Homeworld
Mapmaking Help and FAQ v2.0a
(Written By Obithrawn)
This
is the second version of my help file, and it is more of a FAQ
than the previous version. Anyway, first, go to Jason's site
(http://www.strategyplanet.com/HWMaps/) and go to the editing
section, then print out all the editing files there. I mention
them a lot, and they helped me (I should explain a lot of things
in those, but its nice to have them anyway). Also, I would like
to thank Jason (BPLlama), TAKER, Hellhawk666, Skywalker, Jacelor,
and anyone on the Relic board I didn't mention (especially the
makers of all those kick-ass Homeworld web sites out there).
And I would like to thank my parents, and my cats, Zoe and Stanly,
and KoRn, and RatM, and pr0n, and potatoes...oh, and the guy
who first decided to squeeze cow utters, and drink what came
out of them. Especially him. All these questions fit into the
category "How do I make a map?" which is the most
FAQ of all! To the questions, batman! And this time, don't forget
my pants!
To
make/edit maps, you need either MissionMan, or Notepad (which,
I think, comes with Windows). Actually any text editor will
do, just remember save it your files in plain text format, not
one of those "fancy-pantsie" formats. The best discovered
so far being Textpad,
which is free. Another alternative to MissionMan and Notepad
is Excel. Homeworld map files can be loaded and saved with Excel
if you use the "Comma Separated" or "CSV"
spreadsheet format, and it really lines those columns of numbers
up nicely. Once again Excel isn't a must, any spreadsheet or
database program that supports CSV should work fine.
It
comes with Homeworld, in the installation menu (when you put
the cd in, the installation menu should pop up). But, personally,
I think using Textpad
is much easier (will be covered later).
-
Not
as of Christmas '00. There are several tools, including
the Random Derelict Placer, the Ringmaker, and the JUICY
.dist file creator, that might help you out. They're available
on the editing section of Jason's site. There are really
none more out from when this document was first written
but for everything there is, see Project Red: The
Map and Map Makers Archives.
MissionMan
creates a bunch of text files when you generate missions, and
they all can be opened using notepad. How to open using notepad:
Open any map file, like from 'Iron Curtin'. When the window
that say 'what do you want to use to open this' pops up, select
notepad. It should then open in notepad or better still Textpad,
and you should be able to see all the text. This is how most
people edit maps, straight from a Text editor. (I know it looks
confusing at first, but we'll cover it all).
You
have to have at least one .dist file for every type of resource
you have on your map. (EX-one for all the asteroids, one for
the dustclouds) What they do is tell Homeworld how many of each
size of asteroid/dustcloud/nebulea to put in. For example, say
this was testmap2. When you opened it up, it looked like this:
Asteroid0
0
Asteroid1 1
Asteroid2 2
Asteroid3 4
Asteroid4 0
What that means is that there will be twice as many asteroid2's
as asteroid1's. And there will be twice as many Asteroid3's
as Asteroid2's. Asteroid0's are the tiny, unharvestable dust
particles, while Asteroid4's are missile destroyer size. Also,
it is all relative, so Asteroid0 0 Asteroid1 10 Asteroid2
20 Asteroid3 40 Asteroid4 0 would have the exact same distribution.
Homeworld
won't just let you create a single file for a 2-4 player map,
you have to create on directory for 2 players, 3 players, and
4 players. Each one will have the according number of Mothership_X.missphere
files (same number as the folder)
The
number at the end is the version for that many players (IronCurtin2
is the 2 player version)
The
description file just has the information that goes in the menu,
font, colour of writing, the description. For all the details,
look here.
The
ResourceSphere just has all the resources, and any derelicts
or ships. When ships are placed in the ResourceSphere they go
under AI hold, even when playing with no computer players. This
is also where the .dist files are linked to. For all the details,
look here.
The
Mothership files are the ships each player starts out with,
and where they are. Guess what? For all the details, look here.
Yes,
you need one, even if your map doesn't have resources. Well,
actually you can have more than one, but usually there is no
point in having more than one, unless your ResourceSphere_#.missphere
file is bigger than 64K (See the
final question in this FAQ)
Yep,
you have to have one for each player on that map. "No more,
no less"
1.
To go along with the story line, or just to create an
interesting map (my map, The Strike, for example, only lets
you build strike craft)
2.
To reduce loading time, if you exclude all the races
beside R1 and R2, the loading time will be significantly less.
3.
If you don't load something, the RAM will go to using
something else, and this will reduce lag.
4.
If you include too much stuff some of Homeworld's graphics
start getting screwy...
No,
you can exclude an entire race by putting: ExcludeShips Race
(P1, P2, P3, Traders), ALL
Yes,
you can put: ExcludeShips P1, ALL Then below it put: IncludeShips
P1, P1MissileCorvette This will exclude all P1 ships, except
for the Missile Corvette
No,
but they help so things are grouped, and easier to edit.
You
put them in a set of subdirectories inside the Multiplayer directory
in The Homeworld Folder. See question
6.
Probably
because you don't have the folder name, and the name in the
.level file the same (remember to put the number at the end)
The
description goes in the description.txt file. Where it says
Description about 5 times vertically (it has to be within those
decription lines)
There
are many reasons. Remember the stuff you printed? Read over
the HW Errors file
written by Taker.
Luckily,
no (my computer wouldn't work if maps screwed up your game by
crashing :-)
Relic's
forums are good. The
Project Red Engineering forums are good too.
Sure,
thats what I did for a loooooong time. Try testing different
variables one at a time to see what they all do.
Download
either WinRAR, or WinZip. For these programs all you have to
do is put all the files (the folders and a readme usually) into
1 folder, then tell the program to zip everything in that folder.
Test
it, play on WON, play against the computer with every possible
number of players. If you can't play over WON, send it to some
other people, and have them tell you what to change. I didn't
do this for my first map, and as a result I had to keep re-releasing
it to fix a number of problems.
WON
has a size limitation of 64k, if your map has any files larger
than 64k it won't auto-download over WON. If you can't split
up the big files (see question
11) then just have each player download the map regularily
(from your website, over ICQ, or whatever).
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