Making a Map

Well, I've been interested in making my own map for quite some time but I have a few obstacles...

1. My Laptop is not very good at handling world builder, for example loading the Object Placement menu takes about 30 seconds :/

2. I'm much of a beginner in world builder, especially with splats, roads, and textures.

3. I am never sure how big my map should be or how much detail I should provide in one specific area.

4. I am not good with code, but I can learn. (Learned HTML a while back, about 5 years ago, forgot most of it by now  ::) )

Is there anyone who can help me out with splats and roads? Or a suggestion to boosting my laptop performance to help world builder? What about destroying walls and such? Or map size suggestions?

Help would be much appreciated. I would love to contribute and possibly give a shot at re-creating a map similar to that of my Italian homeland :)

A map set in Italy would be cool.

I'm afraid laptops aren't very versatile with upgrades. Do you know what piece of hardware is holding you back? It may be possible to upgrade the R.A.M. or hard drive.

For map size you need to leave some room for terrain and objects around the edges, otherwise it will look pretty stupid. And also make sure you make the H.Q. sectors a good size, so players can build all their buildings.

Alright, but where should I start? I Know I should put the HQ down first but that still prevents me from saving?

I have a HP Pavillion DV4 with Vista, with 4gb of ram IIRC.

I have a desktop that runs XP and POSSIBLY might be able to run it better, but it has blue screened with COH before. (Replaced the hard drive on it a couple years later, unrelated error, it's a work computer.)

Someone can correct me on this, but i believe you need these to save:
Starting locations for all players, with their own H.Q.s, territories, and off-map call-in points.
I think that's all you need.

I'm not sure what's wrong with your laptop. 4GB of R.A.M. should be fine. Maybe it's the processor, or graphics card? I can't help you there, sorry.

You don't even need a territory assigned to the HQs. The program does only whine when either no HQs or map_entry_points are placed. All of the other errors have to do with undone or failed territory placement, but you don't need it to play your map.

You can always ask me, Cranialwizard. I'd be glad to help you, if a good map appears as result. :)

I have to agree with pariah about modifying your laptop, it's very risky and not that easy as if you would do that with your Desktop PC.

Thanks Maxi! Much appreciated.

The laptop's major flaw is lack of a cooling system. (Or Power Intake? I sent it back NINE TIMES under warranty and HP Failed to correct the problem)

Essentially I must keep the laptop in Power Saver Mode at all times and have a secondary cooling pad under it. If I put it in Balanced it will last about 30 minutes and then just completely crash, and if you go as far as high performance, it's about 5 minutes. It just blacks out like you took the power source from a desktop. Frankly I don't have the funds to fix it at the moment :/

HP? Well, there's your problem. ;)

Any idea how much it would cost to get a decent rig?

You mean to modify it? I would estimate somewhere in the 300$ neighborhood, which in reality is a waste, because for about 200$ more you might as well just get a new desktop :/

Alas, I'll live. So you have the HQ points set up, what then? Where do you start? Get your terrain modified?

I meant to get a decent system. I honestly don't think a HP is even worth upgrading. Nor do i know how much P.C. hardware usually costs in Italy.

Cranialwizard wrote:
[.... I have a HP Pavillion DV4 with Vista, with 4gb of ram IIRC. ...]

vista 32bit? then just swap 64bit version.

QuoteA map set in Italy would be cool.

full ack

pariah wrote:
I meant to get a decent system. I honestly don't think a HP is even worth upgrading. Nor do i know how much P.C. hardware usually costs in Italy.

I'm currently living in the USA so no currency issues xD

I think a decent system would be in the range of 600$ or so, but I am not too sure.

And yes, I was going to purchase an Asus, which I hear are fairly good, but it was no longer on sale when I had the money, and the salesman at the store said this laptop had an advanced graphics card...but he didn't tell me it doesn't have the performance to run such card.

snailcommando wrote:

Cranialwizard wrote:
[.... I have a HP Pavillion DV4 with Vista, with 4gb of ram IIRC. ...]

vista 32bit? then just swap 64bit version.

It is 64-bit

Quote

QuoteA map set in Italy would be cool.

full ack

I do not understand?  ???

Hmm, and splines, what is a good spline to make a nice road? I mean there are loads of splines, and a lot of them are rather odd-looking in my opinion.

Last edited May 22, 2011 at 6:05 PM by Cranialwizard

Hmm, nor do i... I think 'ack-ack' is supposed to be anti-air or something. :-\

Also, i'm not sure how much P.C. hardware is in America. ;)

Cranialwizard wrote:
Hmm, and splines, what is a good spline to make a nice road? I mean there are loads of splines, and a lot of them are rather odd-looking in my opinion.

