Aces High Bulletin Board
General Forums => Aces High General Discussion => Topic started by: GrnEagle Jr on March 16, 2010, 01:50:48 PM
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I think we need new MA maps anyone agree :aok
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Start making one.
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Yes :aok
http://downloads1.hitechcreations.com/AHEDIT2172.EXE (http://downloads1.hitechcreations.com/AHEDIT2172.EXE)
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Start making one.
I laugh when people say this, half of them are not even capable of making a MA map period.
Much less willing to spend hundreds of hours building one....
Strip
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Start making one.
(http://img519.imageshack.us/img519/3783/mapwdwresort.jpg)[/URL]
:D
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I will pay $500 bucks for a MA terrain, it must be built to my specs, approved by HTC and eventually in game.
Nothing funky required, will even put the money in escrow.....
Strip
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I laugh when people say this, half of them are not even capable of making a MA map period.
Much less willing to spend hundreds of hours building one....
Strip
Why laugh? If they can't then learn. Terrains take tons of time, someone has to do them.
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Again, I will laugh at people who make these statements....half the people who set out will never have the skill to create a MA quality map.
You can teach anyone to drive, only a few will ever excel at it though.
Strip
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Again, I will laugh at people who make these statements....half the people who set out will never have the skill to create a MA quality map.
You can teach anyone to drive, only a few will ever excel at it though.
Strip
For the same reason I laugh when said skilless dweeb states "I think we need new maps."
Like HTC will just whip out a new map like it takes no time or effort.
wrongway
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I dare somebody to make this one!
(http://www.clevver.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2009/02/candy_land-board.jpg)
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For the same reason I laugh when said skilless dweeb states "I think we need new maps."
Like HTC will just whip out a new map like it takes no time or effort.
wrongway
Took the words right outta my mouth.
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Skill or experience be damned....
We do need new maps!
Strip
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Really I laugh at the OP more than anything else in this thread and have to agree with people that say "Then make one". Yes the people that say go make one may not have the skill or time to make one but the OP should give it a try first before making posts like this and see just how hard it is.
I myself have tried and got most of the way through a rough draft of one before it got put on the back burner but was lucky enough to have someone else pick up the project, make some changes, get it submitted and we now fly on it..
Hmm I just had a thought for a new one....
But seriously JR. if your going to post like this maybe you could at least draw up and post a pic of a MA idea you had. That way if it's at least some form of serious idea with a little thought in it maybe others would help to fine tune it and even if you don't have the skill or time to work on it yourself someone else might. Make the thread constructive instead of just more spam on the forum.
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Are there any good map making "tutorials" out there? I'd like to play around with making one, but have absolutely no idea on where to start.
AAJagerX
EDIT: Found one.
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A very wise old man once said to me. "If you don't like the way things are then change them. If you are not willing to do what it takes to change things, then don't complain."
In other words if you are not willing to make a new terrain then don't come in here saying we need one. Those that have already said "Then make one" are spot on. They are not making one but they are not the ones that come in saying we need it either.
It does require loads of time and patience to make a terrain that works well, not to mention the imagination it takes to come up with an idea that gets peoples attention, but you should not stand around waiting for someone else to do it, just because you don't have what it takes to make it.
I have tried messing around with the TE but unfortunately my computer locks up evertime I try it. Therefore I won't be on the boards asking everybody else to make one.
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(http://img519.imageshack.us/img519/3783/mapwdwresort.jpg)[/URL]
:D
Dunrite, that is my most favorite map !
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I have tried messing around with the TE but unfortunately my computer locks up evertime I try it.
Stop complaining and fix the code :rofl
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I laugh because my brain not right, sometime inappropriate.
momma still love me though.
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Keep in mind that the OP is the kind of person that sits in a Tiger spawncamping with a huge group of people for hours, all the while personally insulting the country that eventually refuses to keep spawning for him. I'm very sad I managed to miss him with my single B-17.
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I think we need new MA maps anyone agree :aok
I agree :aok
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(http://img519.imageshack.us/img519/3783/mapwdwresort.jpg)[/URL]
:D
Alright...... Now I have coffee in my nose. thanks a lot! :rofl :rofl
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Didn't we get a couple of new maps with the update? And we got a few the update before that? :headscratch:
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Ahhhhhhhh what am I doing?? I just downloaded the editor again...... Going to have to relearn it all over.... The one thought I've always had about the thing is, you can tell it was designed by programmers... I find ease of use is just not there. :)
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$500 bucks and not a single nibble....speaks volumes about whats needed to make a map.
Strip
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(http://img519.imageshack.us/img519/3783/mapwdwresort.jpg)[/URL]
:D
kool i can spawn camp the magic kingdom right off the mote to the castle!
