Larian Studios Forums Divinity: Original Sin 2 Divinity - Original Sin 2 - Game Master Any news on adding mods to an excisting GM save?

I couldn't reply to this: http://larian.com/forums/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=628621#Post628621 , so I am asking here.
Any news on when we may expect the lost ability of adding new mods to an excisting GM mode save to return?

This is quite important because otherwise it will take months of development time (at the very least) for the GM to create his/her own world with own made maps.

This might be nore important that rerolling characters since a modder might fix that before Larian.

Alternatively having a proper IMPORT/EXPORT function should solve the issue too.
Having all Player characters as well as NPCs transferred, i wont mind playing another campaign which basically is just version 2 ( and after years v143.081.108) of the first session.

So # 1 needed feature

Only if it allowed for characters being imported back into an excisting save though.

That would be the idea. Load up a campaign someone made then back to the main campaign after. It would really help GM mode grow.

Feature was implemented and it is scheduled for the next patch. Testing must be performed

My question:

What saved Data you need from you saved campaigns? Characters, NPCs, sure! Items (yes that could be a big think once you build a lot decoration with the GM mode) Surfaces? Notes?

I just didn't really do any serious GMing with DOS so far and i am maybe not aware of some issues.

But i can't see that much saved Data in a save file which couldn't be easily restored when just starting a copy of the campaign (of course with export / imported PCs and NPCs and maybe also exported Items.

Opening a saved GM campaign with the editor, edit it (including PCs) and resave it, could be an option right?

EDIT: thanks Seter for statement, I wrote this before reading it. Appreciated!!

Awesome!
That leaves just one question...
When may we expect the next patch?

This I cannot say - we still on it because other things/bugs (for Game Master mode too) needs to be addressed as well.



GM campaign data is pretty modular from data perspective. Every time you load a GM save game - its being extracted to
"Documents\Larian Studios\Divinity Original Sin 2\PlayerProfiles\<Profile Name>\GMActiveCampaignSession" and has same structure as campaigns inside GMCampaigns folder

You can use needed data from that folder.
1. Globals.lsf - for you player characters and their inventories + gm inventory + global game stuff
2. LevelCache folder + GMScenes.lsf - are scenes you created and used
3. Eggs.lsf for exported items and characters
4. Notes.lsf for Stickies
5. OverviewMaps.lsf and Vignettes.lsf with appropriate folders are responsible for you maps and vignettes.

meta.lsf is a file that contains info about all mods connected to campaign ("Dependencies" node if you convert it to lsx format) + its own info

This is not official way- just more of a modding workaround but if you players don't mind some file management and willing to take a risk:
You could create new campaign with mods you need - copy needed files (except metadata.lsf and globals.lsf) into that folder and then start a new session - all data should be there. But be sure to make a backup just for safety

If you into advanced modding you could try to create a new campaign with same name with needed mods or add mods to existing prepared campaign (one you started) and do some source magic.

It's dangerous to go alone, though. Take this:
http://larian.com/forums/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=624173 (topic)

https://s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/nb-stor/dos/ExportTool/ExportTool-latest.zip (tool)

Open savegame of the your session with that tool and copy there meta.lsf from newly created campaign (you will find it in "Documents\Larian Studios\Divinity Original Sin 2\GMCampaigns\" - if you created new with the same name - be sure to pick correct one), pack back save game and you done.
If you even more brave - you can just edit meta.lsf from your save file by converting it to lsx, adding needed nodes with dependencies by hand (you can use any text editor for that - i prefer Notepad++) and converting back to lsf and packing save file back.

Thanks Seter.
Very usefull info.
Unfortunately my game won't recognise my adjusted save after replacing the meta.lsf with the new one from the edited prepared campaign.
Guess I am doing something wrong.
Will give it another go (or 2) later today.

Wasn't able to recognize? Well, I just tried to do that myself and succeed, though process wasn't exact the same as i described. (i assume you have a tool already downloaded)
Let me do a bit of my explanation step by step, it may sounds long, but for me it took about 2 minutes, so in general its not hard to follow:

1. Initial setup:
I have campaign "Heroes Of Rivellon". It does not contains any addons (in your case it may - but it doesn't matter). I launched a play session with it and have some players - we played a bit and i saved with name "Quicksave 1" inside "Documents\Larian Studios\Divinity Original Sin 2\PlayerProfiles\Seter\Savegames\GM" . So now i have a save game of a session with player characters.
2. Make a backup of that save - just in case something go wrong, you won't loose all your progress
Just copy that folder somewhere else
3. Run the tool, and select a second tab "Pak/LSV Tool" (don't forget to select DoS 2 in game drop downs)
4. Package path is a path to save game. In my case its "Documents\Larian Studios\Divinity Original Sin 2\PlayerProfiles\Seter\Savegames\GM\QuickSave_1\QuickSave_1.lsv"
5. Destination is what ever you want but be sure to select a clear, empty folder. In my case "<someother folder>\Extracted save 1"
6. Press "extract package"
Now navigate to the output destination folder (don't close tool yet) and see if its succeed. You should see a files: meta.lsf, globals.lsf, folder "gmactivecampaignsession" and etc.
7. No launch a game. Go into "Prepare mode". And modify settings of your original campaign. Check needed addons, press "Accept" and close the game.
8. Navigate to the "\Documents\Larian Studios\Divinity Original Sin 2\GMCampaigns\<campagin you just modified>".
9. With tool convert meta.lsf to meta.lsx and open it in Notepad ++ (i use that one - but other text editors will be good too)
This can be done by selecting tab "LSX/LSB/LSF/LSJ Tools" and following same rule - select input file and output place
10. Do the same with meta.lsf inside "Extracted save 1" folder and inside "Extracted Save 1\gmactivecamapginsession"
11. Checkpoint. You now have 3 meta.lsx files:

