Joint Effort: Right Kind of Debris for Space Maps

[Master Nikolaos]

Hey, I've been gone from the modding scene for a while, but these Editing Tools Petro released have pulled me back in. It has come to many's attention that some of the space maps are really crowded with debris,etc which makes it a hasle to fight in space, but most importantly, having asteroids in almost EVERY SINGLE PLANET is very innacurate. There are ofcourse exeptions like the sorroundings of Hoth and such, which need to be given the tribute of containing the annoying debris.

 

However, there are quite a few planets in the galactic map, and figuring out which ones need what kind of debris/some/none could be speeded up if everyone pitches in on this. The process is simple:

 

a.) Download the Modding tools

b.) Unpack your maps.meg file using an extractor.

c.) Choose a planet map to edit(Space) and edit away!

 

After you have made your changes in the most realistic/canon based way, you can go to:

 

d.) Take your edited map file and put it in C:\ProgramFiles\LucasArts\Star Wars Empire at War\GameData\Data\Art\Maps***You may need to create the Arts folder and the Maps one.

 

The end result will be a new map for use in singleplayer,campaign,etc. I edited the corsucant map for testing and removed all the useless rubble it had around it, and let me tell you the space battle felt A LOT better. You can now actually manuver ships NOW(is this a miracle ?)

 

I'll show you some pics when I have time.

[GhOsT-Jedi]

You have time, show us the pics

[Master Nikolaos]

Alright, I finally got done cooking/eating/helping my dad start his car up/modding/putting the images on Photobucket(yeah, welcome to the era of multi-tasking!).

 

Anyway, here's one for the records:

 

There rest are here:

http://i47.photobucket.com/albums/f174/MasterNikolaos/EAW_20060515_22271304.gif

http://i47.photobucket.com/albums/f174/MasterNikolaos/EAW_20060515_22265849.gif

http://i47.photobucket.com/albums/f174/MasterNikolaos/EAW_20060515_22264330.gif

http://i47.photobucket.com/albums/f174/MasterNikolaos/EAW_20060515_22263947.gif

and one of Bespin without the whole nebula thing going on:

http://i47.photobucket.com/albums/f174/MasterNikolaos/EAW_20060515_18225796.gif

[GhOsT-Jedi]

Hmm, looks a bit too small still, the starting points are outa wack, unless that's them getting ready, but from the formation, it looks like they just warped in.

[Master Nikolaos]

Well, that's the big picture at the begining of the battle, so the Imps are trying to organize themselves. Also, I haven't worked with the starting positions yet. I might consider that after getting rid of all the rubish in the background.

[zac naloen]

First thing i did when i got this map editor was go into the space maps and get rid of every piece of rubble and then enlarge the maps to 10,000.

 

I have no idea what that value refers too, but its about twice the size of standard. Lets just say its a great improvement.

 

But i've done this to every space map for the galactic map/single player. Except vergesso asteroids where obviously.. i left hte asteroids.

[Master Nikolaos]

Well, if that's what you want to do. I still want to keep the maps real to the Star Wars Universe, so plantes like Geonosis and Hoth need asteroids. I'm gonna try the map size change though.

[zac naloen]

Well, i do intend to go back and make the maps correct canonically, i just wanted each map to be a clean slate, so to speak, before doing so.

 

The majority of the maps annoyed me a lot, so until i sit down and make the maps as they should be i'd rather they have nothing on them whilst I play the game than be full of crap.

[Master Nikolaos]

LOL, I get where you're coming from. I've edited a couple of planets already, including Kashyyyk, which was apparently supposed to have 3 moons(I don't see any in the original game).

http://i47.photobucket.com/albums/f174/MasterNikolaos/Bespin.gif

http://i47.photobucket.com/albums/f174/MasterNikolaos/Yavin.gif

http://i47.photobucket.com/albums/f174/MasterNikolaos/Geonosis.gif

 

