Introduction

Welcome to the Homeworld Map Makers Primer. This Primer contains all the information I know and could find pertaining to maply creation for the game of the millennium; Homeworld! Throughout this Primer I will be using the example of the map 'Revelations', taking you through each stage of its creation in a step by step process, covering as much of the nuts and bolts as possible. I would suggest you follow each step carefully, as set out so you can get a good grounding in the process of building maps for Homeworld. Even if you have no intention of actually making the map (although I strongly suggest you do), read each part of the Tutorial as its pretty much exactly how I went about the creation of the map and they are full of really Top tips. I have included the map with this primer, although I suggest you use it as reference only, and make your own. Throughout the coarse of this Primer I will from time to time mention other maps to iterate specific points. Every Map I mention in this document is available from BPLlama's superb web site; 'The Homeworld Map Archive'. [See Appendix III]
 
I use MS Excel 97 and TextPad (v4.1.05) and would recommend the same for you. If you can't get hold of MS Excel any spreadsheet utility that supports comma delimited files ('.csv') will do fine. Using Excel helps unbelievably, more on Excel later. 'TextPad' was a revelation, recommended to me by TAKER I downloaded after I had completed my first map (I used notepad at first), now I would not dream of using anything else, for the purposes of maply creation it is invaluable. Happily, its shareware too, you can download and use it for free while you evaluate the product, and I guarantee you register soon after. Or at least agree that's it's a good product and feel bad for not registering [See Appendix III].

This Primer was inspired by 'An introduction to Map Building' By TAKER and is a vastly edited collection of all relevant data so far discovered pertaining to Map Making. Everyone who has released documents that has been used in this file has been credited in the Bibliography section of the Appendix, if your names not down, then I'm truly sorry but it wasn't available with the help files that I was working with to compile this. 

Thanks go to TAKER (of course), a special thanks to Hellhawk666 for his help to me in learning the mapmaking process, BPLlama, Obithrawn, Shin, /Downslope\ and to any and all of the budding mapmakers on the Relic Editing boards.

[Dylov 02/05/00]


Some points to Remember:

'CaSe' is Important, I will be constantly reiterating this point. It's really important. It really is. Truly. I kid you not. Important. If your map crashes you should always check your case first.

Format is important. This too is really important, try opening up all the Description.txt files you can find (every map in your homeworld/multiplayer folder will have one) See how none deviate from the Format? They may deviate a little in the first five lines beginning with Description<tab>, amounts but nothing else. Try it with every *.level file and you will see they only deviate in the amount of 'MissionSphere' lines present, but the Format is the same. By Format I also include mean Spelling, make sure everything is spelt the same. Take note. I spent ages trying to figure out why the 6-player version of the included map Revelations kept crashing and I finally traced it to the formatting in one of the Mothership files, I had replaced a comma with a full stop. That simple mistake kept crashing me back to desktop.

Case and Format and Spelling of all the lines in all the files and all the names of all the files that make up your map is really massively important. Take care of them.


 PART ONE - THE MAP BASICS

And so it begins

The very first thing you should do is to draw your map out. Get a sheet of graph paper (ideally) or a blank piece of paper and draw a Cartesian x,y graph. Draw out the major features of your map (as it's seen from above), put in all the player starting positions, asteroid clusters and other points of interest such as derelicts, background planets and so on. Only a rough outline is needed although you can be as detailed as you wish, the more detailed, it is the better it would be to be using proper graph paper.


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Tutorial Map Notes
For our map Revelations, we will have a huge central cluster in the dead centre of our map with another six smaller clusters of asteroids around it at the cardinal points. One directly above, one directly below and four on the same plane as the central cluster, to the 'north', 'south', 'east' and 'west'.

Our map will have a maximum of Six Players and they will start within each of the smaller satellite clusters. We will have a lightly defended 'Research Station' in the central cluster which will be purely decoration (and sensor disruption terrain), made up of mainly non-harvestable asteroids (or 'dust'). A simple wee map to start you off.

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On The Map Design
What type of map do you want to build? It would be a good idea to know what type of game you want to build a map for. You see, whether you like it or not, your map will influence the type of game that will pan out on it. There are three major map types covering most maps out there;

The Multiplayer 'Skirmish' Map
Small maps tend to lean them selves to a completely different type of game from the larger game maps. Strategies all change when players are going to be virtually on top of one another from the word go. These maps will tend to involve more fighters and corvettes being built as each player desperately pumps out as many ships as possible as all hell breaks loose. 

You will never need much in the way of resources for these maps, most will be centralised and would draw the players in. These maps need little in the way of intricate resource cluster design and enticing Derelicts dotted about, in fact they would even detract from this map type as everything you add, adds to the speed and to the lag. Not to scare you off from doing this, but everything can mount up until you create a dinosaur. 

The most important thing for this map type is the distances the players start apart. Resources will not be much of an issue and neither will the starting fleets.

The Multiplayer 'Homeworld' Map
Medium to large sized maps give a completely different type of game, these games will have the players starting further apart and in doing so change the game strategies. The game is played out utilising the full potential of homeworld, the games will be played out pretty much as the game can offer. Things like resource disruption become an issue as players have the time to research their way up the Research Ladder. 

So, you would want the resources set across wider areas, the possibilities of how these will look are only constrained by your imagination. See 'Jupiter's Rings' and 'Battle Star' for two contrasting examples, 'Jupiter's Rings' recreates an actual space arena with all its resources situated to reflect actual scenery as opposed to what is fair, and 'Battle Star' uses a geometric creating a completely level playing field. Two completely different types of games would result from each, so you can see the scope open to you. The single most important thing for these maps are the resources.

