Making Maps playable

Shrooblord

New member
Joined
Sep 27, 2010
Messages
15
Hi,

I don't wish to be someone to just point somewhere else and go "just look over there", but that's basicly what I'll have to do right here, I'm afraid. I described my problem in pretty much detail over at the official forum, but noone there seems to know the answer, so I guessed I could come to a forum that's specialised in this kind of thing.

Here's the link to the thread:
http://lionhead.com/forums/t/287814.aspx

Thanks in advance,
Shrooblord

EDIT:
I guess I could also just post the text I posted there over here.
Here it is:

I created this .lnd file with EdenProject Land Creator. The file is saved in
"C:\Program Files\Lionhead Studios Ltd\Black & White\Data\Landscape". I also put a test version of my map file in the Playgrounds folder. Now, when I test my map, it shows up in the folder, I am able to load it, but the Landscape itself isn't there! The Temple I placed is floating above the sea, in the position it should be in, but still floating! Also, when I move into my influence, the game chrashes. It doesn't display any error messages, it just quits.

I did some research and found out that in the Landscape folder there are also the three files of the official Skirmish maps: forugods.fot, threegods.fot and twogods.fot. These are all FOT files. I also noticed they are signifficantly smaller in size in comparisson to LND files.

So, I guess my question is: how do I change my .lnd file into a .fot and will that solve my problem? Will that stop the game from randomly not displaying the landscape? If not, what else should I do?

--

All land files I've found are accompanied by FOT files; how do you create these? How did any of you create your custom map? How were the custom maps created in the first place? Could anyone give me some pointers, please?
--

Thanks again,
Shrooblord
 
xyz.lnd is the correct file type. Xyz.fot is just a zoomed out  view and not needed "in game"
Eden Project died as unfinished many years ago.
To create a totally new skirmish map you need to do 2 things.
1. Create a new land the  easiest way is to edit an existing land with BWsurveyer. Easily the easyist/best for the less than expert.
2. Use an editor to create a map that uses  your new xyz.lnd file this file is plain text. You can use notepad but  Worldmod or  Express can save a lot of time.
.
Just for the real beginners......
Play the Twogods skirmish for  while then quit.
Edit the skirmish file and save as myland or similar ...the text file will be in the playgrounds folder.
Restsart the game. Select skirmish and see what happens.
 
I'll have to disagree with Grem in terms of landscape creation. Surveyor is best for editing a landscape, in my opinion, not creating one, as it is limited by the original landscape's size and general shape, and even if you have the patience to get the coastlines right so they don't jump in the air, they still appear jagged and pixellated. Lndromat is probably the best, as long as you have an image editor that can save as .raw (GIMP is what I use, and it's free, you can Google it for a download), and have the patience to blur out the coasts properly. You also get to control the shape and, within a certain extent, the size, and you're not limited by the brushes in Surveyor, just by your patience.

Which reminds me. I'm not sure about EdenProject, since I've never used it, but in lndromat sometimes the landscape will save as the wrong file type. So, it may be a really stupid question, but have you checked to see if the file is actually appended .lnd? Though it sounds like you actually have a texture issue, in which case it's just a problem with the software and using either Surveyor or lndromat should solve the problem.
 
Okapidragon said:
I'll have to disagree with Grem in terms of landscape creation. Surveyor is best for editing a landscape, in my opinion, not creating one, as it is limited by the original landscape's size and general shape, and even if you have the patience to get the coastlines right so they don't jump in the air, they still appear jagged and pixellated. Lndromat is probably the best, as long as you have an image editor that can save as .raw (GIMP is what I use, and it's free, you can Google it for a download), and have the patience to blur out the coasts properly. You also get to control the shape and, within a certain extent, the size, and you're not limited by the brushes in Surveyor, just by your patience.

Which reminds me. I'm not sure about EdenProject, since I've never used it, but in lndromat sometimes the landscape will save as the wrong file type. So, it may be a really stupid question, but have you checked to see if the file is actually appended .lnd? Though it sounds like you actually have a texture issue, in which case it's just a problem with the software and using either Surveyor or lndromat should solve the problem.
Click to expand...

Thanks, both of you, it gives me hope already to see people actually know something about this over here. I've grown accustomed to Eden Project now, but am willing to switch to another Editor if this is necesairy. I have another question now though: can I just edit my land in Eden Project and then open it in another Editor, save it through the new editor and THEN use it, as opposed to completely stop using EP? Like I said, I am finally starting to figure out how the Editor works and wouldn't want to have to switch over if there's another option, but I would if there isn't.

Then I now also have a completely different question: is there an easy way to know how to rotate certain buildings? For example, how should I find out exactly how to place the Worship sites in relation to the Temple? Is there some guide line I should follow, for example, 'Worship Site rotation is always placed 40 degrees anticlockwisely in relation to the Temple's rotation"?

