well, thanks for the detailed explanation to do it manually (not sure what is the advantage over a patch).

http://www.findoutfree.co.uk/dungeon-keeper-2-tips-and-help.php

PS: gog, this is still neither fixed nor stickied after years!.... :(((

thanks. all other links were not working.

This one does, from here.

Full details on how to fix the spawning problem are on findoutfree.co.uk
[url=]http://www.findoutfree.co.uk/dungeon-keeper-2-tips-and-help.php[/url]

The second sentence at that link is a big fat lie. It's not 'handy' that at some sources like GOG the game comes pre-patched to version 1.7, because that version is bugged to hell and back. The creature spawn bug is just one of many, but having enemy keepers not being able to respond to fights (so you'll never fight more than a single imp or goblin) is game breaking.

The link does describe how to fix the creature spawn bug yourself, but it's much easier to just use the download link with the fixed files I provided.

You can also fix the maps using the DK2 World Editor Pro included with the General Improvement Mod. The maps are not "bugged" in the true sense of the word; the attraction limit for those creatures in said levels was put to 0 for some reason, likely by patch 1.7.

You can also fix the AI somewhat in that editor as well. The AI sends creatures in response to attacks based on the total threat value of the attackers. In patch 1.7, it set the threat % to like 1% meaning they only drop a creature equivalent to 1% of the threat value of the attackers. You can increase the value but it has a "cap" of only 255% using that editor, probably a limitation of the editor itself.

Changing it to 255% makes a huge difference now. The AI will drop three to fours creatures in response to imp attacks including Mistresses and Salamanders with that change as opposed to the occasional single Goblin. Haven't seen anything higher than a Mistress though since those creatures threat values are too high.

I've encountered these bugs too with the GOG version of DK2.

I can't believe it's been a known issue for at least 6 years and GOG still did nothing at all fix it!

A lot of players might not even realize they have a bugged & incomplete version of the game. They might complete the whole game and think that the elite units never spawned from their portals simply because they got unlucky with the creatures that happened to spawn for them.

With these bugs in place, GOG is selling an incomplete & broken version of DK2. It would be like selling a Witcher game with a "new & improved" end-user made mod attached to it by default which causes some of the swords that should be in the game never to appear, and to be inaccessible to the player.

GOG really needs to fix these bugs before they sell the DK2 game anymore.

And more generally, GOG needs to stop bundling end-user-made mods with any of the games they sell, and forcing the GOG customer to have only the modded version instead of the official developer-made version. This is the kind of bull crap that happens when they don't do that.

If GOG wants their customers to use specific mods, then they should provide links to those mods on the store page and call them highly recommended. But they should never be forced on the customer.

@Loobinex: thanks for your posts. Your solution fixed the bug for me. Although I wasn't happy about having to download files from a possibly questionable source. I'm not saying the source or files are bad, I'm just saying I have no way to be sure of their legitimacy since they are not from an official store or anything like that. So downloading them made me extremely uncomfortable. I'm sure a lot of other users feel the same way.

Yes, the state of the game is a disgrace. They made a nice patch to get the game playable for more people on modern machines, but they should either have done that on version 1.3, or fix some of the game breaking bugs of the later versions because like this it is hardly worth playing.

Where do you get the DK2 World Editor pro or the General Improvement Mod?

Here and here.

Quick question regarding this: Would anyone know if this an actual bug or a conscious decision made by Bullfrog not to allow these creatures to be attracted at later levels?
What does the patch do? Does it simply replace the level files with the levels from 1.5 version? Does it affect anything else other than the spawning of creatures?

It's a bug. It's because of incompatible level files.
And it depends on what you mean by 'the patch'. There's an actual 'level patch', on the first page of this topic, that basically is the levels saved again with the editor for the proper version.

The 'General Improvement Mod', or GIM is a lot more and is more or less a mixture of version 1.51 and 1.7 in an effort to get the features from 1.7, without the game breaking bugs from 1.7, so it still has the functioning AI from 1.51.

I'm talking about this patch. Just the levels. Not GIM.

So... when the game got updated to 1.7 these levels remained at v.1.5 and this caused the bug? Re-saving these levels to 1.7 fixes it?