeper 2

1) The Program Itself

The program we will be using for this task is the "DK2MapperGUI". It is a very good program, great for beginners and (I think) a lot easier to use than the offical map editor. So here is the link to the actual file itself:
Box.net

You will also need this file:
Box.net

Place both of these files into the following folder on your harddrive:
Bullfrog\Dungeon Keeper 2\Data\editor\maps\

Then you are ready to go, click on the Dk2MapperGui.exe and you can start creating your wonderfull map.

Note: The Offical Editor is less easy to use, but it is definately more advanced. After you feel you have grasped the basics of map creation, you can open up your .map file that you created with MapperGUI in the Offical Editor and play around with it some more.

2) Designing your first map
This is where the fun begins! Ok, go to File -> New Map (or Ctrl + N if your a hotkey freak) and then choose what kind of size you want your map to be. Try to never pick anything bigger than 100x100 because that is insanely big, trust me on that.

Go with something small such as 35x35 or 40x40 to begin with, for this tutorial, I have chosen 40x40 however and it is reccomended that you do the same. Then just choose a name for your map, don't worry, you can change this later on so just type in anything, and remember to set the fill value to "Rock":

Now you have your first map, just a few more things to set up and we can start painting it. Next go to Edit -> Scenario. Desciption and change the starting gold for each of the players to around 3000, this gives them something to start with. You can also change your map name here if you don't like what you first entered.

3) Lets get painting!
Ok, now all we need to do is add something in the map to play with. I would suggest a two player map at this stage, but you can add more later on if you wish. To do this, go to the button called Terrain, just click on there and you can start changing what your map looks like, but for now, we just want to add two Dungeon Hearts for each of the players. To do this select the Keeper 1 tab and click on the symbol of the Heart, then press done and click once where you want your Dungeon Heart to be. Repeat this for Keeper 2.

Well done for getting this far!

Now you must add some gold around the players so they have something to fight with (you can also add a gem seam, but it is easier to design a map with as few of these as possible). So click on the Terrain button again and go to the Other tab, then select the symbol of the gold and click done; place lots of gold all over the place (remember to be fair to both players!).

Now add a portal by clicking on the Terrain tab once more and clicking on the 'P' icon. Paint two 3x3 portals anywhere on the map near the Dungeon Hearts and your map is complete!

Remember! - You can play around with any of the buttons here as much as you want! Thats the whole idea of making a map, experiment and see what they all do.

4) (Optional) Add triggers
The most difficult part of making a map. This is not actually necessery but I'll show you some basics of how to make heroes spawn from a hero gate here.

What I want to do here is to make the condition: When Keeper enters area, spawn at gate and attack player. So I will go to the top of the screen and click on the Area tab, next we need to specify and area where the keeper needs to claim the land before the heroes will appear. This can be anywhere on your map. (Remember, the coodinates of a point can be found at the bottom left of your screen whenever you hover your mouse over a tile)

Click on add area and close the window.

Then paint a hero gate that your band of heroes will come through, this is a gate that you could set up in your map:
[Solid][HG 8]
[Solid][HG 8]
[Solid][HG 8]
(This is a gate that is against a solid rock wall, it is a common gate setup to use)

Next click on the Heroes tab and click on the New Band button to create a band of heroes that will come through the gate. Make the band consist of whatever you want; remember though, that adding dwarves to a band is usually a good idea because the dwarves will automaticly dig through the level to reach the specified Keeper.

Set the Primary Enemy to one of the two keepers; if you want these conditions to apply to both keepers, you will have to make seperate Hero Bands and seperate triggers.

Lastly we need to create the actual trigger itself. So click on the Trigger tab at the top and press the New button. To the left of the screen choose the following options:
* TRIGGER_CONTROL_AREA
* Area # 1
* Player 1 (Or whatever player you want)

Then press the Add Action button and choose your Hero Band. Then choose the Hero Gate you painted earlier and click Ok and Done.

Now you can set the trigger to collapse the Hero Gate when path around it is claimed, so make a new area that is right infront of the hero gate. Next go back to the triggers tab and click on New and choose these settings to the left of the screen:
* TRIGGER_CONTROL_AREA
* Area # 2
* Player 1 (Again, this doesn't have to be Player 1)
And then on the Action drop down list, choose ACTION_DESTROY_HERO_GATE and then click on Add Action, choose Gate 1 and click on Ok twice and then done.

Well, thats the triggers finished. Well done!

5) Compile your map
You have made your map, but Dungeon Keeper 2 won't recognise it yet! You have to go to File -> Compile, and you should see a list of files that have been created in the box that pops up (six in total). If only one pops up, it means that you haven't downloaded the DK2Mapper, do that if you need to.

All that remains is to go to File - Make Thumbnail so that you have a mini image that you will see in the map selection screen and your finished!

Remember to save your map before you quit so you can make changes later!

Open up DK2 and go to the skirmish screen, select your map and test it. If all goes well, you are playing your very own Dungeon Keeper 2 map, horrah!

Finally: Conclusion
Thank you for taking an interest in Dungeon Keeper 2 mapping and helping the community to rise up once more and take it's role amoungst the best of games, and I also hope you enjoyed reading this tutorial as much as I enjoyed writing it!

Remember to vist me and my fellow community at: www.keeperklan.tk
(My user name is Keeper David there)