This is a very short tutorial explaining the very beginnings of editing maps of K&M. I will explain how to edit an existing map and use that one for multiplayer. To follow this tutorial you need two things:
The full version of K&M the shattered Kingdom (it will work with TPR but I will be using TSK)
The K&M map editor V1.0 (can be found at: www.knightsandmerchants.de)
optional: a trainer for K&M to show the whole map without having to explore it. (to see quickly what you changed)
Ok let's get started.
First of all: It is very WISE to BACKUP all your K&M files to another directory, because then you can't ruin your beautyfull game
To get ready for editing you must unzip all the files of the editor in the root of your K&M map. (example: C:\K&M\ )
First go to the directory \data\Mission\SMaps and rename save00.map to something else like : save00SINGLEPLAYER.map
Now go to the directory \data\Mission\MMaps and copy the file save00.map from the MMaps dir. to the \data\Mission\SMaps directory
If you now edit the save00.map in the SMaps directory, you can view your result by starting K&M and playing the tutorial. If you finished the editing, just copy the map back to MMaps and you can play it in multiplayer.
I will explain now how to make a simple mountain of gold in the map. Start the editor and click FILE_LOADMAP now open the save00.map in the \data\Mission\SMaps directory. Now click DRAW_TYPE. You now will see something like this:
Now we will Clear the whole Map. I mean CLEAR so it will be totally empty, nothing more than just straight Grass. This is NOT neccesary, you can also just change things in the existing map, but for the tutorial it's best to start from the ground. So click OPTIONS_CLEARMAP. then hit DRAWTYPE again.
We now have a map of the size of the 1st multiplayer map of knights and merchants. but it only exists of grass, ENDLESS FLATLANDS OF GRASS!. You can see it for yourself, just click FILE_SAVEMAP and start K&M. Play the tutorial. If you have a trainer you can view the whole map at once. (the dark dissapears) Now GRASS is NOT exactly what we need right? SO let's make a little mountain in the map.
Ok, first Zoom in twice by clicking on the button with "+" on it. The red dots become larger, and we see the upper left part of the map zoomed in. Now click on the EDITVIEW button. Nothing seems to happen, but we are now in the mode in which you can "BRUSH" mountains. so let's brush a mountain!! Select "GOLD" from the menu right next to the "EDITVIEW" button. Now click once in the upperleft corner of the screen. You will see a kind of cross appearing:
This is your first mountain. Each color represents a value (the value in the "VALUE" box) each value stands for a different kind of texture, Height, Direction, Object, Usability or Light. To make a good map, every sort of value must be correct, That means that every tile of the map has 6! values which must be set correctly to make it look allright.
In the EDITVIEW mode these values are all changed at once, in all the different modes you change them seperately.
Ok let's draw the mountain a little bigger:
Don't look at the little dots yet, we'll come to that. You see 4 different types of values: GREEN (value: 172) , BROWNGREEN (value 180), ORANGE (value 176) and BROWN (value 147)
each color represents a different kind of texture.
brown is a centerpiece (square, gold everywhere)
green is an edge (half full gold, half full grass)
browngreen is a diagonal piece (one corner is gold, rest grass)
orange is a tip piece (one corner grass, rest gold.)
To make the mountain look correct, you must make sure that every outward
corner is a "diagonal piece" every inward corner is a "tip
piece" every edge is an "edge" and the inside of the mountain
must be totally "centerpiece"
Ok, save your map and start K&M and load the tutorial. you will see this:
The fish don't belong there, but this is just because we are playing the tutorial in an MULTIPLAYER MAP!
Try to brush a square mountain, then look how all the different values look like:
DRAWTYPE: DRAWHEIGHT: DRAWUSAGE:
DRAWDIR: DRAWLIGHT:
Now you can see that all the red,green,blue,yellow dots are the DIRECTION. red means "DOWN", BLUE means "LEFT", GREEN means "UP" and YELLOW means "RIGHT"
now for centerpieces, it is not important in which direction the piece is located, but on the corners and edges, the direction points outwards. (blue for the left side, yellow for the right side, etc.)
The DRAWUSAGE screen shows if houses can be build on the mountain. BLACK means: not possible Green means: not possible but you can walk over this piece.
The rest is obvious, LIGHT tells where extra light is added. (default value = 16) and HEIGHT tells where all the bumbs in the mountain are.
Ok now you know how to make a gold mountain, try an IRON one (works just the same, different values)
So far this first tutorial. Just start with trial and error, change something, look what happens. I wish you good luck!!
Jan van Kranendonk