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Caravel Forum : DROD Boards : Architecture : How to make a world map for your hold (A reference for folks looking to make world maps in their holds)
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Insoluble
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icon How to make a world map for your hold (+3)  
World maps are neat and I'd love to see them get more use in architecture. Unfortunately there's a lot of information that doesn't seem to be documented anywhere. So this thread should hopefully be a repository of some information about using maps.

After a bit of experimentation, it seems that the maximal map size that will show up is 1024 pixles horizontally and 768 pixels vertically. If you use a larger image it will be cut off on the bottom and right. Smaller images will be centered on screen.

The attached file is an image of the dimensions mentioned above. Horizontal black lines mark off every tenth pixel from the upper left. Red lines mark off every hundredth. You may find this useful for placing your map tiles.

More to come.

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[Last edited by Insoluble at 09-18-2017 01:56 PM : corrected resolution thanks to Doom]
09-16-2017 at 03:16 AM
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icon Re: How to make a world map for your hold (+6)  
In the hold attached you'll find a simple world map set up. Feel free to use this as a model for setting yours up. There are a few important considerations to keep in mind: see below.

Basic process for making a map
1) Click on Maps in the level editor and add a new map. Here's where you can select your image.
2) Important: take a look at the box to the right that says "Map Display Type". It's easy to miss. You need to select "Labels" if you want level names to appear below your map icons.
3) In the first room of your hold (or at a point where you're sure the player will be before going to a map) add a scripted character.
4) Add the script "World Map Select" and choose your map.

Now to place icons on your world map that will lead to your levels, you can use the script "World Map Tile Icon". The icons used in TSS can be found in The TSS customs element pack which you can download on the downloads page if you purchased TSS:
http://forum.caravelgames.com/downloads.php

You can also opt to use pretty much any other monster sprite.

Coordinates are measured in pixels from the upper left. In the map attached above you can find an easy reference for counting pixles. Be warned though, the coordinates you enter at this stage will be where the game places the upper left corner of your icon, not the center. So if you want your icon centered at (100,100) say you'd probably want to actually place the icon at (90,90) or something like that.

The last box with the options "on", "off", "level state", "Locked", "Disabled", and "Image only" is important too and easy to overlook. If you're using icons you'll probably want "level state" most of the time. That will have a sword for explored, a check for cleared and all the usual stuff appear on your icon. The others are mostly self explanatory.

Note that you can also use "World Map Image Icon" if you want to use a custom image of pretty much any size instead of a smaller icon. The hold Torus does this and is anyone edit if you want to see an example of how to set this up.

Common problems
* I can't find the image I wanted.
-> It has to be in jpeg or png format. Default is jpeg, so if your map is png, make sure to select that or it won't show up on the import screen.

* Level names don't appear next to my map icons.
-> You have to select this option on the main editor screen. When you have "Maps" selected a box should appear to the right allowing you to select "Labels"

* I want little checks to appear when a level gets cleared.
-> Make sure to select the "level state" option in the box at the far right after you selected the "World Map Tile Icon" script.

* I can't figure out how to get icons in the right place:
-> The x and y coordinates are measured from the top left as (0,0) and count the number of pixels from the top left to where the top left portion of your icon image will appear (not it's center). You can use the map in the post above to help you reference this, but you'll probably have to experiment a bit to get it just right.

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09-16-2017 at 03:53 AM
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icon Re: How to make a world map for your hold (0)  
Is there a way to make a map icon animate?

In the TSS Custom Elements Bonus pack, under map assets, there are some files (like "world_map_blue_marker.png") that look like several frames of a button with pulsing animation. But there doesn't seem to be a way to get it to actually run through the frames and animate.

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09-19-2017 at 06:07 AM
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icon Re: How to make a world map for your hold (0)  
disoriented wrote:
Is there a way to make a map icon animate?

In the TSS Custom Elements Bonus pack, under map assets, there are some files (like "world_map_blue_marker.png") that look like several frames of a button with pulsing animation. But there doesn't seem to be a way to get it to actually run through the frames and animate.

Yes. As far as I can tell, the way to do it is to make a custom character with that animated image uploaded as it's custom tile set. The character doesn't need any scripting, but it does need to have the custom tiles uploaded. So let's say you save a custom character with that blue marker and call it "flashy blue" or something like that. When you go to your map script, you'll now select Wrold Map Tile Icon (Not World Map Image Icon), then select your custom character "flashy blue" from the list of tiles. I don't know if there is a way to include larger animated images though, someone else will have to chime in on that one.

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09-19-2017 at 01:45 PM
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icon Re: How to make a world map for your hold (0)  
Insoluble wrote:
disoriented wrote:
Is there a way to make a map icon animate?

In the TSS Custom Elements Bonus pack, under map assets, there are some files (like "world_map_blue_marker.png") that look like several frames of a button with pulsing animation. But there doesn't seem to be a way to get it to actually run through the frames and animate.

Yes. As far as I can tell, the way to do it is to make a custom character with that animated image uploaded as it's custom tile set. The character doesn't need any scripting, but it does need to have the custom tiles uploaded. So let's say you save a custom character with that blue marker and call it "flashy blue" or something like that. When you go to your map script, you'll now select Wrold Map Tile Icon (Not World Map Image Icon), then select your custom character "flashy blue" from the list of tiles. I don't know if there is a way to include larger animated images though, someone else will have to chime in on that one.

In addition to this, you'll need to set the Animation Speed (in Character Management) for the NPC to a non-zero value.

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09-19-2017 at 03:52 PM
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icon Re: How to make a world map for your hold (0)  
You definitely can manage larger animated icons by stitching together a bunch of animated 22x22s, but that's a lot of work and I'm also uncertain if there's a better way.
09-19-2017 at 07:27 PM
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