posted 04-14-07 03:40 AM CT (US)
Allow me to welcome you on behalf of the entire
The purpose of this thread is to give you a general overview of this forum, Age of Kings Heaven, and scenario designing in general: hopefully it will provide you with a good starting point in your quest of scenario designing.
It comprises three parts. 1) My
First of all, I would like to say a couple words about scenario designing itself:
For me, there is no greater part of AoK then the editor. Long after the fun of playing the game starts to fade away, the editor continues to pull me to it. Indeed, the thrill of releasing a scenario and receiving comments or emails from people who enjoyed it never wears off. For me, there is almost no greater feeling. There has been many times that I have neglected food, sleep, partying, schoolwork, whatever, just to work on a scenario that I felt I *had* to get done… and I hope that you will feel as passionately about designing as well.
Let it be said, though, that it is not easy. It can be frustrating, and it will take a huge amount of effort, sweat, and perspiration to produce a top-quality work. However, the end result is certainly worth it…
As the title implies, this is the place to go to ask questions regarding scenario editing, to discuss certain areas of the field, to search for playtesters for a scenario you may have, or just talk about anything related to scenarios in general. This is *not* a place to talk to your buddies about school tomorrow, to talk about a great strategy using the Teutons, or anything else that is not related to scenario designing. For that sort of discussion, please use one of the other AoKH forums if it relates to AoK, and the
Above all, this forum is here for
Well, you have already made the first step: You are reading this thread, which means that you have successfully found the forum. If you have not already registered, the first step is to do so now. In the upper right-hand corner of your screen, you will see an option that says “Register”. Click on that, and you will be taken to a screen that will allow you to fill out your information and choose a user name – don’t worry, the only info we need is an email address to send you your password, and all info you choose to give will remain confidential.
After you have registered, check your email, for your password will be sent to you. Once you have your password, simply press the “login” option (which is directly to the left of the “register” option). Enter your username and password, and viola! You are able to post on any HG forum.
These forums have been designed to be as user-friendly as possible. Simply click on the New Topic button to create a thread, or the Reply to Topic button to reply to a specific thread.
UBB code allows you to enhance your post with a variety of formatting options. For an overview on using UBB, please go
Make sure that you read the
Age of Kings Heaven has the largest database of files for AoK in the world, and posting yours there is as easy as 1-2-3.
You can also upload your own creations as well. Simply go to
One common error that many people get when attempting to download from the Blacksmith is a box prompting them for a username and password. The answer is simple: disable download accelerator and any other "Download Acceleration" programs. You will
If you have any problems or questions arising from the use of the Blacksmith, please e-mail our current blacksmith administrator,
Well, if you have a question regarding scenario designing, the best way to start would be to look at tutorials or articles that other people have made. Probably the best places for such articles would be:
Many others are listed in the Scenario Design Library, below.
If you cannot find an answer to your question at these sites, it would probably be a good idea to search “Everything you wanted to know about scenario design but were afraid to ask,” which is below, in this thread.
Next, search the forum to see if your question has been asked previously. At the bottom main Scen. Editing Forum page you will see where it says “Search”. In the “Subject” field, simply type any keywords having to do with your question, and see what comes up. If you don’t find anything, feel free post a new thread about it! There are a lot of people here that will be willing to help you out and assist you, so don’t be afraid to ask questions!
Which leads me to my next point…
Although you will find that most people that post at this forum are all-too-happy to help you out with whatever questions you might have, there will always be those who do not feel the same way. These people, many of whom consider themselves “oldies” simply because they have been here for a few months, fail to remember that they were once new as well. Everyone needs to start somewhere, and if you do not ask questions and participate there is no way for you to improve. These people feel the need to appear “superior” to others, and may be rude, insulting, or unfriendly. My advice: Ignore them. If you are having a problem with any forummer, please inform one of the current moderators
Here like all Heaven Games forums, members must follow the Forum Code of Conduct or CoC. The Forum Support and CoC Document is found in the link marked 'rules' near the top of the forum. Also, the CoC prohibits profanity in the forums, but here in Scenario Design Forum we do not allow cursing as our special policy. This includes abbreviations that substitute for curses, and cursing in any context. We prefer to just edit curses when and where we see them, however repeated and flagrant cursing will be considered in violation of the Code of Conduct.
