COMMON QUESTIONS REFERRING TO WHAT THE WORDS OF SCENARIO DESIGN MEAN.Before anyone can design, they must be familiar with the words and terminogly used in this community. To help in this process, this article will help introduce newer members to the popular wordings which this community uses.
Scenario Designer: The many, the few. The lads and lasses who work hard to create works of art in the scenario editor. These are the people who create the many scenarios around our community.Scenario: A scenario is the single creation of one map, with it's triggers to create a playable level. Often designers release scenarios by themselves.Scenario Editor: The editor is the program used to create scenarios. The editor holds all the major functions one must use to create a scenario. Unit placement, Map Design, Trigger work and ext.Trigger: In scenario design creation, scenario designers often rely on triggers to put their creations to higher levels. Triggers are the "background" work seen in scenarios. From dialogue messages, unit stat changes, weather, time editing, player editing, objectives and what not. All these things are created with the power of the trigger. Yet a trigger is nothing without it's conditions and effects.
Condition: Conditions are related to Triggers, as they are what triggers a trigger. A condition defines what is needed for a trigger to be turned on and activate any effects in the trigger.
Almost every trigger will have a condition.Effect: Effects are what a trigger does once its' condition is met. Effects differ very much, and it really depends on what the designer wants to occur after a pre-set condition is met.With the AoM Editor, many new things are open for scenario designers to create wonderful effects.
Campaign: The grouping of numerous scenarios under one file. Generally a large amount of scenarios under the same storyline will often be created into a campaign and released all at once.Map Design: Creating the lush landscapes, rolling hills, verdant planes and emerald seas is a long and difficult task. It is referred as Map Design, the process in which a designer creates the map which the scenario shall take place.A.I. Artificial Intelligence is used often in scenario creations. Often the A.I. for a game will need edited, sometimes even re-created. A.I. is used for the controlling of units, players and so forth. How they react, how they move and so forth are controlled with A.I.Mod Makers: Mod designers are those who edit the games files, often changing graphical images in a game, with an image of their own.Rarely mod designers work with scenario designers, but when they do awe inspiring creations can be created.
RMS: Random Map Scripting is the process of writing code, that in the end, will randomly create land forms for a game. These are often used to play basic B&D games, but at times they also can be used as a template for map designs.Cinematics: Cinematic are in-game cut scenes/movies used to further storylines in scenario designs, display battles, display important events, center an important action or so forth.In Age of Mythology the creation of Cinematic is eased down to a simpler point and click method. Movies can even be viewed in the editor for editing ease.
Design Teams/Group Projects: Designs Teams and group projects are groups of scenario designers either working for a common goal, or working under the same roof to offer support to each and/or their community.SPECIAL NOTE: Discussions of Design Teams and Group Projects are not valid discussions in this forum. Be place all discussions in the forum adjacent to this one.Scenario Design Frequently Asked QuestionsGot a question? Need an answer? Here is a list of common questions concerning AoM.Cinematic
QUESTIONS REFERRING TO THE CREATION OF CIMEMATIC MOVIES AND/OR CUT SCENES.Q:How do you Zoom and Rotate?
A:To rotate, hold cntrl and press either the left or right arrow. Too zoom, press the -= buttonsQ: How does creating events during an in-game cinematic work? Do you have to trigger them, or is there a special tool for cinematic? A: In the Editor a special Menu made for the creation of movies, using the creation new tracks, and use way-points to control the direction and viewing angle of the movie .Q:How do I create a movie?
A:In AoM, the process of creating a movie has been eased down very much. The process is more or less you controlling the view with your mouse.First you will need to enter the Cinema Editor, and create a new track by pressing the "New Track" button. To the right you should see something named "Way Points", you should add two.
Click on the top Way Point, and move your mouse where you want the camera to move. Rotating, scroll, or what not. When you are finished with the first segments, click update.
You will need to set time limits on the entire track itself, and how long the one way point will last. After you're satisfied with the numbers, hit update.
You should see to the lower left several movie buttons, such as play, stop, and rewind. Hit play, the camera should move where you designated your mouse. If not, re-select your waypoint and re-do it. Remember to click update and making sure the times are correct.Adding more way points will only further diversify your movie.
Q: How do I change the camera's pitch?
A: Even though this is not a ES Supported way of changing Camera Pitch, I discovered a way you can work around the editor's lack of pitch.For more information, check this thread.You will need to download the Zoom Editor at DGDN Modding Net. Check the links section.
