Map Making Tips & Guidelines

[modman]

Please post guidelines for map makers here.  This should include guidelines when posting a map as well.  When you post a guideline, bold it, and if necessary post a few sentences of description.  And since this should be seen by all, I would like this topic stickied.

Below is a list of guidelines anyone who makes a map should follow.  Some might be obvious, but at least if I say it here we can point here later rather than wondering why they didn't know it intuitively.
I. Map Design & Element Placement
    *Player Placement
          >Normal maps space players evenly
          >Multiplayer maps space allies closer together, and may have resources shared among allies
    *Road Systems
          >Sole purpose of roads are to connect players geographically
          >Thus roads need to connect every player to every other player
          >Roads should normally be at least two tiles wide
          >Three tiles is better because then units can pass one another, even if one of the units is two tiles
    *River Systems
    *Map Objects
          >Make sure mountains (custom object 4) are surrounded by invisible impassable objects (custom 5)
    *Resources
          >At least 10 tiles of gold at base, and one smaller patch near by
    *Use of Surfaces

II. Posting it in a Topic
The following format should be used:

    * Map Size: Small (64²), Medium (128²), Large (256²)
    * Preferred Tileset: Evergreen
    * Map Type: List of Types
    * Resource Allotment: Small, Moderate, Generous
    * Download: Normal Link, Hotlink
    * Date: The date you made the map

And then a screenshot below, please, so we know what your map looks like.

III. Bugs in the Map?

[modman]

Glossary of RTS gaming terminology / jargon and modified a bit for Glest. Ripped from the TA forums.

Lords: will have lots of little bases with their own defenses. towers and units to defend it. Their factories wil be built in appropriate places (sometimes in pairs or threes), with medium defenses.

Communists: similar to the Lords strategy, but instead of making little pockets of force they try to control a large area with a small amount of force. Generally less effective than the Lords' strategy and raiding is difficult against these players because there is no defined area to go behind.

Raiders: players using rapid fire troops for two purposes; to make sweeps at defensive fortifications, and to stake out key areas. They like to wait until getting high-offensive power units to launch any serious attacks, and they hate airborne players.

Zergers: [swarmer] they build  ridiculous numbers of cheap units and send them in squads of ten to twenty or so / covers the enemy with heaps and heaps of cheap ground units. Works best on a small map.

Pigeon: a player that will make a big number of medium cost units and supplement the force with a few higher cost units.

Albatross: a player that will air unit attack opponents rather than use ground units and may not even send in ground units on main base attacks.

Couch Potato: a turtler player that will develop their economy crazily, and will not really build any non-construction units. What on earth motivates these people?

Zen Master: player that will use mobile defensive units to guard their base, and will take any ground you give them. They will not, however, use these units to attack you with. They will bombard you, nuke you, send other units, and do anything in their power to break you in an area before moving in these units.

Chieftain: these players will make lots of big armies with nice diversity and compositions. This sounds like a good tactic- but they won't ATTACK you with them until they have like five. And then they will leave themselves with one. And then the stockpiling begins again...

Turtle: spending almost all resources on defensive units and buildings instead of offensive units.

Swarmer: Covers the enemy with heaps and heaps of cheap ground units. Works best on a small map.

Eagle: Uses air units to their greatest potential: gets anywhere, can take out anything with enough units, knows what's going on where, and stops everyone else from doing so.

Octopus: Builds base like crazy. This player is an expansionist, and can be extremely hard to take out. Their strength is based on their resilient economy, which will easily suffer one small strike and then rebuild.

Porcupine: builds a tightly knit base with a huge amount of resources stockpiled and their base is completely surrounded by a thick defensive that is virtually impenetrable to single unit attack types. Different than turtle because they later become offensive in nature.

Rushing: creating cheap units and quickly sending them to enemy bases - they never stop sending small squads.

[Trappin]

Map Editing
Glest Map Design


Glest Map: Map Editor Palette

Elements, textures and models are different for each Tileset and the variations may become confusing when mappers change tileset designs. The Map Editing Palate can be used as a quick reference guide when viewing new or unfamiliar Tilesets. Element 10-C5 is an invisible model to block unit movement. The Water texture is achieved via height changes in the Glest Map Editor (need link to designing water and rivers in Map Guide.)

