europa dom2 map

[Whismerhill]

for those who don't know
europa map is a quite big map from dominion1 (297 provinces)
representing .... well europa of course ;-)

I converted the TGA file to 2400x1600 instead of 800x600 so that the size is more adequate to icon's size in dom2
also I have applied a few filters to smooth edges a little
and I reinforced provinces limits
actually I'm in the process of redoning all the neighbors and provinces flags (swamp ...)
I'll post the original and modified tga's and when finished the .map file too

rules used for converting:
-neighbours are only provinces directly next to frontiers (whether it's far or not)
-swamp : green-blue color
-farm : light brown color & yellow
-waste : light yellow
-forest : green
-sea : this one is obvious http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif
-fresh water : any province that has at least one river or lake (and I mean a TRUE lake/river, the water must not be ocean like (salty ...) )
-mountain : dark brown
-nostart : none for instance
-manysites : none for instance

sometimes it's difficult to say the dominant color in a terrain...

to flag a province mountain : the brown pixels must be grouped together

I'll try to stick to that
if interested or if you have anything to say... do not hesitate to PM or mail me through this forum

progress : 297/297 provinces neighbours done
25/297 flags set

PS: I'm french, my english is not that good.

(anyone who knows a program that could count pixels in a province ?)

[ November 23, 2003, 22:26: Message edited by: Whismerhill ]

[Raen]

Thanks for doing this. I for one am eagerly looking forward to it.

[Whismerhill]

if anyone has webspace to host a 3.8 Mb zip file
... cause the 'free.fr' server has some serious problems

[Saber Cherry]

Try Dominions X.

[Whismerhill]

erf LOL
well huh ....
I 'll look stupid http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon10.gif
but how I get this file hosted on dom X ?
do I have to contact someone in particular ?
post it in the forum ?
of follow some kind of instructions ?

[Nerfix]

Originally posted by Whismerhill:
erf LOL
well huh ....
I 'll look stupid http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon10.gif
but how I get this file hosted on dom X ?
do I have to contact someone in particular ?
post it in the forum ?
of follow some kind of instructions ? <font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">PM'ed you the instructions.

[Pocus]

Whismerhill, if you want to join a group of french players for multiplayers game, contact me at phmalacher@free.fr

The playing levels vary heavily, rest assured, from newbie to grognard.

[PDF]

Originally posted by Pocus:
Whismerhill, if you want to join a group of french players for multiplayers game, contact me at phmalacher@free.fr

The playing levels vary heavily, rest assured, from newbie to grognard. <font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Yep,
Pocus is one of the grogs, I'm one of the noob. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon10.gif

BTW, Whismerhill, funny you use that name (I knew the guy who created the character ... a looooong time ago http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif ).

[PhilD]

Originally posted by PDF:
</font><blockquote><font size="1" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">quote:</font><hr /><font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Originally posted by Pocus:
Whismerhill, if you want to join a group of french players for multiplayers game, contact me at phmalacher@free.fr

The playing levels vary heavily, rest assured, from newbie to grognard. <font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Yep,
Pocus is one of the grogs, I'm one of the noob. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon10.gif
</font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Yeah, me too. Must be nice to have your own group of newbies to crush every time http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon10.gif


BTW, Whismerhill, funny you use that name (I knew the guy who created the character ... a looooong time ago http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif ). <font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Oh yeah, the "let me tell you the story of my AD&D campaign from years ago, and make money in the process" comics. Those were fun for some time.

[For the non-French readers: there's a character in a French comics called Whismerhill, who's based on the author's ooooold AD&D character]

[Nerfix]

Yeah, Dom X is willing to host.

[Whismerhill]

Thanks nerfix
I'll send you the file once I have the time to


in fact
"les chroniques de la lune noire" in french
"Black moon chronicles" in english

but the name isn't really "Whismerhill"
but "Wysmerhill" if I remember correctly


I personnaly prefer Whismerhill
because it still makes reference to that character I love http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon10.gif
and the added letter 'h' and replaced 'y', also have kind of a "wish" effect in my mind ;-)

for the multiplayer thingy, I'm not against it
but well not for the moment,
for instance I have modified the "exe"
to be able to test some things
like how overpowering it could be if you have a bless with 10 magic in every path of your god
(at least with abysia)

[Gandalf Parker]

