Battle for Craglorn - Alpha/Early Testing Thread

Cernel

@tannenbernie It does not have to be transparent, though a non transparent square is unlikely to look good unless it is something abstract.

For non abstract units, I think that the best alternative to a transparent background is a circular background, which anyway requires transparency given that image files are rectangular (or square).

For example, you could have an 80 pixels per axis background like this one,
+80.png

over which you could draw the units you want (like these ones).

If you don't want to learn how to handle transparency just yet, you can use this image, being careful to keep your drawing within the monotone gray zone,
++80.png

as it will be very easy to then turn the black outside the circle to transparency.

However, having a transparent background is preferable because it is neutral and is much easier to add a background than to remove it so giving you the option to decide about the background thereafter with ease, comprising opting for keeping it purely transparent.

Tannenbernie

Good advice from both of you. I agree, it will be much better with transparency, so i am willing to go for that for my final version.
As for my version 0.2, half of the models with background are finished so i will just finish the rest too. Even without transparency the map will be much more fun to play that way.

I will probably look into greenfish already while workig on 0.2, to see if i get a hook on it.

@edit:
Oh one more thing:
I found that i can make the background the same color as the map territories, belonging to the respective race. So the Empire background is the same grey as the empire territory, so it looks like tranparency as long as you do not go on allied territory.

Cheers

TheDog

@tannenbernie
How goes the project?

.
A Connection issue FOT9 to FOT10

Tannenbernie

@thedog Hi there

Thx for the connection bug, i also found a few. I have finished replacing the symbol-armies with better-looking figurine-armies. Also the game is now 2vs2 which seems much better for the balancing.

My plan is to fix the last few connection bugs and then bring on a new version of the map. With the better graphics it should be better playable.

Now the question: How do i do that? All that github stuff is so confusing. New version, new release, new whatever. At the moment i am still confused and do not really know how to bring on a new version. Maybe a tip for me?

Thx and cheers,
Bernd

TheDog

My preferred method of delivering updates is Google Drive, its quick and very easy to share a zip.
See here
https://forums.triplea-game.org/topic/3326/1941-global-command-decision-official-thread?page=1

I always point the downloader back to the first post. So the downloader knows where to go.
Serialize your versions ie. v005 v010 v015 etc

For GitHub, hopefully you have a separate folder for GitHub uploading/syncing (dont user your development/downloads folder)

Also I hope you are using GitHub Desktop
https://desktop.github.com/

Tannenbernie

@thedog Ok i will take your advice and look into Google, GitHub is just too strange to me.

Short question on the connections-file. I had been under the impression that changing the file and then reloading the map would do the trick. But the bug is still there. Do i have to reload the connections somewhere to activate the change?

TheDog

Yes just adding in
<connection t1="FOT9" t2="NO10"/>
should work

However, on your GitHub download the xml was called battle_for_craglorn.xml.xml
note the duplicated xml, remove one of those, try that.

When testing your Google Drive share use 'anyone with this link' and use say Firefox (a browser with no direct access to your Google Account) to test the download.

Tannenbernie

Ok i am basically ready for my version v0.2.
I have added everything but the connection problem.
If i can fix the problem in next 1-2 days then i will bring it into v0.2.
If not then the bug will stay and i will try to fix it for next version.

What i found is that the "connection.txt" does nothing. I did even completely delete it and the game would still start. I has all the connections including the buggy one.
No matter what i change in the connections.txt, it does nothing to the game. I did just delete some connections but when starting the game they were all there.
So it seems that the information from the connections.txt has already beed read in and is used somewhere in the other files. I have just no idea how to re-read it in again to make changes work.

TheDog

What i found is that the "connection.txt" does nothing
Yes it does nothing and is just a temporary unread file.

Im guessing you are using the TripleA tools to do your changes, at this stage, stop using them and do your changes manually in the xml file.

All the connections are in your xml file. Did you rename it?
Search for <connection to find the start of them.
Manually add the ones that are missing in the xml file.

Are you using Notepad++, its a text editor and then some, if not try it out its free
https://notepad-plus-plus.org/downloads/

Cernel

@tannenbernie said in Battle for Craglorn - Alpha/Early Testing Thread:

Ok i am basically ready for my version v0.2.
I have added everything but the connection problem.
If i can fix the problem in next 1-2 days then i will bring it into v0.2.
If not then the bug will stay and i will try to fix it for next version.

What i found is that the "connection.txt" does nothing. I did even completely delete it and the game would still start. I has all the connections including the buggy one.
No matter what i change in the connections.txt, it does nothing to the game. I did just delete some connections but when starting the game they were all there.
So it seems that the information from the connections.txt has already beed read in and is used somewhere in the other files. I have just no idea how to re-read it in again to make changes work.

TripleA Map Creator Tools/Step 3: Game XML/Run the Connection Finder:

This is the ConnectionFinder.
It will create a file containing the connections between territories, and optionally the territory definitions as well.
Copy and paste everything from this file into your game xml file (the 'map' section).
The connections file can and Should Be Deleted when finished, because it is Not Needed and not read by the engine.

