Re: Building a map, start of a project, help will be needed

[Crikey]

It,s a value applied to a grayscale as desired in the mapname.csv look at the columns ....think there’s one for turning off/on transparency of vegetation too. And one for cannot deploy. You could switch this on for the grayscale you used for the ocean, if not already.

[Marching Thru Georgia]

Units follow route 1 to B, would prefer route 2 of course, but lets not be unrealistically optimistic

A glass half empty kind of guy?

[52ndOx]

Units follow route 1 to B, would prefer route 2 of course, but lets not be unrealistically optimistic

A glass half empty kind of guy?

Ha Ha. Expecting things to be perfect is a bit like seceding.
I will be very happy if my maps even kind of work like I hoped.

It,s a value applied to a grayscale as desired in the mapname.csv look at the columns ....think there’s one for turning off/on transparency of vegetation too. And one for cannot deploy. You could switch this on for the grayscale you used for the ocean, if not already.

You mean "Unit Can't Halt"?
0 already has that set but it doesn't stop units deploying there in sandbox.

[Crikey]

Does it have 1 in that column?

It stops them initially deploying there when the game launches. It doesn’t stop them moving there, once battle commenced. At that stage they just can’t halt. I used it to stop troops spawning on unwanted terrain like oceans..... may help, but not much. B)

[52ndOx]

Does it have 1 in that column?

Yes. They deploy anyway.
Nevermind, thanks, I must be missing something. I'll investigate further.

[52ndOx]

New question now I am looking at roads. :whistle:

In map.csv, do the IDS_ names have any relevance, or is it just the csv values themselves that are important.

I saw some maps with:

IDS_MAP_COBBLESTONE	100
IDS_MAP_COBBLESTONE	105
IDS_MAP_ROAD	110
IDS_MAP_ROAD	115

The only difference is movement modifiers, so of the four values there are only two datasets.

Are they all ok so to link the "move around" path to? If so, are there others? Or is it all just defined in the csv?

[Davinci]

New question now I am looking at roads. :whistle:

In map.csv, do the IDS_ names have any relevance, or is it just the csv values themselves that are important.

I saw some maps with:

IDS_MAP_COBBLESTONE	100
IDS_MAP_COBBLESTONE	105
IDS_MAP_ROAD	110
IDS_MAP_ROAD	115

The only difference is movement modifiers, so of the four values there are only two datasets.

Are they all ok so to link the "move around" path to? If so, are there others? Or is it all just defined in the csv?

Yes, the names are "Defined" in another file that I can't remember the name of, at Work at the moment.

As long as you are using default names you will not receive any "ID Not Found" errors. But that particular error won't cause any other problems. Just a sort of reminder.

If you are asking is it OK to link the "GrayScale Color 25" to them then the answer is Yes, it should be alright to do so.

The Logic behind the "Two Names" is that one is the "Inner Road" and the "Second One" is the outer road.

The purpose is to show that the unit is on the "Road" and not to show something like, Road, field, Road, Grass, Road, etc...

You know, just to have a continued Name showing the units current location.

*** Use those two values in any New Road, one of them ( i.e..Inner Road" has to be the highest value.

The Game is designed to seek out the fastest path in order for the road-system to work, correctly.

davinci

[52ndOx]

Thanks Davinci, that's very helpful.
if there is a file with definitions for the IDS names then I would be interested in looking at it.

I suspect the 25 method is a bit hit or miss. I can make it work for small simple areas, but not on a large complex thing like my coastline. I'm a bit surprised that the engine doesn't seem to support something as basic as impassable terrain.

I completed the road network on my map now, and units seem to follow it including crossing bridges as expected.

[Davinci]

If there is a file with definitions for the IDS names then I would be interested in looking at it.

If Memory serves, it is located in the Work Folder, but its been years since I have seen it.

I suspect the 25 method is a bit hit or miss.

I stopped using it years ago, never could get it to work, correctly.

I completed the road network on my map now, and units seem to follow it including crossing bridges as expected.

Well, You are way ahead of the curve, the Road-System is probably the hardest part of the Map Making Process.

Also, Check the file size of your ( log ), and remember a rough estimate of what that size usually is after loading a game.

This will alert you of any errors, and example would be that mine is approximately ( 25kb ).

So, if the size is larger than that in My Game, I know that there are errors somewhere.

davinci

[52ndOx]

That's a good tip.
I am getting fewer errors as I gain experience. The most common ones have been:

• Saving the height map in the wrong size or tga format. But its finished now.
• Using a fill or other function that blends colours, producing bad values in the BMP. More careful now.
• Forgetting to convert the BMP to gray-scale so it won't load.
• Corrupting a CSV by incorrect load/save. The different csvs are not all the same format, some use other separators than commas and the data columns can get displaced.
• Making edits in PR and forgetting to save before recompiling

Most of them are format errors because SOW is hyper sensitive to different forms of JPG, TGA, BMP and CSV.
It is easy to break the game just by loading and saving a file, without actually editing it.But by using the right editors those problems can be avoided.

Mostly I get less errors now because the community is so helpful. <3