Ryandor.com

I'm new to this forum, and to map making in general and had a few questions. I've tried to look back in the forums at other cave questions and I have read the guide to making them. Thanks for the explanations given there, as they are quite simple to follow.

Now a few questions. First - is it possible to use other tiles for the floors in caves after you have run it through dragon? For example, I want to build a giant ant hill on my map. I've created a hill with various layers of sand and I want to put some kind of entrance and a cave underneath leading into a nearby mountainside. I don't mind using the cave tiles in the mountain side, but I would like to use sand tiles in the tunnel leading there and of course fill in the roof with the appropriate sand tiles as well.

Now using world forge, am I allowed to place more than one tile in a location? For example, everytime I've tried to place tiles over other tiles it just fills in the space. I read in another forum that cave tiles when ran through dragon will place other tiles above them?

Any help on producing this effect would be useful.


Ok, next question, and maybe it's not even reasonable. Let's say I wanted to make an underworld on my map. Will covering the map with cave tiles and then using wordforge to build the scenery on top allow me to have an extensive underworld? For example a dark elf society that lives under the surface of the world.....

Sorry for all the newbie questions - hope none of them are repeats...

map0.mul can only have one tile per coordinate. The cave tiles are actually objects (AKA "Statics") which are placed on top of the map0.mul in a simmilar way such as trees and buildings are placed. So if there is a "sand" static that can be used in that setting, then yes, that will work.

For your second question, it would be possible but unpractical. There would be a lot of problems if you tried to do that, but it is possible. Everything underground would have to be, like above, static objects, though. Unless you build the "underground" part in the dungeon area, which is completely seperate part of the map.

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Ok, I can see that making an underground map may be a bit extreme anyway. Another question - Can caves be placed under water? And if so, would it affect ship travel?

Anything static can be placed underground. On the whole map as Syd said, but you have to ask what's the reason why. Does having water over the "underground" area benefit anything? I would just treat it as a dungeon area, or if it'll fit, just use the normal dungeon area on the map.

The thing to remember is when you are in game, there is technically no "ceilings". The only use in making something under the land tile (map0) is in simple mining caves. Any other use is overkill. Use the dungeon part of the map. If you need more, then use other parts of the map ans a dungeon area. The only restriction is the X=5120 "line" that the client doesn't draw anything through.

As an example, look at the Darkshadows map in the screenshots page. Most of the map is actually just black dungeon areas, where you can do anything "underground" that you want.

Another limiting factor is when you make the "ground" or "dungeon floor" if you use statics, they do not stretch at all. This isn't good for "natural" floors. You're better off using the map0 tiles that do stretch to achieve a good looking effect. Map tiles of sand will flow to create decent looking hills, whereas sand floor statics will not connect correctly if you try to make a hill.

-Ryandor