Scene Editing: How To

[Airith]

http://forums.taleworlds.com/index.php/topic,112508.0.html

Read this thread, do the tutorial. Ta da, you're a scene editor now.

I am putting scenes into the official cRPG release (Strategus too) as well as the scene admin for the NA cRPG servers.

Purpose of this section: Discuss scenes from Strategus (bugs, exploits, etc), and discuss scenes from the varying regional servers (NA, EU, OC, CN, etc).

Link to pictures (normal and satellite) of the villages, castles, and towns in Calradia.
http://eelio.pagesperso-orange.fr/

[Kafein]

I suggest you add to your post that the part about the quick scene chooser AND the module system are completly useless if you just want to make maps. These steps are by far the most annoying to do.

To avoid using the module system, simply edit the text files directly (scenes, strings and scripts if you want to test the spawns with AI).

To add a map in scenes.txt, simply copy the 4 lines of a multi map and paste them after all the multiplayer maps, then make the correct changes. As simple with strings.txt

[Airith]

Well to be honest, I'd rather people avoid that. I've had problems with that method that result in none of my changes being saved, so I don't trust it at all. But people are free to use it.

[Kong Ming]

Well, I definitely gave up on scening on two separate occasions because I couldn't get the quick scene chooser to work correctly, so I think it would still be worth mentioning that it's probably best to avoid it.  As for the module system, it's much better if you can use it, but I know many people with Vista (poor bastards) can't get the compiler to function properly so their only option is to edit the already compiled text files.

I got my two map discussion threads from the old forum set up here.  It's very exciting to have our own little corner of the internet to work in.

[zagibu]

Maybe someone should make an "editor scene" with all props placed and grouped thematically. I find it a bit tedious sometimes to scroll through the endless proplist looking for a crate or something to put in a corner. Also, the props are named a bit confusingly, so that you might miss some castle props etc., if you don't check them all (e.g. I almost missed the big snowy gatehouse, because it's not named in the same pattern as the other snomy castle parts).

[Kung Fu Jesus]

I think there needs to be a tutorial for complete retards like myself. Imagine you are telling a 5 year old how to do this. Then I might be able to understand everything.

[zagibu]

Sorry, but there are topics that 5 year olds simply can't understand, no matter how well it is explained to them. I'm not saying that scene editing is one of them, though. Maybe I'm giving it a try later...

[zagibu]

Okay, here is an as easy as it gets explanation. Unfortunately, it's not complete yet (read the bottom note):

Preparations
- Go into your M&B installation folder and in there, find the subfolder "Modules"
- Make a copy of the "Native" folder and paste it into the "Modules" subfolder with a new name, e.g. "Mapping"
- Start M&B and in the launcher, click on "Configure", go to "Advanced" tab, and check "Enabled edit mode"

Creating a terrain string
- Start M&B and in the launcher under "Current module", select your newly created module
- Start a new campaign, and when you are on the world map, click on the new button "Terrain" in the lower left
- Play around with the options (note that vegetation, etc. placed this way can't be removed later) and once satisfied, click on "Copy" to copy your terrain string to the clipboard
- Paste your terrain string into an editor to save it somewhere
- Exit M&B

Editing strings.txt
- Open strings.txt in your new module folder and find the string "multi_scene_end"
- Directly above this line, insert a new line with the strings "str_example_map" and "My_Cool_Example_Map", both without quotes and separated with a space
- Scroll back up to the top of the file and increase the number on line 2 by 1

Editing scenes.txt
- Open scenes.txt  in your new module folder and find the string "multiplayer_maps_end"
- Right above this line, insert the following text (note the correlation with your entries in strings.txt):

Code: [Select]

scn_example_map example_map 256 none none 0.000000 0.000000 100.000000 100.000000 -100.000000 0x00000002200005000005f57b00005885000046bd00006d9c
  0
  0
 outer_terrain_plain
- Replace the long string 0x000000...etc. with your terrain string you created earlier
- Replace "outer_terrain_plain" with one of the following: outer_terrain_beach, outer_terrain_desert, outer_terrain_plain, outer_terrain_snow, outer_terrain_steppe
- Scroll back up to the top of the file and increase the number on line 2 by 1

Editing scripts.txt
- Open scripts.txt  in your new module folder and find the string "multiplayer_fill_map"
- Right below this line, you will see a loooooooong line of numbers
- Despair

Hosting and editing the map
- Host a new multiplayer map of the desired game type and select your map
- Hit Alt + Enter to enter windowed mode
- Hit Ctrl + E to start Edit mode (sometimes takes a little while to load)
- When you're done, hit Ctrl + E again and when prompted, save or discard the changes

As you can see, the instructions are incomplete. The reason is, I'm using the module system, which does that step automatically for me, so I don't know what numbers to add where manually. This line tells M&B what maps are available in what MP modes. You won't be able to host your map without this info. You COULD load it with the quick scene chooser though, but getting that to work is also quite bothersome for many ppl. Maybe someone else can complete this step. If not, I might get back to it later...

[Airith]

Entry points for battle:
0 - attackers
32 - defenders
66, 67, 68 - places the master of the field flag at one of these points

siege:
0-31 defenders
32-64 attackers
66 - flag

[zagibu]

There is more for siege:

When placing ladders and siege towers, arrange them on the map in their final position. Then place the entry points. Note that after a reload of the map, ladders and siege towers will always appear in their starting positions, so you have to get them right the first time, or, after having loaded the map, spawn as player and move them to their final positions again, so that you can rearrange them.

100-109 For ladders (One per ladder, direction = ladder orientation when on ground)
110-119 For siege tower 1 (Starts at 110 and moves over all entry points to final position against wall)
120-129 For siege tower 2 (Starts at 120 and moves over all entry points to final position against wall)
130-139 For siege tower 3 (Starts at 130 and moves over all entry points to final position against wall)

Ladders have only 1 walkable side. If you fall through while it is against the wall, rotate it around its long axis. Also rotate the entry point around the pointing axis, or the ladder will do a half-rotation around its long axis while going up.

[Airith]

Yeah I forgot about those ones. One thing though, I've tried testing out the siege tower placements, but it won't let you place entry points above 134 or some weird number.

[zagibu]

Yeah I forgot about those ones. One thing though, I've tried testing out the siege tower placements, but it won't let you place entry points above 134 or some weird number.

Hmmm, I have only tried the first siege tower myself...oh well, I guess two siege towers should be enough for most maps.

[zagibu]

To those who claim you can do everything without the module system: How do you find out the var id of your new map identifier so you can add it to scripts.txt?

[Airith]

To those who claim you can do everything without the module system: How do you find out the var id of your new map identifier so you can add it to scripts.txt?

scripts.txt is an uneditable file, a bunch of giberrish in number form. One method is replacing an already existing map with yours (have to keep the same as the old one) and then try playing the old map. Again, I do not recommend .txt editing, but it will work in a dirty way :p

[zagibu]

I guess the only way people have to edit without the module system, is to copy native module, overwrite one of the existing maps in scenes.txt and then load that. How do the server admins integrate new maps into the rotation? Maybe their approach could be useful for editing, too.