Re: Maps available
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Sorry, folks, didn't have the time to test it properly.

Looks like DOM doesn't like indexed palette colors .. .
Fixed that, but file size has grown back to 9 MB again.

Loaded the map/graphic up in the editor and it looked quite o.k. .

You can get the reworked .tga file here.

[ January 15, 2004, 20:56: Message edited by: Arralen ]

Re: Maps available
 

OK if you want to see what Arralens routine does to the DomMap generated maps then here is an example...
http://www.techno-mage.com/~dominion/way2hard.tga
(and YES its huge but its still in work)

Also if you are interested in the types of maps that can be auto-generated by GIMP then check this one out...
http://www.techno-mage.com/~dominion/rendered.tga

I can do improvements on that but Im not interested in drawing borders and placing capital dots. And Im WAY not interested in figuring out #neighbor and #terrain for the .map file. If someone creates a program for those then maybe.
(GIMP is a free way-powerful programmable Paint program for most platforms which is what the devs use)

Re: Maps available
 

And the new addition for the day is....
http://www.techno-mage.com/~dominion.../000index1.jpg

I cant seem to get the html part to work right. Maybe tomorrow. But at least you can look at the thumbnail index it makes and see the file names
http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon9.gif

Re: Maps available
 

FINALLY! We are back up to where we were on DomMap for Dominions 1.
http://www.techno-mage.com/~dominion...humbnails.html

Now if I can get something to automatically do a slight blurring of the maps they will look much better (now that the old Dom1 pixel patterns arent needed). These maps are all playable. The .map file for each one has decent #neighbor and #terrain assinments.

Now for some improvments.

1) multiple download offeres? zip, tga, jpg, map

2) blurring (smoothing the image) of the maps

3) offering games of random crazyness

4) offering the same thing as today but in more sizes

5) offering the same as today but other DomMap preferences (such as less dots and larger blocks of color)

6) drop the DomMap and shift attention to the GIMP rendered maps because they are prettier

7) drop the whole thing and concentrate on getting a web-based server to work

8) give up period

COME ON PEOPLE. Im fishing for a direction here. Is anyone listening? Do I need to make a poll out of it to get some responses? http://www.sdmud.org/~gandalf/smile/saiyan.gif

Re: Maps available
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">The maps are great, thanks! What I would like to see is map making tools for the computer challenged such as myself. I would love to make maps but am completely lost when trying to follow the map making/editing discussions. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...s/confused.gif If it were possible to develop something similar to the map making capabilities in Kohan, I believe that we would see a lot more maps for the game. Whatever you do, don't give up. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

Leadman

Re: Maps available
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Better yet, do both! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif

Oh, and many thanks for your commitment, you'll never get all the praise you deserve.

Re: Maps available
 

30 new maps are available, if you dont like any of them then check back tomorrow. They are all 450 land and 50 water.
http://www.techno-mage.com/~dominion...humbnails.html

They are playable as they are but are better for using as a base to work with the idea of making an interesting game map. Grab one you like, edit the image, edit the .map file, give it your own game name, and an interesting description. Add things, delete things, rename things, choose the opponents, boost them harder if you wish, or make things easier. The MapEdit.pdf in the doc directory of your game tells you the things you can do. Have fun.

[ January 24, 2004, 16:01: Message edited by: Gandalf Parker ]

Re: Maps available
 

Gandalf: I tried looking at
<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">But the pages come up blank.?? I would love to see GIMP compared to the other maps. Looking at the maps from your Last post, I would have to vote:
6) drop the DomMap and shift attention to the GIMP rendered maps because they are prettier

The layouts are great, but as you said, you need some type of gaussian blur for the pixelation. I would like to give back to the community, which is my normal modus operandi when I'm hooked on a game, and it usually involves something with graphics... Actually I looked at this thread because I was thinking of posting a new thread asking if there was any real interest in new maps. I would like to see something a bit better-looking than the crosshatch-paper-texture maps done with pastel colors that come with Dom2. Is it worth the time investment? You seem to be having difficulty getting a positive response from the community:

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Is anyone out there using these or interested in new maps?

-Targa

Re: Maps available
 

Gandalf Parker,

I fully appreciate the work you're doing, and I constantly come here to check for any updates that involve your map project. In fact, I basically come here only to see what progress youve made.

Love your random map craziness, my buddy and I play them religiously (adds to the atmosphere going up against an army of pretender gods right at the beginning with only you're dinky start army, and if you're lucky a powerful random mercenary start group).

Keep up the work. I hope to see many new maps. I prefer smaller maps to the ones you currently have, btw - Ill never finish a 450 province map, ever, ever.

The_Maxx

Re: Maps available
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">But the pages come up blank.??
</font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">They are tga so you need a viewer that can see them. Try right-clicking the link and saving it to your machine then viewing it.

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">I could probably get something going which would generate piles of rendered maps from GIMP. But they wouldnt be playable. They would be good starts at an image that someone could MAKE a game map out of.

Part of the advantage of DomMap is that it also creates the .map file. Unless someone wants to write a seperate .map generator I would have to say the GIMP project is a ways off. On the other hand, a blur of the DomMap images does great.

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Great. Me too. My community service usually involves something like moderating forums. That and hosting a site. Im doing alot more in programming, graphics, and web for this game than I usually do but thankfully so far no one has flamed me for it. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">We have had a couple done that were satellite photographs. But they come up slowly. I think people would like to see alot of variety. Please do some.

For my part I will be working more toward simple, faster download, randomly generated, mass produced stuff which should help make yours look real good.

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">I like to remind them occassionally to thank the people here who do things. The concept of how to "pay for free things" so the people who make them feel like making more. Its not for me so much since I can see from my server logs how much traffic my stuff gets.

My maps get quite abit of download but its the worked ones that really get the traffic. The ones that do fun random things to the instructions in the .map file. Im working my way back toward the amount of automatically generated daily offers I had with Dom1.