Help with making a map

[Saber Cherry]

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.