Fan-help needed: battle editor and text skills

[Teleklos Archelaou]

I have another side project for EB that shifty has been helping out with. This is a way to have oases in the desert that are of a good size and have a lake in the middle of them. We're pretty close to having it done - but we need someone who can text edit a file and then go in and take a look at the changes in the battle editor. If these are both foreign ideas, this might not be for you, but if you have used these before, we could do this a lot quicker.

Basically this involves the placement of palm trees in a text file, as we already have the lake in the middle about ready. Currently an oasis looks like this (excuse the purple-ish environment in the screenshots - these will only appear in sandy desert locales when we are through with it):

https://img524.imageshack.us/img524/7746/oasis17ga.th.jpg (https://img524.imageshack.us/my.php?image=oasis17ga.jpg)

We want it to look more like this:

https://img524.imageshack.us/img524/6033/oasis41qy.th.jpg (https://img524.imageshack.us/my.php?image=oasis41qy.jpg)

I don't know exactly how the coordinates work in the settlement plans, but this is how the entry is set up:

; x, y, rot, z,
tree_A, -57, -70, 50, -4
tree_A, 62, -80, 50, 0
tree_A, 34, 12, 0, 0
tree_A, 44, 50, -75, 0

That only places four trees. We need a lot more. Enough to make it roughly look like the shot above. And currently, both of us are working on other things (pretty feverishly for me I know), so that's why I'm asking for help outside. So, is anyone skilled and patient enough to place these palms in an oasis for us in a grouping that looks something like a real oasis? An understanding of how those coordinates work would be a big plus. Otherwise it's just trial and error.

[cunctator]

The coordinates are measured from the center of the plan. I don't know the units but they don't have to be natural numbers, thus 5.375 is possible too. The rot value is in degrees not radians, -4 or 356 gives the same result. z value is height over the ground.

[Teleklos Archelaou]

Nope? We could use the help - and this is going to be very nice in-game if the palms are placed around it in an attractive manner.

[tk-421]

I can do it. I am going out of town on Monday (Yay!) but I don't have much else to to from now until Sunday evening.

[shifty157]

Awesome! Thanks for the help. TA will give you the latest files.

[Teleklos Archelaou]

Weird - I replied to this and said thanks, and I was PM'ing tk, but it's gone. I swear I saw it show up though...

[paullus]

Its the forumgeist, its playing tricks again...

PS, I'm glad that someone actually knows how to help; the idea seems great, but I don't have a flipping clue with those files. Good luck tk

[tk-421]

Ok, I've finished one of the banks of the lake. It took me awhile to get used to spacing and distances but I've got it figured out now and ought to be able to finish tomorrow.

https://img144.imageshack.us/img144/1062/finished0pv.jpg
https://img206.imageshack.us/img206/7039/thickness7ao.jpg

I do have one problem:
https://img54.imageshack.us/img54/6504/weird7aw.jpg

I think that the boxes on the one side of the pond are leftover from the old Egyptian farm.

[shifty157]

You shouldn't be getting those. You must still be using the vanilla overlay and underlay files. Didnt TA send you the editted ones?

Well it doesnt matter a huge deal either way. The lake is the same size. Just keep placing trees as if its only the lake and the other stuff isnt there.

[Teleklos Archelaou]

He doesn't have the underlay/overlay/texture yet shifty. I just sent a PM to get him started on placement of the trees.

That's a good density for the trees tk. I wouldn't get it any denser than that though. It's going to look very nice when we insert some other letters for trees and vary them up a bit, and use the new textures/cas-files. :2thumbsup: And they look even better in-game when the shadows will be on. I'll be gone most of the day but keep up the great work!

[Moros]

Weird - I replied to this and said thanks, and I was PM'ing tk, but it's gone. I swear I saw it show up though...
I have had that a few times too!

[tk-421]

Okay, I've finished palm placement. One side of the lake is a little thicker than the other, but I think that it looks fine that way. I can add some more to that side if you want me to. I can also add some green palms if you want them. One of the palms in the screenshot is in the water but it is fixed now.

https://img230.imageshack.us/img230/7255/overhead3gs.jpg

https://img230.imageshack.us/img230/4930/battle9km.jpg

[Teleklos Archelaou]

Nice tk. :2thumbsup: I may throw a few others around the edges to add some natural variation so the distribution of the palms isn't as perfectly oval-shaped, but as a base to use, to have them really thick around the edges of the water itself, this is really terrific.

I'll also try putting some of the other two palm variants in some of those slots, to see how it looks, but we may want to keep the two more desert type palms you've used. Thanks for varying those up as they look currently though.

[shifty157]

Awesome work TK. This was a big help. Thanks alot.

[Teleklos Archelaou]

You can either send me the placement numbers, or post them here tk. Either one is fine. I know you said you were leaving Monday, so I hoped to get them in place by the time you left.

Thanks again!

[tk-421]

Just pmed you. Glad I could help.