Dian, you raise a VERY valid point. There's really no way around not having enough colors for Dragon. However, it still doesn't address some novice complaints with regards to what colors there are. This is what this is attempting to do. Since the colortable is one of the easiest things to do, I decided to start there. Maybe I should focus in advanced use first?
The issue of reprogramming Dragon is below. As for more colors in general there are alternate solutions: TBC/SMC.
For advanced work I use TBC/SMC. I've not really focused on that since it's very advanced and is a bit different from the way Dragon works. It can't do transitions, and it can't place statics, but it can make one hell of a map. SMC is basically a program that uses true color to give the ability to place ANY tile on the map, at ANY altitude. It uses 2 files; one for the tile type (a true color raw file) and one for the altitude (256-color "greyscale" raw file). As an example of the type of altitude it can create easily, here's an example:
On the left is a screenshot from InsideUO; on the right a screenshot from Iris.
This was taken from a jpg color elevation map of Colorado that I ran through SMC. It took me all of 10 minutes to make this (granted, different tiles would take much longer). TBC can take an existing map and make it editable in Photoshop, so it works both ways with the same config file (unlike Dragon). Like I said though, it can't create transition on it's own (but you don't lose them when converting).
Here's an example of the Brit map after conversion with SMC:
Image reduced to fix the window wrapping. [View original size]
The image on the left is for the tiles, and the right is for the altitude.
Note the colors I used are completely configurable. It's hard to see the detials due the screenshot being a jpg, but every single different tile is represented by it's own color, and every altitude has it's own "grey" color.
There are other usefull tools that are great for advanced work as well, but haven't been in the spotlight much. An example is MapConvert. It can overwrite a map0.mul with changes without wiping it first (unlike Dragon). It too is very configurable.
So then my question is to everyone: should I continue on the new mod (aimed at general purpose for novices), or provide more details on TBC/SMC and other advanced techniques (for the experts)?
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As I started writing the below before Dian replied, I'll put it in here, but please consider the above as well.
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I can get the mod 9 conversion working, but it'll be after the colortable is at least mostly working. It's basically going to be a Photoshop action, in case you're wondering. Since my last post about it, I've tested this and it works. It simply selects one color and changes it to another color. It's a tedious action to create, but it's a one time process. Once complete, running the action will be easy. Of course, those colors that have been removed, will get set to another. For example, grass 22 would get changed to 20 or 25. The notes on this will cover this along with how to change it.
Since cliff edges could really take over the colortable in a bad way, most likely the "standard" colortable will only have a few "single" cliffs. Like one for forest 10, one for snow 10, etc. I'm also considering decreasing the number of grass to grassbump colors, since this is basically the same type of thing. Do you have a recommended "set" of cliffs that I should do? It is my intention to leave 1 full row empty as well, so not many more can go in. I'm of the mind that these should be something that are not stressed much in this colortable, since it's more of an advanced feature.
As far as Dragon being able to use different color tables programmably, that's not possible for me to do. First, I don't have the source code, and second, I don't know how to program. Remember, I didn't write Dragon. It's AwA, Nacor, Puppet & Darus you must give credit to. I am technically only working with the scripts. That being said, you can have different sets of scripts by replacing the scripts manually. I could write a simple batch file that changes them though. That's not too hard, but I've found other tools that are more flexible.
Mountain levels: As it stands, there never used to be 2, 12 and 22 to begin with, so I don't quite follow that. In Rev 1 I considered adding 2, but that was it. Do you think that all these should be added? Personally, I think the 20, 30, 50, 60 is a good increment for slope of standard mountains, and I'll be stressing this to the novice. It's only in specialized areas where you need numbers like 5, 10, 15, etc. I'd really like some more input on this. Getting a standard colortable for the novice is an important aspect.
As for the transitions, I will be working on getting them all working correctly and with the latest version of the landscape tiles. Incidentally, I did a quick comparison between T2A and LBR and don't see any major additions to the tile sets. Only a few fixes and only one specific addition. Do you have tile id's of the tiles you'd like to see? I'll be getting AoS in a few days so I'll look at that for changes as well. I've word about star2grass (using what appears to be rock) and I have a request for that transition.
The forest2swamp will be staying as well.
-Ryandor