The Homeworld Map Makers Primer v2.1 FINAL

 
Tutorial 1.0 - Basic Set Up

 

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

 

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.

 

Quick Links:

HW Primer:
Chapter One - The Map Basics

Quick Jump to Relevant Areas in the Primer:
HWPrimer: 1.2 Directory Structure
HWPrimer: 1.3 Directory Content

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