Thanks,
Shrooblord
 
Ooh. Rotation's a hard one. I've never figured it out, and for worship sites I just rip it from another map and adjust according to the difference in the location of the temple, and it usually seems to work. We've got a rotation calculator, but it doesn't really work 100% of the time; More like maybe 10%. Rotation is something I've always done either by fiddling, or that I just haven't worried about and have made random.
 
Let me say this again by far the easiest way to create your own land with reference to the fact you have used EP is to edit down an existing land. Surveyor is the best for this.
Creating  a new land from scratch is possible but as a learner you don't need to get bogged down in that just yet.
"First learn how to tweak existing" then if you are keen you can build from new. Nobody ever learned to  drive a car by growing a rubber tree to make the tyres, or mining iron for the engine.
.
Rotation is very simple..... it is just worked in radians not degrees.
I have attached a calculator/converter to make it easy if you need it.
 
I'm still growing my rubber trees, can't wait to drive in ~20 years. Mined all the ore already.
 
Sorry, my bad. Don't know why I said that. I chopped down all the ordinary wood trees in the land already and made an artifact, so I'll have a really BIG wooden car.
 
Don't worry Rubber trees  don't exist in  B&W1 either.  :D 
So your wooden car won't have  tyres of either rubber or iron.
In CI there is something close to a rubber tree but you can't use it in  B&W1.
 
Well, I assumed we were talking about the weird rubbery CI trees that I've only seen in screenshots.

But now we're getting off-topic.
 
Well of topic, but it seems to me  that  there needs to  be a bit of activity  on this site.
So any post is good,  even if it one of our  usual "spats"  :D
 
Well ok but I pay peanuts  and mostly get  monkeys.
.
Okapi's like grass and dragons are associated with fire so do I assume your favoured method of payment  would be smoking grass.  :laugh2

 
Ready to take this conversation meta?

On second thought, better not. -_- We're getting really terribly off-topic now.
 
Okapidragon said:
Ready to take this conversation meta?

On second thought, better not. -_- We're getting really terribly off-topic now.
Click to expand...
Here I was thinking people had given me thousands of solutions! Haha, silly me.

Oh, that wasn't a rant by the way, I don't really mind randomness in my posts, as long as they're accompanied by SOME seriousness every now and then.
And my Creature eats the trees!  :no Looks like there will be no wooden carts or cars in my Eden... unless you count the stomachtopia that is the civilisation that lives on things my Creature eats besides trees.

So, how's that for randomness? ;D
Anyway, let's get back on topic now, please.
The overall advice is to learn from existing maps, right?
 
That is the best way to learn .
Just get a working map and fiddle with it  a bit and see what  happens.
One of the  best maps  for this is my New Eden map... While it is  a working map the playable  area is  large in versions 2 and 3.  You have my full permission to edit  / use  portions or all of the map script in any way you want or just  ask  what that dose.  The zoo was my favourite part but as usual it was created using tricks.
.
The best popular example of a few changes going a long  way is the difference between  2gods and Peckys Evil map    about  6  lines were changed perhapse ten.
Play both and see the difference "on the ground" then compare the scripts.
.
Sorry about the spam with  Okapi  but I thought the thread was abandoned.
 
Gremxula said:
That is the best way to learn .
Just get a working map and fiddle with it  a bit and see what  happens.
One of the  best maps  for this is my New Eden map... While it is  a working map the playable  area is  large in versions 2 and 3.  You have my full permission to edit  / use  portions or all of the map script in any way you want or just  ask  what that dose.  The zoo was my favourite part but as usual it was created using tricks.
.
The best popular example of a few changes going a long  way is the difference between  2gods and Peckys Evil map    about  6  lines were changed perhapse ten.
Play both and see the difference "on the ground" then compare the scripts.
.
Sorry about the spam with  Okapi  but I thought the thread was abandoned.
Click to expand...

Ah, thanks! That's a lot of great advice.

This all leads to yet another question, though, I'm afraid:
Where do I install the maps to make them work correctly? I've tried the Playgrounds folder place for Skirmish ones (as the original three are already in there), the Multiplayer folder for the ones that are for multiplayer games and several other locations, but none of them seem to make the right maps show up in the right menus.

Thanks again for all that's been answered,
Shrooblord
 
An example is often the  best way so.
You DL'd my EG map zip.
Unzip  all to  a temporary folder.
This produces 3 files.
Readme.txt......................Just  put that on the desktop for now.
Dance.lnd........goes into the my installed path.....Data/landscapes.
EG_Map.txt......goes into the  Playgrounds folder.
.
Some  maps also contain  a creature mind/s they go in  the Creature Minds  folder. These are the small files usually  ending in .erc.
OK so as a general rule.
XYZ.lnd is  a landscape not  always needed if an existing one is used.
XYZ.txt is normally the  map you play on  a landscape.
ReadmeXYZ.txt just for information.
.....
Any other files in the 6-64K range  usually can  be  assumed to  be creature  minds.
 
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