RTS Maker Help

RTS Maker Help

Overview
Menu System:
File
Texture
Brush
Height
Resource
Player
Buildings
Units
Help
Toolbar
Various Dialogs:
New Project Options
Unit Creation
Other Links:
Contact Me
Darkbasic I'm waffle in the forums.
Purebasic

Overview

The main intent of this application is to creat an easy to use mapping application. For those fammiliar with Blizzard's Warcraft II editor, some things may seem simular; most notably, the default brush for mapping. This is NOT another editor for WC2, and it does not load WC2 maps. I only mention it here because the editor for WC2 is nice and easy to use. I have strived to make this one as easy to use too. I decided to make this because WC2 does not permit custom media to be (easily) used and I wanted games to be more focused on tactics and WC2 does not account for side armor and other factors that can affect the effective of units.

To quickly create a custom map, HA! its not a quick operation at all, you must first select New from the File Menu. This will let you decide on the size of your map, the tileset to use, and which units to use for the map. If this is to be a completely new project, there might not be any units available to use. Thats ok, you can create some later.

For best results, use tiles that are 32x32 in size. If you use a different size, they will be resized. You select tiles to use for lake,grass,dirt see blending and these are blended to create a texture array. Now you simply draw your map. The toolbar has short cuts to simplify the process of map making. If doing a simple map, lake height defaults to a height of 0, grass at 1 and dirt at 2. These numbers are useful for determining line of sight and also for determining if ground is passible. A difference of 1 is passible, 2 is difficult, 3 very hard, 4 is blocked (cliff). Setting height will serve as a modifier to the default value. So a height of 2 assigned to a dirt tile will actually make the height a 4.

Now you just create some resources and units and maybe some buildings and then place some on the map. Yeah!!, just. Finialy set some game objectives and its ready to go. This editor does not have all the fancy features of Blizzard's Starcraft, but it does have some other cool options.

If you wish to test a loaded map you can test it from the file menu. Since all game data is contained within a single file, you can easily share these games by sharing this single file. Even all custom Unit animations, sounds and other setting are all contained in this single file. If you do not want others to be able to edit your levels, you can also make them into an exe file. using this method you can share your games with others that do not have this program.

File Menu

New - Clear the current project and start a new project this will open the new project dialog
Open - Close the current project and load an existing project
Save - Save the current project
Save As - Save the current project under a different name
Make Exe - Create an executable from the current project
Test - Play the current project
Exit - Terminate the application

You can also use the toolbar for the New,Open and Save shortcuts.

Contents

New Project Settings

This is where you select the map size. Only square maps are supported. The stated size is in tile counts. So a size of 25x25 would be a grid size of 800x800 for a small map, and 6400x6400 for a huge map. The map size cannot be dynamically changed because of how the memory gets allocated. So, this must be one of your first steps.

The other options can be changed at any time. Tileset is used for mapping, while resources and units will select the list of unit types your game will support. The default is none, forcing you to create them using MSPaint.

File Menu
Creating Tilesets
Creating Units
Creating Resources
Contents

Texture Menu

From this menu can can select the type of tile to place onto your map.

Select - Turns off tile placement and instead will select other objects that have been placed onto the map
Water - place the water tile (height + 0)
Grass - place the grass tile (height + 1)
Dirt - place the dirt tile (height + 2)
Load - loads a previously created tileset
Create - creates a new tileset

RTS Maker only supports one tileset at a time. A tileset is a blended group of tiles. If you create one, you will be asked to select three different tiles to use for water,grass and dirt. This will then be blended to create a tileset for use in mapping.

If you desire to support decorations in your tileset, you will need to add those details in by editing your tileset with MSPaint.

sample tileset

Height
toolbar
Contents

Brush

This menu selects the brush size and detail options. Select the largest size to quickly create large areas. Use the detail options to add minor artifacts to your map. These artifacts are added randomly. You create these artifacts using MSPaint and edit your tileset. Do not edit the first 3 tiles, as those are the default blank ones. The blank ones located at the bottom of the tileset are used for artifacts and can be edited.

