Automatic Lukup & script creator -

[ShadesWolf]

The HYW mod is coming along very well, and well on the way to a new release.....

However, to improve it even more and make the game play feel better, I would like to redesign the empire campaign map, by adding more provinces in France and England

ie
- add the whole of England and Scotland
- make Brittany 4 provinces etc.....

While I could eventually do this myself (would take me a long time to learn the stuff), I was wondering if anybody, who had experience of using the Lukup software could offer their service and help me out.. PLEASE http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/gc-help.gif

I will of course supply all the data, ie province names etc.....

Is anybody up to this

[ShadesWolf]

I currently have a campaign map with 37 provinces on it, and I would like it to have more.



http://shadesmtw.com/2crownsTW/campmap1.jpg

It also has 11 factions, with a large map I could add Scotland and another faction in brittany to allow for the War of Succession. What I would like to do is add at least another 30 provinces to the map, 10 of whhich would be in the UK to allow for conflicts between england and Scotland.

If anybody could help with the time and the skill required to achieve this it would be much appreciated.

[ShadesWolf]

As nobody ran to give me any support I decided to have a go myself, so for the last three nights I have been having a go myself.

And I must admit I am having a littel trouble. I am doing it by hand, changing one province at a time. So far I have had no luck.

I have changed both the LBM and BIF maps and I beleive they are working. I have also changed the Start up file and the mod does run but I have a load of error. If I move any unit it crashed. The sea has changed colour and also now my provinces/ borders seem to have got messed up. I will post a few more stuff when I get home, and perhaps somebody could give me five minutes and tell me which files I need to change. More details will follow latter

[Duke John]

I have made a working VI map for my Ancients mod (may it rest in pieces). And I did the following way:

Use a paintingprogram that can use layers. You put your MapTex on one layer and on top of it a transparent layer. You should use low resolution (2048x1536) since LMM doesn't work with high resolution correctly without editing the files.

Then paint the entire map all over again going over the boundaries with a single pixel of colour R:255, G:0, B:255. Make sure to avoid clusters of pixels that have a surface of 3x3 pixels. LMM recognises this as land on water. This happens sometimes when there is a "crossroad" of boundaries.

And check wether you have closed all borders. Now comes a little trick, remember you made it on a transparent layer, LMM requires a white surface, so you will know fill all regions with white. Watch closely when you do this and when you notice that 2 regions are filled instead of 1 then you have an open border.

Then add the origins, ports and castles. Make a testrun then run it for serious and if LMM doesn't give any error, then give it to me. I've set up a kind of general file for ME:TW and I can relatively quickly add a new map using those files. There are some changes between MTW1.1 and VI and it will take a while to figure out what you need to change from the MTW1.1 LMM output.

I might explain it to you, but that will probably take more time. So just give the output of LMM to me once it works and I will give you a working VI campaign.

And about the unitgraphics. I will make some, but I will first finish my WotR models, after they are finished it will be relatively easy to adjust them. One question though: do you really really need those specific shields? It is so much easier for me when I render the weapons and shields together with the model since the positioning of those takes an awful lot of hours to do correctly. And no, I won't do that, I will leave that you http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/gc-jester.gif

Cheers, Duke John

[ShadesWolf]

NP Duke John the shields were only an idea

[Duke John]

Quote[/b] ]NP Duke John the shields were only an idea
Just to make sure that you understand it 100%, it's absolutely no problem for me not to render the shields with the models. Although it means that you can have more units using the BIF, it will also mean that you have to position the shields yourself. Personally I think the idea of regional shields is a good idea, but I also think that rendered shields will look ace But it's your choice http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif

Cheers, Duke John

[ShadesWolf]

Sorry Duke John Im being a bit thick.

If you render the shields will it make me less work ?

The regional shields are only intended for units that are not unique, ie Crossbowmen, Knights etc.

Sorry for being a bit thick but couldnt you just place 5 blank shields at the bottom on the BIF so I can edit logo onto them myself and render the units with a blank shield. If you use the same shield wouldnt that be ok ?

[Duke John]

With rendering together with the model I would mean that the shield is stuck on the model. Of course you can carefully place another shield on top of it using the coordinates, but it will not look as nice.
What I mean is that when you look at the BIF you will see the shield on the model for all actions. Normally this is not the case and the shields are place only once at the bottom. You'll need coordinates to place them for each action and for each frame. For 6 actions you're looking at 6x12x4=288 coordinates. Once you've done it for one shield you can re-use them. Of course you can also use existing coordinates, but my animations are not synchronised with the CA ones, so you would still need to adjust them.

What I could do is paint the shield with faction colours so that each faction has a shield with their own colour but with the advantage of being rendered with the model. But again you can't do fancy stuff specifically for one faction unless you want to sacrifice a BIF slot.

Cheers, Duke John

[ShadesWolf]

OK i think i understand...

So hows this for an idea. BIF slots are not really a problem. If we ingnore france, and use the new Pavise Crossbows units for other factions and I use the normal one supplied by MTW for France, I can then make them region specific myself and the other factions will have a different looking Pavise Crossbows unit.

