Author Topic: Kong Ming's Short Guide to Making Your Own Maps. (No Module System Required)  (Read 18078 times)

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Offline Kong Ming

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This guide is an attempt to simplify map-making for people who want to try it.  It is still being perfected so please add your input.  I'm trying to avoid using the module system in this guide since it seems to be a big stumbling block for people who are intimidated by the coding involved.  For the complete guide by Turanien which is excellent but involves the module system Click Here.  Hopefully this new system will avoid errors encountered by many due to the scripts.txt file being uneditable without the python files.  Good luck and let me know if you have problems or successes!  Note:  This method is for v1.143.  If we get a newer version, bug me and I'll update.

Setup:

Note: Though people frequently refer to  the battlefield we play in multiplayer as a "Map", in warband it is called "Scene".  This is to avoid confusion with the Single Player World Map, which can also be edited.  For this reason you will see lots of talk about "scenes" instead of "maps" when you actually edit.  Just to clear up any possible confusion.

1. Navigate to the Modules folder in your Warband game files.  (Mine is at C:\Program Files\Mount&Blade Warband\Modules).

2. Make a copy of the "Native" folder here, and name it something you'll recognize (Mine's Kong_Mod).  This is your new "mod" in which you'll create your maps.

3. In the Warband start-up menu (where you choose which module your playing), select "Configure", go to the "Advanced" tab, and make sure "Enable Edit Mode" is checked.

(click to show/hide)

Adding the Scenes:

Download this file:

Kong Ming's Easy Multiplayer Scenes

Unzip it and move the enclosed files into your new module's folder, overwriting the old files.  There, I just saved you a huge pain in the @$$.

With these files in your mod, you will now have 20 new essentially blank maps to edit as you please.  Note that 1-15 are set up for Battle/Deathmatch/Duel, and 16-20 are reserved for Siege.  If you need more (good god), simply create another new mod by starting from the beginning of this guide and copy the files again for 20 more scenes.

The Terrain Code and Scenes.txt:

Warband has a nifty device that allows it to very quickly create a random terrain.  It's called the terrain code and it's basically a loooong hexadecimal number that lives in the scenes.txt file and looks something like this:

scn_my_multi_1 my_multi_1 256 none none 0.000000 0.000000 100.000000 100.000000 -100.000000 0x00000001300389800003a4ea000058340000637a0000399b
  0
  0
 outer_terrain_plain


This long number in bold contains all the info the game needs about the physical terrain, the hills and valleys, the climate, the size, plants, rivers, etc.  How do we make one for our map?  Fire up your mod and get a single-player game started.  Once you get to the world map you should see a new button in the lower left corner called "Terrain" (assuming you still have edit mode enabled).  Clicking "Terrain" will bring you to the Terrain Generator.  Play around with it.  You'll see how the game does what I described. 


IMPORTANT ADVICE REGARDING TERRAIN GENERATOR:

-Unless you just want to be quick and lazy, I recommend always having the "Foliage" slider at 0.  Foliage added to the map with the terrain code CANNOT be edited, delete, moved, scaled, nothing.  It's there forever, and usually not where you want it.  You can add all the plants you want manually later as "models" and can then do all sorts of things to them.

-I've heard advice to avoid using the Place River, Deep Water, or Shade Occluder options.  Use them at your own risk.



Once you've created a terrain that looks close to what you want to start with for your scene, simply click copy to save the Terrain Code to your clipboard.  Then in the scenes.txt file, do a search for "my_scene_1".  You should find the long list of scenes we've added, and each entry looks similar to the code excerpt shown above. Simply replace the terrain code on the scene entry of your choice by pasting in place of the old one found near the end of the line (the bold and underlined text in the excerpt above).  Viola, you have a new terrain.