Here are some more screens. I experimented with the map sizes, and the greater the map area, the better the game feels. This is specially true of maps that have asteroids, as you can actually have them there for a reason instead of an annoyance(I edited Geonosis to have more asteroids, but spread around in a way that looked and felt good, while retaining strategic choke points and such). Here are some images of Kashyyyk with 3 moons:

http://i47.photobucket.com/albums/f174/MasterNikolaos/Moon3.gif

http://i47.photobucket.com/albums/f174/MasterNikolaos/Moon2.gif

http://i47.photobucket.com/albums/f174/MasterNikolaos/Moon1.gif

http://i47.photobucket.com/albums/f174/MasterNikolaos/AllMoons.gif

 

I also played with starting positions and got the attacker's starting point to be much farther from space stations and the defenders mixed around(some at the base, some a little bit farther off. The result is space battles instead of Base battles now. On a side note, I though having space stations being well fortified is a good idea, so I may make a base "castle" with turrets,etc" around it(just like towers). My idea is to have really big space battles followed by a "siege" of sorts.

[TheStressPuppy]

Nice work.

 

Ive been tinkering with the editer as well. Also the 1st thing i did was remove the annoying asteroids, and nebulas. 1st It makes the space maps with planets look alot better IMO. 2nd it reduces lag, because maps take up less resources

 

Only 1, or 2 canon planets should have rocks floating about, and the nebulas are ridiculous. Im thinking of making space maps with no planet. Kind of like hyperspace waypoints between systems where we can have these nebulas, and chokepoint debris.

 

Im keeping the default map sizes for now till i learn more.

[Master Nikolaos]

I also thought about the in between planets waypoints, but that's something I may think of later in detail, right now I have plenty to do. Oh, and I removed nebulas from all maps.

 

You mean you don't know how to expand the maps? It seasy, go to File and Map proerties. The width and length boxes are for map area and right left, buttom, top are for playable map space.

[TheStressPuppy]

Im leaving the default map sizes until i am more comfortable working with the editor. I do know how to resize, and intend to expand them, just not right now.

 

What i dont know how to do is make loading mini maps (just shows a blue picture when battle loads).

 

Keeping the original map names intact. (shows something like the file name on the UI insted of just "alderaan")

 

I did figure out how to add harrassing pirates into a battle. makes things interesting

[Master Nikolaos]

"I did figure out how to add harrassing pirates into a battle. makes things interesting"-TheStressPuppy

 

You mean like having a third faction in the battle? That would be a good idea, especially when in planets that are allied with the Empire or the Rebels. I know you can make the ships on space belong to Hutts and other species; imagine an allied Nal Hutta fleet; don't know if its accurate, but it would still be fun.

[tennozan]

Master N - would you please share with the modding neophites such as I, on how to go about modding the existant maps in the game? I would very much like to remove the nebulas from the game maps ( I play pretty much exclusively with Galatic conquest campaigns). In fact, I'd whittle down some of the asteroid fields in all but some of the more canon planetary systems.

 

I searched for a file that looked like maps but didn't see anything in my game folders - are they compressed into something else or what?

 

Thanks for any help!

[Master Nikolaos]

OK, what you need to do is this(I'm at school, so some of these directions might not be 100%):

 

***NOTE: YOU MUST DOWNLOAD THE LATEST PATCH AND MAP EDITOR TO EDIT THE MAPS***ALSO, THE MAPS MEG FILE IS IN THE DATA DIRECTORY OF THE GAME(LucasArts/Empire at War/etc, etc, Data; you can't miss it)***

 

First, you need to extract the maps meg file using a meg extractor. There you will have all the maps that are in the game. They are separted into ground maps, multiplayer maps(the ones that have MP in their name), some story maps and the actual campaign maps. After you find which map you want to edit(example: Space_Tatooine), open the editing program for maps, and once it starts up, select open from the File Menu.

 

Look for the maps folder you extracted and then find the name of the map you want to edit. Once you do this, click on it and open it. There you can make all the changes you want. To delete an object, just click on it in the map and press the Delete key. To add objects, choose an object form the name list on the left of the map editor window and press+hold the Shift key. Once you are satisfied with the position of the object in the map, left click and the object will be added to the ground/space enviroment of your choice.