New designer over here. I’m creating a historical campaign placed in North China, I’ve got the feeling of the triggers pretty well, and I’ve tampered a lot with the Genie Editor as well. However, I’m struggling to give an immersive look to my maps. I begin by creating a map with a seed, and then I include the units and buildings of the players. I create some rivers here and there, include some forests and mountains. Perhaps include a couple of props. However, in general I feel a little stiff when adding eye candy, and making the terrain feel “alive”.
For fellow designers, how do you create those beautiful maps. How do you get inspiration, or which is your thought process to decoration? Thanks a lot!
After designing a lot of maps, I do have a lot of things to say. But, it really depends on what you are making though. For example:
Category 1: If you are making something like a blood, arena, tower defense, etc. map, it’s generally a good idea to keep the design simple/symmetrical. (Maybe with some variation of course too.) Although, it’s still always up to you.
Category 2: If you are making a real world map, custom world, rpg etc. map, then you need to keep in ‘some’ geological/planet aspects in mind. (But, not always. You can be creative/use your imagination.) Things such as the areas temperature, point of reference/view, etc.
Maybe I should come up with a few examples…
Try to keep areas transitioning correctly. Consider avoid using snowy areas near desert areas. (You still can of course but, this can be a bit of a eye sore in my opinion and may not make sense. Although, not impossible of course.)
When placing trees, consider placing them near lakes, rivers, oasis, etc. They need the water. (But again, not always. Feel free to experiment and what you think feels right.)
When placing gold/stone, consider designing/placing in mines, deserts, or rocky areas.
When placing wildlife/food, (deer, sheep, boar, wolves, berries, etc.) consider their natural habitat.
When placing paths/roads, make sure the area is generally open for people/nature where they would generally walk though.
When placing water/cliffs/unreachable areas, make sure that the water depths make sense (transitions), waterfalls look like they fit in the area, and that the inaccessible area are not somehow reachable. (use rocks, trees, etc.)
Also, don’t forget about height, rivers going down in elevation (consider waterfalls since water+hills are not a easy thing to do in editor… They are possible though.), etc…
As for the designing/creative aspect, unless you are making the first category, just stick to big areas of the map and copy/paste/rotate as needed. You don’t need to do much creative stuff here.
As for the second category, I find it’s better to stick to a small area and work your way out from there (little by little.) It sounds crazy but, you tend to stay focused on the current area you are creating better than focusing on a large area. In the end, the ‘world’ or ‘map’ will come together. If anything feels off, you can always go back and touch things up afterwords. Also, once done, consider adding as much ‘eye candy’ as you are willing to add to make it look even better.
In the end, the ‘world’ or ‘map’ is yours though so… There is not really a ‘right’ or ‘wrong’ way of designing a map/world. You can use the above as ‘realistic guidelines’ but, feel free to get creative.
Thank you for your insights! That advice of sticking to a small area resonated in me. I’m going to work my maps through small chunks, then. My maps are not symmetrical, as they are RPG campaigns, so including some randomness in the landscape would work.
Hey hi, saw you work on the Genie Editor. Are you familiar on how to add new units/eye candy into the game with the Genie Editor? Want to tap on insights pls.
Hi! My work with the Genie Editor is focused specially on changing unit models. I begun with opening the original empires2_x2_p1.dat file, changing some of the options, saving a copy with the same folder structure as the original, importing that as a mod, and then testing it with the Scenario Editor (just remember to select the mod dat file). After that, is a lot of trial and error. I don’t know if you would need additional instructions.
I made a edit of the .dat file to add new units/eye candy. However, when I added any kind of entry to the dat file, the unit icons in the editor all disappear. This is a big problem as I can’t make any scenarios or triggers or anything given that any dialogues featuring unit icons I need disappear. Also the units in game lose their icons. See the composite bowman has no icon. Affects mainly the new units after the ROR DLC, and the others after that including the BFG, MTR and 3K DLCs. It seems like the .dat file mod causes newer unit icons to vanish/become unreadable by the game engine.
The first thing I would check is if there are UI mods active. They tend to mess with the icons. Other than that I’m not really sure what could be. When I create new units, I also include the icons .PNG files to this path: "\resources\ _common\wpfg\resources\uniticons\ ". By the way, these UI changes should be done to another mod (don’t know why, but that’s a common suggestion), so you would have something like “DataMod” and “UIMod” in your local folder.
I think a unit icons mod with all the in-game icons that is higher priority should override anything else? Could you make something like that and share it with me. Up to 3K DLC and the others?