Also, while we're here, notice the fourth line in the code above that says "outer_terrain_plain".  This determines the scenic ring that surrounds the map you're playing on.  By default I've set all the scenes to plains, which will look fairly crappy if you use a different terrain in the map.  You can simply replace this chunk of code with any of the following for different looks.

outer_terrain_plain
outer_terrain_snow
outer_terrain_steppe
outer_terrain_town_thir_1
outer_terrain_castle_9
outer_terrain_desert
outer_terrain_desert_b
outer_terrain_beach
outer_terrain_plain_2
outer_terrain_snow_2
outer_terrain_steppe_2
sea_outer_terrain_1
sea_outer_terrain_2


Now you have a starting terrain.  Time to make it exactly how you want it.

The Scene Editor:

Run your mod and set up a Multiplayer game (click host instead of join).  Here there are lots of options, but all we really care about is the map.  Choose one of the new maps from the list and run the game.  Note that if you want to do a Siege map you'll have to set the game mode to Siege in order for  maps 16-20 to show up on the list.  If it all goes well, you should now see your basic map as it more or less appeared in the terrain generator.  Now, press Alt-Enter to go into windowed mode.  Then, press Ctrl-E to enter "Edit Mode" (again, assuming edit mode is still enabled).  From this edit mode you can change just about everything.  Note, if you aren't in windowed mode you won't be able to see the tool panel in Edit mode so make sure you do both.  Elevation tool to change the hills, Texture tool to paint the ground, Object Tool to add tree, houses, rocks, walls,etc.  The often overlooked "Help" button is very (get this) helpful.  Lots of info about button combinations and so forth.  There's no undo option so get in the habit of exiting and re-entering edit mode with Ctrl-E.  This saves your work each time.

Strings.txt:

If you ever want to change the name of your map in the selection menu, simply open your strings.txt file and do a search for "my_scene_1".  Here are all the added scenes.  An entry looks like this:

str_my_scene_1 My_Scene_#1

Change the part in bold to whatever name you want using underscores ( _ ) for spaces.  Done and done.


I will continue to develop this guide as I have more time, and expand it to provide some helpful advice on the actual creation of your own scenes, but for now these should be the steps you need to at least get started.
« Last Edit: July 26, 2011, 09:25:49 pm by Kong Ming »
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Offline Kong Ming

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Re: Kong Ming's Short Guide to Making Your Own Maps.
« Reply #1 on: January 22, 2011, 01:35:25 am »
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Reserved for an eventual step-by-step guide on map editing.
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Offline zagibu

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Re: Kong Ming's Short Guide to Making Your Own Maps.
« Reply #2 on: January 22, 2011, 05:14:05 pm »
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I've tried to create this same tutorial, but couldn't find a way to define which gamemodes the map can be used in. Apparently, scripts.txt uses numerical identifiers for the maps, and if you don't have your map compiled with the module system, it doesn't have such an id.

I do hope you find a way, though, as a lot of people seem to have problems setting up the module system...
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Offline Kung Fu Jesus

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Re: Kong Ming's Short Guide to Making Your Own Maps.
« Reply #3 on: January 23, 2011, 03:54:51 am »
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I get an error when I try to load my mod.

RGL ERROR
Number of passages for site scn_my_new_multi exceeds 16.
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Offline Kong Ming

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Re: Kong Ming's Short Guide to Making Your Own Maps.
« Reply #4 on: January 23, 2011, 07:03:11 pm »
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Hmmm.  That's a new one.  I'll check it out.
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Offline Kung Fu Jesus

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Re: Kong Ming's Short Guide to Making Your Own Maps.
« Reply #5 on: January 23, 2011, 08:46:09 pm »
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Ya not sure what happened. All I did was copy native folders and renamed it to my mod. Then copied the lines you mentioned into scenes and scripts. Tried to play my mod and -error.
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Offline Whalen207

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Re: Kong Ming's Short Guide to Making Your Own Maps.
« Reply #6 on: January 23, 2011, 08:56:40 pm »
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http://notepad-plus-plus.org/  <--- Makes it infinitely easier, reformats the notes in an easier way.