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The top of the ball was very shore battery reminiscent....
:devil
Strip
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What requirements strip? I've got an Idea running around in my head now that keeps growing bigger and better. Was just getting ready to fire up the editor and get a headache. :P Wonder if my idea would work at all with your requirements. Though I don't know if I will make it any farther on this idea then I did on my last attempt, one can always hope. :D
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Biggest one, winter....
;)
Strip
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Don't believe they allow winter in the MA. As far as size I really only like to work on large ones. More room for interesting ideas.
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Stop complaining and fix the code :rofl
:lol
Maybe get a bigger and better computer. Ohhh that means spending money. That's it I will just tell the wife it is investment since Strip offered $500 for a new map :rock
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You would be hard pressed to make $2.00 an hour....
Strip
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:lol
Maybe get a bigger and better computer. Ohhh that means spending money. That's it I will just tell the wife it is investment since Strip offered $500 for a new map :rock
Crap, why didn't I think of that? Business expense tax write off for a new computer :rofl
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You would be hard pressed to make $2.00 an hour....
Strip
Not much less than I am making now after Uncle Sam gets done with me. :old:
I might just take you up on that Strip since I can do that while I am at work. :t Then I can be making $4.00 an hour.
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Im sick, and poor. But 500 bucks is 500 Bucks. I know absolutley nothing about map making, but I have over 25 years in systems. I would like to accept the challenge. Strip If you would like pm me, and I will be reading as much tutorial as possible. If anyone has any good advice on maps, please point me to the right area.
If your serious, then so am I. We definitly need some new ones.
Floats out.
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I think we need new MA maps anyone agree :aok
NOPE
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I will pay $500 bucks for a MA terrain, it must be built to my specs, approved by HTC and eventually in game.
Nothing funky required, will even put the money in escrow.....
Strip
i think GEjr is up for the job strip but hes gonna have to for go the braces and Clearasil for a month or 2 :neener:
froger
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I dare somebody to make this one!
(http://www.clevver.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2009/02/candy_land-board.jpg)
That's the one :aok
IN again :neener:
froger
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Im sick, and poor. But 500 bucks is 500 Bucks. I know absolutley nothing about map making, but I have over 25 years in systems. I would like to accept the challenge. Strip If you would like pm me, and I will be reading as much tutorial as possible. If anyone has any good advice on maps, please point me to the right area.
If your serious, then so am I. We definitly need some new ones.
Floats out.
4Deck I would advise not burning too much time on it until his "specs" are approved by HTC. That would be your deal-breaker.
Regards,
Wab
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Rojoe.
Then ball is on your side of the net Strip.
get your specs approved and we can move on.
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He won't pay you!!!
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Are there any good map making "tutorials" out there? I'd like to play around with making one, but have absolutely no idea on where to start.
AAJagerX
EDIT: Found one.
Post that link Jager of the map tutorial.
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4Deck and anyone else, ive had this for awhile got it off the internet, I think its the cover , but anyway this will really help you, I've used it and im working on a few maps myself, and Please take no offense to the title :rofl :rofl and the front cover is considered page 1
(http://i148.photobucket.com/albums/s35/68zoom/viewer.jpg)
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So you want to make your own terrain to fly Aces High offline. Well I will attempt to help you do just that.
First and foremost you must understand that this tutorial is just to give you some very basic knowledge on
building an Aces High terrain that you can fly offline.
It will not teach you how to make a terrain that will be accepted by Hitech Creations for use in their arenas.
That may come after a little more practice and further instruction.
This tutorial assumes you have a working knowledge of how to install a program, and how to navigate thru
the folder structure
of your hard drive. If not that is outside the scope of this tutorial.
Although it is advised to have a good graphics program (photo editing software) such as Photo Shop©,
Print Shop© and the likes,
it is not required. There are plenty of free programs that will accomplish the same thing.
Ok first there are a few common abbreviations you need to be familiar with.
HTC = Hitech Creations©
AH = Aces High©
TE = Aces High Terrain Editor©
OE = Aces High Object Editor©
CBM = Clip Board Map
DEM = Digital Elevation Map
Ok the only two things that are really required to make your own offline terrain are the AH Terrain editor
which can be downloaded
from the Aces High main web site. (http://www.hitechcreations.com/frindex.html),
and Microsoft Paint, which comes with your Windows Operating System
The editor is located here (http://downloads1.hitechcreations.com/AHEDIT2172.EXE)
This download will install the content editors ( Terrain Editor, Object Editor, and Cloud Editor)
Install these in the default location, we will only focus on the Terrain Editor for this tutorial.