Roons said once; "In most cases you should have at least one cluster regenerate on the map. Without at least one, its possible for both sides to harvest the entire map leaving nothing left to:

1) Fight for control of
2) Supply resources for people to rebuild lost ships

Limiting the size, location, and number of clusters you have on the map that regenerate will add strategic points to the map. Having a single medium size cluster near the middle of the map focuses the fight to the centre."

But, you can argue that perhaps a map where everyone does not have to end up in the centre and fight for resources will offer the type of game you are looking for. The placement of the resources will have the effect of influencing how the game is played on your map. It is the single most important factor of the Multiplayer Homeworld Map.

The Multiplayer 'Battle' Map
This is where the resource placement becomes a secondary issue and it's the starting fleets what count. See 'First Battle at Hancock Station' for an example of exactly what I'm talking about. The whole idea of harvesting and building go out the window, you create a scenario, to be played out to the best of the players ability. Its pretty much still in its infancy at the time of writing and I'm a strong advocate for the type of map.

These maps have entire fleets in place when the map begins, just like the old tabletop battles where you would set up your fleets and go at it hammer and tongs. Building new ships becomes unnecessary and easy to exclude, as' is changing your Mothership types, perhaps to a 'Heavy cruiser' or even a 'cryotray'. From small skirmishes to famous battles such as Trafalgar or Enders assault on the Hive Homeworld, all are possible. 

Obithrawn has created 'Duel of the Fates' a map where you can settle the argument from the manual between the Admirals Riif-sa and Paktu. Hellhawk666 has created a map along the lines of 'The Battle of Midway' in 'Planetary Wars'. Randix went the other way and produced 'Megafleets War' where you start the map with pretty much everything you would expect to end a map with, not quite the ideal of a Battle Map, but certainly a nod in its direction.

Directory Structure

All 'skirmish' or 'multiplayer' maps are stored in your ..\Sierra\Homeworld\Multiplayer directory. Homeworld won't just let you create a single directory for a 2-8 player map, you have to create a separate directory for 2 players, 3 players, 4 players and so on. Maximum number of players is 8, giving a possible total of 7 directories. Each sub-folder that makes up the map is named after the map followed by the number corresponding to the number of players that version of the map is made for.

The name of the *.Level file and the folder it resides in, have to be EXACTLY the same. CaSe matters. So first make sure if you capitalise the first letter of the map, the folder is the same, and so on. Also the map names have to end up in the number of players the map is intended for and the *.level file contains the name of the folder, if you are missing either, the map won't show up in the game. 

This is more fully explained as we go on, its enough that you realise that the map name is all important at this stage.

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Tutorial Map Part One

While I prefer to create a folder for a new map on desktop and working in there, and then copying the entire map into the ..\Sierra\Homeworld\Multiplayer directory when I want to look at it, there is nothing to stop you working in your multiplayer folder from the start. I only do this so I can get to the files easier, especially for copying and pasting between directories which is a common feature of maply creation. Create a folder on your desktop and rename it: Revelations, go into this folder and create 5 new folders called;

Revelations2
Revelations3
Revelations4
Revelations5
Revelations6

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Directory Content

Each directory of your map has to be able to be used independantly and therefore means that each directory must contain all the files that are used to make up your map. In each folder there will be available all the files you have used in your map. There are five basic file types used to make a map. They are;
The Description file
 - (e.g. Description.txt) This file gives the description of your map viewable in the game it also allows you to deal with the options that are available within the Homeworld game itself, in the Multiplayer/Skirmish Vs CPU settings screen. There will never be more than one per folder and all must be identical.
The Level file
- (e.g. Revelation2.level) This file contains all the basic information about your map. It contains the name and race of all the starting ship files, the name of the resource file, the universe size, the lighting type, the background type, the sensor manager zoom sizes, the default song to be played and any ship restrictions. There will never be more than one per folder and all will contain only minor changes
The Mothership files
- (e.g. Mothership_0.missphere) These contain all the player starting fleets and the starting location of those fleets. Again the most important aspect of these lines it the fact that these lines contain the names of the files containing the details for player one and player two; the files Mothership_0.missphere and Mothership_1.missphere consecutively.
The ResourceSphere file
- (e.g. ResourceSphere_1.missphere) This file contains every single resource element that we want to use in the map including asteroids, dust clouds and particles. When ships are placed in the ResourceSphere they go under AI control, even when playing with no computer players. There will only be more than one of these if it becomes bigger than 64k

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 Tutorial Map Part Two
 Open up the Revelations2 folder. We will have to create the text files from scratch here, if you have TextPad then this is made all the easier. With notepad it's a little less wieldy but still far, far easier than decoding the mysteries of MissionMan.
 
 As shown above our map will accommodate up to six players, and so will consist of five folders. What that means in real terms is that you have to make five separate maps! 'Five Maps!?' I hear you ask. Yes, Five maps I say! Each folder must be able to stand up as a map in its own right. This is made simple by the fact that each map is merely a copy of the previous map, only with a few more Mothership_#.missphere files thrown in. 
 
 Open the Revelation2 folder, at the moment all five of your revelations folders are empty. By the time you have finished this primer you will have the following files in here;
 
 Description.txt
 Revelation2.level
 Mothership_0.missphere
 Mothership_1.missphere
 ResourceSphere_1.missphere
 Asteroid.dist
 DustCloud.dist
 Tiny.dist
 
 Most of these files are required for each map, although you could get away with less '*.dist' files if you have less asteroid types named in your ResourceSphere file, but that particular point is covered later. We will take each file step by step in the order I have shown them in above.
 
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