RBL-4NiK8r's guide to map making.

Introduction

Well over the years I would have to say I am one of the few that understand Edit World and over that time I have helped a few hundred people out with their problems if not more. There was a time back in the Mplayer days I used to hold a Map Making Work Shop on Mplayer for anybody that needed help. Also back then I was getting close to 5-10 e-mails a week if not more some weeks with problems people had with Edit World.

Now most of the problems were easy ones to fix and they fell into what I call the easy fix...

Gateways

This by far was the most common problem people had and till this day still have.

This comes from someone either trying to use the GT button while your still in the 3D screen, you have to be in the 2D screen and have it enabled before you can use the GT button. If you have not found the 2D screen go back and read Edit World Help.

The player Enable switch

a lot of people didn't know that if you made a 4 play map you needed to un-enable players 4-7 or they went and put everything into the map on player 0 and didn't change over when they went to another base to set things up.

This is done on the left side where you see P0, e0, and all the way down to P7, e7. When adding things for a player you need to have the P number down for the player you wish to have items put in. Take player 2 you would need P2 down and then all the items you add with be player 2's when they start the game. The e button is used right before you compile your map if its a 8 player map you dont have to have any down, but for a 4 player map you need e0-e3 down and the rest up, for a 2 player map you need e0-e1 down and the rest up.

No HQ or oil near trucks at starting base

This was another one that was common for some reason a lot of people forgot that you need at least 1 Truck and 1 oil well with in 3 spaces of that truck for the map to load.

Building on the outside edges

This would have to rank up close to the first item on the list at times though it was not always the case, but there were months that went by that I would get lots of .lnd's from people wanting to know what they did wrong only to load it up and see they have all there bases in the corners and stuff put on the 3-4 squares that are the edge of the map and WZ or EW cant read anything there. The best thing to do is give yourself a border of 4-5 squares from the edge of the map that's basically dead space, and in here your not going to have any items; Oil, Building's, Vehicles or anything like this. Now you should be able to put trees in this area but I would not recommend doing it.

Cliff Face

This was another one that people could not understand or grasp the idea behind it and though I tried my best at times its one that many to this day still don't get. You need it in the map to break it up into area or what I like to call boxes and then that's were the gateways come into play. Now the more boxes you add the long its going to take the units to find there route from point A to point B and depending on how the gateways were put in you may find them going thru point C to get to B and at the time C maybe in enemy control.

Notes

Now Lord Apocalypse did Edit World Help some 4 years ago now and though at the time it was put out I knew most of what was on there it still has a lot of things in it that can help first time map makers out, if they take the time to read thru the whole thing, also we have the Map Makers forum that I mod for people that have problems and though I may not look at it everyday if I see a new post in there and it needs my help I am there and doing what I can to get their map fixed.

One thing I think people don't understand about EW is that it takes time to make a good map and most people don't want to take that time to learn it or even try it, other then maybe one or two times and then they go on to something else.

You can make a map in one day but a good map takes weeks or even months to get thing so they work right, and most of all its got to be play tested and done so a lot because if you play on it maybe one or two times and you dont see a problem I can bet you any money the first time you send it out or post it your going to get people telling you that there is something wrong with it.

Also I am not sure if you know this but I look at maps 2 ways either there good for single player or multiplayer there are very few maps out there that are not stock that are good for both its either one or the other. Now I try to keep that in mind when making my maps but for the most part a lot of my maps are meant for multiplayer use and single player 2nd if at all. Why is that you may ask well it has more to deal with what I play, I am a multiplayer person though I may spend time playing AI's now and then, but most of the time I spend playing WZ is with others, and that's something to keep in mind when making a map. Either base your map on multiplayer use or single player use, and if you find that some of the AI's work well on a multiplayer map that's great too. Another thing to keep in kind is that when you add water to a map there's a good chance 80% or more of the AI's vehicles will not go thru it and they have to find away around it, so make sure there's a way to go.

Now I am not sure what maps from others you have seen or looked at but there are a lot of maps out there for WZ and some of them are great though you still have a lot that are not worth the room they take up on your HD.

http://rbl.directgames.net/ - This is my clan page and if you go to downloads and then maps you will find a lot of the maps out there for WZ.

I know there are a few other sites out there and given time I may get around to posting them but this should keep you busy with maps for WZ for sometime to come.

Beta Tester Rule #1:

There is no easy way to trash something someone worked so hard on to get to the point it is now, so just tell it like it is, and hopefully they can deal with it. 4nE

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