Ilsamir Lord
02-09-2007, 00:59
Hi everyone, move this if its not in the appropriate place,
The Question
I was just wondering if anyone knew by what means the Creative Assembly make their maps. One assumes, based on references in certain text files to a Roman Campaign Editor (I think that's the name), that they do indeed use a unified program to streamline the process.
The answer matters little to me, as I'm already into the final stages of my manually created map, but it would be interesting to know if they had a tool like this which they aren't releasing for whatever reason - and there are many reasons why they might choose not to.
The Problem
I suppose what I'm getting at is that the current map creation process is extremely haphazard (at least the way I do it :P ) and this would seem like a bad thing for a professional developer to have to deal with.
For example, the process of creating regions and their settlements alone is terribly slip-shod seeming. There are the initial problems of getting the two sizes of map to agree with each other (as in regions being small and heights being large) in terms of coast-lines. There are then the placements of settlements and ports, which must not conflict with the much higher detail and different scale data of map_ground_types and heights.
After this you have to add references to your settlement in at least four seperate text files, which must be pedantically adhered to but which at no point refer to consistent positions on any map and instead rely on RGB values.
The Ideal Situation - an amateur mapper's fantasy
Would it not be simpler if in such an editing program you operated on one scale? You would have a view of the map which would be displayed as if in game. You would then select (in a handy panel at the top of the screen) the place settlement button and put a settlement where you wanted, with clear indicators as to whether it was a valid position or not - that indicator being that it would let you place it, or it wouldn't.
Then you would name the settlement and the region as you want the names to appear in-game and the editor, being a computer and a lover of rules and repetitive operations, much as I am not, would do all the grunt work for you.
Height data would be equally easy to work on with simple left-click = raise terrain, right-click = lower terrain and brush size changing functionality. They could even go way the hell out there and add a "noise" brush.
Want to add a forest? Simply paint it on in its dense and sparse variants. Want snow in winter? Switch to the climates view and paint away. Where do you want your roads to go? Don't leave it to an anonymous and inaccessible process, do it yourself by designating way-points or even painting the roads on yourself.
What did that have to do with anything?
Not a lot in retrospect. I have memories of the map editor which was community made for Rome that never really had enough functionality to be practical. The cryptic references to the Roman Editor just reinforced the strange situation the community faces with this aspect of modding more than any other.
In a game where the majority of time is spent looking at a map, this aspect is key to modders working with different parts of the world or with fictional settings. The moddability of the game could be considerably enhanced by the release (if it exists) or the development (if it doesn't) of such a tool.
Yours vehemently,
Ilsamir Lord - a frustrated mapper.
The Question
I was just wondering if anyone knew by what means the Creative Assembly make their maps. One assumes, based on references in certain text files to a Roman Campaign Editor (I think that's the name), that they do indeed use a unified program to streamline the process.
The answer matters little to me, as I'm already into the final stages of my manually created map, but it would be interesting to know if they had a tool like this which they aren't releasing for whatever reason - and there are many reasons why they might choose not to.
The Problem
I suppose what I'm getting at is that the current map creation process is extremely haphazard (at least the way I do it :P ) and this would seem like a bad thing for a professional developer to have to deal with.
For example, the process of creating regions and their settlements alone is terribly slip-shod seeming. There are the initial problems of getting the two sizes of map to agree with each other (as in regions being small and heights being large) in terms of coast-lines. There are then the placements of settlements and ports, which must not conflict with the much higher detail and different scale data of map_ground_types and heights.
After this you have to add references to your settlement in at least four seperate text files, which must be pedantically adhered to but which at no point refer to consistent positions on any map and instead rely on RGB values.
The Ideal Situation - an amateur mapper's fantasy
Would it not be simpler if in such an editing program you operated on one scale? You would have a view of the map which would be displayed as if in game. You would then select (in a handy panel at the top of the screen) the place settlement button and put a settlement where you wanted, with clear indicators as to whether it was a valid position or not - that indicator being that it would let you place it, or it wouldn't.
Then you would name the settlement and the region as you want the names to appear in-game and the editor, being a computer and a lover of rules and repetitive operations, much as I am not, would do all the grunt work for you.
Height data would be equally easy to work on with simple left-click = raise terrain, right-click = lower terrain and brush size changing functionality. They could even go way the hell out there and add a "noise" brush.
Want to add a forest? Simply paint it on in its dense and sparse variants. Want snow in winter? Switch to the climates view and paint away. Where do you want your roads to go? Don't leave it to an anonymous and inaccessible process, do it yourself by designating way-points or even painting the roads on yourself.
What did that have to do with anything?
Not a lot in retrospect. I have memories of the map editor which was community made for Rome that never really had enough functionality to be practical. The cryptic references to the Roman Editor just reinforced the strange situation the community faces with this aspect of modding more than any other.
In a game where the majority of time is spent looking at a map, this aspect is key to modders working with different parts of the world or with fictional settings. The moddability of the game could be considerably enhanced by the release (if it exists) or the development (if it doesn't) of such a tool.
Yours vehemently,
Ilsamir Lord - a frustrated mapper.