Originally posted by Whismerhill:
for instance I have modified the "exe"
to be able to test some things
like how overpowering it could be if you have a bless with 10 magic in every path of your god
(at least with abysia) <font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">WOW for me that would be the hard way. Id rather edit a .map for that than to edit the exe

[Whismerhill]

Originally posted by Gandalf Parker:
WOW for me that would be the hard way. Id rather edit a .map for that than to edit the exe <font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">how can you edit a .map file for having a god with 10 in all magic path is effective on the bless effect ?

nevermind...
I have read somewhere that the bless effect is set at god creation ...
so I increased the number of points you have from start (among other things http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon10.gif )

[Gandalf Parker]

Originally posted by Whismerhill:
</font><blockquote><font size="1" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">quote:</font><hr /><font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Originally posted by Gandalf Parker:
WOW for me that would be the hard way. Id rather edit a .map for that than to edit the exe <font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">how can you edit a .map file for having a god with 10 in all magic path is effective on the bless effect ?
</font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">You can create a god with .map commands and it will only affect that one game map. Doesnt change the exe, doesnt even overwrite the god you might have already made for that race. Using the map commands you can give a god 10 in each magic, all the scales you want, any castle, magic items, and even use a unit that the game doesnt allow you to use (such as a Doom Horror)

At least Dom1 didnt do checks on those things. I havent tested to see if Dom2 checks but I doubt it does since this is all stuff meant for use in creating a game-map along a theme

[Whismerhill]

lol I have been completely unaware of that !!!
that's why I modified the exe http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/rolleyes.gif http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/rolleyes.gif

but hupefully even that is not difficult at all,
I guess that's because Illwinter doesn't have an 'anti-cracking' policy http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/tongue.gif
which is a good thing because an anti-cracking policy only increases development cost...
and if the game has some popularity, it will be cracked whatever the protections ...
it may take longer of course http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon10.gif

[Truper]

Whismerhill: Thanks for untertaking to port The Old World from Dom1 to Dom2 - I always enjoyed playing on it.

And once you have it finished, it strikes me that either or both Shrapnel and Illwinter would be willing to host it.

[Whismerhill]

pffffff
that'll take some time
having problems with dom2 hanging even without using auto-detect of provinces

[Gandalf Parker]

Originally posted by Whismerhill:
which is a good thing because an anti-cracking policy only increases development cost...
and if the game has some popularity, it will be cracked whatever the protections ...
it may take longer of course http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon10.gif <font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Thats usually figured into the equation. Its rarely a wast of time. No law, punishment, copyright, security, protection ever stops anything. It can only make it as hard as possible, for as many as possible, for as long as possible. After all, thats why we lock our doors. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

[Whismerhill]

posting v0.58b of the file to nerfix actually
the file weight about 3.57Mb :/
because of the 2400x1800x24 tga inside

the image has been increased in size and some effects to smooth out pixels

58% done (approx.)

all neighbours set (if you see any error or something that might be added, be sure to check my first post on the rules I used first, and if it's still an error or a complete inbalance for some races then feel free to post here http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif )

I'm having difficulties for settings flags
(not easy to choose with the pixeled nature of dominions 1 maps)

normally the file will be available on
DominionsX (http://www.dominionsx.com)
as soon as the webmaster receives the file and has time to upload it


Questions I have (for whose who have the file)
province numbers :
58 <-> 80 ????? ON
70 <-> 73 ????? ON
60 <-> 66 ????? OFF
209 <-> 247 ????? OFF
240 <-> 230 ????? ON

ON : (actually I set a way between both but I don't know if really they could be considered neighbours)
OFF : (the way is not set should I put one ?)


another question about flags : province 21 : is it fresh water or salty water ? (I'd prefer an answer based on real information)

[Kristoffer O]

Fresh water means a land province with rivers or lakes. If the province is water only you should call it a sea.

[Whismerhill]

Originally posted by Kristoffer O:
Fresh water means a land province with rivers or lakes. If the province is water only you should call it a sea. <font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">well the province is not water only
but contains something like a big river/lake
but I'm not sure it's a river or lake

it could be an 'extension' of the sea
in that case the water is salty and cannot be considered 'fresh' in my opinion

as the map is based on real world ...

so to answer that question you must see the map first http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon10.gif

[Whismerhill]

a little problem with the fact that for instance
there's no sea province (I have not set the flags yet) and so any sea race playing will give you an error message "can't find a valid starting position"