Q:How do I start and stop a Cinemactic Movie?
A:[ Using the Cimematic Mode effect, and choosing either ON or OFF.Q: What does Tension, Continuity and Bias mean?
A:Tension: Controls the amount of curvature in the animation curve.
High Tension produces a linear curve. It also has a slight Ease To and Ease From effect.
Low Tension produces a very wide, rounded, curve. It also has a slight negative Ease To and Ease From effect.
The default value of 25 produces an even amount of curvature through the key. Continuity: Controls the tangential property of the curve at the key. The default setting is the only value that produces a smooth animation curve through the key. All other values produce a discontinuity in the animation curve causing an abrupt change in the animation. Default=25.
High Continuity values create curved overshoot on both sides of the key.
Low Continuity values create a linear animation curve. Low continuity creates a linear curve similar to high tension except without the Ease To and Ease From side effect.
The default setting creates a smooth continuous curve at the key. Bias: Controls where the animation curve occurs with respect to the key. Default=25.
High Bias pushes the curve beyond the key. This produces a linear curve coming into the key and an exaggerated curve leaving the key.
Low Bias pulls the curve before the key. This produces an exaggerated curve coming into the key and a linear curve leaving the key.
The default setting distributes the curve evenly to both sides of the key. Kudos Ykkrosh
Map Design
QUESTIONS REFERRING TO THE TECHNIQUES AND PROCESSES USED IN MAP CREATION.Q: How do I create snow?
A: The same way you would create the sky, use Render Snow. This will though, cover the entire map with falling snow.Q: How do I create rain?
A: Rain is created by the use of objects. Check your objects menu, search for rain or rain light. Placing these objects creates the picture of falling rain, along with mist and floating clouds.Q: How do I create waterfalls?
A: There is only one waterfall, and you can find it under the objects menu. Place it near a foundation of water which is raised, beside water which is lower to give the effect of the waterfall.Q: Where can I find the "Gia Objects?" like in AOK?
A: Unlike AoK, any object can be placed down for ANY player. So Gia objects do not exist, and every object is available for every player.Q: How do I get those nice waves on my coastlines?
A: There's two ways you can do this. One is a lot easier then the other, but doesn't work for all river and sea types.You can either select "edit water" and then select "beautify" which will add even waves, rocks, tree and MISC. to your coastline.''
Or, you can search under objects and find "Wave" and place them down manually wherever you wish.
Q: Is it possible to edit terrain in game?
A: Like most editors, no. Such editing would be far too complicated to inplent.Q: How do I change the lighting?
A: Click the "Light bulb" icon in the editor. A drag down list will appear with your lighting choices.If you do not wish for players to own certain objects, however, you may still use the player gia.
Trigger Questions
QUESTIONS REFERRING TO THE BUILDING OF SIMPLE TO COMPLEX TRIGGERSQ: There's so many triggers! How do I go about finding the one I want?
A: A fellow forummer has created an nice thread for this, for more information, check HereQ:How do I activate triggers?
A:: Use the "Fire Event" effect to activate triggers.Q:How do you edit objects? The option is faded out..
A:UPDATE! This is how!.Keep in mind, this is not an ES supported way of editing unit files. Be cautious in your editing!
Q: How do I create new objectives?
A: Use the objective editor. You create new objectives and apply a number to each one. Then, using the "Objectives" effect, use the number of the objective you wish to activate.Q:How do I use Animations?
A: Use the effect "Set Animations" and select the unit you wish the animation to effect. Keep in mind that only certain animations work for certain units.To find which animations work for particular units, use this guide. http://www.scnpunk.com/aompunk/design/misc/anims /Q:I'm still having trouble with Animations!
A:Kumar Shah has created a thread for more help with animations. For more information, check this thread.Q: How do I use God powers?
A: To use a god power, keep several things in mind.1)The player casting the god power must actually have this power.
2)The player casting the god power must actually have the area which is being struck in their Line of Sight.
Lastly, to use a god power. Simple activate the effect "invoke god power", selecting either the area or unit in which it will strike.
Q:How do I change player diplomacy in game?
A: Use the Diplomacy Effect. Making sure you change the diplomacy for BOTH players.Q:How do I do use Play Dialog effects?
A:Play Dialog works like this.
You should really only use it for Movies.
