Putting features on the Campaign map (custom tiles)

**eadingas** · 03-26-2005, 20:37

Do you have -show_err on? I noticed sometimes there's a problem with these custom tiles that doesn't show up any way unless you have -show_err and quit the game.

**Epistolary Richard** · 03-26-2005, 21:20

Unfortunately, there's no error message.

**PROMETHEUS** · 03-27-2005, 14:04

I had right the same problem , I tried to substituite the piramids with the correct ones but didn't work , may be there something else that we should delete or edit?

**Myrddraal** · 03-27-2005, 19:36

Hm, maybe it would help if I uploaded a sort of demo, one which you know works and can base urs on....

**eadingas** · 03-27-2005, 20:07

Hmm other than problems with formatting in custom_tiles_db.txt (tabs instead of spaces? unicode instead of ansi?) I can't think of anything wrong with this. I got perfect results without any problems.
Do you remember removing map.rwm from base and campaign folders?

**PROMETHEUS** · 03-27-2005, 23:10

yes , I followed it step by step , but the old piramids are still there and the new ones not......

**Epistolary Richard** · 03-28-2005, 06:37

Thanks for taking the time to go through this, guys. Maybe I've not done something or got a setting somewhere or there's an 'r' in the month or something... but wait... what's this?

snip

Forests? Watchtowers? It's a whole new look for 244, 53!

Yes, after your replies I gave it one last go and it finally worked. Wahoo. I'm sorry, I'm tired, I mean WAHOOOO!

I found out what I was doing wrong as well. You have to laugh otherwise you'd cry.

When I made the custom_tiles_db text file, I called it custom_tiles_db.txt (mad, I know). I noticed the Sons of Mars file was just called custom_tiles_db, so I figured what the hell and I removed the letters .txt from the filename and... it worked.

Just to make sure, I went back and put the .txt back in and it didn't work. I removed it and it was fine.

So, now we've actually got it working let's go back to why I started with it in the first place...

Originally Posted by eadingas

BTW, have you (or anyone) tried playing a battle in a tile _next to_ custom one? Do all the features remain as you look outside the battlefield?

Right, so for this one, as well as the doubty Captain Caspar I enrolled a Brutii general, setting them up in 243, 53 and 244, 54 (the custom map) respectively.

This is the view from 243, 53 to 244, 54. If it was displaying the custom map then it should look like the picture above.

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Nope, not even close.

Just to make sure, I then attacked the Brutii general in the custom map to see whether it was actually working.

snip

And there it is.

So, it's clear that custom tiles are _not_ viewable from adjacent tiles.

Originally Posted by Myrddraal

I have another question though, has anyone had any wierd effects at the borders of maps. I know that the map only goes so far, it doesn't save whats in the distance, it only saves the battlefield, the rest is generated from the campaign map, so what I mean it, does the edge of the battlefield fit smootly with the rest of the world, or is it sudden... I think it does it smoothly, but I've only tested with fairly flat maps in flat areas.

For this, I took a northern cousin 243, 152 where it is pretty much as flat as you can get and placed it on 244, 54 (which as you may have noticed has a few hills). The result looked pretty smooth, though you can perhaps make out a hint of the join where the cursor is pointing.

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It looks like it stretches to just beyond the minimap's range.

(I also placed a small kop in each corner just inside the red line on the battle editor. These then fell outside the playable area in the game, but I assume the battle editor uses the larger playable areas used in sieges.)

For a clearer comparison I made a custom tile from 160, 43 - the southern beach of Rhodes. I placed a series of watchtowers to mark the beach (note that this had the effect of adding land on top of the sea to make the right angles on the coast).

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This was then moved to the now infamous 244, 54 with the following result.

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There are a few items of note here. One, it's still a sea! So this is in effect a very odd lake. Two, though it's quite obvious where the join between the tiles are, the adjacent tiles are smoothing down into the sea rather than making cliffs. Three, in the second shot the cavalry are walking on land that was risen from the sea by the creation of the watchtowers (though they were rather reluctant to do so, indeed the game didn't like this map much at all).

I hope you don't mind but I've devised a fitting tribute for your help over the last few days.

snip

**Myrddraal** · 03-28-2005, 23:35

Originally Posted by Epistolary Richard

I hope you don't mind but I've devised a fitting tribute for your help over the last few days.

-

Brilliant... You've got to laugh, or else you'd cry...

And thats good news about getting it to work. I guess we'll just have to make the custom features not too noticable from distance, so that you can't tell that their not there...