Part
Six: Overview
In this section
you will take a first look, a preview of your map.

6.0
Preview the Map
Using
the windows shortcut ALT-TAB to switch between the game
and desktop is how all the tweaking is done. Did you read
the point about downloading maps over WON when online? The
'restarting homeworld so it recognises the new folders added'
bit? Well, the same process happens whenever you add a map
folder into the Multiplayer folder, you wont see it listed
in the game until you quit and then restart the game. But
happily this does not apply to the folders contents,
you can add empty folders containing nothing but a description
file and still have them listed when you start up the game,
then add what you need to the folder, delete it, change
it, swap it for another file etc, all while the game is
running, ALT-TAB back into the game, reload the map, view
your changes.

6.1
- Copy
the relevant map folder to the Homeworld Multiplayer directory.
Now,
copy your Revelations2 folder into the Homeworld/Multiplayer
folder (if its not already there). Your Revelations2 folder
should contain the following files;
Revelations2.level
Description.txt
Mothership_0.missphere
Mothership_1.missphere
ResourceSphere_1.missphere
Downslope.btg
Downslope.hsf
AsteroidCentre.dist
DustCloudCentre.dist
AsteroidLong.dist
nebula.dist
Make
sure that it does, then away you go and start up Homeworld.

6.2
-
Load up the Map and take a look around.
In
the Multiplayer/Skirmish Vs CPU/Set Up Game/Basic Options
screen, your mission is listed as; ‘Revelations (2-6)’.
Take note of the description box when you select your map,
make sure all is well.
If
you cant see your map listed then you have made a mistake
somewhere, most likely in the naming, check that the folder
name matches exactly (Case and Spelling!) the name your
map has in the Revelations2.level file, as I was saying
here. Possibly,
you never actually changed the map name itself in the *.level
file and it may have been recognised but the game has it
listed as something else, ie Tutorial Map or whatever. If
you can see it then select it anyway, we can change
everything later.
6.2.1
- You
only have the map set up for two players at the moment so
start up a 2-player game on your map.
Did
it work? It should have, if not be sure to go through each
stage of the tutorial checking you done everything right
added everything I told you to, and remember; case
and format. Case and format and Spelling.
One spelling mistake or a mistake in the case of a file
whether its the file name or its listing in the level file
will cause a crash.
6.2.2
- In
the game, look around, marvel at your stellar work thus
far. You should see two MS's 100km from each other,
either side of the nebula that lies at the heart of the
‘Hyperspace Arena’
map.
6.2.3
- Pay
attention that the background matches the light source (A
minor yet important point. My original version of ‘Lughnassad’ had the lighting all mixed up and I only noticed after
I had spent ages placing all the resources and stuff. I
had to virtually rewrite the whole damned thing after that.
Man, I was royally
miffed).
6.2.4
- Are
you happy with the music?
6.2.5
- Are
the two players facing the right direction and are all the
ships placed okay? (fire off a probe at the CPU Mothership
to check this, or, record the game then check the recording
for it's disposition and facing. I think recording is the
best option here, its a good habit to get into, especially
if you have 8 players to check).
6.2.6
- When
you are finished quit out of the map, back to the main menu
and press Alt-Tab to jump back to desktop, you will want
to keep Homeworld running from now on.

6.3
- Tweak
the Map and take a look at the changes you make.
Okay,
lets tweak a little bit. We’ll fool around with your description
box and the light source. Remember you are now working
from the files within the Homeworld/Multiplayer Directory
itself if you created your map elsewhere. Remember, don't
touch the map folder itself! From here on only save/delete/rename/etc.
the files this map folder contains.
6.3.1
- The
Description box looks a little bunched up lets space out
those lines of text a little. This is easily accomplished
here by adding in two more lines beginning with ‘Description<tab>’
in the Description.txt file. Add these lines in the relevant
places so your first few lines will look like this;
Description
Revelations
(2-6 Players)
Description
Description
Hooray
me! My First Map! Am I not just the dogs bollocks?
Description
Description
Settings:
Crates off.
Description
AUTHOR: Dylov (dy.lov@techemail.com)
Description
VERSION: 1.0 (April 19 2000)
You
could if you so wish make the revelations titled Bold by
adding the usual '&' (shift-7) in front of every letter,
but note that if you do this, the game still regards the
'&' as a space used and even though you cant see the
'&', you will still see the effects it will have on
long titles, you will find it wraps.
6.3.2
- You’ll
have noticed that /downslope\ has set his light source as
almost directly above and slightly more to the rear of your
Mothership starting position, so lets move the background
about a little to match up the star with the light source.
In
the level file change the background line a little, we won't
rotate it up/down (as /downslope\’s background is completely
unforgiving for even a minor changes) but we will rotate
the left/right (rotz) by a small amount though, say; 20°.
(Remember that x=0°
when we rotate the map, we are rotating it ‘anticlockwise’,
by 20°).
The
line should now look like this;
Background
Downslope, 20, 0
6.3.3
- Still
in the level file, lets change the Overall map size
a little. We can see that 150km radius gives two thirds
volume of empty space around our players at the core,
so as we aim to make an inward looking map, lets reduce
the size a little... Actually lets reduce it a Lot!
Cut the smUniverseSizeX, smUniverseSizeZ and
smUniverseSizeY size down by half to 75km (75000).
6.3.4
- Okay
have a last look at the settings for the map in the
Description.txt file, check that only crates are switched
off, are you happy with the starting RU’s and the bounty
level? Sweeeet…
6.3.5
- Away
into Homeworld (ALT-TAB) and look at the results to these
changes. Looks much better huh?

6.4
- Summary
Okay,
so the map is working, the Ships are set up for players
One and Two, the Game Settings, Background, Lighting, Universe
Size and Sensor
Manager settings are done. All that really remains is the
resources and the extra players. And look how simple this
has been so far! We're over halfway done so lets quickly
push on and finish the two player map fully, by setting
up our resources.
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