Part
One: Overview
In this section
you will set up the folders and individual sub-folders that
in total, will make up your map.
1.1
|
Create
a Folder called 'Revelations' and all the individual
Sub-Folders that will in total, make up your map. |
1.2
|
A
first look at what will comprise by the time you finish. |
Quick Links Relevant
to this Chapter
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1.0
The Basic Map Set Up or 'Where to Start'
When making maps, I use a separate folder from Homeworld
to work in, I named a folder 'Workshop' While I prefer to
create a folder for a new map on desktop and working in
there, and then copying the entire map into the ..\Sierra\Homeworld\Multiplayer
directory when I want to look at it, there is nothing to
stop you working in your multiplayer folder from the start.
I only do this so I can get access to all the files I may
need easier, especially for copying and pasting between
directories which is a common feature of maply creation.
You can see a screen-grab of what I'm talking about here.

1.1
- Basic Folder
set-up.
Create
a folder in your desktop and rename it: Revelations,
go into this folder and create 5 new folders called;
Revelations2
Revelations3
Revelations4
Revelations5
Revelations6
1.2
- What's going to be here by the time you finish...
Open
up the Revelations2 folder and move the window aside. Leave
it open somewhere on the screen as you are going to be in
and out of this folder like a yo-yo from now on .
We will not actually be creating all the various files that
make up a map from scratch here, we will be editing existing
maps. Confused? Worried? The reason is, is because Homeworld
is unforgiving if you deviate from the format the files
are in. You will crash faster than a dotcom company. So
we use existing files as templates. The end result is usually
almost a complete rewrite of the code that was their before,
but the ability to copy and paste between these files is
what makes it so simple. If you have TextPad then this is
made all the easier with its ability to deal with multiple
files. With Notepad it’s a little less wieldy but still
far, far easier than the mysteries of MissionMan.
As
shown above our map will accommodate up to six players,
and so will consist of five folders. What that means in
real terms is that
you have to make five separate maps! ‘Five Maps!?’ I
hear you ask. Yes I say, Five maps! Each folder must be
able to stand up as a map in its own right. This is made
simple by the fact that each map is basically a copy of
the previous map, only with a few more Mothership_#.missphere
files thrown in.
At
the moment all five of your revelations folders are empty.
By the time you have finished this primer you will have
the following files in here;
Description.txt
Revelations2.level
Mothership_0.missphere
Mothership_1.missphere
ResourceSphere_1.missphere
Asteroid.dist
DustCloud.dist
Tiny.dist
All
these files are required for each map, although you could
get away with less ‘*.dist’ files if you have less asteroid
types named in your ResourceSphere file, but that particular
point is covered later. We will take each file step by step
in the order I have shown them in above.

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