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All Forums >> [Current Games From Matrix.] >> [American Civil War] >> John Tiller's Battleground Series >> Editor BGCW

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Editor BGCW - 1/28/2009 5:08:23 AM

V22 Osprey

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From: Corona, CA
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I was thinking, Battleground Chickamauga has an game engine simular to John Tiller's Campaign Series(I noticed it doesn't use the custom map graphics that the other BG games have).Is there anyway Matrix could motify the JTCS map editor to work for BGCW?Maybe even the Org Editor also?

< Message edited by V22 Osprey -- 1/28/2009 5:09:30 AM >

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RE: Editor BGCW - 1/28/2009 5:54:27 PM

Luciano B

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Joined: 7/2/2006
From: Italy
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The problem is that although the maps resemble those of Tiller's Campaign series, the game engine is basically the same of the previous titles with no internal map-editor.
Remember that BG Chickamauga was released some years after the other games, apparently by a different team formed with persons picked from the modding-community grown around the early titles. For the maps they used a modified version of the graphics used in "Western Front" game (it seems a mix of WF graphics and other stuff of various provenance), probably because it was a simpler way to build the large map bitmaps from scratch rather than paint the beautiful (but time expensive) maps of the previous titles.

(in reply to V22 Osprey)

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RE: Editor BGCW - 1/28/2009 6:42:02 PM

simovitch

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Joined: 2/14/2006
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You can make new maps, edit old maps, and redo the graphics of the BG titles using the JTCS map editor, but there is a fair bit of data manipulation that needs to be done with a text editor prior to getting the JTCS editor to read a BG file, and/or get the BG game to use the map file generated by the JTCS editor. Then the larger 3d maps need to be stitched together using a graphics editor. If you are making new or editing existing maps you need to recompile the LOS tables and run a checksum utility as well. It's definitely doable but there is a bit of a learning curve.

I do believe there are some BG OOB editors out there. check this site

Matrix, being a publisher only will not be producing a straightforward BG map editor for the masses. It would have to come from some philanthropic 3rd party programmer, or John Tiller himself.

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simovitch

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RE: Editor BGCW - 1/28/2009 11:35:20 PM

V22 Osprey

Posts: 1593
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From: Corona, CA
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1) is there any documentation on how to use the OOB editor?
2) simovitch, if you know how to do this, how come you aren't making new battles?Or have you made some already?

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RE: Editor BGCW - 1/29/2009 5:17:10 AM

simovitch

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Joined: 2/14/2006
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1. See down toward the bottom of the link, there is another link to a rather well written manual for a pretty slick oob editor.

2. I'm redoing some of the maps and adding and testing some AI scripts for some of the existing battles from the old NIR project, per my other posts. So far I've completed Jena, Auerstaedt, and about 1/3 of Eckm�hl. I don't have enough knowledge of Napoleonic or Civil war OOBs to do a whole battle from scratch.

I bought BGCW but havn't tried it yet. If those 3rd party maps are as ugly as the NIR ones I'll probably redo a few of those eventually. I'm really enjoying learning about 19th century Europe and playing these Napoleonic battles though.

I worked up a mod for the high walls (Palisades) Chateau, and gate that came out pretty nice. I added this to the Jena map via the JTCS editor, but I still I had to go back and cut/paste the modified JTCS data blocks into the BGN main.map, redo the LOS tables and recalculate the checksum, and add the new checksum value to the main.map. It sound like a pain but it really isn't.

Attachment (1)

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simovitch

(in reply to V22 Osprey)

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RE: Editor BGCW - 2/15/2009 11:29:12 AM

dth

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Joined: 6/11/2006
From: United States
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simovitch,
Nice work on the maps! I've been using the old Talonsoft EF Map Editor to create some new maps. Your right, it's a bit of work but it fuctions in the end. The only problem I have is matching the bip maps at the end. Does the JTCS editor allow you to export a .bmp version of the map? That would save alot of time.

V22 Osprey,
There are alot of tips on how to edit the scenarios setting for these games. If I get a minute, I will post them here for you.

Please look at my post: Calling All BG Civil War Designers! - Grand Scenario! and you'll see the map I'm creating with the EF Map Editor to make a large scale BGCW map.
BRD!

(in reply to simovitch)

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RE: Editor BGCW - 2/17/2009 7:59:00 PM

simovitch

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Joined: 2/14/2006
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dth, I have been offered the use of an old NIR project 3d map generator, but the graphic quality of those maps is not great, and there is still a bit of work to make a map so I chose to skip it. EF2 does not export a bitmap image. The only way I get the results you see is by capturing the EF2 3d zoom off of my screen.

I can capture a field of 10x10 hexes with about 1/2 hex overlap. After I capture the whole height of the 10-hex strip, I stitch the individual 10x10's together, reduce the strip to 68%, and move on to the next column. After each column is stitched I then stitch those together until the whole width of the map is done. The most I am ever off is maybe 1 or 2 pixel-width or height.

Then I apply color adjustments to saturation, contrast and brightness, then a sharpening filter. And then comes the hard part - making it fit exactly to the hexgrid-overlay. There is a formula for the dimensions in pixels of the main2.bmp, so it's a minor trial and error process. Also the reductions to main3 and 4 are not a straight 50% either.

I also created specialized EF2 3D zoom bmp patterns, and a method that allows designers to include gated high-walls (as above), and visible embankment graphics on the top 3 blind hexsides.

So far I've completed the NIR versions of Auerstaedt, Jena, Saalfeld, Wertingen, Gunzburg, and Ekmuhl. Saalfeld was a major re-work of the terrain so I had to re-build the LOS file and checksum as well.

So far I have only redone existing maps. Creating a new map is tough because the EF2 editor encrypts the terrain and elevation data so it's not directly usable by BGN or BGCW. It's not that hard to convert using find/replace, but it's time consuming.

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simovitch

(in reply to dth)

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