Official KaM Remake Ideas topic

[FeyBart]

Theoretically we should be able to get it to compile and run on Android, although it would still be a lot of work I imagine. We might also run into some hardware limitations like RAM for textures (KaM uses a surprising amount of textures) although tablets are getting so powerful these days that I doubt it will be a problem.

As Krom said there user interface would need some changes (auto hiding left menu?), and it probably wouldn't be possible to play it on small devices. But as you said the user interface it mostly clicking so it would be quite well suited to it.

That doesn't sound all bad. Maybe it could be given an incredibly low priority for if you guys really have nothing better to do in the far future.

Apart from that, I've been messing around with making a map, which is actually increasingly easy in the built-in map editor. This tool is actually very well usable, I must say. There is one thing that bothers me, though: For this map, I'd like to edit some tiles. However, the tileset is stored in an RXX file, and I wouldn't have a clue on how to open it, so I can edit it in Paint.net. After a Google search, I found out you once told Ben about some program which can unpack the tileset, so you can edit it with Gimp or Photoshop, but I couldn't find that anywhere. Could you please help me?

[FeyBart]

So could someone please help me?

[Krom]

Tileset editing is a bad idea, since it is common for ALL maps. That means anyone who wants to play your map will need to install this tileset before it and remove it before playing any other map. Thats hard to manage in SP, but in MP that will be a nightmare with 4-8 players trying to do it simultaneously.

If you have tileset ideas maybe we could work towards expanding existing tileset?

[FeyBart]

Tileset editing is a bad idea, since it is common for ALL maps. That means anyone who wants to play your map will need to install this tileset before it and remove it before playing any other map. Thats hard to manage in SP, but in MP that will be a nightmare with 4-8 players trying to do it simultaneously.

If you have tileset ideas maybe we could work towards expanding existing tileset?

Well, I was going to edit it, and send the new tileset to you guys, so you could add it in the next update. I wasn't planning on releasing my map before that time anyway.

[Krom]

Allright, you can do that, but there's no guarantee we accept and add it to Remake. Existing tileset is quite good already

[Kridge]

But some more variation wouldn't hurt

[Da Revolution]

some variation would be lovely if you execute it well.

[Nissarin]

Have you ever considered making barracks exit wider (i.e. 2 tiles) or alternatively "squashing" exiting units so 2 can exit at once (might not look too pretty though) ? It might be only a minor issue but training a lot of troops after pt ends is a bit annoying, not only it takes a lot of time (sometimes individual "banners" got cut in pieces) but also the traffic jams near the building itself are huge.

[Da Revolution]

That problem is easily fixed by looking at your barracks placement.

[Lewin]

Currently 3 units can exit the barracks at once, one straight and two diagonal. It's always best to leave a bit of room below your barracks if possible so there isn't too much crowding.

[Ben]

Once, someone built a farm right in front of my barracks! It was rather irritating. Anyway, the moral of the story is that leaving room in front of your barracks is a great way to help with this issue (helps soldiers leave the city faster). Also, I don't like having my barracks in the middle of a road (so people don't walk by it). I like to have it at the end of a road or near the end so only serfs with weapon deliveries walk by it. Finally, it is nice to have your barracks near the edge of your base so your soldiers don't crowd your city when they exit the barracks. This also enables them to get to combat faster. You must be aware that this leaves your barracks in a more vulnerable position. You must know your strength, and your ability to protect your barracks when you consider how close to the edge of your base you will place it.

[Nissarin]

I always make sure to build the barracks in the proper place, so that's not the problem.

@Lewin
I've watched the replay from my last game and you are right, they were exiting 3 at a time, but only the first 3, the others just left the barracks one by one facing one of the mentioned directions. Maybe it's because they were blocking each other or because of the serfs/recruits, I'll keep try to keep an aye out for it next time. It would be nice if they always "fan out" in those directions.

[FeyBart]

Allright, you can do that, but there's no guarantee we accept and add it to Remake. Existing tileset is quite good already

Okay, good, but this still doesn't fix my problem. Which programs do you use to compress, read and open the tileset?

[Lewin]

Okay, good, but this still doesn't fix my problem. Which programs do you use to compress, read and open the tileset?

We have a program called the RXXPacker that generates .rxx files from a specific folder structure. We started work on an RXX editor but never finished it. It looks like we forgot to put a button in the game to export the tileset, so you can download them from our Google code repository using TortiseSVN (or just SVN if you prefer). Install it them make a new folder, right click on it, click SVN Checkout and put the URL as:
http://castlesand.googlecode.com/svn/tr ... esource/7/
It will fill up the folder with the tileset images as PNGs. You can then make a new folder in your KaM Remake folder called "sprites". Put the tileset PNGs you checked out into this folder and the game will overload the tileset from there. You can then edit the images and when you restart the game it will use them. This will work for the in-game editor too. It won't work for Krom's editor.

[Krom]

Adding to Lewins reply: RXXEditor tool is almost working, but indeed, using Sprites folder for most of the modding tasks is much more convenient.

You would want to make an RXX pack only in case of many files, that will improve their loading speed (cos each separate PNG file needs time to be accessed on HDD and unpacked into RGB array for GPU, in RXX images are already in right format for GPU).