New Map & problems I need help with

[Aezeal]

I just gave map making a try.

I DL-ed GIMP (no prior exp. though) and created a map.
In the process of making this map I DL some map from some game and converted that to TGA and opened it in the editor and that went well. So I spend.. well HOURS on this map. Then I added the white dots and red lines I read about somewhere

So it looks.. well a bit noobish but about the way I wanted it and I would like to try a bit of whatever I should do with the map editor and it WILL NOT load it (seems to crash actually)

Since I only got the game recently and I couldn't find more info I thought I'd ask.

I'd be happy to send my file (either TGA, RGB, SGI (both compressed and uncompressed) or the original layerd xcf file) to someone to have a look at it. The files are about 8-9 MB ... or 26 mb uncompressed.

And how do I attach a pic of my map (I'm convinced if pplz see it they'll be more likely to help.. it really rocks.. in a nubish kinda way) in this thread. noway to host it as of yet though --> Ok I attached it but it doesn't show it in the tread..

so plz help me.

Aezeal

http://www.shrapnelcommunity.com/threads/download.php?Number=548920

does this work then (link to attachment)?

[Cor2]

I cant help you, I am also very new to map editing. But I really like the design. Hope this gets fixed.

I am sure alot of people around here know the answers, they will be around shortly...

[Gandalf Parker]

Yes I can see it. Very interesting.

Now make sure that there is no pure white being used in the map. I think GIMP has a replacement tool that will let you replace all of the 255,255,255 with 250,250,250 or something like that.

The reason you do that is that the game uses pure white to mark the base of the flags that appear in the game. Its how it sees provinces. So now go back and put ONE pure white pixel into the middle of each province (dont worry, it wont show up in the game)

After that you can take it into the Dom3 map editor and assign the neighbors

[Aezeal]

Ah yes, now it loaded my map after like 10 min and I see a zillion flags in the lower right edge of the map.. but I see no white there atm.. and if I change ALL the white.. then it will change my pixels too right.. that would be annoying

[Zylithan]

I havent looked at your map, but it sounds like there is a sliver of white on one of the borders. I'm also new to map making, but have had problems with importing maps made in other programs to gimp. This white border problem happens a lot. If you zoom way in (in gimp), you can use the paint bucket to remove just those white pixels. If that is the problem.

[Zylithan]

by the way, just looked at the map and it looks very pretty from a quick view. It seems like this multilevel thing is a neat idea that I've seen done a couple of times. (world tree was a previous one).

It's actually pretty interesting to me that there are not more custom maps on these forums. Many people have done mods, which seem harder to me (I imagine..)

[Aezeal]

ok now it works.. now I have one more question.. how do you remove a neighbour (wrong click) with out having to redo everything.. I'm 100% sure I'll not succeed 330 provs w/o any error.. and I can't seem to delete a wrong neighbourship.

(the auto thingie went completely worng about every prov in a 2-3 prov radius was flagged.. but I'll do it by hand.. IF I know how to remove the errors I make)

OK CTRL missed that somehow (I hate manuals, but I admit I should read the manual and forums and everything a bit better before I ask here..) Still a thing like I ask about in my next post WOULD be nice http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/laugh.gif

[Aezeal]

Is there a tool that connects neighbours automatically and let's you edit provinces more easily?

If so please let me know ASAP

[Gandalf Parker]

In the editor you can Ctrl-Click (if I remember right).

[lch]

Aezeal said:
http://www.shrapnelcommunity.com/threads/download.php?Number=548920

does this work then (link to attachment)?


Yes, it works, if you use the real address:
http://www.shrapnelcommunity.com/threads/uploads/548920-Aezeals%20Map%20mini.gif

Kinda reminds me of the Miirunst map (http://www.dom2minions.com/MiirunstX.shtml). Are those two related?

[Zylithan]

No way to get it to intelligently assign neighbors. Rumor has it that red lines help. I notice if the straight path between the white dots (centers of provinces) goes through one and only one red line it will assign neighbors. That means it should do a hex map correct I think. A checkboard as well (I think it would do diagonals). But if you have some oddly shaped provinces (common for me) your out of luck. Also, it will not do wrap-arounds well.

Ctrl-click undoes neighbors, as stated above.

[Aezeal]

Yeah I used red lines .. it did give neighbours.. but as stated it made neighbours of every prov in about a 3 province radius.. not what I wanted http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/laugh.gif

I'll try it again tomorrow cus I got pretty annoyed when I noticed a few extra adn a few missing flags and when I edited the map (no problem erasing white dots is easy) the settings for neighbours where not good again (the silly buttons in the program really didn't help. So now I'll try to get the dots correct 100% first and THEN do neighbours etc...

/next part is not completely unbiased

I'll be a great medium size map I think about 250 land an 50 water provinces a few plains for larger battles and enough chokepoints to make parts of your expanding empire.
I intend (when I know how or if a volunteer scripter can help me) to have 2 races unplayable which get a bit of an advantage (one on top of "Olympus" and one in the very depts of the world.) I'm thinking Vanaheim for Olympus (with an All father edited for a decent equipment and possibility for a somewhat decent bless strat N9W8 or something) since most leaders are blessers to I guess the AI couldn't screw that up to much.

For the depts I'm thinking either niflheim of abyssia or whatever it's called
(and maybe a water based one starting in a nice position)

Q: can I use races from different ages? The player should still be able to just choose an age and play with it then but these 2 non playable races should be the ones I want and screw the ages.

So if you have answers or want to volunteer to do the difficult scripting or want to volunteer to make the map better looking if you have graphic skills (the pangaea map in the maps thread looks nice http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/laugh.gif) then lets make it a team effort to create a great map.

Another option would to make much more provinces in the same map.. my xcf file has the borders and white dots in a seperate layer so that should be easy...

[lch]

Aezeal said:
So now I'll try to get the dots correct 100% first and THEN do neighbours etc...


That's what you should do anyway. As explained earlier, the game is not human, is does not know in any way which provinces should be neighbors and which should not. It can only detect small one-pixel white dots. It will enumerate the dots, giving a number to each one it encounters going from down to the top, left to right or so. If you alter the position of one of those dots or add/remove some, then of course you'll perturb this enumeration, and the list of neighbors will become erroneous.

[Aezeal]

So noone is interested in helping me polish the map a bit?

[Zylithan]

I'm interested in collaborations on maps in general. I've got at least 5 ideas I really want to finish, and only about an hour a week now because life is crazy. I'm interested in the concept. Maybe in a few weeks or months though for me...