I suggest running the Connection Finder at 2 pixels more than your borders' wideness, then check all the connections for the points where four or more zones met (which are usually quadripoints) and delete the ones which are not supposed to be there. Easier to delete than to add and, if you have no points where more than three zones met, you should have the perfect file, actually.

Cernel

Also, I don't know what you are doing, but, if you are drawing considerably thick borders, you should make sure that your drawing tool is circular. If it is a square, then oblique borders are going to end up being thicker than borders which run more parallel to either axis.

As said, I don't know if this is the case for you.

Tannenbernie

@cernel Hey, thanks to you i found it.

So simple, i completely had forgotten that the connections file gets copied into the game xml. So i had to do the change to the missing connection in the game xml of course. Added a simple line and now it all works. Great, thank you for that.

I will now see that i do some last corrections and then bring on v0.2!

Tannenbernie

@tannenbernie Ok i have updated with Version v0.2, real units now. Links are in first post page 1, happy for feedback

TheDog

@tannenbernie
In 1984 terms Double-plus-good! (On v0.2)

I really like your unit icon style, simple but very effective.
How do you do them? (As an overview not in detail.)

I use latest 2.6 and it errors, you need to rename game folder to games

Personally I would resize your small flags to 20x20 or 16x16, less white space to scroll through when debugging the rounds/history in the left hand pane.

You can find and replace this text in the xml
games.strategy.triplea.attachments. (note the .)
and replace it with nothing.
So save your current xml to another name and try it.
It will reduce your file size and make the xml more readable.

.
At about line 795, add the following


<technology>
</technology>

Tannenbernie

@thedog said in Battle for Craglorn - Alpha/Early Testing Thread:

@tannenbernie
In 1984 terms Double-plus-good! (On v0.2)

I really like your like your unit icon style, simple but very effective.
How do you do them? (As an overview not in detail.)

Well, i am no graphics guy, so i had to find a simple way of "drawing" my models.
Basically i did the following steps (example bowman):

Google for bowman
Look for a picture with a good silhouette, no matter if comic, real pic or a drawing
Take a screenie and copy to paint
Add a 2nd layer to paint and draw the silhouette of the picture in it
Modify the silhouette to make it more simple (e.g. remove quiver, make bow bigger)
Fill your new silhouette with life
Always the same 4 colors for each faction
Fill simple, e.g. arms black, legs black, rest red, halberd brown, Halberd blade and helm silver

Well, that was basically my way. I always needed some kind of template to start, then i made my own model out of it.

I use latest 2.6 and it errors, you need to rename game folder to games

Personally I would resize your small flags to 20x20 or 16x16, less white space to scroll through when debugging the rounds/history in the left hand pane.

You can find and replace this text in the xml
games.strategy.triplea.attachments. (note the .)
and replace it with nothing.
So save your current xml to another name and try it.
It will reduce your file size and make the xml more readable.

.
At about line 795, add the following


<technology>
</technology>

Ok sounds good. I will give it a try.
Thank you.

Cernel

@thedog said in Battle for Craglorn - Alpha/Early Testing Thread:

I use latest 2.6 and it errors, you need to rename game folder to games

Moreover, in the map.yml, the "map_name" should be the same as the name of your main folder. In this case, battle_for_craglorn_v02.

Besides, are you sure that you want to have that name for your map instead of just battle_for_craglorn?

Still, in the map.yml, as I said, I would suggest you to have a better title by any standards, meaning changing the line
- {game_name: battle_for_craglorn, file_name: battle_for_craglorn.xml}
with the line
- {game_name: Battle for Craglorn, file_name: battle_for_craglorn.xml}

About that, TripleA prioritizes upper case, so, if you open the games' selection with TripleA 2.6, you will see that your map is towards the bottom of the list. It took me some time to realize that the game was on the list at all.

I guess you are still on 2.5. As a map-maker, you should have really already updated to 2.6.

Cernel

Have you considered that, in a map like this one, having the allied players on opposite corners may be more interesting? I'm not saying it is, just wondering.

Tannenbernie

Sorry for late reply, having a lot of family business atm. I will have a look into those naming-issues and see that i fix it so it goes with the desired standard.

As for the version, that is not so easy. I am playing AAA a lot in LAN with friends who have version 2.5. They could update too but then their friends would need to update too i guess, so its a bit of a rat-tail. Unless both versions can play together in LAN, i didnt test that yet.

@Cernel Opposite corners would be better indeed. But dont forget that i started the map as 4 player FFA. I just came to 2vs2 later on and now its not easy to change anymore. Making units transparent, making better terrain graphics ... all that will already keep me busy for weeks i guess.

TheDog

In case you have not seen this, you can have both 2.5 & 2.6 installed at the same time.

https://forums.triplea-game.org/topic/3724/how-to-have-triplea-2-5-2-6-installed-at-the-same-time