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[giskard]

Hello all.

Im updating Pagan Dawn to use a new campaign map. I started work on the actual map earlier but it still needs a lot more work and I need to look into custom names too. Anyway. This link will show you roughly what it will look like. Its a 2000x2000 map and still needs more detail adding to it.
http://www.respawn.co.uk/modules.php?name=Sections&sop=viewarticle&artid=37

The messing about with the LBM file (acutally its not LBM yet) is done. All i need to do is save it as LBM and change the purple boundries to so they use the first colour on the palette.

Once I am happy with both the LBM and TGA images the scripting will start. I am very tempted to go with new set of names and factions for Pagan Dawn Version. We will we see though, if not in version 3, perhaps in version 4.

Giskard

[NagatsukaShumi]

So how exactally do you edit campaign maps?

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Power to the Sultan!
-Clan Seljuk

I don't know Akech, can't trust Mithrandir with the newbies, he may try and create a Miny Mith.-NagatsukaShumi

[giskard]

Chech the LBM info thread. Most of what we know is in there. The rest is in the campaign tutorial on this site.

We dont know for sure the exact process required to make them yet. But we have pieced together a enough to make a start and try it out.

It is a lot of work though. A complete rewrite of the campaign script for starters and that doesnt cover the lbm file that must be created.

The pic linked above is actually the easiest part and the bit i have so far spent the least time on.

Giskard

[NagatsukaShumi]

Oh. Just that I'd like to change the map slightly for the Roman MOD, maybe make the beast a bit bigger.

------------------
Power to the Sultan!
-Clan Seljuk

I don't know Akech, can't trust Mithrandir with the newbies, he may try and create a Miny Mith.-NagatsukaShumi

[Proconsul]

Why did you keep the old province names? They look a little bit strange on that map...

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Confuzius says: "Do not worry that people don't know you: worry that you don't know them!"

[giskard]

The current map has the old names whilst i see if it works. Im going to build a mock campaign sticking to the original stuff first you see. Then after i see it working I am going to customise it.

Its a system I prefer to use that elimates one potential problem before creating another potential problem.

The biggest problem anybody making a custom map faces is that having to get EVERYTHING right for it to work at all. We have no error messages that will tell us that we XXX wrong which will make bug fixing that much harder when we have edited everything.

So a little common sense and an edit a bit, test a bit approach should pay off quickier than rushing a head ona full custom mod right away.

Once I know for certain exactly what is required to make this work I will post the details in full. For now though I am using a 16bit TGA for my main terrain image which zips down to 1.8 meg from 8 meg for a 2000x2000 campaign file. Which im sure you will agree is great http://www.totalwar.org/ubb/smile.gif

Give that my Pagan Dawn now has roughly 500 downloads. Im sure you can work out the math and see that a 10meg campaign would have eaten up 5000meg of bandwidth already. Which most sites don't have. My own site was setup to handle MW4 maps which can be over 24meg but are not as popular as these campaigns.

The one thing that does concern me is the lbm files pallett. I think only colour 0 matters and my own lbm file was created based on that which means if i am wrong I will have to do a lot of repainting.

I used the selection tool to pick out the land from the sea then painted the land green and the see blue. When i painted in the areas i selected just the land with the selection tool and painted in one region at a time black. Before i started on the next region I recoloured the black regions to what ever they needed to be using the fill tools. I made my regions this way for all areas land and see. Now i can pick out individual regions which will be handy when i come to add detail to the terrain the players will see.

I also selected the colour from each region. Went a few shades lighter and painted a border around each region. I believe the game uses them when you move your mouse pointer over the area between 2 regions. The campaign script it self has border info that gets displayed when you do this. So I believe the border inside each region is needed.

Giskard

[This message has been edited by giskard (edited 09-25-2002).]