And, as for that 'problem', the .sco file is the raw data of that map's object placement. You might have to clear your map over again and start from the basics.

Kong, I also recommend posting screenshots. They tell more than lines of text.
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Re: Kong Ming's MUCH IMPROVED Short Guide to Making Your Own Maps.
« Reply #7 on: January 23, 2011, 11:50:34 pm »
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Updated the tutorial to make it both work, AND 10X EASIER!  Let me know how it goes!

Note: @ KungFuJesus- There was a typo in the line I had you copy  :rolleyes:.  Just try it with my new method and you should be fine.
« Last Edit: January 24, 2011, 12:19:41 am by Kong Ming »
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Re: Kong Ming's MUCH IMPROVED Short Guide to Making Your Own Maps.
« Reply #8 on: January 24, 2011, 02:59:51 am »
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Everything seems to work correctly. Thanks.

There are a few issues though. Your link is screwed up. Looks like you added an extra http.
When I first click Host to pick my map, there are a lot of wierd things on the left side of the screen that make no sense.

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I don't know if thats how stuff should look but its misplaced and took me a minute to figure out which option I needed to pick my map. Once I got into the map, everything seemed fine, if not completely cumbersome. The editor is not exactly the most user-friendly system. I'll have to play around a while to figure out how to make things look pretty and place things in the right spot and not half into the ground.


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Offline Kong Ming

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Re: Kong Ming's MUCH IMPROVED Short Guide to Making Your Own Maps.
« Reply #9 on: January 24, 2011, 04:17:47 am »
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Dear Kung Fu Jesus,
Thank you for always being my guinea pig.  I have fixed the download link, and added more files to the download that seem to fix the problems you encountered.  Apparently the module system edits more than just the three files I originally included to add the maps.  Rather than narrow down which file I was missing (too drunk and lazy), I simply added all of them, which is still less than 2MB.  In the future I may be more precise.  But the important thing is, try one more time and it should all work fine.  Hope hope hope...

Edit:  My next goal is to produce a step by step guide to the editor itself with screenshots which I'll probably do in the next day or two, so play around but fear not, I'll go further.  (farther?)
« Last Edit: January 24, 2011, 04:19:25 am by Kong Ming »
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Offline Kung Fu Jesus

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Re: Kong Ming's MUCH IMPROVED Short Guide to Making Your Own Maps.
« Reply #10 on: January 24, 2011, 06:40:49 am »
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Everything seems to be working right now. I've been playing around within the editor. Now I just need to decide on something.
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Offline Kong Ming

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Re: Kong Ming's MUCH IMPROVED Short Guide to Making Your Own Maps.
« Reply #11 on: January 24, 2011, 07:35:03 am »
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Cool glad to hear it's working.  Tomorrow I'll probably start putting up a guide to help with actual editing.
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Offline zagibu

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Re: Kong Ming's MUCH IMPROVED Short Guide to Making Your Own Maps.
« Reply #12 on: January 24, 2011, 04:17:11 pm »
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Very good idea with the 20 blank maps! This should help a lot of ppl to get into map making, good work.
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Offline Kung Fu Jesus

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Re: Kong Ming's MUCH IMPROVED Short Guide to Making Your Own Maps.
« Reply #13 on: January 25, 2011, 11:39:07 am »
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So how do I create spawn points?
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Offline Kong Ming

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Re: Kong Ming's MUCH IMPROVED Short Guide to Making Your Own Maps.
« Reply #14 on: January 25, 2011, 06:18:31 pm »
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In object mode, switch from placing scene props to placing entry points.  Place two entry points, one for each team, and point them in the general direction you want players to face when they spawn.  Then select each point and on the left there are two fields, variable 1 and variable 2.  For the first entry point make variable 1 "0" and for the second entry point make variable 1 "32".  This makes them entry points 0 and 32 which are the two entry points the game uses to spawn the teams in Battle.  For deathmatch you need to place entry points 0-63 all over the map.
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