Map Editing
 

Hi,


I've recently acquired the game & would like some infromation about map editing and modding in general.

I've downloadd the 2 pdf guides... not very informative. If I take an external map and create a map doc with all the commands in it, how am I supposed to divide the provinces into separate, playable entities ? I've seen custom made maps where the tga graphic seemed to have been manually edited to trace bordes but how does the game aknowledge them ?

I understand there's a max limit to the number of nations. So like in Civ we need to replace the existing ones correct ?

Are there more in depth guides out there for modding ?

Finally, I can't seem to find the in game save & load command ?!


Thanks



G.

Re: Map Editing
 

About maps: any picture can be a map. However, the game only reads one thing out of them: the color white (255,255,255). Every white pixel is a province. The provinces are numbered a spesific way which gives them numbers. The province numbers won't change unless white (=new provinces) is added or removed from the tga.
The neighbourhood is determined with #neighbour pr1 pr2 tags in the .map file. You have to determine the neighbouring provinces manually. However, the game also reads red or mostly red colors (I haven't checked this out myself) as borders. That gives a starting point, but presumably isn't good enough in most cases.

Yes, only 17 nations can exist. This will change for DomIII, which will allow (much?) higher number of nations.

I don't know about any real guide for modding, but looking at some complete mods should help you out.

And finally, the game doesn't have that kind of a save&load command. When you Save&Exit, only the commands you gave for that turn are saved. Only files that a game "save" has is the situation of the whole world, nations, etc in fthrlnd, the part of the situation a spesific nation has (jotun.trn, machaka.trn, abysia.trn...) and the commands human player has given to a nation (jotun.2h, machaka.2h, abysia.2h...). Previous turns aren't saved.

However, if you or an automated program makes a copy of the game directory, it can be just pasted back and it works like traditional "save". There is a Java program which saves & reloads Dominions games, but I haven't used it and don't remember its name.

Re: Map Editing
 

I did some map editing in my last game and feel almost ready to make my first map... yet I have some questions.

A)
What type of graphic software do I need to open and create maps with ?? ((the ones I've tried so far don't open tga files))

B)
Since it looks like the .pdf map editor has not been updated with the patches. What other map commands have been added with the patches ??

C)
How does a map developer create events for a specific province ?? What maps have examples of this ??
((events such as a province which frequently has assasination attempts or frequent earthquakes))

D)
A Sphinx cannot be moved by any means to another province correct ?? ((important for the unique map I will be making))

E)
Any suggestions for what can be done within the .map file for helping the computer opponents with starving ?? ((Hopefully this is fixed within DOM_3))

Re: Map Editing
 

A) You can use Irfanview or similar program (Irfanview is for viewing pictures, and is quite small. It seems to have all kinds of plug-ins, but I don't need them) that can open and save pictures in many different formats.

C) You can't. However, adding sites or, in *very few* cases, a special unit might produce the effect you want. There are many sites that affect the scales. Some of these increase Misfortune. And Doom Horrors cause bad events to happen more often whereever they are located. That's about it.

D) Astral Travel might, but I don't think that counts in even if it does.

E) Well, you could add Farm of Pleny or even Vale of the Silver Cattle to every province (IIRC VotSC doesn't produce gems). Mods do have the option of multiplying available supplies worldwide, but I don't think maps have similar command.

Re: Map Editing
 

I recommend Gimp. It's free and very powerful once you get used to it.

Re: Map Editing
 

farm of plenty seems to be bugged and has no effect. I guess other supply sites don´t work either.

Re: Map Editing
 

Are you saying I have to draw the borders manually !?!? http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/eek.gif

Or is that I only have to mark the map with those white dots... whatever those are...

And not even a save/load mechanism !> Christ what a clumsy interface http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...s/rolleyes.gif



G.

Re: Map Editing
 

ONE LAST QUESTION:

Which nation(s) is the most disliked and least used within the community ?? ((needed for my future map.. design may change))

Re: Map Editing
 

Tien Chi or Ulm.

Re: Map Editing
 

If you take a picture (just a picture, can be anything but maps work the best), and want to make a map, you have to do this:

Change all pure white pixels to almost white (from 255,255,255 to 254,255,255), and add a single white pixel to every province you want there to be.
Then, use the DomII's Map Editor to try to quess the neighbours or the provinces. It might work, but there probably are some mistakes. If there were red borders around the provinces of the map, it works much better, but you don't have to have the borders in there.
If you want to fix the mistakes the Map Editor will leave, you have to check out every province in Map Editor, and if it has a neighbour it should have or a should-be neighbour isn't a neighbour, you have to click on the picture of the map.

