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Making maps

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How do you do it? I found a page on the spring wiki but it was pretty vague and outdated. Note that this needs to be done on Linux.
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Spring has too much maps already, believe me you dont want to waste your time on them. Most of good maps are underplayed. Unless you have super uber idea which everyone would like.

If you still want to make map search help in spring forums there is no problem making them with linux or whatever basically you making heightmap with blender for example then texturize it with L3DT or whatever you like. All my maps was done under linux 100%.
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11 years ago
IMO, we don't play enough asymmetrical maps.

Rough terrain with steep winding valleys vs 100% flat ground
Height advantage with less metal vs flat lowground with more
Start in mountains vs start in sea
Windfarm backline + Geos with low metal vs high metal with no easy energy
Reclaim rocks + low metal vs high metal
High metal in center start vs normal metal all around the sides
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11 years ago
Thanks for some ideas jseah. I need to know how to make them though, preferably from someone who makes good ones.
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11 years ago
Making sort of 'neat' or 'unique' maps is what gets maps not played.

Make a good, solid map with interesting terrain layout, lots of veh-passable areas but not totally flat, and even metal distribution. This is better than gimmicks.

You're meant to do it this way:
http://springrts.com/phpbb//viewtopic.php?f=56&t=26028
That's not how I do it but... that's how you're meant to.
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11 years ago
Here's a holy grail kind of idea: A map that can be played with any factory the game has, widely utilizing fords (depth 5 passages which almost don't slow down ground units at all, yet allow most ships), shallows (depth 15 passages allowing all kinds of naval wildlife and slowing ground units yet still allowing them to pass).

Imagine playing a non-onesided yet still hilariously weird game, like spiders vs ships, or cars vs amphs.
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There's a good beginners tutorial which walks through the entire process here: http://springrts.com/wiki/Mapdev:Tutorial_Simple

It's mainly just making a bunch of image maps and using mapconv to compile them together for Spring. It can be done with as little as photoshop/gimp, a text editor, and mapconv for linux. Your work will be greatly enhanced by a terrain generator though, allowing you to make realistic looking landscapes and textures.

Most are windows/mac only unfortunately. I haven't tried this one but it supports linux and seems capable by the screenshots. http://geomorph.sourceforge.net/screenshots/screenshots.html

Spring has a shit ton of maps already, but the amount of good ones is very few in comparison. There's lots of room left for original ideas, especially if you can implement some lua gadgetry without breaking the map for most people (See Duke Nukem 4 for example). There are VERY few maps with lua gadgetry that actually work as intended.

Also, I don't know of any active mappers besides myself (probably beherith) who actually test playability with ZK. There's room left for ZK specific mapping.

You'll likely run into problems, ask me if you do or post on the spring mapping forum http://springrts.com/phpbb/viewforum.php?f=13&sid=8d8daab7eecbeb4a59f7f3679f5c6335
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11 years ago
quote:
Make a good, solid map with interesting terrain layout, lots of veh-passable areas but not totally flat, and even metal distribution.
Boooring. There are more than enough of those maps: hills on one side and a flat area either on other side or in middle.

Click around the wiki, there is much content and many different guides.
Sadly some people refuse to have a mapping start page that functions as portal to all of them, so you must find them yourself. lol.
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11 years ago
There's room for more FFA maps always. But either way, an important thing to remember is what players actually play, not what they say they want. Players tend to stick to maps that are simple... clear ramps, defensible start-points, etc.

I mean, I'd love to see a map that's designed for amphibs and jumpies - make a map full of steep bot-slope island-mountains, close-packed so that jumpies can leap from island to island. No metal underwater, but lots of mexes on ship-accessible beaches. I'd love to see a crazy map like that, just because I've never seen it... but I also know nobody would play it.
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I used the tutorial form http://springrts.com/wiki/Mapdev:Tutorial_Simple and then tried to compile the map with "springMapConvNG -t diffuse.png -h heightmap.png -m metalmap.png -v grassmap.png -minimap mini.bmp -ct 1 -o TutorialMap". It spits out an error:
"bmp -ct 1 -o TutorialMap
Range : 0 -> 45746
Loading minimap mini.bmp
terminate called after throwing an instance of 'CannotLoadImageException'
what(): mini.bmp
Aborted (core dumped)"

I just did what the tutorial said and this is what happened. What does that all mean? Is it something wrong with mapconv?

Also geomorph looks interesting. I will look into it.
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11 years ago
Is your source minimap file named mini.bmp?
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11 years ago
DErank[2up]knorke: New non-gimmicky maps aren't boring when playing competitively. The differences in terrain layout can make a larger difference than is obvious at a glance or first play.

During the 1v1 tournament a few months ago, finding a varied mix of 1v1 maps was not easy, and if these were more regular new maps would keep it fresh, even if it is just a question of solid, simple terrain, metal, reclaimables and vents.
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11 years ago
What is it always with "gimmicky maps"...
I mean bland maps like Red Coment, Dark Side, Alien Desert, Geyser Plains,(...) that are either completly flat or the heightmap is negligibe. Still for competive playing these maps are the most popular.
Quickly looking at last tourneys map poool I see only 2 maps with water. (maybe water is unpopular due to balance?)

GBrankTheSponge could also be wrong resolution or colordepth. or try to just leave minimap out, one will be generated. (thats what i did)
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Oh, I'm sorry, I thought you were referring also to maps like Trojan Hills, Ravaged, Battle for Planet XVII, or Forgotten Crossing. Granted, I tend to prefer maps with a varied heightmap (both to play and make) so I suppose I wasn't noticing the others as much.
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11 years ago
Add crazy meteorite that will fall down from they sky everywhere!
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11 years ago
I changed the minimap to mini.png and it worked fine. Now I cant test it without uploading to springfiles though. It does not display in the springlobby singleplayer map list or if I run spring directly.
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11 years ago
quote:
Add crazy meteorite that will fall down from they sky everywhere!

This would actually be better done using modoptions so we can make meteor shower on any map.
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GBrankTheSponge I'm a little rusty but i think if you're using the blueprint(or mapinfo.lua), having any bad syntax in the mapinfo.lua can do that. Also this http://springrts.com/phpbb/viewtopic.php?f=13&t=29063 is a problem sometimes.
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@[FG]Funkencool You were right. There was a line in mapinfo.lua:
smtFileName.. = "",
It needed to be:
smtFileName = "",
Now I just need to make some good maps. The problem I have is how to make good terrains. I tried geomorph (suggested by CArankTheMooseIsLoose) but it crashes whenever I press a button. I tried sculpting it in blender but 128mb of video memory is barely enough for half a small 1v1 map. How do others make their terrains?
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Pro method for low memory users: draw it in gimp using gradients and brain-powered visualization. That won't create top-notch content but can be quite decent.

Though, GPU memory limits should not be very taxing for blender, it's more likely that your CPU is slowish instead. You could probably still do it, but it would be a slideshow.
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