.com.unity Forums
  The Official e-Store of Shrapnel Games

This Month's Specials

BCT Commander- Save $8.00
winSPWW2- Save $5.00

   







Go Back   .com.unity Forums > Illwinter Game Design > Dominions 2: The Ascension Wars > Scenarios, Maps & Mods

Reply
 
Thread Tools Display Modes
  #1  
Old January 21st, 2006, 03:07 PM

halfzware halfzware is offline
Private
 
Join Date: Jan 2006
Posts: 29
Thanks: 0
Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts
halfzware is on a distinguished road
Default Help with making a map

I want to make a good 3-4 player blitz map.

I found this satalite image of europe, and I thought it would make a good base (light photoshoping to give it a more conventional dom2 feel).

But I have no idea how to make a map - could someone either walk me through it. Can I expect to make one in less than a couple hours - or is this a major undertaking?
Attached Images
File Type: jpg 401675-testmap.jpg (297.1 KB, 215 views)
Reply With Quote
  #2  
Old January 21st, 2006, 04:55 PM
Saber Cherry's Avatar

Saber Cherry Saber Cherry is offline
Major General
 
Join Date: Oct 2003
Location: Crystal Tokyo
Posts: 2,453
Thanks: 0
Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts
Saber Cherry is on a distinguished road
Default Re: Help with making a map

All you really need to do is make a .map file (text) that gives the map a name and specifies the the image file, and define adjacent provinces (I think there's even a utility that can do that automatically...). The image has to have a pure white pixel for each province center, and be in .tga format. So, technically you can turn that into a map in about 5 minutes... if it does not have any pure (255.255.255) white on it. But it depends on how many provinces you want, and how customized you want it.

Here are some excerpts from Illwinter's Aran .map file:

Code:

--
-- Map file for Dominions 2
--
-- Illwinter Game Design
-- www.illwinter.com
--

-- Title and image file


Those are comments.
Code:

#dom2title Aran
#imagefile aran.tga
#defaultmapzoom 1.0
#domversion 150
#description "The once glorious kingdom of Aran was destroyed by a
magical disaster that turned the kingdom in to a barren waste several
hundred years ago.

107 provinces, 11 of these are under water.

Suitable for 6-10 players."


This stuff is necessary. Just copy it and change what you want.

Code:

-- Province names/terrains
#landname 1 "Stone Wood Waste"
#terrain 1 66
#terrain 2 128
#terrain 3 1


This goes on for each province, defining the name and type of terrain (by province number). Province numbers are autogenerated. So, you ought to load the map and see which province has which number before you assign names and terrain types to all of them. Names are autogenerated if you don't assign them, and I think terrain type is too (but I'm not positive).


Code:

-- Province neighbours
#neighbour 1 3
#neighbour 1 4
#neighbour 1 8
#neighbour 1 16
#neighbour 2 4
#neighbour 2 9
#neighbour 3 5


This tells which provinces are adjacent. It takes the most work, and MUST be filled out.

Code:

#nostart 1
#nostart 8
#nostart 16


This defines provinces that will not be used as capitols.


So, there's more stuff... I suggest you read the documentation in the Dominions 2\doc folder to do advanced things like place magic sites, define indy population types, and see which terrain type numbers mean which terrain types. And of course maps always look better if you draw in borders. But you should be able to make a basic map in a couple hours. If the image has pure white on it you can use a program (e.g. Irfanview, which can also convert to tga format) to reduce the brightness (or gamma) which will kill all the pure white pixels, then place your own in Paint.
__________________
Cherry
Reply With Quote
  #3  
Old January 22nd, 2006, 05:14 AM
Endoperez's Avatar

Endoperez Endoperez is offline
National Security Advisor
 
Join Date: Sep 2003
Location: Eastern Finland
Posts: 7,110
Thanks: 145
Thanked 153 Times in 101 Posts
Endoperez is on a distinguished road
Default Re: Help with making a map

There is Map Maker in DomII main menu. It tries to choose the correct neighbours, but makes mistakes, so you have to check out which province borders which. It might also be easier to set terrains using it.
Reply With Quote
  #4  
Old January 22nd, 2006, 07:44 PM

halfzware halfzware is offline
Private
 
Join Date: Jan 2006
Posts: 29
Thanks: 0
Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts
halfzware is on a distinguished road
Default Re: Help with making a map

man - that sounds like a ton of work
Reply With Quote
  #5  
Old January 22nd, 2006, 08:10 PM
Endoperez's Avatar

Endoperez Endoperez is offline
National Security Advisor
 
Join Date: Sep 2003
Location: Eastern Finland
Posts: 7,110
Thanks: 145
Thanked 153 Times in 101 Posts
Endoperez is on a distinguished road
Default Re: Help with making a map

I haven't actually done a map, but I always thought it's lots of boring work, but quite simple. Check the map editor.

Time is a cheap commodity, but can be hard to come by. But it goes old fast, so if you get some free time you'd better use it for something that is either useful or fun. It's a hard choice between making a new map that suits your needs, or playing the game.
Reply With Quote
  #6  
Old January 23rd, 2006, 06:49 AM
Arralen's Avatar

Arralen Arralen is offline
Major General
 
Join Date: Nov 2000
Location: 500km from Ulm
Posts: 2,279
Thanks: 9
Thanked 18 Times in 12 Posts
Arralen is on a distinguished road
Default Re: Help with making a map

Yeah, making a map from scratch is a ton of tedious work.

If you still want to try it and have some more questions, feel free to email me ... .
__________________
As for AI the most effective work around to this problem so far is to simply use an American instead, they tend to put up a bit more of a fight than your average Artificial Idiot.
... James McGuigan on rec.games.computer.stars somewhen back in 1998 ...
Reply With Quote
  #7  
Old January 23rd, 2006, 11:38 AM
Wish's Avatar

Wish Wish is offline
Major
 
Join Date: Sep 2005
Posts: 1,007
Thanks: 0
Thanked 2 Times in 2 Posts
Wish is on a distinguished road
Default Re: Help with making a map

making a map is a bunch of work, but its not to hard - i made siltrock in a day, minus a few corrections over the next few weeks. (as they inadvertantly popped up)
Reply With Quote
Reply

Bookmarks

Thread Tools
Display Modes

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is On

Forum Jump


All times are GMT -4. The time now is 02:30 PM.


Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.1
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.
Copyright ©1999 - 2024, Shrapnel Games, Inc. - All Rights Reserved.