When creating a dialog, there's several things you should keep in mind.TRIGGER- Refers to a trigger this effect can activate
FILE- Refers to a sound file for voicing or other sound effects
SUBTITLE: This is where you should insert your texts. If you put a ":" with anything in front of it, it will be bolded and placed above the rest of the text.
Portrait: Not really sure.
Q: How do I create "Unit in Area" Conditions?
A: AoM uses a different area system then most, but for the most part it is pretty easy.First you will need to create the condition "Unit In Area"
A box will open, asking you to select an object. Now you can place down a cinema block, a gia unit or whatever. As long as this unit is the "center" or your desired area.
Select this unit, and double check it is selected by clicking "show"
Below you should see "Player" and "Unit Name".
This information concerns which player and what unit needs to be at that area for the trigger to activate.
For example. If you wish for Kastor to be in the area, and he belongs to player two. You could do either of these two.
"Player: Player Two
Unit Name: kastor"
Or
"Player: Player Two"
"Unit Name : Default".
Both work, with the second allowing any player two units to activate the trigger.
Below are radius options, and how far or near the unit needs to be. Edit with them to your desire.
Q:How does the effect "Unit Heading" operate?
A:In Math, we learn that a circle is made of 360 degrees. Each degree represents a direction as well. When using this effect, think of a circle, divided into four differant sections. 0 Degrees being up, 90 degrees being right ( also a right angle), 180 degrees being downward, and 270 degrees being left. Keep in mind though, you can still use any degree.You select a degree between 0 and 360 to determine the postion your unit will face.
Q: How do I change a unit's ownership?
A: Use the "Convert" or "Convert Army" effects.Q: How to I change the lighting in the game? Or create a Day/Night cycle?
A:Simple really. Check your effects listing, you will notice there is a trigger with a name familar or relative to "Set Lighting". It allows you to choose which lighting you would like to change to. It also gives you the option of determining the amount of time it will take for the light to change...or "Fading".
So in other words, you really only need four differant lightings for this. One is Night, Dawn, Dusk and Default which is basically noon.
So, lets say we want to start at exactly midnight. And, we want the entire cycle from Night to Night again to last, 24 mins. Which is reasonable.
Have the lighting set on Night, and have a trigger change the lighting from Night to Dawn for a time of 6 mins. Or, 360 seconds.
After that time has elasped, have another trigger change the lighting from Dawn to Default. Same time amount.
Move from that to Dusk, then to night once again.
Q: I know how to disable villagers from coming out of my town center, but the pharaoh and Set's animal still come out? What should I do?A: Use the following trigger:Set Tech Status
Tech: Pharaoh respawn
Status: Unobtainable
Tech: Set's critter Age 1/2/3/4
Status: Unobtainable
Q: How can I use more advanced features in my triggers, such as global variables, or even make my own trigger effects and conditions based on the in-game ones? For example, I'd like to be able to do things such as:- Keep an invisble counter that can be increased, decreased, and checked in triggers
- Have a trigger whose conditions are OR'ed together instead of being AND'ed
- Prevent a player from repairing any buildings/gathering any gold/chopping any trees
- Have all units attacked by a special hero get lightning-bolted
- Have all buildings produced by a player grant a small amount of gold every second, regardless of how many total buildings there are
- Display variable chat messages, for example a score message saying every minute or so how many soldiers each player has
- Have a unit that changes ownership to the player with the most gold
- Have a player's villagers get converted to ulfsarks for free when they attack something and have the ulfsarks get converted back to villagers when they are idle.
Answer: The typetest.xml file in your Age of Mythology\trigger directory lists all the triggers in the game and tells it how to translate them into code. You can use the commands listed there as well as other scripting commands to create custom effects, often very powerful ones. Check out TwentyOneScore's post about it at http://aom.heavengames.com/cgi-bin/forums/display.cgi?action=ct&f=19,12027,0,365 . You can copy-and-paste his custom condition in the part of typetest.xml and copy-and-paste his 3 effects in the part, and they'll be available in the editor. Basically, you can use any script commands in the game in these triggers, and have variables, loops, if statements, etc like in a program. Your game will still be compatible for online play, and the custom effects will transfer to others in multiplayer scenarios.
MISC
ANYTHING NOT IN PREVIOUS SUBJECTS.Q: How do I take an in game screenshot?
A:cntrl F12 creates a screenshot, which will be created in your screenshot folder located in your AoM Directory.
cntrl F12 ALT will create a full map screenshot, located in the same area.Q: How do I make the villagers active? Chopping wood, farming and mining?
