Ok, I've finished the map. Maybe it's interesting for some other map builders how I worked on it, in order:
- First worked on the placement of 8 players in a way there isn't only the possibility for a 4 vs 4 but also for a 3 vs 3 match.
- Then added the rough terrain for the map.
- Worked on where I wanted mountains (my plan was to keep it open so players can't digg in with towers that easely or at least spend some of their precious peacetime doing so).
- Placed stone on the map.
- Located where I wanted the coal for each player (atleast 2 fields per player).
- Made more detail in the terrain (used the smallest brush).
- Left enough space for each player to build for instance multiple farms nearby.
- Didn't want to have all resources in one place and not too close to the starting location.
- Filled in the iron/gold for the mountains (not always the whole mountain but only where you can actually mine for it).
- Added water (and some marshland) on the map to separate some players and for the use of fish.
- Added different trees (not too much near the storehouse but enough to start with) and rocks, bushes etc.
- Tried to make all starting locations different (without having major disadvantages for other players) in terrain and resources (some have gold close but iron further away etc.)
- Checked for sharp tiles and corrected them.
- Spent alot of time working on heights on the whole of the map. (using passabilty 3 because I don't wanted red crosses ingame, especially not around the starting location or on coal which I think is annoying).
- Spend much time on how I wanted the mountains to look like.
- Then spend lots of time figuring out how the early script editor from Lewin worked (because of the 8 player restriction of the later versions) and wrote the script where I added wares, serfs, buiders etc.
- For versatile opening build orders I scripted the prebuild of the stonemason and woodcutter building.
- Added some more sight (16 > 25) around the storehouse so players won't have to scout with builders early on.
- Checked and fixed sharp edged coal-tiles, fixed water flow and added more fish.
- The discription in the lobby shows not only sugested teams but also shows a simple but usefull overview of where the players start.
- Tested several times on all locations.
I used the following editors:
Kroms editor 0.6d for almost all terrain.
Remake editor for all the heights.
Lewins editor 0.3 and 0.9 for all scripting.
Buildtime: about 28 hours total.
New downloadlink:
http://www.mediafire.com/?w64oojo6fz4pfe6
gl hf n gg,
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