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Map-Making Tips for a Dummy, Please!

Started by detourne_me, April 08, 2016, 06:02:55 PM

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detourne_me

So I thought I could shake off the rust on modding and make a map for my Star Wars ships to play on.
I forgot quite a bit about maps though.
I've got a few issues with one I made.

I want a space map,  Right now I'm using an Imperial Star Destroyer as the "floor" of the map, but I would like to install an invisible floor, and have the Star Destroyer floating underneath it, in the sky sphere.
Is this possible?  How can I increase the playable area, like do I actually need a solid floor for the characters to 'stand' on.
Spoiler

Also, The lighting is a bit too bright.  I know that there is a Light in the Mission.dat, but I'm unsure how to adjust it.
Spoiler
Would I also be able to disperse those clouds a bit too?

As an aside, To give the vehicles a better feel I should send the .hero to DAT and up the Move Radius of the character, right? Would that stop them from running into each other?

Podmark

I can't offer any help but those screenshots are really cool.
Get my skins at:
HeroForce
my Google page

BentonGrey

Mostly ditto.  I'm afraid I don't know mapping well enough to offer too much here, but that does look really cool!  Also, we totally need some new maps, so I'm all for this!

I THINK you have to have some type of playing surface.  Thinking of other space maps, they've got an object hanging in space that the action can play out on.  I suppose it would probably be possible to do an invisible floor, but I'm not sure how.  I wonder if creating a floor object with a big bounding box might do it?
God Bless
"If God came down upon me and gave me a wish again, I'd wish to be like Aquaman, 'cause Aquaman can take the pain..." -Ballad of Aquaman
Check out mymods and blog!
https://bentongrey.wordpress.com/

detourne_me

Bounding box, that's it! I've got to figure out how to change the extants of the map.  I also wonder if scale is another issue I'm having here. I've adjusted all of the meshes to scale more or less, so I think that might be an issue....  But Tommyboys mega maps are huge, too......

I remembered how to delete the lights and the clouds. (The ones on the map were based on FF1 assets, so there were weird shadows going on)

OrWolvie1

I really don't know anything about making/modifying maps, but I will say that the spoiler you posted looks really sweet!

cmdrkoenig67

Hi DM...I wish I could help out, but you're going into some territories that I don't have much experience with.  I've had issues with trying to make space maps in the past, so I sort of gave up on them.  I'm glad you were able to sort of the clouds and lights issues.

Dana

detourne_me

Well.... I decided to go down a different route with maps.  FF isn't quite made for vehicular combat anyway.

I've started learning how to import maps from other games, and make them usable in FFVTTR (possibly FF, too, i'm not sure)
However I can't get the EZScript or other FFX rumble modes to work well on them.  Regular battles are OK, but... not quite what I'd like.

If you guys could lend me a hand that would be great!
I've uploaded 2 different maps here: https://www.mediafire.com/folder/rnmrgp8tmp4ey/Maps
One is a small contained map, maybe good for duels or cutscenes, the other is a much larger set of desert maps.  please let me know what you think!

BentonGrey

Ohh, awesome!  It will be a great resource if we can import maps from other games!  I'll give these a look soon, DM.  What kinds of problems are you having with EZS and the like?
God Bless
"If God came down upon me and gave me a wish again, I'd wish to be like Aquaman, 'cause Aquaman can take the pain..." -Ballad of Aquaman
Check out mymods and blog!
https://bentongrey.wordpress.com/

detourne_me

well I added encounter# positional markers, so the maps are selectable.  but once i start up the rumble room, nothing happens. No enemies spawn. i'm flummoxed.

detourne_me

So, I imported a pretty massive map. Seen here is just a corner of it.
Spoiler
However I cannot figure out how to move on the map.  In fact when I load it up It pauses on the "initializing movement plan" for a long while, there are only about 15 parts of terrain to it so far, so it quickly loads after that.
But I just can't figure out how to get characters to move.  I tried using an extents file from one of Tommyboy's massive maps, but that just caused it to stop responding and the map wouldn't even load in the editor.
Come to think of it, this is the same issue I had with the Star Destroyer map, too.

Any advice?

Also If an experienced map maker would like to take my terrain.nifs and make truly decent maps out of them I would gladly welcome the help!

GogglesPizanno

I haven't done any modding for years, but these maps have piqued my interest a bit.
If I get some time this weekend, I might be able to give it a little looksy...  :)

detourne_me

Bump! I noticed people have downloaded the maps.  Any luck with getting them to work?