one from prepared campaign
another from "Extracted Save 1" folder
third from "Extracted Save 1\gmactivecamapginsession"

12. In meta.lsx from the PREPARED campaign find <Dependencies>/<children> node and copy everything it contains or exact addon you need.
so you will have something like that

<node id="ModuleShortDesc">
<attribute id="UUID" value="167f78fc-acac-4c83-a2c8-ae8eccaafa08" type="22" />
<attribute id="Name" value="My first mod" type="22" />
<attribute id="Version" value="268435456" type="4" />
<attribute id="MD5" value="" type="23" />
<attribute id="Folder" value="My_first_mod_167f78fc-acac-4c83-a2c8-ae8eccaafa08" type="30" />
</node>
<node id="ModuleShortDesc">
<attribute id="UUID" value="b518fa29-08ca-4401-8f01-04e8b5cb663e" type="22" />
<attribute id="Name" value="Scenes pack" type="22" />
<attribute id="Version" value="268435456" type="4" />
<attribute id="MD5" value="" type="23" />
<attribute id="Folder" value="Scenes_pack_b518fa29-08ca-4401-8f01-04e8b5cb663e" type="30" />
</node>

13. Insert that into meta.lsx from "Extracted Save 1" folder inside <node id="ModuleSettings">/<children>/<node id="Mods">/<children>

Order is matter! Because it will be order of loading. So be sure to insert it after what ever mods you already has there. For me it was GameMaster then Shared. If you already have some addons there - don't change them but add only ones you want to plug in.

14. Insert into meta.lsx from"Extracted Save 1\gmactivecamapginsession" folder inside <Dependencies>/<children>
15. Convert all meta.lsx files from Extracted savegame back to meta.lsf. To be sure conversion is succeed - delete meta.lsf (don't forget to make a copy) first
16. Now using tool pack folder "Extracted Save 1" back to savegame. if you didn't closed anything - you can just click "Create Package". Again to be sure convertion is successfull - remove lsv file from destination folder.
In my case i deleted "Quicksave 1.lsv" from Savegames/GM/Quicksave 1/, pressed "Create Package" and got new and shinny save game.

17. Now you good to go. Launch game and try to load savegame.

Totally apreciate the time you did put into this @Seter
The not exactly the same process worked like a charm.
You just saved my campaign.
Thank you very very much!!

Was very happy to help!
Have fun GMing

to be honest the post describing how to do this became a blur of words half way through since script and coding is the most boring thing in the world to me. Is there any chance this will be fixed anytime soon? I'm really debating just calling it a loss, giving up, and going back to roll20 or something.

So much appreciated! What an effort to write this up. I consider this outstanding, a dev showing a dirty unofficial way how to "hack" the game. Hope to see more support at this level.

Thank you very much for that and cheers for a prosperous future of modding and community-developer interaction.

Still of course i won't stop you to provide a more official and less dangerous way to do these things.

I feel the same way about script and coding, but this is not as hard as it seems. Basically it comes down to pasting a bit of code you copied into 2 other files and repacking your save.
But yes, I would prefer clicking a button over this method too.

I have a question for @Seter though.
Would copying Globals.lsf from one save to another work as a means of exporting/importing characters from one save to another, or is there more to it?

In upcoming patch.



It may work, but this is risky. Globals.lsf are more then just than set of player characters. It contains a lot of game info needed for proper loading of the game entities. I'm not stopping you from trying - but playing with globals is much dangerous than things i described.

Anyway, if you will try - please leave a comment if it worked or not - for future references

Tested and seems to work just fine.
This is pretty awesome.
I did test with a different save from the same (players at a lower level) game though, when I get a hold on one of my players later today I will do a test with a different game/mod set up and see if that works too.

EDIT:
Tried to "import" 4 players into a save of a different adventure that had just 1 player and it failed. Got this error message: "Savegame load failed. Error code(s): 300, 302"

There are some news!

We added support for adding addons to existing gm savegame. You can find appropriate button in Load menu.

Thanks Seter, awesome news!
From the patch notes:

And this may even allow for exporting and importing characters from/into an excistng save using the method described on the previous page.

As i said previously - direct manipulation with a files are dangerous and we not guarantee things to work after that - but yes. Now it will be a bit easier.