It depends on what kind of map you'd like to create. Tell me about your idea, and I'll tell you about the perfect splines to use to realise the idea :)

MaxiKing6 wrote:

Cranialwizard wrote:
Hmm, and splines, what is a good spline to make a nice road? I mean there are loads of splines, and a lot of them are rather odd-looking in my opinion.

It depends on what kind of map you'd like to create. Tell me about your idea, and I'll tell you about the perfect splines to use to realise the idea :)

I was thinking mainly some small, light dirt roads and maybe a medium-sized stone/cobblestone road. I'll have to think back a bit though.

Full Acknowledge...

A italian landscape would be nice  :D

I thought so too :D

I was thinking maybe just to get the hang of things do the town of Pescara, which was a port town and took extreme damage during the war. It is in the region I am from, I have been to it many times before and maybe could do a recreation of it's docks before I go into complicated, hilly and mountainous territory?

W.W.II was a long time ago... Do you know how much the territory has changed since then?

Well of course!  ;D

The town was majorly constructed after much of it's destruction. However it's layout as a dock hasn't changed all too much. It would be a partially urban area near the water with an expanding agricultural area near the edges of the map.

Thoughts?

Sounds cool.

Let me know if you figure something out with your computer.

pariah wrote:
Sounds cool.

Let me know if you figure something out with your computer.

I'm thinking of just trying the desktop but I fear the BSOD :(

Cranialwizard wrote:1. My Laptop is not very good at handling world builder, for example loading the Object Placement menu takes about 30 seconds :/

Around ~15 sec here (Quadcore, 4GB, HD4870).
It´s normal that the object placement editor needs some time to load.

Mystic

Mystic-Car wrote:

Cranialwizard wrote:1. My Laptop is not very good at handling world builder, for example loading the Object Placement menu takes about 30 seconds :/

Around ~15 sec here (Quadcore, 4GB, HD4870).
It´s normal that the object placement editor needs some time to load.

Mystic

Everything is very slow though: I had time to go eat lunch in the time it had to load a 512X512 plate :/

You could lower the WB graphic settings.
Open WB => Budget => Detail Level => Try 64MB


Mystic

It's all shaded grey for some reason, I can't change it  :o

Close the loaded map..

Mystic

Thanks Mystic.

By the way, where are WB Screenshots? I have a sample for you guys, just want to get an idea if I'm doing this OK

Should be here, i think:
C:\Users\pariah\Documents\My Games\Company of Heroes\screenshots

Ah, found them, thanks! (Didn't know my username was Pariah ;))

I have made 3 parts so far, I'm just getting started. So far, the layout is 256 playable, 512 map. The dock end (historically it is east side) is going to be the urban areas, with a church, a few taller buildings and maybe a warehouse or two, but as you go further away from the docks it gets much more rural, as farms and agriculture. I'm not too sure how I should go about with my textures but I'll give it my best shot.

Last edited May 22, 2011 at 8:43 PM by Cranialwizard

Well, i figured you'd be smart enough to know what your name is. ;)

Your map is coming along good. :)

Thanks! This is going to be a bridge map to start :( I know it sucks for gameplay in most cases but it seems to be the easiest way to implement terrain change. Is there a way to make bridges indestructible?

I thought I did decent on the market and not so well on the church but eh.

There are some indestructible bridges, but i don't know where they are, nor what they are called. :(

Darn, if we do find them I hope they are long enough, the river that goes through the town is quite large in width, bridge_15 wouldn't reach each side.

If you must, you could just stretch out the terrain to meet the bridge in the middle.

I'll never forget the hell i went through as a kid trying to figure out how to place bridges in StarCraft... No matter where i moved it to, there was always some fucking tile that would be red! >:( Just sayin'...

pariah wrote:
If you must, you could just stretch out the terrain to meet the bridge in the middle.

I'll never forget the hell i went through as a kid trying to figure out how to place bridges in StarCraft... No matter where i moved it to, there was always some fucking tile that would be red! >:( Just sayin'...

Sounds like a good idea, thanks

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For some reason I'm finding Splines harder to use than textures, why is that? Is there a technique I should use, like spreading the points out more?

Last edited May 22, 2011 at 9:18 PM by Cranialwizard

It's really easy. For indestrctible bridges, just use terrain to create a high raised ford through your river, then open the spline tool and select "object" instead of texture. Go down and add one of the ebps\environment\art_ambient\objects\walls\support\ walls to list and place them at the fords side. Then you can also add a nice spline to the bridge, so that it will look like this:

lol, what this green arrow makes there  ???

That's one problem for me though, my splines either come out choppy (as in they arn't connecting entirely) or they are too large and low detail, any tips concerning splines?

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Currently my world builder is frozen in the process of a save. It's easily redo-able but time consuming, kinda scared to end the process but just gonna wait a while, been 10 minutes by now.

Last edited May 22, 2011 at 9:56 PM by Cranialwizard

Cranialwizard wrote:
That's one problem for me though, my splines either come out choppy (as in they arn't connecting entirely) or they are too large and low detail, any tips concerning splines?

