Map Making

Download game today
Die prematurely tonight!

Advanced search

If you registered for membership on this site but have not yet received the confirmation activation email, there are 3 main reasons.

1. It ended up in your junk or spam folder, please look there to see if it's in there.

2. You did not enter your correct email address.  Please register with a new username and the correct email address and try again.

3. Your IP address and or your Email Address is listed in the Stop Forum Spam (spam protection) database as a known spammer and when either your IP address and or your email address appears in that database, your account can not be approved.  As such if you are a spammer, please move along, our community is too small for you to bother with.  If you are NOT a spammer, contact the owners of Stop Forum Spam and get your information removed from their database and register a new account.

[Lengo]

Well, I gotta toot my horn.

I've been considering writing this for some time. Game after game, time after time, I make maps. I also like to create scenarios. That's my bag when it comes to games.

Map making is fun! You get to paint a picture in 3d. Given the right game and the right editor, you can make works of art. You can make rivers, hills, valleys, cliffs, and even volcanoes in some games.  Then you get to paint them. Then you get to forest them. Then you get to add special items. Then you get to add sounds.

Yeah! This is fun!

Playability of any game certainly adds to the experience.  If you don't like the game, chances are you're not gonna play it much. But if it has a great map maker, then you'll at least make a few maps, and will end up playing. This is added value. Great editors make a bad game better, and poor editors make a good game lesser. 

I'm good at what I do. I'm very good at it, and I wanna sell 'em. I don't wanna share them anymore, because most frequently, there is very little competition (most people don't take the time that I do).  But I can't sell them. Can't do that, says most end user licence agreements.

But, I am good at what I do. Painting a landscape is my bag. I've gotten good at it over the years. This is what rocks me!


Wanna know how?  I didn't think so, but here goes anyway:

1. Be prepared to start over! Accept that things might go terribly wrong.
2. Do what you can to prevent #1. Save often. This, at least, minimizes your risk.


On Texturing
 
COLOR is everything. Let the light do it's thing to your colors. COLOR is everything.
1. Choose a color scheme! Pick a theme of five basic colors, then a special set for special landforms such as mountain peaks, or marsh, or 'what have you' that will make the colors pop! Making them pop is very important. Making it all fit together is very easily done with five basic colors and three sets of 3 popping colors.

2. Paint lightly. Use the least amount of pressure, then
3. DAB.  I'm sorry, but mother natures doesn't paint with strokes. DAB. Use the pointilism approach. Dab with all size brushes. Dab. dab. dab. Overlap colors. Overlap brush shapes. Change the brush size often. Dab... and conture the lanscape realistically by makingthe brush sizes fit the land form.... then change the size to smaller, and... you guessed it, dab! Dab until it looks as realistic as you can get it!

On Sounds
There are never enough shipped with any game. Some games have a sound you want on your map, but isn't available. "Borrow" that sound from another game, and rename it a sound filename that is used in the game you're editing for.

Aint' I a stinker?

This opens up unlimited and dramatic possibilities. Crows sound ominous. Pigs sound disgusting but funny. Seagulls call the sailors and adventurous in us. Bazzars can suddenly become a foriegn band of Gypsies! The possibilites are endless... and notice what these draw from the user, not what the sound is. It's what they also emotionally represent.


On Having fun
This isn't a race. Take your time. Relax. Do it when you can't think of something better. Take days. Take weeks. Do it onlly when you enjoy doing it. I've your not enjoying what your doing, then you're doing it all wrong!


That's it!  Erm... maybe not...

That's it! This time for sure! 

[MaxBeta]

  Lengo  It sounds like you're having fun.  I love the games with good editors...my first real editor discovery was with C III and later I had a blast using the Stronghold editor.  In the course of games..map making is really time consuming..only a few players have what it takes to crank out a quality finished product.

I suppose making maps of real terrain is just as tedious.  Two brother way back in 1998 made a CIII map that was a likeness of the British Isles..I thought Wow I can do that..I can tell you now, it ain't as wasy as it appears.