A:Use the "Unit Work" effect.Q: How do I remove Allied Line of Sight(LOS)?
A: 1.) Go to the Diplomacy Folder2.) Change Diplomacy from Player 1 to Player # whatever, to ally
3.) Set that players Diplomacy to you to Neutral
Q: How do I use Armies?
A: Refer to this thread for assistance.
http://aom.heavengames.com/cgi-bin/forums/display.cgi?action=ct&f=13,8215,0,10 Q:How do I make bloods? I don't see any Unit Killed or Count conditions.
A: Check this threadQ: Some units seem to be missing. I can't seem to find "Medium" "Champion" EXT of certain units, such as Toxotes. Where are they?
A: Use the effect "Set Tech Status" and activate the techs nessacary for such updrage. For example, if you were wishing to use Medium Hopolites. You would set the tech for "Medium Infantry" to "Active".Q:What are the HOTKEYS for the editor?
A: DGDN has compiled an excellent source for HOTKEYS listings. You can find them HereQ:How do I stop units from walking through walls?
A: ES suggestions that you use the Object Position options and double check that each wall is slightly overlapping the other. If the problems still occurs, use the painting tool to paint "Black Rock"...and impassble terrain underneath all of your walled structures.Q: Is it possible to create new light settings?
A: Very possible, Render has created an excellant program for this use, and you can download it here at HG.More Information.Q: How do I make units, such as the Hyrda , which gain more heads when they kill a unit, have more heads in the editor?A: Place the unit near several weak units in an area the player will not see. After starting the scenario, and the unit has killed these weak units, fix it's HP using EO's Set HP Effect, and then transport it to the desired location.Keep in mind, units killed in the editor might change the heads in the editor. But once the game is started it will be back to one. So do it in game! Not in editor.
Q: I placed down the Healing Spring, yet it does nothing! How do I make it work?
A: The healing spring is eyecandy, and does not work if you simply place it down as an object. You need to invoke the god power to make the healing spring work.Q: How do I stop villagers/scouts/priests from popping out of Towncenters in the beginning of the game?A: Use the effect Set Tech Status, and select the tech Starting Units {Greek, Egypt, or Norse}, and set the status as Unobtainable.Notes: Run the trigger immedailty at the start of the game.Q: How do I disable my Allies' Line of Sight (LOS)?A: Use the effect Set Tech Status, and select the tech Shared LOS, and set the status as Unobtainable.Notes: to enable the Allies' LOS, create Set Tech Status, and set Shared LOS as activeQ: How do I copy triggers?A: You can use AOMEd to extract the Trigger.xml from your scenario. Trigger.xml is an editable text which you can copy, paste, and edit the deatils of each trigger. For more information, check Here.Q: When I put down a Trojan Horse and test, it disappears for some strange reason.A: When you place the Trojan Horse from the menu, it will turn into the skeleton version (the wooden frame). If you want the fully built version, click on that skeleton and copy/paste it. The pasted version will be the horse.Q: How come AI players won't build on any Settlements on my map? How can I make them do so?A: The reason the AI can't build on Settlements you place on a map is that they're not aligned to the map grid. It's almost impossible to align one to the grid by hand, but you can do this:
1) Create an area of flat terrain (all the same elevation)
2) Place a Berry Bush for Gaia in the middle of it
3) Add a new trigger with no conditions and two effects: first, Unit Heading on the Berry Bush for 180 (or 90 or 270 or 0 depending which way you want your Settlement to face), and second Change Unit Type on the Berry Bush to Settlement
When you test the game, you get a Settlement that the AI can build on. The reason this works is that Berry Bushes are always aligned to the map grid when you place them for some reason, so when you turn them to Settlements the Settlements remain aligned to the grid. You have to set heading to 0, 90, 180 or 270 to make sure the sides of the building are aligned to the grid too however.Q: How do I play my scenario in multiplayer? Do I have to convert it to a random map?A: Host a LAN game or an Advanced Setup game on ESO and in the game style dropdown, where it says Supremacy or Death Match or whatever, select Scenario. Then select your particular scenario from the list available. Random maps are different from scenarios; they are scripts or programs that tell the game how to lay out terrain and resources, and they are complicated to make.
Scenario Design Resource Library
Design articles and other user submitted articles.
posted 09 November 2002 05:50 PM EDT (US)