Enjoy your stay at the Age of Kings Heaven Scenario Editing Forum! Above all else, make sure to have fun… for what else is the point of designing scenarios if one does not enjoy it? Remember, if you have any questions/comments/problems, please contact one of the current moderators, (
Happy Forumming!
This section of the thread began life way back in 2003 as the “Scenario Design FAQ” by Da Hobo. It was subsequently, lovingly, maintained by Angel Anastasia, before falling into the hands of Dave Earl in 2007. It is now maintained by
The answers compiled here represent the cumulative wisdom of eight years of scenario design. Where possible the person who originally found the answer has been credited. If you think we’ve overlooked someone who deserves credit, let us know asap.
Being the distilled wisdom of over 3,222 scenario designers, it would be a wise move for new scenario designers to read this thread thoroughly before posting at the forums. In particular, I’d recommend looking at answers 1, 2 and 6 before doing anything else!
You can search this page for keywords. For example: If you want to know how to make cliffs invisible, press Ctrl + F, and type the word "invisible" or "cliff". The browser will scroll to the next place where those words are mentioned.
This document is constantly updated and edited. Please post here if you have an idea for a question, a question you would like answered, some information that could be used to expand on an answer, have spotted a grammar or spelling or bbcode mistake, or any inaccuracies in the text.
An excellent guide to forum etiquette is available at
An extended list, well worth reading, is the
Modpacks, on the other hand, are “ways of changing the graphics, sounds, labels, and stats in AoK.” These should properly be discussed in the
You can then provide a link to it using either the
or
[url]
BBcode tags (see Q8). Note that only images of less than 150kb will display in the forums.
[img]
You’ll almost certainly need to reduce the file-size of your screenshots if you want people to view them. Changing them to a .jpg, .gif, or .png is the simplest way to reduce their size. Check out
Volunteering to playtest and not providing feedback is the easiest way to get a dubious reputation in the forums. Conversely, sending out levels that are nowhere near completed to playtesters will frustrate everyone!
To recap: Editor =>
To recap: Editor =>
While in there you may notice some other options such a "Change Player". To use that, after choosing the area, use the little scroll to select the player that you want to change the ownership of the map copied units to. This tool is useful when you realize that you have made a whole enemy town using Player 1 when you intended it to be Player 2.
Warning: Map copying rotates everything in one direction so it makes cliffs invisible and makes forests extremely uniform. The newer versions of Trigger Studio now allow you to map-copy without rotation (see Q26).
To edit your RMS scripts, you may want to check out
A more sophisticated tool for doing this is Lloyd Kinsella’s
Note: This is also where you type your Hints and Scouts messages.
<BLUE> < RED> < GREEN> < YELLOW> < AQUA> < PURPLE> < GREY> < ORANGE>
Note: GREY is spelled with the letter E, grey (not gray). For the cyan colour, use "AQUA". The color RED has a bug which causes a >
<..> -Your Text here- [ ENTER] [ ENTER] [ ENTER] [ ENTER] < RED>
To get the text to appear in different (vertical) positions, set the value (0,1 or 2) in the small box in the "Display Instructions" effect. This is how the different values appear:
|----------------------Top of Screen--------------------|
|Value: 0
|
|Value: 1
|
|Value: 2
|
|
|
|
|
|
|--------------------Bottom of Screen-----------------|
Trigger example:
Trigger0
Display As Objective: Yes
Starting State: On / Off
Trigger Looping: No
-----------------------------------
Condition0: Destroy Object - Set Object - Enemy Castle
Effect0: Declare Victory: Player 1
For the Normal Objectives:
Trigger 0:
Displayer Objective = Yes
Objective message = Objectives
Objective String = 100
Starting state: on
Loop: off
----------------------------------------------------
Condition 0: Something that is impossible to do in the game
For Items:
Trigger 1:
Displayer Objective = Yes
Objective message = Items
Objective String = 85
Starting state: on
Loop: off
-----------------------------------------------------
Condition 0: Something that is impossible to do in the game
For Weapons & Shields:
Trigger 2:
Displayer Objective = Yes
Objective message = Weapons & shields
Objective String = 40
Starting state: on
Loop: off
---------------------------------------------------
Condition 0: Something that is impossible to do in the game
etc etc etc...
Go on as long as you want. Keep lowering the String.