I've used the RRT's editor ..massive hours..and another game that I don't speak of often, but I liked the editor..was Cossack EW game..didn't care for the other titles..though I did beta all of them.

 Editors are my way of relaxing...in CivCity I figured out a way to create "waterfalls" sort of like Stronghold..just not as magnificent..well in my estimation..

Glad you are having fun...that's what really counts

[Lengo]

Yep. Having fun is the REAL bottom line. I simply get a whole lot more outta any game when I can putz with map and mission making.

But.. I went and shot my mouth off, then screwed up realy badly.    Tis not my fault though.  FOr some unexplained reason, I cannot cross a river I laid for a map in RRT3!  Go figger! I finallly got it working, but I had to add a terrain feature that's not desired -- a lake, f all damn things, and it's not even close to the problem area!

ACK! How embarrassing!  And FREAKIN' ANNOYING!  But like I said, "be prepared for things to go terribly wrong".  You gotta be willing to trash it all and not go ballistic. 

NOW WHERES SOME DYNAMITE FOR MY 'PUTER!! 

  

[MaxBeta]

  Save your blasting caps..Lengo!!   No need to horse-whip y'ol PC either.  I made several RRT maps from scratch..that's a BIG undertaking.  What I found worked best was to "customize" the existing maps.  Especially worked on those areas where the terrain was too steep..and I wanted to place rail to an otherwise out of reach Depot destination.

MOST definitely worked on the river and the shorelines if the Lakes and Oceans..so they had good crossing points/and few shoreline water overflow points.  I really got disgusted when you had an extreme grade to overcome..just to get across a river.  IN some of the goofiest places..St. Louis..? and can't find but one N to S decent bridge site...and next Minneapolis.. (the original)..Made it like crossing the Grand Canyon or something... so I fixed a couple of reasonable crossing points. Patted myself on the back..poured a cup of java and played like there was no tomorrow.

Hope the annoying part has past

[Lengo]

Yer absolutely right. Making maps for RRT3 is very time consuming. But it's not as bad as Children of the Nile!

I fixed it, but I'm starting over. I'm trying ot make Oregon's Willamette Valley and the southern part of Washington. The map the game includes is way too huge, so I wanna get more detail.

I found a way to get these started at least. Using Photoshop, I made a basic heightmap for this area. I gently sloped what will be the valley, and the path that the Columbia river takes. I also raised Central Oregon (high desert).  This worked pretty good.

Now I gotta get a topo map and a political map so I can place townsand roughly put in the mountains. I already know where mines should be (Blue River, and up near Baker). Cattle country is The Dalles, Bend, and Redmond. Wood comes from Tillamook national forest (mainly) and Oregon City, with mills in Springfield, Astoria, and Portland. Dairy is near Tillamook. All farms are in the valley, of course.

Then I gotta check my history, so I can make newspaper headlines and other goodies like that.

When I'm done, this will be fairly accurate. But... it's gonna take a long time to make it.  LOTS of time!

Tis fun! It keeps me occupied. I don't have much better to do, and this is a good pastime.

When I get it done, I'll make it available. If you're innerested in firing up your RRT3, just holler and I'll let you know where I put it. However... it's gonna be quite a while before it's done, so don't hold yer breath!

p.s. I already have a few tests made to check routes along the coast. It's a pain, but you can get bridges across canyons near the coast, and man, it looks cool!

[MaxBeta]

   Sounds like a great project Lengo.  I'll give you some time to work on it..I know it can't hurried or you're never satisfied where detail could've been worked in. 

One thing I tried on my own (from scratch) maps was seeing if I could obtain a Railway only Map.. all the routes and like here in Oregon there's quite a few tunnels.. so I could make the map as authentic as possible.  Looks like that's sort of your goal too.

Glad to see you take on RRT...it is a great game and worthy the effort.