Map Request

[Zen]

I am looking for a Mapmaker who can make Fractal Maps.

I've noticed there are some maps that Dom2 is a little lacking in. Most primarily water important maps and standard team maps.

First: I'm looking for a fractal type of map in a Theatre of War type scenario. 8 Areas with chokepoints and a kill zone in the middle to fight over.

Second: A archepeligo type of map.

I'm looking for approximate province size 90-150.

If you have a fractal map generator (I don't at current) and create a base of terrain I can add in the other aspects and the .map file.

[PhilD]

Are you looking for the base terrain only, or the map with provinces and everything?

I have ProFantasy's Fractal Terrains program, which lets you create "random planets" and export the result, among other things, as image files.

I tried to run it with settings that would result in something archipelago-like. The attached file is a PNG format view of what the result looks like; this one is smallish, but I can get exports at higher resolutions if it looks good to you.

Of course, the image will require some work; you need to make sure there are no parasite white dots, and add in the province information, but I can make others in the same spirit (the exports take an awful lot of time, but I can divert some time away from playing Dom2 for that!)

[PashaDawg]

I'd love to be able to create maps, but don't know how (computer-wise) and don't have the right sort of software. Any suggestions?

[Zen]

Yes Phil, this is exactly what I was looking for. Though more in theme with a string that perhaps goes horizontaly across the map or in a diagonal from Left Top to Bottom Right. For the Archepeligo, I'd like to have the island chain have one point on each island that is hopable to another. Classic examples of the Phillipines and Micronesia in placement would be great.

Edit: In answer to your questions, yes this is what I'm looking for. I can wrangle some province lines where I'd like and clear the extraneous white pixels that cause Province pain.

[PhilD]

It all depends on what you start from. The basis terrain can be created by this Fractal Terrains program; then you need software to convert the file to TGA format, and make sure there are no "pure white" dots other than the province capitals.

Adding province borders is optional, though it's certainly a good idea; any image manipulation program should let you do that.

Then you need to do the tough work: make up the province connectivity, and decide on the terrain of each province. The dom2 editor is the only visual tool for that; doing this with a simple text editor is certainly possible, though it's not exactly easy since it's so hard to find out about the province numbers. Mixing the two should be possible.

[PhilD]

Zen: here's the TGA Version, in full size. I don't know if I can get Fractal Terrains to make more string-like islands, but I'll try with different settings and see what I get. (Your email address would let me send the results directly to you; I'm not sure this board is the best place to store such big files since it's just a transfer thing)

[Gandalf Parker]

@PashaDawg:
You didnt mention so Im guessing you have Windows?
Any paint program and text editing program can be used. The ones that came with your machine even. If you have Windows then you probably have Paint and Notepad. Paint will work although you need to pick up a program to move images in and out of the .tga format. I recommend IrFanView which is a free download. Notepad can edit the .map files but you might prefer to use WordPad or even Word which is fine as long as you save them as text and not a Word document.
www.irfanview.com

A free and much more powerful paint program is GIMP. And thats what the developers for Dom use. It has terrain generators in it.
www.gimp.org

A free and much more powerful Notepad program is one called Note Tab Light.
www.notetab.com

[PashaDawg]

Hi Gandalf:

Thanks. I'm cranky because Paint is so clunky. Maybe I will search around for something more user friendly.

PASHA

[PhilD]

Here's another archipelago, with smaller landmasses. If anybody's interested, I can make a closeup, or a larger/smaller map, or whatever, or convert to .tga

[Edit: failed to attach file]