Isn't much of a project yet, the map looks less than 1/10th done... anyway good luck

Well, perhaps a little suggestions for the terrain? At the moment if I ever try to do it, it ends up all basic and I don't want to do a Gizmoz ...

I wrote a tutorial about terrain mixing, the link to it is in my signature if you are interested.

Thanks mate

I am glad to help.

aww, shameless self promotion no actually that guide is very good, I read it as a newbie too. Perhaps you should consider expanding it a little? The snow part is a bit poor.

Good luck and junk, always good to know that there are more projects coming out.

Hi,

I've got an issue with triggers. The mission starts with your base under attack (which has now been changed, removing houses for pavillions) but how can I make an archery range, watch tower, and barracks have their HP cut down at the start? I want to reduce it a bit to show the effect of the trebuchet.

Those guides, by the way, helped me enormously, now the path the troops 'came' from doesn't look so amateur.

Those guides, by the way, helped me enormously, now the path the troops 'came' from doesn't look so amateur.

Again, I am pleased you found it useful.

Anyone have suggestions for nations? Any? Also can someome give me hints on how to improve this :




Oh, here's a battle scene. Early stages.



It says 'Raymond, Prince of Antioch' because I haven't made names yet.

To have the buildings lose HP from the start, make a trigger with the starting state on, looping off, and objective off. In the trigger, use the effect Damage Object, and under set objects, click on the building. Type the amount of damage you want to give the building. The larger the percent of HP lost from the building, the greater the flames will be.

As for which civilizations to use, I like going with any Northern European nation, ie Teutons, Goths, Vikings... because their feudal age buildings are really grey and worn looking, which is perfect for a winter scene.

Your battle is looking a little lackluster. For the battle I'd make the enemy stronger than you, since you're defending. Also from the screen there was only one trebuchet. Consider making more trebuchets, and put them behind some kind of palisade wall to give them some protection, and it looks very cool too.

The corners of the palisades with the flags may look a little ugly, so simply remove them with triggers. Use the effect Remove Object and click the flagged corners under set object to remove them.

Do you want this to be a long, drawn out battle, or is it simply introductory? If you want it to be long, consider spawning the enemy units, and giving your men a little more HP.

Hope I can help you out.

Thanks for all this guys

To have the buildings lose HP from the start, make a trigger with the starting state on, looping off, and objective off. In the trigger, use the effect Damage Object, and under set objects, click on the building. Type the amount of damage you want to give the building. The larger the percent of HP lost from the building, the greater the flames will be.

So if i put 60 as the quantity it would lose 60% right? And, do I have to fill in all the categories?

As for which civilizations to use, I like going with any Northern European nation, ie Teutons, Goths, Vikings... because their feudal age buildings are really grey and worn looking, which is perfect for a winter scene.

Teutons and Goths it is then.

Your battle is looking a little lackluster. For the battle I'd make the enemy stronger than you, since you're defending. Also from the screen there was only one trebuchet. Consider making more trebuchets, and put them behind some kind of palisade wall to give them some protection, and it looks very cool too.

It's really only something to get the game going. I swapped a Mangonel for the trebuchet to give it a bit more feeling, otherwise the 'attacks' look a bit feeble and if I say the enemy was hacking away at the trapped men it would look stupid.

Do you want this to be a long, drawn out battle, or is it simply introductory? If you want it to be long, consider spawning the enemy units, and giving your men a little more HP.

Introductory, as stated above. How do you spawn units though? Because it's kind of a journey map i'd rather spawn the men to ambush your unit rather than have them sitting there anyway, because that looks a bit 'false' and too prepared.

Now, any thing regarding the terrain picture? Too much, too little? Too much of such?

Of course, i've decided it's going to be part a campaign (map is too small to fit a whole full mission of breakout)

So if i put 60 as the quantity it would lose 60% right? And, do I have to fill in all the categories?

No, it loses 60 HP.

