Map: Height Maps

[DRG]

Originally Posted by dmnt

Don: The server should be heavy duty enough to cope with the map makers (it's already hosting a fairly popular site), so adding a link to the game manual is not a problem.

It's too late for this year but next year I will. At the beginning, I recall there were traffic restrictions and I didn't want to post a link and see it get swamped with people curious about it, but I think now there just isn't the flood of game map makers I thought there might be.

Don

[dmnt]

Originally Posted by DRG

It's too late for this year but next year I will. At the beginning, I recall there were traffic restrictions and I didn't want to post a link and see it get swamped with people curious about it, but I think now there just isn't the flood of game map makers I thought there might be.

Thanks! You are absolutely correct that I requested people not to flood the map creating system as at the time the API access was restricted (limited to free account restrictions) and the implementation was more CPU intensive than the current approach and I didn't want any negative effect for the main site from this hobby of mine. Anyway now it should be able to handle the traffic from the general public.

[shahadi]

I need step-by-step instructions on this map making utility.

I inserted the following coordinates into the WinSPMBT Map Tool: 31.5178
and 64.1142. Hit the download link and I got my spmap999.dat.

Problem, map does not show in Map Editor. I only have the dat file and not the cmt (not sure if that's a problem as nobody else seems to have reported more than the one map file.)

So, by the numbers, how to get the map into the Map Editor and how to get a winSPMBT map (pictures would be nice too for hard heads.)

[wulfir]

Originally Posted by shahadi

I need step-by-step instructions on this map making utility.

1) I stopped using the coordinate system and just press go. It will take you to the eastern Atlantic somewhere.

2) Zoom out.

3) Point and click your way to where you want to go.

4) Zoom in.

5) Use the + centre hex grid function (found in the upper right corner) to set the map.

6) Download the map.

7) Place the map in the game map folder. You might want renumber it otherwise it'll be 999.

8) I also use the link funtion and email the map link to myself. Then open the venhola map program link on my other computer.

9) Load the map in the editor. It will have no name and appear blank - but it isn't. Use grass or some other terrain that does not change heights and fill in the entire map and the differences in height will show. (There is also a way to fill the map with the basic green/winter/desert terrain - but maybe we can learn that part next class...)

10) Fill in water, roads, towns etc. Save early, save often.

I have my older computer set up next to my newer one. I open the map program with the link function using my older machine and work and edit on the gamemap itself on my newer computer. It saves time. I guess you could use two screeens to get the same sort of result. Often I use other map sources for additional information...