Now if the game will start you will see this list in the scn objectives:
Objectives
Items
Weapons & Shields
Every time you want to add a new weapon you have to make sure you type in the Objective string a number under the <
© Copyright 2002, Woad Creations.
There is a default image in your AoK folder, named “scenariobkg.bmp.” You can use this as a template for your own images, pasting things onto it. Paint works perfectly fine for this, although a more advanced (and expensive) program such as Paintshop or Photoshop could be useful.
Once you have designed your image, put it in your default AoK folder. You can then select it in the editor, under the “Cinematics” tab.
If the colours appear “messed up,” you’re not using the correct palette (see Q40).
Depending on your image editor, this process of replacement may be more or less successful.
If you use paint, you don’t have to worry about palettes; simply open up an imahe that already uses the palette you want, and paste or draw over it. When you save the image, the palette will automatically be applied.
Other programs have there own versions of palette management. I’ve (Dave) found PaintShop Pro to be the best: simply choose “load palette’ under the “colors” menu.
The second method is much more stable and easier (but more complex to figure). There is a magic overflow number that, when reached (in the quantity box) it subtracts from the original HP/Attack number for the unit. The magic number is 65536. To indicate how much you want to lower the unit's attack or HP by, subtract that number from the magic number. For example: If I want to lower a unit's HP or attack by 20, I would type 65516 (65536 - 20). Thank you, CrystalCrown.
For more information on magic numbers go to
Note that if you lower a units attack, the original attack will still be visible when you select the unit in-game.
Alternatively, open up the scenario in Trigger Studio, open up the “units” tab, select the Map Revealers and press delete.
It is also possible to change the population limit during the game using Scenario_T_C’s unbelievably good
The first was discovered by Berserker Jerker, and involved placing 256 objects (such as plants or beta FLAGXs) on one tile. This would effectively “overload” the game’s graphics, making everything on that tile disappear. Units could be placed on the tile, re-named, and then tasked to “appear” in full view.
More recently, Trigger Studio has allowed us to make units effectively invisible by garrisoning them inside themselves. Newidea was the first the publicize this trick with his fantastic
All of this info was taken from
To freeze a trade cart, use a looping trigger with the "Task Object" effect set on the trade cart, but do not place a Location.
The first and most obvious is to use the "Task Object" effect and do not place a Location. This one gets the job done, but you cannot task the king anywhere else and his is completely frozen.
The second option is to make the king and his city separate players. The king will not garrison in an ally's buildings.
The final (and defiantly the best) solution is to use a Shah instead, and simply rename it. The Shah can be found under the "Heroes" tab under "Units". You can task him anywhere, like a normal unit, and does not have to stay perfectly still. Some people have said the Shah runs to his castle as well. For me, personally, the Shah works. This could be a problem with different game versions. IE if you have the latest “C” patch update for the AOK.
Note: This only applies for gaia units found under the "other" tab. Triggers that remove / create gaia units (or animals), heroes or buildings will work as normal.
Note: To remove invisible cliffs, place new one over them and delete those, or do it in-game with by removing Gaia where the invisible cliffs are.
Apparently
The first way is to create & remove a bridge middle near the shore. The second way is to use a new terrain type “shore-less water.” You can map-copy this from
The first one is using cliffs. First add any trees or eye candy you will want around the waterfall. Then, make two rows of cliffs with the ends meeting, but do not quite connect them. Do this again on another row below the first. Now add shallow water between the cracks in the cliff and deep water at the bottom and top. Add sea rocks and plants. Voila! This
The second way is to have water on elevated surfaces. This gives the appearance of a slow, downhill fall. There are two ways of getting elevated water: creating and removing many bridges on the elevation or map copying elevation on to water. Both work. Add sea rocks and maybe some shore less snow.
The final way looks like a rushing waterfall. Take a high elevation brush set on tiny, and click anywhere once. Then move the curser one square to the (straight) left and click again. This will give you a little chute on which to make your waterfall. Cover this chute and a small radius around the bottom (of the falls) with snow and soften the edges with the shore less water trick. Now it is just a matter of putting water at the top and bottom of the snow-chute. Also add some trees & eye candy on both sides. Add rocks and sea rocks to the bottom and top. Hint: Add another, smaller fall next to the first one. It gives a nice effect. Here is a