Ok. Does anyone want to suggest ideas about how the map should be made? Perhaps a simple MS paint drawing of your ideas (you already have the basic map I did when I first made the thread).

Here's a few pointers :

It is going to be part of a campaign of encirclement breakout

There should be at least one (or only one) friendly village/encircled position

Think of making it a bit of a journey for the player, rather than "Go in the straight line then turn round then you win, wow your t3h r0XX0rz"

I have plenty of time so don't be shy in your suggestions !

EDIT - Come on! Jatayu, Scuddles, Quaazi and BIHSting can't be the only ones here, where's the variety (sorry about my impatience here but I want to get something done in life besides, let's do that and then give up next week)

[This message has been edited by Alex Coles (edited 07-24-2007 @ 03:00 PM).]

Welcome Alex Coles. I hope the rain isn't heading your way, though being in the eastern flatlands I expect you have very good drainage.

One small point on elevation which is a bugbear of mine: try to disguise the change in elevation. There are raised straight lines around the archery range, try to mix it up and/or disguise the transition using (sparingly) trees/bushes etc.

Otherwise I don't think there's enough in your shots to pass comment - they are fine as far as they go. That said, I don't happen to like the mud paths - another bugbear of mine, I'm very fussy as you can see - and try to disguise the transition between mountains and land as that can be quite ugly. A bit perfectionist perhaps but I think it's worth it in the end.

Just my opinion but generally speaking in map design less is more.

Spawning just means you have a create object trigger(s) which loops, remembering to task the created units elsewhere so they don't cause a blockage.

Keep it up.

how can I make an archery range, watch tower, and barracks have their HP cut down at the start?

Another way besides Damage Object, if you don't want the buildings to be flaming, is to use a negative Change Object HP effect on the building.

To get a negative, write a hyphen somewhere like the scenario description, highlight it, then right click it and press copy. Now go into the Change Object HP effect, right click the quantity box, press paste, and then type the number of HP you want to subtract from the building. Then select the building you want to lower HP from.

Now, never select this effect again, or it will reset to 0 and you'll have to do it all over. Now look in game, and the building will have less maximum HP too, unlike damage object. I.e. if you gave a 1020 HP watch tower -1000 HP, it would have 20 HP in game.

By the way, you do have a story, right? If not, make one

Alright, for those of you interested here's two new screenshots. Work is getting on quite fast for this but I know I have a lot more to do.

[This message has been edited by Alex Coles (edited 07-25-2007 @ 07:16 AM).]

Good looking map, but I might have picked Goths for the human player. It's just a color/border thing.

hey, check out Scuds' tutorial if you havent already. i just did, (i havent finished the whole thing) but its really good. the main idea is to have like, layers, and then use the "tiny" brush size whenever adding like, dirt, or grass, etc. also, the second pic you have of the village on the cliff, i really like that. it looks really good. also, having a village on a cliff has its strategic advantages/disadvantages...

The village on the cliff needs to change. It looks really amateur because it's just pretty much a square with buildings on it. However, the cliff is well done because I actually adjusted the heights to actually make it look like a cliff.

sargeantwelsh!

How could I NOT use his tutorials! If you look in the first picutre, which is the map dump just look at the trees. They are pathetically placed, but after I read the tutorial that changed. It seems i've learnt from it very quick, even if I did just skim over it, twice over of course.

Turty,

What do you mean?

To everyone else, here's a teaser :

"This was terrible! ... but what little did we know what we were getting in to." - Johann Friedrich

"Today, our king attempts another attempt to break through the Alarician strongholds. However they are to no avail. Yes he inflicts casualties, but what is about 6 men opposed to 132 men of his? So is the rumour. So is the life."

There now get anxious and feed off of it. Crave it

[This message has been edited by Alex Coles (edited 07-25-2007 @ 12:07 PM).]

hahaha, you yelling my name was funny. haha, and yes. the cliff did look a bit amateur, i was just saying. and, i think you could make it just, smashing with a few minutes of detail work. *throws his laptop in the air* GOD im so hyper right now. for the life of me, i cant seem to think of a good plot, scenario, etc for my first ever map/campaign. errrrr. *starts bashing head on desk*

Remember everyone your comments & suggestions keep me going

By the way, just have a brainstorm session to think up things. It took me less than an hour to think of my scenario idea (encirclement) but i'm a video game addict so it should be easy.

