Arcen Games

General Category => A Valley Without Wind 1 & 2 => AVWW Mods & Maps => : tigersfan October 13, 2011, 07:12:27 AM

: A Guide to the AVWW Room Map Editor
: tigersfan October 13, 2011, 07:12:27 AM
The Map editor is located in the main game directory, simply run MapEditor.exe to get started. (Sorry, it's currently only in the Windows version right now)
All rooms in AVWW are drawn using a grid, which is what you see in black in the main part of the map editor.

Most of the controls for the editor are on the right hand side of the grid.

Starting from the top, they are:

“Map Size” - These controls aren’t currently functioning, so you can ignore them.
"Create Blank Map” - This gives you the grid you see when you start the game and is used for starting a room off fresh.
“Import Data/Export Data” - These are used for loading and saving rooms. Rooms are stored in ASCII text files. To save the room, click Export, then to into a blank text file, paste the export into the file, and save. Try to make the filename somewhat descriptive of the room or something in the room, but, the exact name of the room isn’t crucial.
Loading a room is just the opposite, go into the text file, select all, copy it to the clipboard, then click Import on the map editor.
--Colors--
White - Background Wall - This is the space in your room. This is where the PC and the enemies move around in. Most of your room is going to be in this color.
Black - Inaccessible - PCs are not allowed in this section, please be sure to not have any of this direction bordering with any areas that players can access.
Red - Floor - While this is called floor, it’s actually serves as walls as well as floors. This should border your entire room as well as be used for platforms and such throughout the room.
Burgundy - Stairs - This one you can use to allow the player to go up one tile of incline without having to jump.
Pink - Crates - These are the destructible crates used in many boss rooms. These are not recommended in non-boss rooms. They are ok out of the way for decoration, but, they should not block the path.
Blue - Ladder - Ladders for the players. These do not block shots or movements of players or enemies.

-The numbers under the colors allow you to choose how grid spaces you will fill with a mouse click. 1 will suffice most of the time, but there are uses for the other numbers.
-The “Size Per Tile* setting allows you to adjust how big the grid squares in the editor are. This has no effect at all on the actual room.

Some other controls:
*Right clicking in a square will Fill. This means that it will take the tile you are currently clicking on, and change all tiles that are touching it and are the same color to the new color you currently have selected.
*Shift-Clicking will allow you to draw straight lines while dragging.

Some guidelines for room creation:

-The player character is three tiles high, please make sure that the player always has at least three tiles to move between. The character is only one tile wide, so places for the character need only be that wide.

-Boss Rooms should have cover for the player to hide. Be it in the form of walls, crates, or even floors, they need a place they can run to, even if only temporarily.

-Hallways and Atriums need to have plenty of space for doors/exits. Because of the way they are seeded, a doorway can be up to three tiles wide (they are also three tiles high). This means that a platform that is only six tiles wide may only be able to hold one door. Please keep this in mind when designing hallways and atriums. These rooms should be able to hold up to either 5 or 10 doors, your choice, but they ae organized in the game as being able to hold 5 or 10 (more is ok). If you really want a short hallway and you can’t fit 5 doors on the floor, having a space at least two tiles high above the doors will allow room for vents. In other words, to be sure that there is enough space for both doors and vents, you need to have at least 5 tiles worth of usable space to fit them into.
: Re: A Guide to the AVWW Room Map Editor
: zebramatt October 13, 2011, 07:14:41 AM
Some guidelines for room creation:

-The player character is three tiles high, please make sure that the player always has at least three tiles to move between. The character is only one tile high, so places for the character need only be that wide.

You mean, "only one tile wide" - right?
: Re: A Guide to the AVWW Room Map Editor
: tigersfan October 13, 2011, 07:15:39 AM
Some guidelines for room creation:

-The player character is three tiles high, please make sure that the player always has at least three tiles to move between. The character is only one tile high, so places for the character need only be that wide.

You mean, "only one tile wide" - right?

Fixed thanks!
: Re: A Guide to the AVWW Room Map Editor
: JedTheHumanoid October 13, 2011, 07:40:13 AM
I'm a bit confused as to how the game handles generating doors.  Is it done by room type?

Also, my block options are different, I have no 'Grey -Rubble', but I do have 'Blue - Ladder'.  Do I have an old version?
: Re: A Guide to the AVWW Room Map Editor
: tigersfan October 13, 2011, 08:27:34 AM
I'm a bit confused as to how the game handles generating doors.  Is it done by room type?
Doors are randomly placed in the room by the game. If the game wants to make a 5 doorway hall, it grabs a random room from the directory for 5 door hallways, and places the doors in the hallway wherever it wants, and so on.

Also, my block options are different, I have no 'Grey -Rubble', but I do have 'Blue - Ladder'.  Do I have an old version?

