WalkThrough

By Coyote25

Read RBL - 4Nik8r's thoughts on map making prior to reading this. insights.

click on  NEW from the file menu drop down box. for the purposes of this walk through - ignore the rest of the options listed for now - this will be covered later.

you will see a specify tile set and map size box -  for the purposes of this walk through - leave as is. you will notice that the ARIZONA tile set is chosen and the map size is 64 by 64 which is the default size when wz2100 map editor is first used. click ok button to proceed.

this is the first view of the new map - at this point you will notice that the 3d screen is prominent and the 2d screen is just visible. you can move the bar that separates the 2 views by moving your cursor to that bar until it changes to a move cursor icon. more on that later.







go to the map options box in the upper right hand corner - click - drop down box appears - choose map preferences and you will see  the default options as your map now appears. 64 x 64 size. tile texture size  is 64 and tile size is 128
and sea level is 0 and height scale is 1 - for purposes of this walk through leave as is and click ok - more on this later.





now you will notice that there are numerous tiles on the left hand side of the window. use the scroll bar to go down the list until you come to the cliff face tile - as shown. click it to hilight - now go to the first paint brush on the top of the window and click on it. you are now ready to paint with that tile - you want to paint a border from the outside edge of the map to 4 tiles.- as shown - do this for all 4 edges  - around the map. This prevents you from placing oil resources and other objects on the unused portion of the map. if you were to place objects in this area - you will more than likely have errors when you compile the map or it will crash when you go to play the map.




deselect all players except for P0 / E0 - this will ensure you only put down one player at a time -  object placement is critical.

see above about map border.

using the tile / object selection box at left side - scroll down and find the command center structure. click on this - now take the paint brush  over to the 3d  window - click once to place the structure. you now have player  0  command structure. should look like the picture to your right.


now you want to find and place the oil resource. these can be placed anywhere on the map. this will be covered later in more detail. you should now have what is pictured on the right.







now find at the very bottom of the tiles and objects scroll bar - the item called truck (construction droid). click on and paste him in next to the command structure. with out trucks your map will not compile. it will give you an error box stating that one or more players do not have trucks.






using the 2d window - this is what you should see - you may have to use the locator window in the upper left hand corner - place the cursor on the locator map and click to where you want to go. you can use this window to see the placement of objects - re-arrange objects - paint tiles etc. now do the same for players 1 thru 3  - this will give you a 4 player map. keep in mind you can only have an even number of players -2 player - 4 player 8 player.

at this stage your map is FLAT.  if you like flat go on to the gateway tutorials.

making and importing HEIGHT MAPS.   very easy to do. use a graphics program  ( see warzone 2100 map tutorials  - about graphics programs)
 to output a greyscale ( black and white) picture. your imagination is all that is between you and your map.  keep in mind that black is sea level and white is mountains. and if you want easy slopes use gradients of  gray.


at the left you will see a test height map - for purposes of this tutorial - you see areas of light and dark - light areas are raised dark areas will be lowered.
obviously your height map will look different - use your imagination.  when you are done  MAKE SURE TO SAVE IT IN THE  .PCX  file format.
note also that the height map needs to be the same size as the map you are working on  - if your map is 64 by 64 then your height map needs to be 64 by 64. now save it in the map saves file folder in the warzone directory.  .PCX  is the only format warzone 2100 recognizes.

see original map editor for file formats.

after you have made your height map and saved it - you can import it to use in your map by choosing the map options - import height map - click and you will be presented with a drop box - choose the pic that you saved - click on it and press ok.






notice that after the import you now have terrain to deal with  - units will have a tough time with large hills - some areas will be impassable - this is where you can use the cliff face tile so as to prevent units from bunching up and pretty much not doing anything - which is very boring to say the least.






now find the cliff face tile - double click on it and you will get a dialog box with tile preferences in it. here you can choose random  rotate  and random x  flip and random y flip - here it is pretty much experimentation. click ok and continue with painting of cliff face tile.

next picture.

i have done a small amount of painting here to show you what can be done - remember that you are only limited by imagination, the warzone palette and texture/tile sizes.

the next topic covered is GATEWAYS - read  both RBL-4NiC8r 's and Doctor Johns thoughts on gateways - NOTE: Before compiling your new map for the first time - these chapters are pretty much MANDATORY reading as gateway placement and usage is very important for gameplay smoothness.

 now go read!!

when you have read those chapters  continue with the walk through.

gateway placement is critical - i trust after reading the chapters on gateways by RBL - 4NiC8r and DR.John this now makes sense.  keep in mind that A.I. droids love to build on these gateways and will some times wall themselves and their army in. also very boring.  notice the placement of the gateway - if i have read everything correctly this is how they should be placed - if you have a curve - place more in the same fashion through out the curve. as stated before this is just a get aquainted walk through. there are a lot more topics to go over and you have a great deal of reading to do. any questions can be directed to either myself  ( still learning ) or RBL - 4NiC8r at the newst.org - forums site.

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