Uncoded Maps

Game Talk The Lab
1

Hello. What if i draw ascii maps and someone… just make it work in the game?
I know nothing about coding and honestly, i’ve no time to learn (and more honestly, i really dislike encoding…XD)
But i usually do graphic and i’ve never built ascii graphics, so this is quite interesting and new for me.

I’ve tried to rudimentally create some map, but obviously copypaste random lines of codes from standard maps don’t works when you have no idea of what you’re doing.

Here the question/request.
If i create maps (on sublime text), there is some coder that wish to use them and put them in a proprely coded json file?

just to ask, so i know if i may find a use for this useless txt i’m drawing. XD

2

Oh hell yeah it’ll be useful. Post it up and… maybe someone will code it.

3

I’m pretty sure functionality to use something like this is in (I recall something in the kickstarter about some contributers being allowed to contribute their own house designs and have them randomly scattered throughout the generated world.)

I think, provided you are coming up with a building that doesn’t exist (but enough people want) or an alternate layout of a building that exists but normally has a static layout (I haven’t played the game enough, are there buildings like this?) then you’d be contributing something devs may be happy to use :slight_smile:

4

There is a map editor in game (look for it in debug menu) but if you post sketches here, chances are devs will see them and maybe include them in mainline.

5

Thanks for your answers :3
UHmm… in game i’ve meet cabins and undergrounds layers but… can i draw houses with more than 1 floor? A turret, for exaple?
(i’ve not meet any in game so far so i think i probably can’t)

6

Z levels aren’t here yet. But you can make some 2 story house layouts so that the devs don’t have to use much time to create one themselves.

7

ok no problem.
Last question: I’ve asked before what symbols i’m supposed to use and the answer was “the ones you like most”.
But… are we sure i can use ALL SYMBOLS I WANT!? XD These are symbols in standard arial font, and i’m sure i CANT use them, cuz are greek, latin, arabian, russian, i-dunno-the-hell-are-this and more! XD

See by yourself.

1zquafn.jpg548×746

SO.
Better i redraw it with more standard symbols…? The only text editor that can read this is sublime text (on my pc) so i suppose is not so…ordinary…whatever…

8

I… have no idea what that is. Different font would be best.

9

Also you might want to take a look at the buildings in the json files. JSON files are designed to be open for modding, so no real coding knowledge is required and they are highly self explanatory. You might find that adding buildings to the game is a bit easier than it looks.

10

Just to clarify this a little for you, inside the folder you installed cataclysm, look for the following folder ‘data’, inside it has ‘json’ inside it has ‘mapgen’.

In that folder is a series of plain-text JSON files (meaning you should be able to open them in a text editor, hopefully you have one that doesn’t ignore the new lines) Each of those files represents the recipe for a building. The part you are probably most interested in is:

[tt]
“mapgen”: [ {
“method”: “json”,
“weight”: 10000000,
“object”: {
“rows”: [
“",
"–O--,,,",
"|lcx|,,,",
"| c#O,,,",
"| ##|,,,",
"|r L,,,”,
"|r |,,,",
"|w ^|,,,",
"|-M----MMMMMM–MMMMMMM–",
"|w w w|",
"| |",
"|ctc |",
"|ctc | |",
"|ctc | |",
"| | |",
"|-±-| |",
"|F @@| |",
"|t :expressionless: |",
"|c @@| |",
"| :expressionless: |",
"|+| | |",
"|T|GS| l l l l l l |",
"|----------------------|",
"…"
],
“terrain”: {
".": “t_grass”,
"": “t_pavement”,
",": “t_pavement_y”,
" “: “t_floor”,
”-": “t_wall_h”,
"|": “t_wall_v”,
“O”: “t_window”,
“L”: “t_door_locked”,
"+": “t_door_c”,
“M”: “t_door_metal_locked”,
“w”: “t_gates_mech_control”,
“x”: “t_console_broken”,
“c”: “t_floor”,
"#": “t_floor”,
“r”: “t_floor”,
"^": “t_floor”,
“t”: “t_floor”,
“F”: “t_floor”,
"@": “t_floor”,
":": “t_floor”,
“T”: “t_floor”,
“l”: “t_floor”,
“S”: “t_floor”,
“G”: “t_floor”
},
“furniture”: {
".": “f_null”,
"": “f_null”,
",": “f_null”,
" “: “f_null”,
”-": “f_null”,
"|": “f_null”,
“O”: “f_null”,
“L”: “f_null”,
"+": “f_null”,
“M”: “f_null”,
“w”: “f_null”,
“x”: “f_null”,
“c”: “f_chair”,
"#": “f_counter”,
“r”: “f_rack”,
"^": “f_indoor_plant”,
“t”: “f_table”,
“F”: “f_fridge”,
"@": “f_bed”,
":": “f_dresser”,
“T”: “f_toilet”,
“l”: “f_locker”,
“S”: “f_sink”,
“G”: “f_oven”
},
“place_specials”: [
{ “type”: “toilet”, “x”: 1, “y”: 21 }
],
[/tt]

‘rows’ there has the full layout, but the keys for understanding what each letter means is in the ‘terrain’ entry and the ‘furniture’ entry

If you are willing to make yourself a layout for a new building, someone will probably happily help you add in the other stuff (about what items can spawn in that location and where and what enemies).

EDIT: ALSO, important to know, most buildings (that only take up one tile on the overmap) are 24 by 24, exceptions (i.e. multitile buildings) like hospitals, apartment blocks etc are i believe dynamically generated, but support for them is on the way http://smf.cataclysmdda.com/index.php?topic=6292.0, just remember they need to be composed of a series of regular 24 by 24 blocks ( so 48 by 48 is acceptible, as is 72 by 24… but 75 by 75 for instance is NOT)

11

Wait… Could it be? Is that you, Tony Montana?

12

Something that could be copy/pasted would probably be easier to use. Something that is in the same format as the existing building files would probably be easier still. A picture could be used as inspiration, but as they need to input the tiles manually anyway it would still require about as much effort as building one from scratch. So… good for giving ideas to people who are willing to make maps but seeking inspiration…

13

That is text btw, RAM. I think flame just worried the Unicode symbols wouldn’t paste properly so he took a screenshot.

That said i wonder whether the game engine would even care.

14

[quote=“Ice-o-metric, post:13, topic:6001”]That is text btw, RAM. I think flame just worried the Unicode symbols wouldn’t paste properly so he took a screenshot.

That said i wonder whether the game engine would even care.[/quote]

Dunno about the engine but if I can’t render the symbols, then I’d care. And not merge it because can’t verify.

That said, Fort Ville appears to be 24x24 so it could fit on one overmap tile: hence, could be made as a standalone building in JSON. Grab an existing file from data/json/mapgen and take a look!

15

Yes, my worry was about the symbols. I did it on sublime text editor and i’ve directly edited a json file (only the part with the drawed map).
Knowing that i can “choose” my own symbols, i searched in arial font all the symbols i liked most to Draw shapes that i feel near the item real shape.
(Cupboards, trees, chairs, walls, tables and so on)
More like the “old style tileset mod”.

But then a doubt caught me. Those are greek-cirillic-arabian symbols, so the game will not understand the unicode of that symbol, probably. Doesn’t matter if i put in the json the right references for each symbols, i think it just can’t work.
So i asked.

But i think i’ll draw it in my personal code and then i’ll convert it in standard text to share it. I find quite hard draw in ascii, is confusing and i mess it a lot, so… i’ll just do double work. No problem. :3

16

The font used in the Json should not have any influence on the font used in the game. You really do need to stick with the format that the game already uses.

17

Okay, np!