Terraining question (region?)

[Merowlin]

I'm a beginner, bare with me please.

Ok, so the other day I tried out the map "TKoK", and I was stunned by the scenery.

One thing that really made my jaws fall was the nice "transition" of areas, I really felt that I had gone somewhere else, as if the light settings changed color.

I've been oogling this board for a few days now, but I don't seem to find anything on it, that would explain how he did that light thingy thing.


So could anyone tell me how he did it? how he changed the colortheme not only with the tiles and doodas but also with the "light". I hope I'm not just being tricked by some skillfull artwork by the creator.



Ah, yeah, and while I'm at it, I'm considering creating a map, but I'm not sure if everything can be done, so I might as well just go ahead and ask. is it possible to give heroes 4-6 abilities without them ever having to level up? I have more questions, of course, but I don't want to make you tired of reading

 

[FrozenShadow]

I do not understand what this 'light' thing is, perhaps post a screenshot?

 

[darkRae]

I think he (the author) used Fog.

You can give a Hero as many Normal abilities as you want.
(Normal abilities are those abilities that can't be leveled like Hero abilities)

 

[Merowlin]

This is what i mean:

Picture from when i'm standing inside the forest (picture from the forest):

Picture from when i'm looking into the forest but standing in town:

edit: ty for the spell information - edit2: but heroes can use normal abilities too? and they are as "customizable" as the "hero" abilities?

 

[Dakho]

He used a Terrain Fog. A trigger can be set up to add a fog, and to remove it when you leave a certain region. Or you can set up a permanent one from the Scenario Tab at the top of the World Editor.

 

[Merowlin]

Thank you for the fast response, would it be too much hassle to ask for a example trigger? ^^

 

[Sajberhippie]

edit2: but heroes can use normal abilities too? and they are as "customizable" as the "hero" abilities?

Yes, they can. In fact a few of the normal heroes have those, I'm thinking of the night-elven heroes that can hide in shadows. That's a normal ability.

They are at least as customizable as hero skills, and they CAN have levels, although you'd have to level them through triggers.

A few suggestions though: If you're just starting out, try to not start some huge project. That's the problem I went into, I spent maybe fifty hours just to realize there where no way to finish this. A good starting map to try is a small (short) RPG, or an altered melee (where you take melee and change some units and heroes, and sometimes add other features).
Also, check around the.helper for tutorials. They are worth their weight in gold and more (I don't know how much a kilobyte weighs though ).

Thank you for the fast response, would it be too much hassle to ask for a example trigger? ^^

I don't have the editor here, but it should go something like

Event
   A unit enters [I]"Your Region"[/I]
Condition
Action
   Set Fog to[I] whatever you want[/I]

It isn't harder than that AFAIK.

 

[Merowlin]

Yes, they can. In fact a few of the normal heroes have those, I'm thinking of the night-elven heroes that can hide in shadows. That's a normal ability.

They are at least as customizable as hero skills, and they CAN have levels, although you'd have to level them through triggers.

A few suggestions though: If you're just starting out, try to not start some huge project. That's the problem I went into, I spent maybe fifty hours just to realize there where no way to finish this. A good starting map to try is a small (short) RPG, or an altered melee (where you take melee and change some units and heroes, and sometimes add other features).
Also, check around the.helper for tutorials. They are worth their weight in gold and more (I don't know how much a kilobyte weighs though ).


I don't have the editor here, but it should go something like

Event
   A unit enters [I]"Your Region"[/I]
Condition
Action
   Set Fog to[I] whatever you want[/I]

It isn't harder than that AFAIK.

I know what you mean, I have a tendency of starting huge and I usually fall down flat on the ground unless I get some help. Though, I was considering the concept of the map, and believe that the entire concept is more work than the actual "coding" of the map or so to say, because it's basically the same thing over and over with altered "information". The only thing that will probably be way above my head is the hero abilities, but there's no reason to start out with 40 heroes, I can do well with just 5 heroes to begin with and then progress from there ^^

I have been reading a lot of tutorials, but I haven't really become wiser from it, the best way to learn is through hard work and experiments (well, at least for me -- trials and errors = valuable curves), so thats why I want to do this, so that I learn along the way


Thank you for the triggers, I just tested altering the values etc in the Scenario>Map Options>Use Terrain Fog.
though, so far, it only turns out one solid color and I can't see the units at all

 

[Merowlin]

Hm... It doesn't allow me to change the "color" in the action trigger. I suppose this is right though:

However, I tried to change the color of the region, but I suppose that doesn't determine anything, it's just a help tool to know what region is what?

I was experimenting with Exponential 1/2 and Linear, but nothing happened :/

 

[Merowlin]

I figured it out! It worked when I did this:

and then added a new trigger with the same thing but different color:

Thanks for the help, very appreciated

Now, all I have to do is to figure out how to get it to fade so that it doesn't "convert" instantly
edit: I suppose I could add multiple regions, and change the color of each region to make it "fade", but is there a simpler way?

 

[Merowlin]

Bah, I can't get it to fade at all. I checked TKoK again, and he has a effect that "fades" into the other zone color when you pass the trigger, but I just can't find it

 

[GooS]

You could make a recursion trigger, (calls itself) and set the values of fog to variables that increase with the amount of recursion. I'll show a freehand trigger, dont have WE up at the moment.

Event
   A unit enters Region 1
Condition
  Unit is a Hero = True
Action
Set density[player number] = density[player number]) +2
Set redfog[player number] = density[player number]) +1
Set greenfog[player number] = density[player number]) +1
Set bluefog[player number] = density[player number]) +1
   Enviroment - Set fog to style Linear, z-start 1000, z-end 8000, density (Integer to real(density[player number]) and color ((Integer to real(redfog[player number]),(Integer to real(greenfog[player number]),(Integer to real(bluefog[player number]))
Wait 0.1 seconds
if
(density[player number] = 50) 
then
Trigger - Run trigger Withdraw Variables ( a trigger that just sets the variables to 0 for next region transfer)
else
Trigger - Run this trigger ignoring conditions

I'm way off on the values and i don't know if the conversion between Integer and real is necessary, just thought so because of the percentage value.

And the reason for recursion is that wait, as I've gotten it, are never good to use in loops, the wait is necessary to make it fade better, imo.
I might post a better trigger when iv'e started WE

 

[Merowlin]

Thanks, I play'd around with it a little, but I'm not sure how to get it all in there :O

I'll try to tinker with it a little more later. I've been busy with the concept for quite some time, soon done with it though (well, the items. still need to think out a hand full of heroes, but I guess actually writing the heroes will be a real hazzle when I can't even get your trigger to work :S).