47 replies to this topic

[Crusard]

You should be able to select any object the same way, very weird

Also, you should try setting the flags and outposts to PlyrCivilian.

And what is a "black-blob" object??

[Scryer]

And what is a "black-blob" object??

I take it that I don't need to ever use black-blob objects that tell you not to rotate them then?

You should be able to select any object the same way, very weird ..

Yeah, to show that I'm not being retarded I am attaching this screen . I just circled the objects that have places for me to click on and placed question marks beside places that I can't click on.. It's weird.

Edit: I tried switching them over to plyrCivilian within the build list window and still got the same results. I'm gonna be screwing around with my map's objects to see if I can change anything.

Edit 2: Okay, I was using the build list tool instead of the place object tool. So it was a retarded mistake on my behalf afterall

Edited by Scryer, 21 December 2009 - 03:28 AM.

[_Haldir_]

EDIT: Crusard beat me to it

Going by the screenies there it's looking nice. I'd suggest maybe having trees in bigger clumps, as singular trees tend to look out of place imo.

I'd maybe go easy on the texturing as well, just because resizing maps, changing terrain and things that get changed from testing tend to stuff up texturing Definitely have a plan for what your textures will be, but perhaps leave texturing to almost last. Especially if this is your first(ish) map That's just the way i do things though, if what you're doing is working for you than just ignore that last bit

Edited by _Haldir_, 21 December 2009 - 06:59 AM.

[Masterbadeend]

I can't select objects like the Warg Lairs or Shipwrights.... Yet I can select trees and shrubs . I have ShowObject Icons on as well.... Is there anyway to solve this problem?

If that's in WB, I think you're quite ****** up. You have everything enabled to see (grass, objects and all things)?
And I'm not sure if it works (never tried it), but you can try the 'fix team' option under 'validation'.

When I go to play the map, the capturable buildings, their flags, and creep lairs don't show up at all in my game. And I do have those objects listed as being built.

By the way, I do not have any of those black-blob objects anywhere in my map so I'm thinking that this is probably the problem.

What do you mean with:''being built''? Do you have a script for it or did you simply place it as an object? I would check the player settings, because I think you accidently, I don't know how, deleted PlayerCreeps or something.
Good luck.

And thanks mike, Masterbadeend, and Puzzler for your advice/feedback!

YW .
I didn't read the other posts .

Edited by Masterbadeend, 21 December 2009 - 09:01 AM.

[Scryer]

Okay..

I'd suggest maybe having trees in bigger clumps, as singular trees tend to look out of place imo.

I am going for a very barren look outside of the city. I have a couple of areas with clumps of trees on the hills, but other than that I am liking how the singular trees show up in my game. I have also been clumping trees with grass, fern, and desert-bush textures so that it looks more natural. I might be digging my own grave here because I am going to have to match Umbar's visuals to the strong desert-theme that I already have going . I am playing around with colour for that though.

I'd maybe go easy on the texturing as well, just because resizing maps, changing terrain and things that get changed from testing tend to stuff up texturing...Definitely have a plan for what your textures will be, but perhaps leave texturing to almost last.

I have always been doing texturing 2nd, terrain is done first in my order. Re-sizing is a pain in the ass but whatever . I like my order so far because it gives me a better sense of space as I'm creating the map. I do agree that it is probably not wise to do texturing early on in the "to-do" list but so far it hasn't been failing me.

The only parts of my map that I don't have textures planned for is the city. For that I am looking to do cobble-stones with blue tints to them; and I'll just place the cobblestone over my 'wilder' textures and edge them out. But I haven't made any final decisions on which cobble-stone textures I want yet.

Edited by Scryer, 21 December 2009 - 09:26 AM.

[Puzzler33]

You realise the thing about not being able to select certain things in worldbuilder is something you can change (Edit>Object selection (something like that)) where you see a list of Nothing, Anything, Waypoints, Objects, Grass (etc.) and you tick them as appropriate. You usually have it on selecting anything but it can be quite useful if you only want to select the trees in an area or you want to select everything but the waypoints. I think you also have to have them viewed (View menu) in order to select things too. I'm not sure whether this has been answered or not but there we go.

