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SOLDAT MAP MAKER 1.1 (c) 2002-03 Michal Marcinkowski-----
SOLDAT MAP MAKER - HELP FILE (EN)
INTRODUCTION:
With the Soldat Map Maker you can make your own map in 5 minutes. But if you want to do a really good map you have to spend some time on it. Like everything, this program needs skills and patience. When building Soldat maps you need to follow some simple rules that are written below. The most improtant rule is to look at the old Soldat maps and learn from them. And remember - Soldat maps are made of polygons and with polygons you can build everything!
The use of the Map Maker is rather easy, so in the help file there is just a simple tutorial. The best way to learn something is to watch someone else do it.
YOUR FIRST MAP:
In the beggining you should press the HELP button in the top
program bar.
Thanks to that you will have quick access to the main program commands, that you
will have to learn now or later.
START:
1.
Click on the map area holding CTRL and you will start making a polygon.
The basic element of the map.
Move your mouse a little further and click to create a second vertice.
After that click for the third time and the polygon will be done.
Thanks to joining many polygons like this you will create a map.
2.
The following screens will teach you rules that you have to be caution of when making a map.
The first screens show how not to join polygons:
You can't join the polygons by the edges. It will cause several problems..
The edges might seem cracked or players can fall into them.
You have to put the polygons on each other like this:
An often problem that will occure during map making will be polygon peaks like this:
They can cause the players to stop by them. You can't smoothly walk through them.
You can get rid of them in two ways:
1: place the polygons differently
2: cover the peaks with another polygon
Its very usefull to turn on WIREFRAME MODE when editing a map.
3.
When you finally make the map from polygons place some
scenery.
In the SCENERY menu select a scenery element from the list. They
are BMP files placed in the Soldat\Scenery-gfx folder.
Now click Add To List to use the element in the map. Now to place the
scenery on the map click Create.
4.
Scenery can be defensive positions that stop bullets. If
you want to do that click on the MAKE COLLIDERS button.
Choose the size of the collider area and place it on the map. The red circle is
the area where bullets collide:
5.
Its about time to create respawn points. It is a VERY
important element, without it the map won't work.
Click on the MAKE SPAWN POINTS button and choose a spawn type and place it on the map.
Warning: If you don't place a respawn point for let's say grenades, they
won't appear on the map.
On deathmatch maps place also the 4 teams spawn points.
6.
This is a good moment to set the BACKGROUND COLORS.
You can change the map texture by clicking the Load Texture button from
the top program bar. The textures must be opened from Soldat\Textures
folder.
When everything is done don't forget to click the COMPILE MAP
button!
Now you can save the map by clicking SAVE MAP.
Save it in the Soldat\Maps folder.
From now only your imagination is the limit!
BOT WAYPOINTS
Bot paths are made out of connected WAYPOINTS. They are
the most difficult thing in making maps, but can bring you the most
satisfaction.
The most important thing is to look how the waypoints are done in standard
Soldat maps and to experiment a lot. In this way you will learn much.
Delete: erases the selected waypoint
Clear All: erases all waypoints on the map
The following checkboxes define the selected waypoint:
Path 1,2: the waypoints path number
left, up, right, down, fly: type of movement that the bot has to do to get
to this waypoint
Show:
All: shows all waypoints
Path 1, 2: shows only specific waypoint paths
HOW DOES IT WORK:
To be able to create bot paths you have to understand how
they work.
Bots from there spawn place, if they don't see anyone to fight, will just walk
through there waypoints. So it is important to precisely place the waypoints and
connect them.
They can easily fall out of a path, thats why you have to place waypoints
everywhere to head the bot on the good path.
Here is a simple waypoints example:
Lets say that a bot is at point B and he walks in a circle over the platform. He has to go first right then jump up, go left, jump down, go right and so on.
We place the first waypoint in the place where the bot is standing (usually it will be a respawn point). After that we place waypoints in order in the most important places:
Now we have to connect them in strict order. First we select the first
waypoint and holding down the SHIFT key we right click on the second waypoint.
Then we connect 2 with three and so on.
Lines should appear between them:
Now we have to settle what will happen if the bot touches the waypoint.
It goes like this:
if a bot is at point 1, his current waypoint is 1. If so he does what the next
connected waypoint (2) tells him to do. To get from point 1 to 2 we have to
check RIGHT for waypoint 2. The bot will go right
towards point 2.
After getting to waypoint 2 his next waypoint will be three and it will tells
him what to do. Again we select RIGHT for this waypoint.
When the bot gets to point three, he has to get up towards waypoint 4. In
waypoint 4 we check UP.
After he jumps to waypoint 4 he has to jet towards point 5. In waypoint 5 we
check FLY.
When he gets to 5 he has to go left towards 6. In 6 we check LEFT.
And so on...
In the end it looks like this:
The colors of the lines between the waypoints specify the path type:
red - go right
green - go left
yellow - jump
blue - crouch
grey - use jetpack
If we would like the bot to go also in the other way (from point B go left
and then up) we have to do waypoints with Path Number 2. To do this select
PATH 2 from the menu.
If we want the bot to go from one path to another you just have to connect them
with there waypoints using SHIFT.
If from one waypoint there are multiple connections the bot will choose randomly
a possible path.
Remember that the bot has to precisily touch the waypoint to activate it.
CAPTURE THE FLAG
Important! In CTF mode the path numbers correspond to teams.
Path 1 is used for red team bots to get to the blue flag.
Path 2 is used for blue team bots to get to the red flag.
When returning with a flag the bots use the other teams path.
INFILTRATION
Path 1 is used for red team bots to get to the black flag.
Path 2 is used for the red team to return to the white flag. It is also the blue
teams path.
The blue team uses path 2. In places where bots must stop and defend the base
use the SPECIAL waypoint function - STOP AND CAMP.
This way the bots won't go without need to the white flag. If the blue teams
flag is stolen the SPECIAL function will stop working and the bots will
go to retrieve the flag.
Those are the bot waypoints basics.
I suggest you study standard Soldat waypoint maps.
Thats all for now, I wish you great maps!
Map Maker Help File (22-02-2003)