No, I was, sorry, fixed.
: Re: A Guide to the AVWW Room Map Editor
: Castruccio October 13, 2011, 05:30:37 PM
Do all rooms have to fill the entire 100X100 grid?  In other words, can I section off half of the grid and design a room inside that half, or does my design have to encompass the entire grid?
: Re: A Guide to the AVWW Room Map Editor
: zebramatt October 13, 2011, 06:43:11 PM
Pretty sure you can use as much or as little as you like, within reason!

As an aside, I did notice that the end result appears sometimes mirrored in the game, which is fun!  :)
: Re: A Guide to the AVWW Room Map Editor
: tigersfan October 14, 2011, 06:23:54 AM
You do not have to use the entire grid, good question. If you use less than it, and you hit the Export button, the program will trim the export down to only what you need.

And yes, the room will sometimes be mirrored. :-)
: Re: A Guide to the AVWW Room Map Editor
: Dizzard October 17, 2011, 07:09:02 PM
Playing around with this at the moment, I'm making a boss room right now although since it's my first time doing this it probably won't amount to much.

So will the player automatically spawn where ever there is white space? (like there's no player spawn marker I missed)
: Re: A Guide to the AVWW Room Map Editor
: tigersfan October 17, 2011, 07:52:24 PM
Correct, the spawn points for the player and the boss are both randomized in the whitespace.
: Re: A Guide to the AVWW Room Map Editor
: Dizzard October 18, 2011, 02:23:47 PM
I made a 41X37 boss room. That isn't too small is it?

I'm going to wait it out until it appears in my game before posting it though, I'm worried it might be a bit tight for a boss battle.

The general boss rooms are like the commodity tower boss rooms right?
: Re: A Guide to the AVWW Room Map Editor
: zebramatt October 18, 2011, 02:53:05 PM
Sounds like it could work.

If you move all your other boss rooms to a new subfolder, so that the only boss room remaining is your new one, then the next time you visit a new boss room it will definitely be that one - so in a tower you can test it, kill the boss, refine in (with the game minimised) save the new version (move the old version somewhere else) then enter a new boss room in the game to test the new version.


And 'yes' to your second question.
: Re: A Guide to the AVWW Room Map Editor
: tigersfan October 18, 2011, 04:33:23 PM
What zebramatt said. I think I've made some that size or smaller, without looking at it, I can't say for sure, but it sounds like an ok size. Having a variety of fights, some big epic battles and some close in punching matches, is a good thing anyway.
: Re: A Guide to the AVWW Room Map Editor
: @B0FH October 27, 2011, 02:51:28 AM
Just a quicky - what are the "special1,2,3" blocks that are placeable in the latest (somewhere between 30 and 34) update?
: Re: A Guide to the AVWW Room Map Editor
: Dizzard October 31, 2011, 11:56:36 AM
Atriums are basically hallways right?
: Re: A Guide to the AVWW Room Map Editor
: tigersfan October 31, 2011, 12:02:40 PM
Atriums are basically hallways right?

They are fairly similar in function, yes.
: Re: A Guide to the AVWW Room Map Editor
: zebramatt October 31, 2011, 12:03:49 PM
Just a quicky - what are the "special1,2,3" blocks that are placeable in the latest (somewhere between 30 and 34) update?

This.
: Re: A Guide to the AVWW Room Map Editor
: tigersfan October 31, 2011, 12:09:17 PM
Just a quicky - what are the "special1,2,3" blocks that are placeable in the latest (somewhere between 30 and 34) update?

This.

They are being used for the introductory mission. They aren't anything that players would need to use in their maps.
: Re: A Guide to the AVWW Room Map Editor
: Dizzard November 07, 2011, 05:14:57 PM
I'm making an atrium/hallway right now but I'm wondering...

For testing purposes I know for the boss rooms I just took out the boss maps and left my new in on it's own.

How does that work with atriums? Will I have to remove every single atrium file? (even if it's not the size folder I'll be putting it into)

edit: I'm trying to find my creation but not having luck. Where do large 10 door atriums usually appear?
: Re: A Guide to the AVWW Room Map Editor
: @B0FH November 10, 2011, 11:05:40 AM
Just before I go painting it all over the place, is the Rubble block-type (introduced in 0.541?) destructible?
: Re: A Guide to the AVWW Room Map Editor
: tigersfan November 10, 2011, 12:33:28 PM
No, the rubble is not destructible, it's the same kind of stuff used in the destroyed rooms.
: Re: A Guide to the AVWW Room Map Editor
: Dizzard November 10, 2011, 12:59:53 PM
No, the rubble is not destructible, it's the same kind of stuff used in the destroyed rooms.

So I'm guessing rubble is a no no in every other type of room?
: Re: A Guide to the AVWW Room Map Editor
: tigersfan November 10, 2011, 03:19:13 PM
No, the rubble is not destructible, it's the same kind of stuff used in the destroyed rooms.

So I'm guessing rubble is a no no in every other type of room?

No, it can be used. I've used it a bit in some of the rooms I've made recently. But, it should be used sparingly, and with the realization that it acts like a wall, and a player can't access it. (In other words, if you aren't careful, it can block off a room.)