Map editor

[JM_]

(google translate)

Once I started making a map editor in Turbo Pascal, but I had a little time. Now I have time and I want to continue.

I want to be able to do anything I want. Connecting or splitting land masses, changing any terrain to any other, etc.

Yet there is something to investigate, but pre-pre-pre-alpha version is able to do all this and game runs OK. Land mass ID and move costs are updated, of course.

But now I ran into a problem.

There are a myriad of codes for each type of terrain - shore, desert etc. I made a lot of fresh maps, discovered the
dependence of individual codes on the surrounding tiles and put the results into spreadsheets. I have complete Desert, Rivers, Mountains and Hills table. Only a small amount of Tundra on maps, but I believe that over time, I have the complete Tundra table. I am now able to draw a desert or mountains area with smooth adjacing tiles.

But I have trouble with the shore. After processing 80 maps I had about 65% of the codes. After 200 maps about 70%. After 480 maps 72%. So it makes no sense to continue this way.

Some configurations never once appeared. One-tile lake (water 1x1) with no incoming river, water tile with 2 rivers incoming from opposite directions, water tile with more than 2 rivers. etc. I extracted sprites from terrain.lbx, looked at them and found that lot of cofigurations have no corresponding sprites, so not every configuration is possible. I edited the missing codes into the map, started the game and tested it in the eyes, but it is a mission impossible.

I know about https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/1430...eGam2.html, it is very useful, but there is no detailed list of codes.

If I change a shore code to any other, game works properly, but shore line looks crazy. I don't like it.
It is possible that the code table will remain incomplete and will be continuously updated with each new game. And the editor will not permit any unknown shore configuration, so edited savegame will contain no inproper values. Buit it looks somewhat... undone.

[Seravy]

By the way, something more important. You do know about continent IDs, right? If you want to change water into land and the opposite, you'll need to edit those as well.

[zitro1987]

I'm wondering: is it possible to decrease the number of tiles on a map or concentrate continents more in one part of the world (Pangaea-style)? Is it just me that feels the world tend to be too large and irritated that we can only change size by specifying how many 'land' tiles are in the world (making 'small' land size too spread out)? I find that this makes games unnecessarily long in most cases. Master of Magic is funnest when it doesn't feel drawn out.

[Seravy]

I'm wondering: is it possible to decrease the number of tiles on a map or concentrate continents more in one part of the world (Pangaea-style)? Is it just me that feels the world tend to be too large and irritated that we can only change size by specifying how many 'land' tiles are in the world (making 'small' land size too spread out)? I find that this makes games unnecessarily long in most cases. Master of Magic is funnest when it doesn't feel drawn out.

It's probably easy to limit the coordinates of the land generated.

At 38386 in magic.exe :

Code:

mov     ax, 2Eh ; '.'
push    ax
call    Random_Generate3
pop     cx
add     ax, 6
mov     [bp+ContinentPosX], ax
mov     ax, 1Ah
push    ax
call    Random_Generate3
pop     cx
add     ax, 6

This is the random selection for the center of the continent to be placed on the map. Reducing the upper limits and increasing the lower one forces the continents more towards the map center.

Alternatively, at 3850F :

Code:

cmp     [bp+var_A], 2
jge     short loc_455E7
jmp     short loc_455FD
cmp     [bp+var_C], 4
jge     short loc_455EF
jmp     short loc_455FD
cmp     [bp+var_A], 3Ah ; ':'
jl      short loc_455F7
jmp     short loc_455FD
cmp     [bp+var_C], 24h ; '$'
jl      short loc_45604
jmp     short loc_455FD

The numbers 2,4,$3A, $24 are the limits for the coordinates of individual tiles within the continent(s).

The total map size is $3Cx$28 (60x40).

Changing the size of the map (the 60x40) is impossible. It's hardcoded in hundreds of places in the game.
It is also hardcoded to generate 8 continents, at 38323 : mov [bp+ContinentsNeeded], 8 but they can and usually will partially overlap each other, resulting in fewer total in the end.

[JM_]

Seravy: Yes, the continent ID map and the moving cost maps are updated before saving .

zitro1987: Massive changes lead to need for safely move or delete cities, ruins, towers, armies, nodes etc. I know, how to do it, but I have to do some investigations. For now, water cannot be done under city/ruin/tower and node cannot be changed to another terrain type.

   
   
   

[Seravy]

Seravy: Yes, the continent ID map and the moving cost maps are updated before saving .

zitro1987: Massive changes lead to need for safely move or delete cities, ruins, towers, armies, nodes etc. I know, how to do it, but I have to do some investigations. For now, water cannot be done under city/ruin/tower and node cannot be changed to another terrain type.

Wow, this looks really nice and well done!

[JM_]

Finally, I managed to complete all terrain code tables.
So there is v.003 alpha.

Can edit terrain, bonuses, terrain flags and exploration.
Can move cities, units, nodes, towers and lairs.

Read ED3.txt (can somebody repair my english? I am not native english speaker)

------

Unpack ed3.zip to game directory.
Run "ed3 saveN.gam" or "ed3 N" (N = 1..9).
Editor runs in text mode, so run it in dosbox in full-screen (or in WinXP :-))
Backup your savefiles first !!

Report issues, please.

Known issues: do not move the last city of wizard, which is currently banished, or game will freeze, don't know why.

   
   
   

[enna]

Looks good, but when I use it the edited maps do not load (Just get a black screen).

[enna]

Actually, correction. I did more testing and it works fine with both the base game, and the insecticide patch, but not with 1.51 patch.

Which is a shame, I was hoping to use 1.51, but I'll take a working map editor over that.

[JM_]

Actually, correction.  I did more testing and it works fine with both the base game, and the insecticide patch, but not with 1.51 patch.

Which is a shame, I was hoping to use 1.51, but I'll take a working map editor over that.

With version 1.51, the editor does not work, sorry. Savefile format has changed and I have no description of it's structure.