Small - use the smallest brush size (32x32)
Medium - the size of 3 small tiles (96x96)
Large - the size of 5 small tiles (160x160)
No Details - do not use tiles with artifacts
Use Details - randomly use some tiles with artifacts
All Details - only use tiles with artifacts

Texture
Toolbar
Contents

Height Menu

This is where you set the map height for your next tile. Contour lines will be added to show topography. The greater the elevation change, the darker the line. The height changes from 0 to 9. Although, placing a dirt tile at height 9 will actually create a real height of 11. Setting height to Auto Zero will permit placing tiles without changing the current height settings for the map location.

Tip:
Try building your map entirely at height 1. This is simple to do, and permits easy modifications for later. This way, if you want a dirt beach near water to be at height 1 instead of the default of 2 (Dirt always adds 2 to base height), you can set the area to height of 0 and then place a dirt tile. Sure, the actual height will still be 2, but by setting the base height at 1 instead of 0, the height relative to the water is only 1, and would be the same height as any nearby grass tiles.

Another added bonus from this is you can differentiate coastal water areas (height =1) from deep water areas (height=0). You can use this to hide submarines or to restrict large vessels.

Map Tiles
Contents

Resource Menu

Full menu is incomplete

Start - Sets the starting resources for each type and player
Delete - Deletes the selected resource from the map
Settings - Sets the available resources ammount for the previously resource you placed or the currently selected resource
Goals - Sets level objectives for each player and AI
New - Creates a new resource
Below this is a list of available resources you can place. Selecting one of these will place that resource.

Resource Construction
Toolbar
Contents

Player Menu

Use this menu to select which player to assign the next unit to. Player 1 - 4 can be used for real players or AI (computer). Player 5 - 8 are reserved for neutral or AI players.

Contents

Buildings Menu

Full menu is incomplete

New - Creates a new building
Delete - Deletes the selected building from the map
Settings - edits the building data for the previously placed or selected building
Below this is a list of available buildings you can place. Selecting one of these will place that building.

Building Construction
Toolbar
Contents

Units Menu

Full menu is incomplete

New - Creates a new Unit
Delete - Deletes the selected Unit from the map
Settings - edits the unit data for the previously placed or selected unit
Below this is a list of available units you can place. Selecting one of these will place that unit.

Unit Construction
Toolbar
Contents

Help Menu

The help system is designed to provide you with directed help. The idea being that you may have questions about something you are trying to do, or about a specific setting. Each dialog has a help button which will direct you to specific information. From the main menu, the help system offer these options:

Contents - This displays the list of help topics
Tips - This will focus the help based upon the last menu selection you have performed.
About - This just tells you that Norm the waffle wrote this.

Toolbar
Contents

Toolbar Shortcuts

The toolbar provied shortcuts that are also available from the menu system.

New - closes the current project and starts a new one. This will also open the New Project dialog for you to set the map size.
Open - closes the current project and opens an existing one.
Save - saves the current project
Delete - delete the select object (resource,building,unit) from the map
Settings - modify the default settings for the selected object (resource,building,unit)
Select - this enables you to select an existing map object (resource,building,unit)
Water - will place a water texture on the map
Grass - will place a grass tile on the map
Dirt - will place a dirt tile on the map
Small - sets the tile size to small (32x32)
Medium - sets the tile size to medium (96x96)
Large - sets the tile size to large (160x160)
None - Do not use map decorations
Some - Use some map decorations
ALL - Use only decorated tiles for mapping
Help - Will provide a help tip based on previous menu use.

Contents

Unit Creation

Some wacky notes go here

Contents

Contact Information

Visit my website www.archonrpg.com online
Email me at mycat98501@yahoo.com
Contents

Dummy Section

Some wacky notes go here

Contents