Map Editor Palette

• Map Size: Small
• Preferred Tileset: N/A
• Map Type: Special
• Resource Allotment: http://glestmaps.wikia.com/wiki/Glest_Maps#Tileset_Viewing_Tool
• Download: http://www.mediafire.com/file/voyjw3yjnxd/Map_Editor_Palate.rar
• Date: Nov. 2009

.


- Screenshot of the Mediterranean tileset using the Glest Map: Map Editor Palette.

General tips

- Map making is tedious and boring so don't expect to knock out a map in an hour - set a goal to work on a map a few times a week with the ultimate goal of having a completed map ready after 30 days.

1- enough room for start location building - ultra AI typically constructs at least 12 buildings around the starting area leading to unit movement congestion.
2- resource node location placement to ensure AI units do not become stuck while harvesting in large groups.
3- AI Pathfinding on long routes - ensure AI can find the hostile base or group of hostiles.
4- pathing at least 3 tiles wide at chokepoints - entry/exits to start locations tend to be narrow to accommodate defensive oriented gamers - turtles and porcupines.
5- game world visual appeal - does the map look good at various locations? Do objects enhance the organic feel of the map? Do the hills, valley's, mountains and artificial trails and roads appear natural?

[Scenariole]

Delete it already Modman

[Mark]

No requirements for posting maps on the user forum. I hate when people whine and moan about new map posts lacking screenshots. People complain too much as it is.

Well I hate it when people complain about people not downloading.  This should not be some kind of requirement but just a warning that if you do not follow these instructions no one will download.  And if you really hate it when people complain, you should make sure people get in the habit of doing these things.  There are people who are reluctant to download things, and it just so happens that they are some of the best repliers.  If people were to follow these guidelines, there would be no whining about map screenshots! 

Delete it already Modman

I don't want to be hostile, but when you make a topic that I automatically don't like I think I will tell you to delete it already.  Seriously, tell him what is wrong, don't just tell him to delete it.

[modman]

This topic also should be a guide to tips on how to make the maps!  And also, if it is more standardized, then people will have an easier time making maps, and so possibly more people will make better maps.

Anyways, I see no better way to get people to download something than if they know what it is they are downloading (besides forcing them to download it to access your website ).  So the guidelines I have presented will help people to provide more information.

[Trappin]

Consolidating.

[modman]

Thanks for the tips, Trappin.  I'm concatenating all of the tips on the initial post.

How should I sort the tips?  I'll sort them for now in chronological order they were posted, but soon I will need a better method.

[Omega]

Some extra tips: (not really guidelines, but making good maps prevents spam maps from flooding the boards)

- Use walkable objects such as bushes to add a natural feel to the map, but don't just put them where ever. Water objects should go near water, and bushes generally go near trees.

- Surround custom object 4 (big stone) with custom object 5 (unwalkable none) to prevent units from entering the stone!

- Don't hump resources together in one spot. Spread them out, though be sure that there is enough in the base and they aren't spaced too far apart or in too small quantities to prevent AI troubles.

- Avoid wide open spaces unless you are sure that it looks good (it usually doesn't).

- Don't make maps in sizes such as A x A/2 (ie: 128 x 64). Currently only vanilla glest can play these. GAE cannot. If you must have a map that shape, fill the remainder in with water or unwalkable none.

- Use trees to filter paths. If you don't want a unit to get somewhere, use trees to block them.

[-Archmage-]

- Don't make maps in sizes such as A x A/2 (ie: 128 x 64). Currently only vanilla glest can play these. GAE cannot. If you must have a map that shape, fill the remainder in with water or unwalkable none.

Well, my spectators map is 32 x 256, really though, people should have vanilla Glest installed on their computers.

[Mark]

- Don't make maps in sizes such as A x A/2 (ie: 128 x 64). Currently only vanilla glest can play these. GAE cannot. If you must have a map that shape, fill the remainder in with water or unwalkable none.

Well, my spectators map is 32 x 256, really though, people should have vanilla Glest installed on their computers.

Try to gear your maps toward square dimensions.  Like Omega said, it curiously doesn't work in GAE, and maps with square dimensions add a whole new dimension (pardon the second use) to the map experience, and with your 32x512 not only can you only test vanilla glest features, you can only see certain aspects of a game, and not how a 256x256 will turn out.