Could you provide a screenshot please (as soon as your WB will respond again :/)?

Quote
Currently my world builder is frozen in the process of a save. It's easily redo-able but time consuming, kinda scared to end the process but just gonna wait a while, been 10 minutes by now.

:-\

I think I'm gonna take a break, actually. I will post one after I make dinner and some stuff, been staring at the screen all day. (BRAIN MELT)

I'm just gonna end it, this is ridiculous XD I just added buildings and a park, along with some pavement for the exisiting areas and expanded a bit on the church's area.

Ok. Don't exspect an answer too soon now, everyone is sleeping in Europe right now, except of me. This will change now. Have a nice dinner.

For the splines, make sure you use the "Set To Optimum Width" as much as you can. And whenever you changes the size of a spline from when you originally placed it, press "Fix Tiling To Width". That should keep it High quality.

Goober wrote:
For the splines, make sure you use the "Set To Optimum Width" as much as you can. And whenever you changes the size of a spline from when you originally placed it, press "Fix Tiling To Width". That should keep it High quality.

Thanks for the tip, I will post a picture of my splines if they do not show improvement.

Yea, unfortunatly my WB didn't save after a 15 minute DNR. :/ Oh well, I can always redo it.

I've been texturing the docksides in Cobblestone with Portstone in the middle. Is that OK near a dock, or should I just stick with grass? This town was once under Roman control which means there was also extensive road construction and stone pavement, and to this day a lot of that remains. (That's why we ride vesbas, big SUV's and large cars can't drive on smaller Roman Roads.)

Cranialwizard wrote:

pariah wrote:
I meant to get a decent system. I honestly don't think a HP is even worth upgrading. Nor do i know how much P.C. hardware usually costs in Italy.

I'm currently living in the USA so no currency issues xD

I think a decent system would be in the range of 600$ or so, but I am not too sure.

And yes, I was going to purchase an Asus, which I hear are fairly good, but it was no longer on sale when I had the money, and the salesman at the store said this laptop had an advanced graphics card...but he didn't tell me it doesn't have the performance to run such card.

snailcommando wrote:

Cranialwizard wrote:
[.... I have a HP Pavillion DV4 with Vista, with 4gb of ram IIRC. ...]

You might check out the "Best Buy" ads for a "new" laptop. I recently picked up a Gateway Nv51b08U FOR $350. It needed some driver upgrades but otherwise was acceptable. Not the best gaming computer in the world, but overheating is not a problem and you can change the powersaver settings when not on battery power.

Last edited May 25, 2011 at 9:36 AM by Otto 213

Otto wrote:

Cranialwizard wrote:

pariah wrote:
I meant to get a decent system. I honestly don't think a HP is even worth upgrading. Nor do i know how much P.C. hardware usually costs in Italy.

I'm currently living in the USA so no currency issues xD

I think a decent system would be in the range of 600$ or so, but I am not too sure.

And yes, I was going to purchase an Asus, which I hear are fairly good, but it was no longer on sale when I had the money, and the salesman at the store said this laptop had an advanced graphics card...but he didn't tell me it doesn't have the performance to run such card.

snailcommando wrote:

Cranialwizard wrote:
[.... I have a HP Pavillion DV4 with Vista, with 4gb of ram IIRC. ...]

You might check out the "Best Buy" ads for a "new" laptop. I recently picked up a Gateway Nv51b08U FOR $350. It needed some driver upgrades but otherwise was acceptable. Not the best gaming computer in the world, but overheating is not a problem and you can change the powersaver settings when not on battery power.

I got this one from Best Buy too.

I don't have an accumulation of money at the moment, but thanks for the advice. ;)

Also I am continuing the map, don't lose hope, will post more pictures soon.

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So I put down some MG nest and some buildings to get a general idea of what a base should be sized as...

But when I put the MG down it left a nasty splat, how the hell do I get rid of it?!?!

First picture is of the splats, second and 3rd are just progress.
I had splines in but removed them for now.

Last edited May 25, 2011 at 10:17 PM by Cranialwizard

Have you tried this yet?:

Quotewb_orphan_nuke_texture      For using on WorldBuilder. Removes all the textures left behind by unselectable objects.

That's all i can suggest.

Didn't try that yet, do you open the console for it? Isn't it ~ to open it?

On an English keyboard? I think so.

string 'wb_orphan_nuke_texture' :1: '=' expected near 'eof'

That's the response I get, and no texture removed :/

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WAIT, I GOT IT! :D :D

I replaced "Texture" with splat and it went away! Didn't know I could do that.

Maybe you should ask an actual mapper for advice? MaxiKing6 usually knows what he's talking about.

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Cool.

Stupid post merges xD

And yes, thanks for the advice!