You have to mark every would-be province with one white pixel. You don't have to draw borders, but if they exist it is easier. And if you want to be sure everything works like it should, you have to check every province. I don't think it would take that much time, if one already had a picture from which to make the map.


And the save/load mechanism "issue" isn't about interface. It works, or rather, it doesn't work that way because it isn't supposed to. If you make a mistake, you can't just reload it away. Also, the developers link to, ergo they must like, several roguelikes (combat-centric rpgs with ASCII instead of graphics and permadeath, think Diablo II on Hardcore, on highest difficulty), AND the game is meant to be played in multiplayer.
This hasn't bothered me much, as it keeps me from making save/reload/reload/reload/reload/reload/quit I might be doing otherwise. Even if I decide to just quit, I have just saved quite a lot of time. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/laugh.gif

Re: Map Editing
 

1) alright, how do I ask PaintShop to do this ? Identifying all white dots and changing them to offwhite or anything else ?

EDIT: for instance I found a very good one (high def map of Dereth (Asheron's Call)) that contains *lots* of white (glaciers etc) - so...?


2) WAP - working as planned heh http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif? Fair enough.



G.

Re: Map Editing
 

Not sure about PaintShop but namy paint programs have a "swap" tool where you can set two colors to have color one changed to color two. Then set the brush really BIG and paint the whole map. To make things easy to see if I missed any I would change all white to a bright purple, then when you are sure you got it all change purple to off-white.

Some programs also have a menu item for "apply brush globally" which would save you actually brushing the whole map

Re: Map Editing
 

Also, Photoshop and Gimp have some kind of color replacing tool, and you can select the amount of variance that is allowed. 0 is only the chosen color, while 20 or 40 or 60 would change different hues of that color.
These tools can also be used to, as an example, change Druid's green cape to blue without changing his face (very light orange?) or beard (too far from green of his cape).

Re: Map Editing
 

SIDE QUESTION:
Is there any way to add to the current list of province population types ??
Also is it possible to have a province which has no recruitable units listed ??

I believe an interesting MOD or map command would allow for more types of recruitable units from provinces.

Re: Map Editing
 

I don't think it is possible to add to the poptypes. It is possible to replace units of existing poptype, but the poptypes themselves can't be modded.

Re: Map Editing
 

QUICK QUESTIONS:

Using GIMPs RLE Compression my current TGA file is 11MB.
What's the largest TGA file dominions2 can handle ??

How do I use GIMP to create those perfect white pixels needed by Dominions2 ??

Double Thanks

Re: Map Editing
 

Not sure what the limit is, but both Shahrivar and the world map are somewhat over 50 megabytes in size.

As far as the perfect white goes : simply set Red Green and Blue to 255, the maximum value. (This can be done via the Color Picker (lower left hand area of the primary command window.) As far as setting an individual pixel to that value goes : no immediate idea. GIMP is not the easiest tool to use, and not for the faint of heart.

I'd be curious what was used to draw, say, the Shahrivar map myself.

Re: Map Editing
 

I quess it would be done by double-clicking on the color box, setting the color to white either by changing numbers or by putting the selector to the white corner.

To input one and only one white pixel, I think you have to choose a drawing tool (pen, brush, whatever) and choose a brush (in the advanced tools, for me undre the tool selection) that is Circle (1px) or Square (1px) or similar. Just make sure the painting tool you use is not set to partial transparency. See the slider in top of the advanced tool selection box.

Re: Map Editing
 

I was able to open the .tga file within the Dominions Editor yet it only shows a province on the very bottom left where no white pixels exist... I checked zooming as close as possible. I placed one perfect white pixel(255 for R,B,G) within the center of the map surrounded by a thick red border yet no luck trying to recognize this as a province within the dominions editor.

Any ideas or suggestions ?

Re: Map Editing
 

Post the .tga and the .map file (zipped) ...

Re: Map Editing
 

Currently there's no .map file... only the .tga file. I am using the Dominions Editor and choosing new map then selecting the .tga file when only the grey flag appears at the bottom.

I will upload the tga file within an hour or two... since I'm at work right now. The current tga file doesn't have much but hopefully someone can guide me in getting a single province or two working... from there I can improve the map.

Re: Map Editing
 

Just returned home... unfortunately my internet browser is not Mozilla 4+ which is used for uploading files. I will try to install that browser later but with the previous information provided any ideas ??
Does a new tga map need the .map file before using the Dominions editor or I figured I could use the Dominions editor to create this file ??

Re: Map Editing
 

Well I'm still no closer to what I wanted to do. I've found which tool to use in PSP, how to select the source and destination color, even how to apply it uniformely on the entire image. Except it doesn't work - I still have pure white dots instead of the off white I had chosen.

This sucks.


G.