(For the benefit of the others, who I don't think understood the description of the black blob...) I don't have any experience with those black blob objects but I take it you are talking about the (mostly) black circles of varying sizes which say something like: 'Do not rotate, seriously' on them. I think these are used where you place the fortresses and neutral buildings of the map.

+1 on the map making priority of creation – I always do (preparation and set up of players), terrain then textures then (or at the same time) objects, (then potentially scripts and ini coding).

[mike_]

Those 'black blobs' were castle/camp/outpost/settlement plots in BFME1. So far as I'm aware they serve no purpose in BFME2.




Unless you're Robnkarla

[Puzzler33]

Ah right. (I wouldn't know either way).

[Scryer]

Well I'm not Robnkarla today so... .

Okay I have the textures and vegetation done for the northern piece of land and everything else is done for the southern piece of land.

Tonight I should be able to complete the fun details for both pieces of land.

By the way, here's a taste of what the northern piece of land looks like right now .

The city itself, is still not completed, I'm hoping that I can get this map all completed after Christmas and before my break is over. Like I mentioned before I want to release a WIP version to you guys; so that time is comming around soon hopefully. Like I mentioned before the WIP version won't include the city but it will have completed textures, etc.

[Masterbadeend]

Do you know how to get an another texture into the sea/lake? Because I think, you don't have to agree with me of course, but I think that an another texture would be cool.
I'll give you a link to a tutorial if you don't understand it .

[Puzzler33]

Have you tried putting a few darker textures in places, btw? I was just thinking that at the edge of the sea the rock might be a bit less bright.

Edited by Puzzler33, 23 December 2009 - 12:03 PM.

[Scryer]

Do you know how to get an another texture into the sea/lake? Because I think, you don't have to agree with me of course, but I think that an another texture would be cool.
I'll give you a link to a tutorial if you don't understand it .

Yeah, sure send over the tutorial!! Anything is appreciated .

Hmm, well I have already got a lot of my texturing done on the edges by the water. I was actually kind of liking the brightness to it.. If I was going to change the edges, I would change it to a softer sand (probably a Rhun sand) that I have in mind. I'll look over this tutorial (that you will hopefully link to me ) and see what it's all about and make any changes accordingly.

I should have probably mentioned this before but right now the water is just there for playability reasons.

[Masterbadeend]

Linky

[Crusard]

Do you know how to get an another texture into the sea/lake? Because I think, you don't have to agree with me of course, but I think that an another texture would be cool.
I'll give you a link to a tutorial if you don't understand it .

Yeah, sure send over the tutorial!! Anything is appreciated .

You already had this link

[Scryer]

[

You already had this link

I thought so but I just wanted to see if Masterbadeend had a different link .


EDIT: Hey guys I have got the first WIP Umbar version up. It will also go on the first post.


After you guys play through it, let me know what you think! Installation instructions can be found on the readme file.


 Umbar.rar   317.01KB   43 downloads


Note: The city is not even started on... The area that is suppose to be the city is bare and NOTHING has been done to it yet. The textures touching the water are currently not edited. This version of the map is suppose to reflect its playability (for the most part, the Umbar city will change things pretty dramatically).

Edited by Scryer, 24 December 2009 - 02:03 AM.

[Scryer]

Hope you all had a great holiday! I am double posting to give you guys more screenshots of the work I've done to the city.

I see some of you have downloaded my map (or at least I'm pretty sure that I didn't click on it more than twice to check if it's been added right ); so feedback, suggestions? Should I just quit now and play a remade Umbar in my imagination ?

Anyways these are the screenshots of the work I've done to the city so far. It's suppose to be a forge:

Screenshot 11
Screenshot 12


So this is my plan with the city:

1. The walls are going to be Gondor-base walls unless I find a darker recolour to download. And by darker, I'm referring to a more sandstone-type colour. Something that isn't white .

2. I plan on using Dale buildings. Why? Because there are only two Umbar buildings and they look kind of lame in my opinion. But I'll be dressing up the Dalean buildings.

3. I'm giving the Umbar player an Inn and an Outpost. I am considering giving the Umbar player another outpost since it is a little crowded in the city so far.


And here are the list of issues that I've run into:

1. The Southeast gate is not playable by the Umbar player. For example, you cannot click it to open/close the gates. I've got it under player_2_inherit and I've matched the Z-axis and the angle to the arch that the gate goes in.... It's strange because I have got the Northwest gate to work perfectly but I cannot get the southeast gate to work.... Help is welcome .

