Woudlnt it be great. i have a thought, what if stardock floated the map editor out there, or people could pay for it and if thier design was good enough star dock buy it off them?...i mean id buy the map editor if thats what it took. i mean the 2v2 map is glitched if ur the vamp u can warp over the edge at ur spawn i mean how dodgy is that. unless of course its meant to be like that wich means other gods are at a disadvantage until they can buy the cloak of elfkind. imagine the hundreds if not thousands of maps that would be floated if they released a map editor.
me personally being a merchant seaman, id love this as i could spend the countless hours off work creating and testing maps.
ps i know all my post have bad spelling and gramma and stuff...(kids stay in school) @.@
I'd think GPG would have to release a map editor (SD is the publisher, GPG the developer)... and from what I understand, it would be very complicated as the maps are 3d... the top layer seems simple, but everything underneath... not so much. I'd be thrilled if we could get some community content or a toolkit, but it doesn't sound like that's going to happen soon. I'd love it if we did, though.
That is an interesting concept, though... selling a map editor to those who want it. Hmmm...
I think that a map editor would do this game a world of good. With all the bad press that it has got it needs everything that it can get to make people want to reconsider. There is a small amount of demigods, at least at the moment, and also a limited amount of maps.
Also I love playing around on a map editor and I really dislike it when games (especially multiplayer ones) don't have them. They add an extra layer to the community and also expand the game without the company having to spend any time/money on it.
The communities map editor doesnt have to have all the functionality/cool 3d backdrops that GPG's one has. It would be fine just having the paths floating in a void or something like that.
hmm i would like a editor but not a map maker as such because i would rather edit the tower placements add more so the games would be harder and last longer and to have a change creep routes
Like Rainbow Road from Mario Karts???
People who are saying the maps are too complicated are severely underestimating the number of highly skilled fans with an unhealthy devotion to the game.
Im sure GPG...(sorry for the mistake there) could provide a map maker/editor. si1foo a map maker could edit the existing maps i take it by simply opening up the file. i probably should of elaborated alot more... an idea, obviously people couldnt just run the maps straight onto servers. they would have to run it past GPG and if it is approved for testing, the community could test it and work out any bugs/fixes it needs and then the creator can keep working on it until GPG is happy to add it permanently into a patch... thus minimising the cost for GPG to bring new maps to the game.i know this will require alot of patching but its for the better?
i think if we were to get into a demigod maker we would ruin the game..its just to complicated for simple players i belive that would require a team to create just 1 demigod and then the comunity to test it. i think the extra demigods would be better saved for a x-pac.
the concept i had of people buying the map maker was that if you created a good enough map maybe GPG would purchase it? or reimburse you for the cost of the editor seeing as you are contributing to better the game....as i see it demigod is very successful and will only get more so and will maintain a cult following for many a years. if we can get some of these things rolling would be great.
exactly like that...or they could just add a black blackground or white something simple to make it seem like theres no depth.
if i dont reply to anymore threads for a while its because we have left port and i have no reception.
I'm sure if people didn't want their maps floating in space or whatever GPG could easily include prebuilt "bases" for the paths to sit on. If that was the case then an option to import your own base shouldn't be to hard to implement.
hmm making a 3d model is pretty hard espically if u got to get it i dentical it is like getting a pencil and drawing a straightline done the dead center of a peice of paper it is hard
I know, I have played around with maya myself. The base dont have to match up with the paths, it just has to sit underneath them so they look more grounded.
You could have a big lava pit for instance. The paths could have "suports" that go down and disappear into the lava or the paths could simply sit on top of the lava.
There already is a map editor for this game its called blender.
Not very helpful...
i was simply stating that the background could be while it is in the creation mode if it is to hard....of course once the map is approved GPG will impliment a background.
well instead of critisising...give us the URL for the map creator...??? your not very helpful!
I did some googling:
If you want to view the maps already in DG, you can download the granny viewer for free, but AFAIK you can't export to another format for editing, nor can you edit anything from eithin that program, nor can you import from a standard .fbx or .x or whatever the flavor of the month for mesh formats is.
http://www.radgametools.com/granny/download.html
So the format we are dealing with for the meshes is .gr2, which is unfortunately not open.