It that ok ?

So that would mean we would be looking at

Burgundy
Flanders
Brittany
Aragon
Castile
and navarre.

It that to many ? If so maybe Burgundy/ Flanders and Brittany only.

I hope that makes sence http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/gc-speechless.gif

[Duke John]

So you would like me to make a crossbow model with a pavise rendered together with the unit? How do you want the pavise to look like? A diagonal cross on it? I will make it so that the faction colours are shown on the pavise. You will not get faction specific symbols on the pavs though.

[ShadesWolf]

A diagonal cross on it? I will make it so that the faction colours are shown on the pavise. You will not get faction specific symbols on the pavs though

That would be fine http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/gc-2thumbsup.gif

The factions that I mentioned only start the game with one province and are a minor part of the game. But it will be a nice touch to have a different looking unit than the one that are used by the French.

How much of a problem would it be to render a differnt shield for Genoa, as they have a white shield with a red cross on it and will play 'probably' a major part in the game play of any french player.

[Duke John]

No problem, but it will cost you a BIF slot. And you would have to give me a reference picture.

Cheers, Duke John

[ShadesWolf]

NP Duke John BIF slots are not really a problem. I intend to do a bit of worth on them - getting rid of the ones that are not used.

Thanks again mate.

[ShadesWolf]

The Genoese cross is identical to the english Cross

http://www.fortidigenova.com/lant9.jpg

[WesW]

I have just spent the better part of an hour trying to read the instructions for LukMapMaker 4 beta. I still have no idea what in the hell I am supposed to do.

I am running XP, and XP has no idea what wshom.ocx is, what created, or anything. I clicked the link to find the program on the web, and Microsoft.com has no idea what it is. I clicked on the link to //home.att.net/~wshvbs/ . The page no longer exists.

When I click on LMM4 VBScript file, I get a bug assert message about an ACX component.

I have never been able to work with Virtual Basic programs, IIRC, so it's probably as well. The thing is:


I already have the Lukmap and Script files created

I tried to use the Purple Grab program as well, and never could get it to work. Is there some way I could send my lbm to someone and have one of you guys convert this thing to the needed bifs?

[barocca]

you can download wshom.ocx and a ton of other ocx files here
ocx downloads (http://www.zerohack.it/downloads/ocx.htm)

if you are nervous about the site name, then go into google and have a look around the web - i am confident you will find more locations for it,

i only ever used lmm3v3 and made the VI translation files by hand, this allowed 3v3 (which is not setup for VI) to do most of the hardwork for me because it just takes input from a set of text files and translates it into the script files,
so by fudging the input files i got reasonable facsimilies of VI output scripts,

and 3v3 made the bif files for me too - (i think it was all - maybe i had to make the huge one by hand - i think i used mithels image converter)
although i was not really happy with the quality of the "overlay" bifs for the minimap and touched them up myself,
but it's the "base" versions that are critical anyway,
not the overlays.

if you simply cannot get lmm4 to make the bifs for you, use lmm4 to make the scripts,
and lmm3v3 to make the bifs.

[WesW]

Quote[/b] (barocca @ May 23 2004,05:52)]you can download wshom.ocx and a ton of other ocx files here
ocx downloads (http://www.zerohack.it/downloads/ocx.htm)

if you are nervous about the site name, then go into google and have a look around the web - i am confident you will find more locations for it,

i only ever used lmm3v3 and made the VI translation files by hand, this allowed 3v3 (which is not setup for VI) to do most of the hardwork for me because it just takes input from a set of text files and translates it into the script files,
so by fudging the input files i got reasonable facsimilies of VI output scripts,

and 3v3 made the bif files for me too - (i think it was all - maybe i had to make the huge one by hand - i think i used mithels image converter)
although i was not really happy with the quality of the "overlay" bifs for the minimap and touched them up myself,
but it's the "base" versions that are critical anyway,
not the overlays.

if you simply cannot get lmm4 to make the bifs for you, use lmm4 to make the scripts,
and lmm3v3 to make the bifs.
Thanks for replying. I hope you also saw that I have touched up the instructions for making campaign maps in the Medmod thread.

Back to the bifs:
Does anyone know if the LMM program will work with the extra provinces added to the map? As Wellington, the creator of the program said, you couldn't add them for v1.1, and all versions of the LMM seem to be made for v1.1. If the LMM is like most all other fan-created programs, it is a template, and not able to handle anything other than the specific program settings for which it was created. Stuff like this why I don't use the Gnome editor.

Question:
I have not changed the coastlines of the map much. IIRC, all I did was add a few small islands to represent the Dalmations, and a new island to represent Gotland. I can see where Gotland would be a problem, but I can remove it very easily.

Or, and I know this would take time, could I just alter the existing bifs by hand? They would only be a rough approximation of the larger map, but I think as long as all declared regions have their color somewhere on the bifs, the game would work fine.