Can someone tell me how to make a trigger about this :

After the skirmish/engagement you are supposed to get 2 handed swordsmen until you reach a population of 10 but two questions :

How do I delay it, say about 10 seconds after the battle
How do I get them to stop and when they spawn, to get them to move in to a location as a gathering point for them?

How do I get them to stop and when they spawn, to get them to move in to a location as a gathering point for them?

Use a task object effect (Player 1 units, specify nothign else), to move them from an area to a location. Make sure you press go to area after you set the area though.

To make them stop, you'll need one trigger simply creating and tasking two handed swordsmen, looped. Then a trigger after that with a condition: own objects, 10, player 1 two handed swordsmen. And an effect to deactivate the creating trigger.

your new screenshots are a lot better than before. yep, Scud's tutorial defintely helps

Perhaps Gizmoz could get a few ideas from it!

Yes, nice job on the terrain. You manage to make it look very good without spamming eyecandyclutter.

[This message has been edited by Impeached (edited 07-25-2007 @ 01:40 PM).]

All this is nice and all but I need ideas on how my map should be shaped. So far it's an outpost position getting attacked, a road leading to a small camp and a road off that to the end of the map but anyone share some ideas about what they'll like to see in the rest of the map? I'm out of ideas.

Besides, if you help you'll get a mention in the credits, at the minimum, and if you don't want to post them here, feel free to do so at wachtrhein AT gmail DOT com

Yes, nice job on the terrain. You manage to make it look very good without spamming eyecandyclutter.

A 4 in map design then so far?

Well, you could just make a small defend the spot scenario like you are now. It's your first one after all.

It's going to be part of a campaign of 3 maps where you have to make your way to friendly lines, besides I have alot different things in mind

QUOTE:
Anyone have suggestions for nations? Any?

I suggest the Turks, but maybe the Chinese.

EDIT:
Also, probably included in scud's tutorial, cliffs and elevations really make a map look good. For some of the best eye candy I have ever seen, look at oliver's square in Peice by Peice 1st scenario. It has some really nice eye candy.

[This message has been edited by hunnic paladin (edited 07-25-2007 @ 02:02 PM).]

Scud's tutorial defintely helps

Yes, he seems to have followed the tutorial pretty well and it shows in his latest screenshost, a vast improvement over his earlier screenshots, and this shows how important terrian mixing is to making a decent map, eyecandy comes second.

Uhh...what the heck...

Alex Coles who speaks perfect English is from East-Anglia and on top of that his first name is the same as Scud's...

????

And this looks similar to one of my earlier screenshots.... ¬_¬


But don't worry, it isn't me, his love of cutscenes proves it.

I suggest the Turks, but maybe the Chinese.

EDIT:
Also, probably included in scud's tutorial, cliffs and elevations really make a map look good. For some of the best eye candy I have ever seen, look at oliver's square in Peice by Peice 1st scenario. It has some really nice eye candy.

Turks and Chinese? You can be exotic, but come on it looks like it's winter just thawing out.

Yes, he seems to have followed the tutorial pretty well and it shows in his latest screenshost, a vast improvement over his earlier screenshots, and this shows how important terrian mixing is to making a decent map, eyecandy comes second.

Well, it's all pretty easy but I feel if I do this too much I might go over the top. Is there any other 'road' strategies so I can mix things up a bit.

SURGE's post

Pure coincidence!

And this looks similar to one of my earlier screenshots.... ¬_¬


But don't worry, it isn't me, his love of cutscenes proves it.

Elaborate on that...? What earlier screenshots

[This message has been edited by Alex Coles (edited 07-25-2007 @ 02:14 PM).]