There was a post asking how to do this on gamedev.net, which is generally a good source, but the response was rather negative.
Fortunately, many games are using gr2, such as AoE3 and neverwinter nights 2
The latter is definately moddable, so looking into the tools people have made to muck around with NWN2 we can find...
"Based on what i've seen from Tazpn's source code for 3ds max... gr2 import/export should be... not easy... but possible. He's basically laid out the groundwork for re-implementing expotron by using the granny.dll as a black box for file i/o."
http://nwvault.ign.com/View.php?view=nwn2tools.Detail&id=61
I don't have time to play with this further, but once my exams are over in a couple of weeks I may have a crack at linking to the granny2.dll in my nwn2 folder to see what interfaces are opened up. From reading the comments above, it appears gr2 is something like a physics rig in that context, but it may be very different in Demigod. Strangely, at a quick glance I can't see granny2.dll in the bin folder of Demigod. Maybe I've got things completely wrong.
So in response to the OP, the devs are unlikely to release a map editor because gr2 is a proprietary format that they can't give you the license to (it costs ~$10000). Whether this is an impassable barrier or merely a hurdle for the community remains to be seen, but I think someone is going to need to figure out the gr2 import/export problem before we can really get anywhere.
TL;DR: Don't hold your breath for a map editor.
finally some useful information... well that explains alot and i guess we wont be seeing a map editor then unless they make thier own version with pre sets and sell it a reasonable price... @.@\
have a look at the MAPXX_save.lua file, if you want to change where the structures and stuff are.
You might be able to change creep paths with this as well, I'm not sure yet.
EDIT: where XX is the map number. This might be more bearable if you can load the gr2 into 3DS, which someone on the aoe3 forums managed to do. This would give you an easy way of determining appropriate position location and scale without too much trial and error.
EDIT#2: the paths are definately in there. So are some real wierd ones too...like this
['SednaMove'] = {
['color'] = STRING( 'ff800080' ),
['type'] = STRING( 'Blank Marker' ),
['prop'] = STRING( '/env/common/props/markers/M_Blank_prop.bp' ),
['orientation'] = VECTOR3( 0, -0, 0 ),
['position'] = VECTOR3( 166.5, 99.8828, 260.5 ),
},
well i play aoe 3s played them all but they have such a simple map editor u can do what ever u want and anyone can do it... when yu start talking code and trial and error...i got a wife 2 kids and i work offshore... @.@
I'm not 100% sure about AoE3, but I don't think its using the gr2 stuff for the terrain, only the unit models. As someone else mentioned, it's probably using a heightmap and some other stuff to make the terrain rather than using a 3d mesh. This means you can't have the incredible visual backdrops available in Demigod, which are actually a part of the map.
The grunts get pretty confused when they come out since their first waypoint is behind them.
lol im intrigued to see how thats done. trial and error?
more silliness
You need to follow Sorian's instructions on modding. Rename dgdata.zip to dgdata.zip.old or something. Extract its files into a folder called dgdata.zip. Screw around with the lua files to your hearts content. All of the stuff im changing to do this is in the
\Impulse\Demigod\dgdata.zip\maps\MAP05 folder
You want the _save file mostly. _scenario looks like it would be useful for doing a proper conversion, since it takes all of the groupings in _save and makes the map go from what I can tell.
I haven't yet tried adding more things, like filling the map up with towers, I think it will work. Unfortunately each item int he map has a unique unit number, so doing things by hand will be messy. (The numbering isn't in order, and need to find the end) Im sure osmeone will whip up a script to do this sooner or later.
For reference, the map is about 500x500 in size according to the spatial system, but it is centered and the actual walkable space is much less. So stick things at around 250,250 if you want the very center, and dont deviate more than about 150 either way if you want things to stay on the map.
I might write a simple GUI for doing this stuff with a 2D representation of the map (probably just an outline) once my exams are over.
More seriously, what if you wanted to play a game where flag locking was more difficult?
You can also get new towers to unlock gradually as you progress in war rank, until you end up with this:
I had fun putting all the flags in with the centre artifact/experience one making the middle alot more popular. Contolling all portals from one point is fun.
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