Making a map... some questions

posted on August 31st, 2011, 8:21 pm

I am making a map, or well, I want to attempt to make one, and I have a few questions, and I did read the guide first.  Still...

Firstly, how big can I safely make the map without causing crashes or game performance issues? Whats a good "safe" size?

When starting a brand new map, is there a starting point already put on the map somewhere? It seems to look like it, when I look at the starting positions tab.

How close can I add starting positions? I was working on an idea for team play, and was thinking to have the starting stations relatively close (but not to close, enough so they can share a partial sensor/weapons range arc)

Whats a good way to layout the moons for resources, and also, is there a way to "mirror" the layout so I can copy the arrangement and place it in another part of the map?

How does setting up the wormhole work? That's a bit that's actually got me confused the most (or one of..) Do I lay down a couple wormholes and connect them somehow?

and another question, how does adding the starting points work? I seem to not be quite catching how the guide is explaining it.

Sorry for so many questions, as I said, I have read the guide, but something just doesn't seem to..."click"  but sometimes I tend to learn these things with direct examples/questions answered.

posted on August 31st, 2011, 8:28 pm

We can go over it again here

50k by 50k is the max stable size more or less in Fleet Ops. What size you actually want to use is highly dependent on number of players, location of start points, etc

Start positions can be added as close as you want, but they will bump the starting starbases apart if on top of each other's footprint.

The only way to 'mirror' things is to just keep track of the x/y position of items or use an image editing program like Paint to make sure you are on track.

Wormholes are laid in pairs - the first one put down connects to the second, and the third connects to the fourth (unless you manually change the names in their menus)

To make a start position, hold down Alt and left click on the map where you want your start position.

posted on August 31st, 2011, 8:35 pm

Hey, thanks for the replies, it makes things a bit easier on me, so the wormholes will automatically "connect" to the next one added? That helps a bit, as I don't want anything fancy out of them, just to connect as I lay them out.

As for the amount of players, averagely, it's myself and a friend, with three to four AI's, but we like to have room to have up to six AI's (doubtful we will ever 'graduate' that high though)

Do I need to do anything before adding starting positions? I've added some before when testing the functions out, and they don't seem to add into new positions, it all seems to be in the same place... and I have done that "rename Camera_1" and so forth thing.

While I am still on starting positions, does a brand new, unmade map start with a starting position already added? The tab I am looking at seems to have one...

posted on August 31st, 2011, 8:43 pm

No problem

Yup, the first will connect to the second, etc.

Maps should not start out with a starting position.

Remember after you have placed the starting points for each player, open the Map Settings window (Ctrl+R) and select the Start Locations tab. If the map is for less than 8 players, select each unused player number from the list and set the type for unused player to empty. It is recommended that you check that each used player slot is set to player. When ready, press OK.

After that, you should open the Map Settings window again and check that the start locations are placed correctly and that they show up correctly in the drop-down "Start Location" menu. Sometimes it helps to save the map, quit, and reload the map to see if all is set up

posted on August 31st, 2011, 9:15 pm

Okay, I don't get it, what exactly am I supposed to do to add in starting positions?  Heres what I have done

Alt+Left click

Double click on that spot, rename Camera_1

(repeat the first two a couple times)

Control+R, select starting positions tab...

and everyone seems to be in the lower left corner, that's certainly not where I put it, and if I re size the map, that's where one will automatically appear as well.

posted on August 31st, 2011, 9:52 pm

Did you try saving at that point (after placing and writing up the start points) and then reloading the map?

posted on August 31st, 2011, 9:55 pm

Pretty certain I had... just to ask, is there a "reloading" trick, or do I just save, quit, then go back into it?

posted on August 31st, 2011, 10:24 pm

So I added a couple images, the first one is the default size, 6400 by 6400, the starting positions tab is empty, the second one is after I did a re-size, the program asked me about reloading, and I told it too.  After that, I went in, and on the starting positions tab, I got that, but there doesn't seem to be anything I can see in the corner of the map unless I've never been looking closely enough.  When I add new positions, it seems to all go into the same area, and the drop down menu of the start location is the same for all eight (even though none are placed... is this normal?

Attachments

posted on August 31st, 2011, 11:30 pm

It'll put the start positions in the corner if you don't set them.

Maybe you aren't naming the start locations correctly?  Try playing the map in instant action and see where the starbase spawns.

[Utopia]

posted on August 31st, 2011, 11:34 pm

Last edited by Utopia on August 31st, 2011, 11:36 pm, edited 1 time in total.

I had this problem. you have to add 1000 crew to every player. press ok and control r again and see if it changes. It looks like start locations are not writen right.

posted on September 1st, 2011, 12:59 am

You also have to select the next player/position before setting the new start, at least I do... otherwise it all seems discombobulated for some reason.  I have yet another question, what should I look in for spacing of placement, like when I am making the "arenas" and I want to try and divide the map semi equally (for instance, I want to make a big area on the very bottom left to right cut off only to the north by asteroids).  Did I make sense here?  Basically, the top and bottom of the map will be the player/team arenas (with the bottom being wide open and the top split in half) then the middle having resources for expansions/a battlefield.  It sounds a bit rougher them I am picturing it, honestly (I just don't always good good in descriptions).

posted on November 7th, 2011, 2:16 pm

hey, i'm new to mapmaking aswell and have an aditional question, sorry for hyjacking this thread but it seems pointless to make a new one.

I'm making a wormhole maze map, probably the maze gets to complecated to be playable but it seems fun and is a good way to try out all to mapmaking options. the atachment shows the minimap of the current map.

In the map i want to make a npc that acts like a real player but does not need to be destroyed to win the map. This is to make that npc on a location with only a outgoing wormhole so the npc can keep harassing all players but "cant" be destroyed because only small borg ships can warp in. the fed warp ins might be a problem aswell but that still wouldn't likely be cost efective.

I tried the npc as both mision ai and hard ai but it won't build any ships or stations. I made sure it has enough resources by giving it miners and a mining station.

Attachments

posted on November 10th, 2011, 1:46 am

You put the ncp ai as team 8 or one higher than the number of players right? You gave it resources in the map settings menu( ctrl-r)?

posted on November 10th, 2011, 9:21 am

yes i put it as player 5 (it is a 4 player map) i gave it resources, and as a failsafe i gave it 2 miners and a mining station

posted on November 11th, 2011, 5:50 pm

Having it as ai mission is the only other thing you would need to do.