General map design information[]
Below is a list of guidelines written for users who are new to the Glest map making process.
- Player and Resource Placement:
- At least 10 tiles (cells) of gold, stone and wood (trees) at the player starting point locations, and at least one smaller 5 tile(cells) resource area nearby
- Generic four player maps space player and AI faction starting locations equidistantly
- Multiplayer maps differ from generic maps and place allies closer together, and those allies may also share gold and stone resource sites.
- Road and Trail Systems:
- Roads connect all player start locations
- Roads should be at least five tiles (cells) wide.
- Trails and paths connect to roads and usually lead to resource locations. Paths also provide an easy route through dense forests or across large, nondescript, plains and deserts.
- Trails and paths should be three tiles (cells) wide. Trails through dense forests - with a width of only two tiles(cells) - may trap size3 AI faction units and cause unit stacking and grid-locking.
- Rivers, lakes and oceans:
- Map Objects:
- Place objects where logical. Trees rarely grow in rivers and lakes although a few dead tree objects in a pond can be visually appealing.
- Statue and gallows objects should be used infrequently. Both look good at trail intersection points and on isolated islands.
- Bushes look great in forests and along riverbanks - use them often.
- Small stones look good but use them sparingly and in appropriate locations. IE: player starting locations are an inappropriate stone object placement location
- Mossy Rocks/Big Rocks need to be surrounded with the pink colored invisible blocking 10-C5 object to prevent units from walking inside the rock model(s)
- Surface texture types
- surface 1 is normally light-colored green grass with random flower and weed texture patterns.
- surface 2 is normally dark-colored green grass with no flower and weed texture patterns.
- surface 3 is normally brown dirt or tan sand with random pebble and weed texture patterns.
- surface 4 is normally composed of gray cobblestones, bricks, interlocking stone-tile and rock-gravel texture patterns
- surface texture 5 varies greatly between different tilesets.
- Surface texture uses:
- surface textures vary greatly between tilesets but in general:
- surface textures 1 and 2 are used as the primary surface type for meadows, mountains, plains, hills and valleys
- surface textures 3 and 4 are used for roads, trails, as ocean and lake shorelines and at player starting locations
- surface texture 5 varies greatly between different tilesets. .
- surface textures vary greatly between tilesets but in general:
General map design tips[]
Map making is tedious and boring so don't expect to knock out a map in an hour. Work on a map a few times a week with the ultimate goal of having a completed map ready after 15 days.
- Is there enough room for building expansion at each of the starting locations?
- The ultra AI typically constructs at least 12 buildings around the starting point which may lead to unit movement congestion.
- Resource node location placement?
- Ensure AI units do not become stuck between buildings and nodes while harvesting in large groups.
- Placing blocking objects next to resources nodes may lead to unit stacking
- AI Pathfinding on long routes?
- Can the AI find the hostile base or group of hostiles? or does it get stuck on a path in a forest or around a lake or river?
- Is the pathing at least 3 tiles (cells) wide at chokepoints?
- Entry and exit trails and roads near the player starting points tend to be narrow to accommodate defensive oriented gamers.
- Trails and roads?
- Do roads and trails follow the natural geography of the map?
- Do trails lead to resources or connect to other trails and roads? Please, no dead-end roads and trails.
- Swamps and flooded regions
- Proper height settings will trigger water splash animations and particles. This effect is quite pleasing, use it wisely.
- Topography
- Roads should be a couple units lower than the rest of the map, and only two units above the water, so that the river heights will look natural at road/water crossing points.
- Maps with little change in elevation are uninteresting and require increased object placement to balance the flat, visually unappealing, terrain.
- Game world visual appeal?
- No one enjoys running around in a barren game world - place lots of objects on the map
- Fifteen statues or nine stones in one location makes no sense and looks bad.
- Does the map look good at various locations and from different viewing perspectives?
- Do placed objects enhance the organic feel of the map?
- Do the hills, valley's, mountains appear natural?
- Do Lakes connect with rivers?
- Apply dirt or sand around bodies of water
- Roads look better if they are trimmed/bordered by dirt or sand shoulders.
Image reference (incomplete)[]
map editor basic elements
game view of the map editor basic elements
Design tricks and glest AI pathfinder limitations (incomplete)[]
visual enhancements while conforming to the AI pathfinder rules
- Draw diagonal perimeter lines on a map using the pink colored invisible walkable(false)-- blocking object 10-C5
- Create the map world within the predefined perimeter boundaries.
- Now place objects outside the perimeter of the ground unit (walkable) playfield - ground units cannot travel in these areas. This technique enhances the visual appearance of the game world.
- Yellow highlighted areas are the walkable(false) portion of the map.note the pink blocking C5 pixel perimeter surrounding the walkable(false) map area
- Blue lines are the original parameter requirements.
- Red square is where the AI unit pathfinder fails. The map breaks the perimeter rule.
- Red lines indicate the path on which the AI wants to travel - but cannot - due to performance failures with the Glest AI pathfinder coding.
Game view of the map editor image seen above walkable(false)-- blocking object portion of the map.