General Map Making Discussion.

A place to talk about map design, ideas, theories, techniques and novelties to add to maps, etc. As well as screenshots, and anything else.

I'll start with a picture of my archer puzzle map:

 

I am confused about this thread... I thought we discuss maps individually? Or is this to discuss map making techniques in general... if so... why are you posting your archer puzzle map :D I am confused...

Anyways looks interesting! someone should make a [PUZ] Puzzle game mode thread in the game mode forum, with the according server configs to do something like this :)
Or actually can you make specific maps that you play locally and make them have several specific options (like only archer with a certain amount of arrows or smth) like the Swordfight map basically?

That way people could start creating really cool puzzle maps like this one that they can play through alone in their room, with the lights out.

 

Yeah, I just intended this to be a place to discuss techniques and ideas, tricks for map/gamemode types, and all of that stuff that isn't large enough of an issue to warrant its own thread. Just posted a screenshot because I thought it would be helpful to kick things off.

And yeah, I intend to make this map able to be played locally and hosted by a server with the appropriate config files.

 

Thats cool, just wondering about it since it might cause people to dump maps in this thread instead of making dedicated ones, people just LOVE to do that j/k.

Would be nice if you could share code to play a proper archer puzzle like that, I think that would actually be really neat to have (puzzle maps in general) mAz posted something like that in the Game Mode subsection but didn't share his configs, the idea of cooperative "knight climb" maps is peretty cool aswell.
Looking forward to it :3

 

If you want to make a place hard to jump in, you can try the following:

 

Do you guys like symmetrical or asymmetrical maps? Symmetrical is easier to balance but they're not as visually appealing to me personally.

 

It depends, well, on the balance.

 

Asymmetrical maps are much more interesting I think, the balance just lies in how you make areas accessible.

 

Someone make an upside-down map already! =D

 

I am slowly working on one, but I need to figure out how to not make it so unbalanced ;)

 

I suggest having a chasm in between the two halves, requiring the teams to launch troops across. =D

 

Dear A/D map makers:

Stop making A/D maps extremely exploitable and impossible to win

 

you have to use I think... Z and X to move and replace blocks at the location of your cursor?

 

I am currently working on an A/D map, and it is shaping up rather nicely, but I have a few issues. For starters, when I place the pixel for the catapult (while making the map in Paint.NET), the catapults appear in-game, but they have a background dirt block where the pixel was, and it is infuriating.

The second issue at hand is outposts and home points. When I place the pixel, it is removing a background wall tile. Is there any way around this? The other problem with them is that they are both four tiles wide, and yet the pixel is, well, a pixel. It makes sense, seeing as they are entities, but how do I know that they are centered correctly?

And the final order of business is bridges. I would love to have a trap or two on my map, but I do not want bridge tiles without background wall tiles behind them. Did I miss the pixel for them on the list or something, or is there not one?

I would very much appreciate some help here. Thanks guys!

 

Things like that don't spawn in solo mode/editor mode. Removes them from the map file, too. Don't know why. Just build the catapults and outposts where they're supposed to be and put them in the image files.

I think bridges with background tiles are differently colored, a full color palette would be nice. You know, one in an image file so I don't have to use paint.net every time I want to make a map.

 

I don't think there is any color value for tents/outposts/catapults placed on different background tiles, or there is, but we have no way of finding out.

As for bridges, I did some experimenting. In the in-game editor, it is possible to place drawbridges on both castle wall and dirt background tiles, but unfortunately, they both share the same colour value. This means that it is currently impossible to create maps using drawbridges on castle wall, as the block will simple be saved as being on dirt. I think this needs to be fixed sometime soon, to give us mapmakers a bit of support :S . Colours for outposts and home tents placed on different tiles needs to be added too.

Also, the archer map I was working on got overwritten when I updated the game :< (we need better map saving options?).

 

Yeah, agreed, but then the amount of colour values for each tile would be out of control.