Ok let’s get started.
First off start up the TE. If it didn't create a desktop icon navigate to
where you installed the editors and click on the "ahedit.exe" program icon.
Now when the editor first starts up there is no terrain to edit so we need to make a new one.
On the upper left corner click on the "File Tab" then under the drop down list click "New".
This is where we will name our terrain.
For the sake of simplicity let’s just call it "test".
Now for a little important info, use only lowercase letters or numbers, and no more than 8 characters.
Ok now it will ask you for the terrain size "64, 128, 256, or 512" this is the size of your terrain in square
miles.
Actually it's the "Clipboard Map" Size but we'll get to that later, let's just make this one 128.
Ok Very important info here. Under the file tab "Upper Left Corner again" click "Save".
It will take a few seconds for the terrain to save, your cursor should turn to an hour glass letting you know
it's busy, depending on your operation system.
Ok once that is done I know this next step may sound asinine but it's very important.
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Now that we have created our new terrain, click on file in the upper left corner and then exit to close down
the editor.
Before we go any further lets add something to the directory structure that I will explain why later in this
tutorial.
Navigate to the folder where you installed the terrain editor and find the folder "(your editor install
directory)\ahiiterr\test" inside this folder create a new folder called "texsrc".
So it should look like "(your editor install directory)\ahiiterr\test\texsrc"
Again I will explain why we added this folder later.
Now let’s start up the TE again and start working on our new terrain.
Once the editor starts up it will look like your ready to go but in fact we are not.
Under file select open, then navigate to your terrain which should be in a folder called "test" click on the
folder name,
then open the file called "test.oba".
This will open your terrain in the editor.
Now you will see nothing but water and you should, that’s all there is we haven't painted any land in the
terrain yet.
Ok first things first, in the lower left corner of the window, under "Terrain Window Options",
you will see a couple boxes labeled "Grid, Cell Overlay On, and Snap" make sure there is a check mark in
all three.
You should now see the red grid squares in you editors main window.
Ok we need to make some land so we can put an airfield to fly from so here we go.
First in the upper right corner of the window select the "Water" tab we are only going to work with
the "Depth Slider", "Erase Water", and "Brush Size Slider".
Move the Depth Slider all the way to the top where it says "Land".
Then click on the "Erase Water" (it should put the black dot in its circle), and slide the "Brush Size Slider"
all the way to the right.
Now move your cursor into the editor window where the water and red grid squares are. You Cursor should
turn to an eraser.
Now right click and hold down the mouse button and erase the water in about 9 of the red square's and
make an Island.
All the water should disappear and turn to a grayish sand.
Walla we have created some land!
Ok now go up to the upper left corner of the editor and select file and then save. Yep you will be doing this
quite often.
Ok now since we don't want our Island to be ugly gray sand lets go plant some grass.
In the upper right corner click on the "Terrain" tab.
Here you will paint the grass texture over that ugly gray sand.
Put a check mark in the "Grass" box and set the "Brush Size Slider" all the way to the right.
Now move your cursor to the main window and it should turn into a paint brush and a big red circle.
Right click and hold the mouse button down and paint all the gray sand, it will now turn into green grass.
Ok once again let’s save what we got "hopefully you remember how to do that by now".
Ok Ok I know your getting antsy we are almost there.
Let's first create our CBM (Clip Board Map).
In the upper left corner under file select "Make Map", this will bring up another window.
Leave every thing at the defaults ( should have "Show Grid Lines, 1024 x 1024, and the 3 other boxes
should have 80, 128, and 4 in them)
Now click OK.
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The editor will look kind of funny and seem like it's locked up but it's not. Don't do anything and wait for
your terrain and the
red grid lines to re-appear.
Now once again save your work, then exit the editor.
This is where that "texsrc" folder we created earlier comes in.
Navigate to your terrains folder is again.. "(your editor install directory)\ahiiterr\test" and in this folder you
will see
a file called "map.bmp". this is our clip board map.
First move this file into our "texsrc" folder.
Now let’s open this file in Paint. Once you have it open in paint click on "File then Save As" change the
"Save as type" drop down to "256 Color Bitmap"
and the file name to the name of our terrain "test". Then a window will popup saying "Saving into this
format may cause some loss of color information".
Click yes. Now you can close paint and delete the file named "map.bmp" leaving only our newly created
file named "test.bmp" in the texsrc folder.
Ok now start up your terrain editor again and click on file open and in the test folder click on test.oba.
You should now see your CBM in the smaller window in the lower right corner of the editor window.
This is used for navigating around in the editor and it's also the CBM you see when you fly your terrain
offline.
