Battle Maps!

[spedius01]

Ave,

Contrary to my original thoughts on the maps used in Legion Arena, it would seem there are far fewer.

If you would care to look in MapList.txt there is the following list:

Index Map Name
01 bay.ase
02 beach.ase
03 canyon.ase
04 farmland.ase
05 marshland.ase
06 MediumArid1.ase
07 MediumCoastal1.ase
08 MediumCoastalNight.ase
09 MediumFarmlands.ase
10 mediumplains1.ase
11 MediumRiver1.ase
12 MediumRiver1.ase
13 Medium-Snowy1.ase
14 plains1.ase
15 plains2.ase
16 plateau.ase
17 river2.ase
18 snowy1.ase
19 snowy2.ase

The headers and index are my additions, I've also sorted the list alphabetically using MsExcel spreadsheets.

It is my intention, at some stage, to identify which maps relate to which scenarios. This is a necessary first step in the creation of new scenarios process. At the moment we don't have the ability or tools to be able create new maps but we just might have the ability soon to be able to re-use these maps to create new campaigns.

I recently downloaded a copy of the shareware programme "Grahic Workshop" (GWS) from here.
GWS can convert graphics from one format to another, it also has the ability to create thumbnails and I think it can re-size pictures.

I hope to be able to use GWS in identifying the maps as follows:

01. Use the screencapture facility to take copies of each of the 68 maps in the Roman campaign
02. Use the screencapture facility to take copies of each of the 41 maps in the Celtic campaign
03. Use GWS thumbnails to sort the maps into two sets of 19 (as per the list in MapList.txt)

Once that has been achieved the next thing is to establish orientation:

01. Using the first map in each set, we determine that the top is North and the bottom is South, or the North South axis.
02. We have the first two key elements in building our metaphorical map compass.
03. We continue the process looking at each map within a set and laying our map compass over it to determine its relationship to the first map, and thus fixing its orientation.
04. Next we need to overlay our first map with a grid to establish map references. We need to find out from Slitherine what divisions they used so that we can match them on our maps. Has anyone any software capable of converting a 3d picture into a 1d flat object? You will notice that the pictures of maps in the deployment screen have perspective as a built in feature. Check out the dimensions of the in bounds area at the top and compare it with that of the bottom.

To be continued.

Vale

M. Spedius Corbulo

[duncan]

You can use The Gimp for your graphics and screens

http://www.gimp.org/

It's pretty powerful, I use the linux version a lot (in AARs, etc.). They have windows version too. And it's released under the GNU license, it's nice free software.

[spedius01]

You can use The Gimp for your graphics and screens
http://www.gimp.org/
It's pretty powerful, I use the linux version a lot (in AARs, etc.). They have windows version too. And it's released under the GNU license, it's nice free software.

Ave duncan,

That's a most helpful and welcome suggestion.

What's a GNU license?

Please keep them coming.

Vale

M. Spedius Coprbulo

[duncan]

What's a GNU license?

From Wikipedia

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GNU_General_Public_License

The GPL grants the recipients of a computer program the following rights, or "freedoms":

the freedom to run the program, for any purpose.
the freedom to study how the program works, and modify it. (Access to the source code is a precondition for this)
the freedom to redistribute copies.
the freedom to improve the program, and release the improvements to the public. (Access to the source code is a precondition for this)

It's not the same as shareware, AFAIK, but I'm not sure about it. The Gimp is just a program, but most of the linux OS are under GPL, for example. Very powerful tool.

[spedius01]

Ave

This is the continuation of the opening post of this topic.

I've finished the exercise to identify, group and determine the orientation of the 109 battle maps used by Legion Arena.
It took all of yesterday and until now to complete, but it's a task that only needs to be done once.

So, what did I find out?

01. There are only eighteen battle maps, one of the items on the MapList.txt list is a duplicate (MediumRiver1.ase).
02. Slitherine have very cleverly re-used that set of eighteen maps time and time again, in both campaigns.
03. They have only used the four cardinal points of the compass, N, S, E and W.
04. Trying to put a descriptive name to a map isn't quite so easy, medium = large, no size = small.
05. In some cases, because there is only one of a type or size, it's obvious which descriptive name fits.
06. The problem comes when there's more than one or the description is vague, it becomes a process of elimination.

As part of this exercise I looked in data/battle/Maps/. It would appear that "in most cases" the maps, as in MapList.txt, are grouped together in sets ie. bay.bmf, bay.ggg, bay.sfx and bay.txt. In each of the .txt files, in this directory, is a line which says "size 256 256" or "size 384 384". When you apply them to the maps you come up with 256 = small and 384 = medium. Goodness knows what large is? The convention I've adopted, to keep things nice and simple, is a map is either large or small. So medium = large. A thought has just occured to me, what if you were to change a 256 into a 384 would a small map become a medium = large map?

The reason I put quotes marks around "in most cases" is because in three cases there was no .txt file. They are MediumArid1, MediumCoastal1 and MediumCoastalNight. This is either deliberate or it's an oversight. Slitherine please confirm.

Part of the modding process is to look for patterns or sets, when you find what appears to be an ommision it kind of throws you.

To be continued.

Vale

M. Spedius Corbulo