Quick & dirty Tutorial on Mapping
Hello. I've decided to put together a little tutorial for myself but, since it started to look decent, I thought I might as well share it.
I'll be covering the basics of mapping, what is needed, what you have to do in order to make the tools work, how to test your changes.
Map types:
Campaign Battle Map
Maps in NTW and ETW are different on some levels. ETW has a different method for rendering grass, which I wont cover here. NTW's MP maps are found inside the "battleterrain.pack" file, under "Presets". Everything else inside that pack is very important as it defines every feature of the auto generated campaign maps, so you shouldnt mess with any other file unless you know what you are looking for.
Another important difference between NTW and ETW is that ETW had a very conveniently placed file that would define which type of terrain would be rendered on the campaign battle map, depending on which colour you would pick. Here it is:
The autogenerated battle maps are located inside "data.pack", under "battleterrain\templates". Self explanatory here, each type of battle map is represented by its own folder. The game wont really generate a new map each time, it will simply pick one from the list and adjust the height a little to fit the terrain in which your troops are fighting in, and then the "theme" (summer \ autumn \ winter) is applied to both textures and props. That's it, really, extremely easy (and sadly, limited). You cannot add more maps as the game will not choose them.
Inside each folder there are three files, attributes, deployment, terrain. Attributes defines the contents of the battle map area, if you look above at the image provided, you'll find all this self explanatory as well. Placing the corresponding colour will spawn the selected feature, but there is no guarantee that it will appear. The engine selects it depending on the terrain type and the situation. "Wildcard" means randomly generated terrain (in reality it is not random at all, it is just the same heightmap copied over and over to give the illusion of randomness). Deployment defines the area in which the player and AI will spawn. Terrain, again, is self explanatory as the types of terrain can be defined with the guide above. Note that "Coast", "Beach", "Valleys" dont seem to work at all in NTW.
Multiplayer Map (any other type of map)
The maps used for historical battles or the presets for MP have a different structure than the auto generated ones for the campaign map. In here, almost everything can be tweaked and defined by the user instead of being picked by the engine.
The basic structure of a battle map is as follows:
blendmap - defines the roads, if any, on the map. Black means road present, blue means regular terrain.
blendmap_alpha - defines the alpha channel of the roads in relation to grass. White means road present, black means regular terrain.
bmd.tree_list - as the name implies, list of the trees present. Can be generated with HIBAM, every single tree can also be picked by hand one by one and placed accordingly.
bmd_near_buildings.building_list - same as above but for buildings. HIBAM has a built-in editor to manually pick individual buildings and place them on the battle map. Then you can generate the data accordingly.
colour_map_0-3 and related alpha - the big texture defining the terrain features, it will be placed on the terrain as a single "skin" for the map. You may depict roads, mud, rocks, even small ponds, by hand in your favorite painting tool like it was a regular drawing. The textures numbered 1-3 are generated by the Lordz Scripts for GIMP. You should work ONLY on colour_map_0.
default_radar_settings - exactly what ti says on the tin. You can manually set the colours of the radar in relation to your troops and those of the enemy.
definition - very important file, it defines the type of terrain and props based on the preferred season, the type of weather and subculture which bridges and towns refer to. You can ideally set a different size for the battle map itself and change the height above the sea, which will affect the height maps themselves (this is a general parameter, not specific, so it will globally affect the whole map). I dont know if the size of the map can be affected in any way but it seems unlikely, best to leave it a 2048.
deployment_areas - defines the deployment zones. You can draw them with the Lordz Tools or HIBAM.
grassmap - defines the grass type and placement in relation to the roads. Alpha channel determines where it is placed, where pure White is extreme density, and pure Black is no grass. A gradient of colours from yellow to red defines the type of grass. There are many examples in the e3 folder under "battleterrain.pack".
ground_type_map_0 - defines the type of terrain from the list in the image above. It is used to determine the speed of the units while walking on each type of terrain. Again, roads must be defined inside, with a pure Black colour.
height_map_0-3 - used to create the heightmap of the battle area itself. Again, you should work ONLY with height_map_0. 1-3 are generated by the Lordz GIMP Scripts.
non_terrain_outlines - probably related to the boundary of the "world". Not important, leave it be.
ef_lines - probably related to a special kind of "line" which acts as a constraint for certain activities (for example ef lines are defined to keep seamen in their places when onboard the ship or for units climbing the walls with the harpoon). Not important, leave it be.
screenshot_small - defines the screenshot of the map, it will be displayed on the map list.
textures - defines the types of Detail Textures to be applied by the game over your colour map. Detail Textures are simply greyscale textures that add an extra depth of detail when looked very close. You can change them if you want.
weather - defines the ".environment" file corresponding to each time of day that you may add to the map. ".environment" files add the sun height, intensity, light colour, sky type etc. to your map. You can open them with a text editor and do your changes there.
zones - may be related to scripting, best leave it be.
The Tools
The Lordz GIMP Scripts can be found HERE.
The HIBAM Editor by Lord Desaix can be found HERE. It has a built-in tutorial of its own but most stuff is self explanatory.
Where to find the scripts
Once you have put them inside the scripts folder under "C:\Program Files\GIMP 2\share\gimp\2.0\scripts", you can find them under the "Filters" tab as shown below.
They'll be loaded automatically next time you use GIMP. Make sure to not confuse Colour and Height map here. The remaining 1-3 tiles will be generated for you, zero effort involved. But of course, you may edit 1 later if you wish to add more variety from a certain distance (for example, if you are planning to make a coastal battle you may make the shore sinking into the sea).
And that's it really. It seems harder than it looks, but it's not. Even without TEd, it is feasible with reasonable patience and a good cup of coffee.
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