python scripts to make maps for me?

[c0mputer-fr0d]

does anyone have in their arsenal, "template building scripts" which kinda build certain types of rooms for you and then you just tweak them? I'm trying to get into the map making stuff but I just have a really hard time. A script that would connect rooms to each other would also be really cool because I don't really know how to do that either. actually I could think of a crap ton more , how about a script that builds a guards path by just making a straight line through emptiness of a room, or how about one that places a key on a guard and brings up a message box of what you want to name it and what you want it to open. If noone has these yet I want to make some initiative with this on top of the coop mode I'm researching. I've never really used python but I'm sure it's not too hard to use. Maybe eventually we can have a script that builds an entire map

[Airship Ballet]

I think automating the creation of a map would completely remove the point of having individual mappers. BG could have just made a bunch of missions and released it as its own game but instead we have the editor, open to anybody to learn and use in creating their own unique map. Every map out there has its own tone, and that tone is preserved across all the FMs one particular person has made, because it's that individuality that makes different missions worth playing. Once you automate it, we'd just have prefab missions, and nobody would feel inclined to play more than one once they saw how uniform they were. It's that kind of thinking that's killing creativity, so just go sink your teeth into mapping and spend some time getting good at it.

Edited March 8, 2014 by Airship Ballet

[SteveL]

A script wouldn't help much for those situations. Or rather it might help, but we already have the script built in to DR. None of those things can be entirely automated. The mapper still needs to say where the door should be and how big, and specify where a path should start and end. The editor already makes those things almost as simple as they can be. Filling in a pop-up box with names for a key and door isn't much different from setting the spawnargs in DR. It's a little bit of extra hand-holding that saves on a google search the first time or two that you do it.

 

ps useful tip via RJFerret for finding answers on both the forum and wiki: add site:thedarkmod.com to your search terms in google instead of using the built in search functions here and in the wiki.

[grayman]

While map editing can be frustrating at times, the rewards when a unique mission emerges are plentiful.

 

There have been a couple discussions in the past about how to simplify map-making:

 

1 - Use a meta language to describe the room layout and size, and let a program read that description and generate a map from it. Tels was working on this for a while, and I believe got it working, but he hasn't been on the forums since last May. I don't think any of the FMs released to date have used this method.

 

2 - In The Lich Queen's Demise, Sotha used a set of modular rooms to create the main house. You see the same architecture again and again as you walk the halls, but a layer of detail adds the uniqueness that keeps the design from becoming repetitive. This is an excellent method when the architecture the mapper wants to use lends itself to repetitiveness. (And much of real-life architecture is all about repetition anyway.)

[nbohr1more]

Tels made a demo of a map builder app called dungeons of doom so such an approach can work. The site is down and I don't know if anyone still has a copy though. BloodRayne from Hexen EOC posted a similar tool over at Doom3world so when that site is back you could tinker with it.

[RJFerret]

does anyone have in their arsenal, "template building scripts" which kinda build certain types of rooms for you and then you just tweak them?

 

Not to be too literal, but rather than limiting it to a preset scripted form, why not...

 

Shift drag a brush out, click the "Make Room" button on the left. Done, custom. Note, it's easier to drag it to the size you want to begin with rather than tweak it (which requires many extra steps). It's also recommended to insert an AI or standard door prefab for size comparison.

 

A script that would connect rooms to each other would also be really cool because I don't really know how to do that either.

 

This would be cool, as there are standard aspects to the process when done manually.

 

The easiest way is to hit space to copy your first room and drag it next to the first. If they are to share a wall, be sure to delete the extra one. Select the adjoining wall, shrink it down to where an edge of a door should be. Copy it (space). Slide the copy to the other side of the door, size to fit exactly with same process, ditto top and bottom. (I've totally glossed over details.)

 

Another way is to use the Clipper tool to cut two verticals on either side of where the door would be, then two horizontals for top/bottom and delete the brush from where the space should be.

 

script that builds a guards path by just making a straight line through emptiness of a room

 

Right-click to insert a path_corner entity and connect it to the previous, done.

 

...how about one that places a key on a guard and brings up a message box of what you want to name it and what you want it to open.

 

Prefab chests/boxes come with keys, drag the key to the guard, bind. If your Entity window isn't open, hit 'n', click name, type it in the box.

 

Maybe eventually we can have a script that builds an entire map

 

Maybe. Of course, there's already an editor that does that! ;-) Since the wiki tutorial hasn't worked for you, perhaps you learn better by seeing than reading? Perhaps look for Youtube videos of using the editor?

[demagogue]

As nbhor said, Tels made exactly this kind of script. You ought to PM him asking him for it, and if he decides to visit us in the future he may oblige you.

 

IIRC though, this was for a branch game he was making, so he may not want to share it, at least not before he release his own game (the license requires branches to keep the sourcecode open), and it might only work for his branch version and not TDM generally, so it may have to be adapted.

[Obsttorte]

Tels script arranged prefabs automatically. However, those must be created by hand, so it does not easen mapping too much.