Now once again make sure in the lower left corner you put check marks in the Grid, Cell Overlay On, and
Snap boxes.
Ok let’s get a place to fly from put in our nifty little terrain here.
In the upper right corner of the editor window select the "Objects" tab.
Now in the editor window click in one of the grid squares (not the one in the center that has the numbers
10.24 and 10.24)
this should put a red plus symbol in the center of that grid square.
Now on the right hand side in the "Available shape" list scroll down and find the object named "lafld0" and
select it.
lafld0 should now be highlighted in blue, click the "Add Shape/Group" button just below the list.
This should place the large airfield in the terrain and bring up the object properties window.
We are only going to change one thing in this window for this object.
Where it says "Object Type" it should have "Void" in the selection box. Click the arrow to bring the drop
down box in and find
"Group Master" and select it. Now Group Mater should be highlighted in blue and in the window, click Ok.
Once again save what we have done here.
Now if you right click on the CBM window (the little window in the bottom right corner with the clip
board map in it)
it will bring up a little box with a few options in it. Select "Show Field Numbers".
You should now see a field icon in the CBM window with "A1_1" above it.
Once again this is for navigation purposes in the editor when ever you start making larger
terrains with more fields and such in it, but for now it's just to look neat.
For the sake of argument lets save our work again.
Ok now click on a red grid square some where else on our grassy terrain (not in the water)
and put a red cross in the center of another grid square.
In the "Available Shapes" list navigate to the object named "hq0" this is an HQ or Head Quarters object.
Page 5
Then click on the "Add Shape/Group" button again.
Once again our "Object Properties" window will popup.
For this object we are going to make two changes to the properties.
In the Object type list change this from "Void" to "HQ".
Then uncheck the "Field Owned" box under "Ownership".
This will change it to "Country 1" instead of "Field 1".
Leave every thing else as it is and click Ok.
Once again save your work.
If you right click on the CBM window again and select the "Show Field Numbers" it will turn the icons off,
do it again and turn
them back on.
You will now see a HQ icon (a Star) with "Z1_1" above it in the CBM window. This is out HQ (Head
Quarters) for our
terrain.
Now we need to add one more object before we can build and fly our terrain offline.
Select another grid square either next to or with in 2 squares of your large air field,
placing the red plus in the center of it.
Now in the Available Shapes list find the "town0" object and click "Add Shape/Group".
In the Object Properties window change the "Object Type" to "Town" and in the Ownership check mark
"Field Owned"
and make sure the field number is one and zone is 1.
Now save our work and close the editor.
Ok restart the editor and under file select the open option and reopen your test.oba file.
once the file is open, under file select "Build". This will build the terrain res file we will put in the games
terrain directory to fly offline.
Once the terrain is thru building ( your cursor is no longer an hour glass) close the editor and navigate
to your editors directory ""(your editor install directory)\ahiiterr". In the directory you should now see a file
named "test.res".
This is our working terrain.
Copy this file to your Aces High games terrain folder where the rest of your terrain files are. (Not the
editors terrain folder but the games terrain folder)
It should be something like (HTC\Aces High\ahiiterr).
Now start up Aces High II and at the main screen select "Choose Terrain" this will bring up the window
listing the available terrains for your game.
Scroll thru the list until you find the terrain you just built "test" and select it. Then select ok.
You will now be back at the main AH window, now select "offline Practice" and you should now be in the
tower of the terrain you just built.
Congratulations you have just made a quick and dirty one airfield terrain.
Now this is for Offline i dont know what else they add to make it Online that would be a question for the more experenced, but i hope this helps you.
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What are some of the old maps i remember this 1 vaguely it had kinda of a swamp like thing to it and what ever happened to those spikes on the beaches what do you call those.
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What are some of the old maps i remember this 1 vaguely it had kinda of a swamp like thing to it and what ever happened to those spikes on the beaches what do you call those.
The terrain used in the Stalin's Fourth scenario was dotted with tiny "lakes" that tanks could fall into. The things on the beaches were called tank traps. In sufficient numbers they could hinder or stop treaded vehicles, especially landing craft.
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Thnax for that tutorial. Really apreciate it. :aok
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I dare somebody to make this one!
You haven't flown the Candyland map? It's pretty!
(http://lh5.ggpht.com/_gq06MXnVtM8/S6tQuMgVZCI/AAAAAAAAAI0/2jLlXBGvX3w/s400/Aces%20high%20candyland%20Map%20screenshot.egg_813cf.jpg)
edited for screenshot size
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"$500 bucks and not a single nibble....speaks volumes about whats needed to make a map. Strip"
Or no one takes your offer seriously.
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Or no one takes your offer seriously.
Or no one doesn't ignore him. :lol