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Posted: Mon Apr 10, 2006 12:16 am
by Kythras
Well, I'm new on these forums, registered today, but I've been browing around for a while. Seems like a great place for mapmakers. And I've always wanted to make maps, but It's really too big of a chunk to eat at once. I have about no skills with programs (I can mess around with photoshop, can almost make decent looking colormaps 
). I was wondering if anyone here would take me as an apprentice or something, show me the tricks and everything :p
I've also learned by myself the basics of fear and loathing, but I often end up with buggy stuff I can't fix, which ruins my fun ideas (Like a defensive fetch grid :O )
So anyways, I'm wondering if anyone is ever going to reply to this 
Posted: Mon Apr 10, 2006 8:41 am
by vinylrake
Grasshopper, it is impolite to post "I wonder if anyone is going to EVER reply to this" in a post you just made today.
That aside, before you look for a wise jedi master to teach you, you might impress would be sensei with your initiative if you were to learn some of the basic concepts by working through a couple of the really good Mapmaking tutorials. If you are wanting to make maps for Myth 2, I would recommend Heal with Steel's excellent mapmaking for newbies guide. It's very well written and walks you through the actual steps you need to make a working map.
Lots of other good mapmaking guides, how-tos, and tips at the mythgraveyard. Cydonian's mapmaking guide is a good reference guide, but for starting from scratch the link above might be your best bet.
Posted: Mon Apr 10, 2006 10:05 am
by A-Red
I couldn't tell from your post if you were only interested in mesh work or wanted to learn other aspects of mapmaking, but if you want to learn to script, I recommend the Ares Tutorial. Once you have learned the basics, I'm sure there are a lot of scripters (myself included) who would be happy to help you through the tougher stuff.
A-Red
Posted: Mon Apr 10, 2006 11:37 am
by Doobie
and if your interested in making use of some of the new features added in the 1.4 update, check out this page
http://projectmagma.net/1.4mapguide.shtml
Posted: Mon Apr 10, 2006 2:41 pm
by vinylrake
fyi: the links in the 1.4 update document don't work.
Posted: Mon Apr 10, 2006 3:02 pm
by Doobie
hmm, thanks for the heads up, i'll take a look a that when i have more time.
Posted: Mon Apr 10, 2006 5:05 pm
by Kythras
vinylrake wrote:Grasshopper, it is impolite to post "I wonder if anyone is going to EVER reply to this" in a post you just made today.
Aha, that was a typo. I mean even, but I get your point. I think I read that tutorial, or at least part of it. If that's all I needed to make a map, my only problems would be lack of photoshop skill. I messed around, made a colormap that was almost good, but I stuck on the displacment map. Loathing is a quite simple program. My main problem is fear. It is fearsome , lots of options that are hard to understand. Even though I often do funny mistakes
Also, does a working link exist to download amber? And, what is amber? Some sort of third party fear program? 
Well, I have some pretty wild ideas, I might try making a multiplayer map or something (Won't even try scripting, I'm never good/patient enough to learn that. That's where I'd need a master's help)
Being part of a big project would be nice, but I don't think I have required skills for that.. Yet..
Blah, I'll stop babbling for now.
Posted: Mon Apr 10, 2006 6:49 pm
by Pyro
Amber? Its for the Mac and can edit collections and make new ones. Editing collections to have more hue changes which are used by the collection reference to make you unit different colors. But hue changes is just one change you can do to it of course.
Amber Link from the uDogs Hotline
Posted: Tue Apr 11, 2006 5:59 am
by Lugas
BTW, Amber is a Classic Application and requires OS 9/Classic. It won't work if you only have OS X.
Also, I don't think I have good enough skills for mapmaking, plus I'm rubbish at collection making. I tried to make a Ruby from a screenshot and it was horrific in Loathing!
Posted: Tue Apr 11, 2006 7:56 am
by William Wallet
Lugas wrote:BTW, Amber is a Classic Application and requires OS 9/Classic. It won't work if you only have OS X.
Also, I don't think I have good enough skills for mapmaking, plus I'm rubbish at collection making. I tried to make a Ruby from a screenshot and it was horrific in Loathing!
Meh, collection making is hit-and-miss as far as I'm concerned.
I tried making a horseman once, and I had to go through 100's of bitmaps changing the key colour into the transparent white instead, because doing it with a blue backdrop made my cavalry collection run *CRAZY* in software mode.
Still no idea what caused that.
Posted: Tue Apr 11, 2006 8:44 am
by :) Da Cid (: McCl
Crazy go nuts!
That was actually pretty funny.
-TGP-
Posted: Tue Apr 11, 2006 12:02 pm
by vinylrake
Kythras wrote:Well, I have some pretty wild ideas, I might try making a multiplayer map or something (Won't even try scripting, I'm never good/patient enough to learn that. That's where I'd need a master's help)
If you have all kinds of wild ideas I can understand why Fear is a bit intimidating. Other than setting up the simplest things you need for a multiplayer map (map name string, map overhead pict, # of players, game types, sound environment, ceiling, etc) almost everything I've accomplished in Fear was accidental.
There are many fear masters here though, and they tend to be quite generous with answering questions. Ask and someone is bound to answer.
Posted: Tue Apr 11, 2006 2:35 pm
by ChrisP
Kythras, once you're working on a map project, a great place to hang out is uDog's Hotline. Often there'll be a kind mapmaker hanging around able to offer helpful answers and advice, especially if you're willing to reciprocate with occasional testing or whatever. Good luck.
Posted: Sat Apr 15, 2006 9:38 am
by haravikk
The best way to learn map-making to copy other people
I'm not suggesting re-branding a map as your own, but if you have an idea, and aren't sure if it can't be done, then ask around and see if something similar has been done before. That way you can look at that, learn how it does things and try to adapt that to your own ideas.
These forums are perfect for asking questions, and much better than trying to get a single person to help you =)
Just don't be afraid to point out any part of a description that you don't understand, for example in my posts I might mention something like an option for a unit tag but not say where to find it in Fear and thus not helping someone who hasn't seen that particular option before
So if your unit attempts are buggy, explain what you're trying to do and how you've done it so far and we (the forum goers) can try and figure it out or give you possible solutions/hints and tips.