Scenario creation guide part 1 (Getting started and Terrain)

Paul59
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Scenario creation guide part 1 (Getting started and Terrain)

Post by Paul59 »

Hi there,

As I have designed many user created scenarios for P&S, and now FoG2, RBS has asked me to post some scenario creation tips.

So, this is the first part of a series that will try to explain how you go about creating a scenario for Field of Glory 2. It will take you up to creating the tiles and objects for the map. I will post further parts over the next few weeks:

1) This might seem like stating the obvious, but first pick your battle and research it.
Get to know the forces involved, the numbers and quality of the troops on each side, and the tactical situation. You can then decide how your scenario might play out. If it is a particularly one sided battle, it may be suitable for play by only one side, usually the losing side. If it is more evenly balanced, then you may be able to “reverse” the scenario so that it can be played by both sides, or you may be able to have a Multiplayer version.

One thing I normally do to start, is create a simple work sheet to record the armies that I want to recreate in the scenario, generals names, unit types, disposition of forces, troop quality etc. Basically any information that might be useful.

For example, I am going to create a scenario for the Elephant Victory 273 BC. By examining my sources of information I shall put together a worksheet to help design the scenario.

Firstly, we need to create the Scenario folder in your My Documents folder, I like to put all my working documents in that folder so that they are easily accessible while I am working on the scenario. I do this by creating a very basic scenario in the editor. Just open FOG2 and select “Editor” from the main menu. