Help! LM Mountain to planet

[Cimbri]

Hi guys.


I'm in a bit of a graphics pickle.


I'm working on this silly little Warhammer 40,000 Horus Heresy-era mod for Conquests. But now my good old loyal Paint Shop Pro has turned traitor.


In my game, single tiles represent planets. But Earth itself is to important for the story to be represented by a single tile planet. I'd like to turn it into a 3x3 tile island, to allow for a couple of cities/objectives. But as I mentioned, my very old version of Paint Shop Pro has ceased working. I cannot find my old disc, so I'm am not likely to be able to work with graphics any time soon.


Can someone kindly help me turn the the LM Mountains into a 3x3 planet?

I have uploaded the single tile LM Mountains version with Palette and a big picture of the planet graphics here: Download.

(Feel free to use the single tile graphics if you like)


Below is also a picture of the planet I want turned into a 3x3 tile "island".

Spoiler :

Any takers?

 

[Blue Monkey]

It might help to see some screenshots of your attempts. Balthasar has posted elsewhere that 3 mountain tiles in a "V" are the simplest to work with for a multi-tile land mark.

 

[Cimbri]

Ah. I dont really have another paint program alternative. Have been using PSP for years.


But something like this:

ooo
ooo
ooo


Does that make sense?

 

[Blue Monkey]

What I was looking for are screenshots from the game or editor - even some with your single tile cities would help. I understand the pattern you want. The more tiles you involve the more complex making an oversize landmark becomes. The game engine doesn't necessarily choose precisely the same tiles if the pattern is at a different place on the map (example).

Since this is something you only want in one place there are a couple of alternate solutions that may be easier in the long run (Just speculating - little person experience):

• Use a lm overlay, like lm forest or marsh. I think that might be easier to patch a graphic over multiple tiles. Don't know enough specifics of your scenario to know if that would work for you.
• Using the city graphics - long explanation:

Spoiler :

Techniques for making extremely large cities have been worked out*. The actual city only occupies the central tile - it's only the graphic image that appears larger. You can use any type of surrounding terrain - the city graphic covers it. And since the graphic remains the same you won't be limited to only putting it at certain map coordinates. In this case if you want more than one city on the planet you can do things like making the other cities use a blank graphic (background magenta only). The nameboxes should still show, afaik. You can even have completely different looking planets that use the same underlying terrain.

The serious flaw with this method is that if a civ from a different culture group captures the city then the planet disappears. It's really only viable if your civs are all in the same culture or all culture groups use the same graphic for that size & era of city.

Main discussion threads one two Be sure to read the whole of both the threads. Critical information and things like templates are in various posts by many different people.

If you're interested I can help you try one of these solutions. For the LM mountain solution I'd need to see both your biq & the whole terrain set.

 

[Cimbri]

If you're interested I can help you try one of these solutions. For the LM mountain solution I'd need to see both your biq & the whole terrain set.

The terrain set is uploaded in the download section: (link)

Or do you need all terrain?


Here is the .biq


Screenshot:



Uploaded with ImageShack.us

 

[Yoda Power]

Where did you get those interfaces?

 

[Blue Monkey]

Need all terrain - both to see how mountains look over the base terrain & to get the sections to match. Assuming Earth's location is indicated on the biq/map.

 

[Cimbri]

Where did you get those interfaces?

It is work in progress, hence a mix of my Star Wars mod interface and a SMAC interface.

 

[Cimbri]

Need all terrain - both to see how mountains look over the base terrain & to get the sections to match. Assuming Earth's location is indicated on the biq/map.

Okay

Here is a link to my entire set (WIP)

 

[Pounder]

This is one of those where you have to work backwards.

1) Select a place on the map for planet earth and place the 9 mountain tiles.
2) Make sure that none of those 9 tiles are duplicates of each other, if there are any duplicates then go back to step one.
3) If all tiles are different, then mod the tiles according to their position.

 

[Blue Monkey]

Assuming Earth's location is indicated on the biq/map.

This is one of those where you have to work backwards.

1) Select a place on the map for planet earth and place the 9 mountain tiles.
2) Make sure that none of those 9 tiles are duplicates of each other, if there are any duplicates then go back to step one.
3) If all tiles are different, then mod the tiles according to their position.

We're on the same page. As pointed out the location is critical.

Here are two very rough mock-ups of approximately how it may look. On the left is about the size the planet can be if the overall graphic is centered on the middle tile of the 9. The right one is roughly the max size the LM Mountain pcx can handle. The smaller size will be much, much easier to deal with at all the stages Pounder outlined.

 

[Balthasar]

Sorry to come to the conversation too late to be of help. All of the instructions are correct, similar to the way I did it. On my Barsoom map, Mt. Olympus is a nine-tile-large landmark and those steps describe about what I did, more or less, save that, when I do these things I usually construct a layered template for it so that I can be sure the images fit together correctly. Then I substitute a numbered-tile LM Mountains (for instance) file with easy to see numbers into the scenario folder to set up the tiles on the map in the editor, so that you know which tile gets which image. Put the images into the proper spots on a new LMM file, then index it, etc. and put it into the terrain file. If you did that right, it's beautiful.

You don't have to sacrifice that file to that one landmark, either. Keep right on going, and see if you can find places for the other numbers (it can be tricky trial-and-error), and make a moon for your earth, perhaps. I did alot of that sort of landmark placing with the Super Scenario map.

 

[Cimbri]

We're on the same page. As pointed out the location is critical.

Here are two very rough mock-ups of approximately how it may look. On the left is about the size the planet can be if the overall graphic is centered on the middle tile of the 9. The right one is roughly the max size the LM Mountain pcx can handle. The smaller size will be much, much easier to deal with at all the stages Pounder outlined.

Holy hand grenade, beautiful! The smaller size version would be perfect for the game style. Every other planet is tiny in comparison anyway (Because Terra is that important).

Location, sheesh, I'll have to figure something out on the map. The entire galaxy map is built around Terra, but I'll find a solution to that.

 

[Blue Monkey]

It's not already on the map?

I work the same way as Balthasar. Over the years I'm slowly accumulating a terrain set with every pcx numbered.

Don't know anything about the WH 40K setting - but as Balthasar points out the moon can probably be fit in as well.

 

[Blue Monkey]

Doing a little prep work. Noticed that when scaled down most of the lines & circles indicating cultural artifacts disappeared. Tried adjusting contrast/brightness/lightness. Also tried lines overlain from a separate layer. So here are four versions for your consideration. "Basic" means the original graphic scaled down.

You're not limited to these four choices. If you want something different just say what you'd like to see change. Lines present but less defined, or more contrast with less saturation for two examples.

 

[Cimbri]

d) contrast lined looks great.

But Terra is already on the map. I can just move it though, to make it fit with the limitations.

 

[Blue Monkey]

But Terra is already on the map. I can just move it though, to make it fit with the limitations.

Would probably only need to shift it a tile or so if at all. The map is big enough that it's hard for me to spot. Can you point out the general area? When I get something roughed out I can post a screenshot so you can see if the placement looks ok relative to the nearby planets.

 

[Cimbri]

It's the large block with the three cities (Imperial Palace, Lion's Gate - and Eternity Wall Spaceport,), in the above screenshot, below the core.

 

[Blue Monkey]

I'm not entirely happy with the right limb. The file is usable - let me know if you want further refinement.

preview

Spoiler :

 

[Cimbri]

Cool! Thanks Blue Monkey!


You know, it's fine for me, I really cant ask you to do any more. If I get another graphics program, I can trim it myself.

It looks amazing in-game. Good work on the palette!


When I can, I think I'll trim it and adjust the palette to include that good looking atmosphere in your first image.