[-Archmage-]

It's a tool not a playing map.

[Trappin]

Consolidating.

[modman]

Heights are another important thing people sometimes will forget.  Maps which have little variation on the height from one place to another put more stress on the other elements which make the map interesting, like landscape.  So do yourself a favor by varying the heights a bit.  For example, roads could be a couple units lower than the rest of the map, and maybe only one unit above the water, so that the river heights will look natural when a road crosses the river.

[Mark]

Heights are another important thing people sometimes will forget.  Maps which have little variation on the height from one place to another put more stress on the other elements which make the map interesting, like landscape.  So do yourself a favor by varying the heights a bit.  For example, roads could be a couple units lower than the rest of the map, and maybe only one unit above the water, so that the river heights will look natural when a road crosses the river.

Right, just remember to make the the heights on a base a plateau, or you will have some massively uglly terra-forming going on.

It's a tool not a playing map.

I think that I know that.  Not to be overly harsh here, but the words 'test' and 'see' in this context means that I am talking about watching, not actually playing with the map.  I mean, you need it tested in a square map if it is to be played on a square map. 

[John.d.h]

I'm inclined to agree with Mark here.  It's probably a good idea to have the simulation be as close to the real thing as possible so you can see how the factions will behave much more accurately.  I kinda like the idea of having multiple test maps, so you can test out how each faction does in a certain situation.  That way you can better assess their strengths and weaknesses.

[modman]

I appreciate you taking us off topic again Arch...  

EDIT:

OK maybe it wasn't all your fault.  But let's try to stay on topic, or else it looses its "train of thought".

[-Archmage-]

Modman, you must understand I have to respond.

I mean, you need it tested in a square map if it is to be played on a square map.

Go on list some good logic, I made both the testing areas just about identical to each other........... How the map being wider, and making more room than is needed going to help.

You know I'm going to create a topic based solely on issue with Spectators map...........
There we can discuss all this.

[Mark]

Can I make a suggestion for a guideline?
I don't know if this has been suggested, but make sure you either have enough gold at everyone's base or have extra spots where people can go to for gold.  I have seen this in beta versions of maps and it drives me crazy because the AI just sits there.  They need to have a chance to do something in the tone of harvesting resources.  If you are making a scenario where an objective is to destroy an enemy before you run out of gold you can give insufficient amounts of gold, but otherwise try to give at least 10000 gold units (10 tiles of gold). 

[Trappin]

Need community help to get this done. We need detailed and specific descriptions for:

How to create screenshots using GAE - XML code lines for windows and codes? for Linux. Include screenshots when appropriate.

How to create ponds, lakes and rivers in the Glest Map Editor. Include GAE and map editor screenshots.

How to create hills, valleys and cliffs. Include GAE and map editor screenshots.

Step up and help!

[Omega]

I'll do the first one, but the others will have to wait. For some reason, I cannot get GAE to work. I can't figure it out. I checked and double checked all files, yet I still get an access error. The last time this happened was because I was missing a file, but I made sure that I'm not. Regular Glest works, so it's not any dependancies, since there's no installed dependancies other than OpenGL and OpenAL, right?

But anyway, I'll do the screen shot code, though there won't be any screens. It's exactly the same in linux or windows, although you'll need to know where your Glest Directory is.

[Trappin]

We don't need screens of the code - just post both the modified code lines and default unmodified code lines.

One less obvious reason for doing this would be that the post will show up on the forum search engine - I used the website search function to find the code and had to cobble 3 threads together to find the proper way to edit GAE for screenshot capability. Plus, I had never edited XML files before and had to find a free, easy to use, XML editing program.

I'd post the the codes but forget how it was done- and will spend another 2 hours figuring it out again.

[Trappin]

http://glestmaps.wikia.com/
Trick the player and conform to the AI pathing rules:

1) Draw diagonal perimeter lines on a map as the first step using the pink colored invisible blocking 10-C5
2) build the usable playfield as desired.

Here is where we add visual object and surface elements to the map while conforming to AI pathing rules. These areas are highlighted on the map with yellow circles.

3) Place objects outside the perimeter of the ground unit playfield - ground units cannot travel in this area so a mapper can break AI pathing rules. This method enhances the visual appearance of maps - things just look better.