2. I cannot get the trebuchets onto their platforms (which are connected to the walls) . They appear in the game (to the correct player) but they either appear inside the walls or in front of the walls. Which is weird because I keep placing the trebuchet icons on the trebuchet platforms . Anyways, the trebuchet platforms had to be set at a Z-axis of -10 in order to fit onto the walls correctly; so I'm thinking that this might be my problem and that I might have to just give the player wall-plots to build their own trebuchets .

*** I got those issues fixed thanks to good fortune and Shikari's suggestion ***

And once again, any comment, suggestion, constructive criticism is welcome!

Edited by Scryer, 04 January 2010 - 12:40 AM.

[m@tt]

The ground brick textures in those two screens don't match well

[Shikari]

This looks really good Scryer

2. I cannot get the trebuchets onto their platforms (which are connected to the walls) . They appear in the game (to the correct player) but they either appear inside the walls or in front of the walls. Which is weird because I keep placing the trebuchet icons on the trebuchet platforms . Anyways, the trebuchet platforms had to be set at a Z-axis of -10 in order to fit onto the walls correctly; so I'm thinking that this might be my problem and that I might have to just give the player wall-plots to build their own trebuchets .

You can sometimes muddle your way around this by building land up under the platform, so that it is flat on the top. If you can do it skilfully enough the platform will entirely hide the land, and the trebuchet will appear to sit on the platform even though it is actually on the land. I'm not sure why this is necessary, but sometimes it is the only way. You could also use the gondor fortress trebuchet expansions, which will spawn trebs and take all the headache out of it for you.

Keep up the good work

[Scryer]

Thanks Shikari and everyone else for the feedback.

Now I am not going to double post but I am going to abuse my powers to delete my post this once (please don't ban me admins).

Okay, I wouldn't do this without having something important to do this over; so attached below is the first completed version of Umbar. It even includes a map description this time!

Anyways, the city and the harbour island are completed (or at least they are to me). And there are probably a couple of minor glitches that still need to be worked out. The installation instructions and the terms of use are located on the readme file I attached:

 Umbar_1.0.rar   328.22KB   32 downloads


I'm also replacing old screenshots on the first page to give you guys a better idea of how it actually looks in the game.

EDIT: After playing a bit of a game on my map, I realized that I had some gaps in my passability. This changed the game dramatically, so I'm uploading a quick edit that addresses some of those issues .

By the way, if you get a chance to have a game on my map, you are more than welcome to post any suggestions, bugs, etc.

And I recently discovered that my map is RJ-ROTWK compatible if you follow the readme installation instructions correctly .

Edited by Scryer, 06 January 2010 - 01:01 AM.

[Crusard]

The terrain was way too plain. Really nothing going on, just the small mountain chains that separate each player. Try making some hills, heighten the mountain to make less regular "height jumps".
The water looks very bad... it's so shallow my ships are going through on the sand below it. Make it much deeper and, if you want it transparent, watch carefully what you use as textures and props underneath it.
The textures don't look very good... there just doesn't seem to be much cohesion. It looks like a bunch of different textures mixed together throughout the map. The blool level is a bit excessive. There's quite a few unblended sqares too. You should make a smaller selection of textures and give it a smoother use. Check EA maps texturing to see how they have more defined places such as dirt paths, shrub areas, rocky terrain, etc. using a single (two tops) texture for each terrain type.
The Umbar fortress could use some work as well (it looks too much like BFME1's MotW fortress). The catapults are out of place and have this strange light flicker that looks glitchy. The catapults don't have owner (the walls neither) so you can't destroy them. The main gate is nearly inaccessible, add some more space in front of it.
Beach landing spots are limited to ONE for each player, making it IMPOSSIBLE to land if the enemy has (wisely) placed anything but a single garrisoned tower in them. This made my multiplayer game to stall fast and get boring quickly. Always make sure there's room for different tactics in your maps.

The eyecandy needs to be improved, but most importantly you need to allow for a more open gameplay, otherwise good players will find this map boring to play :(

Edited by Crusard, 09 January 2010 - 08:00 AM.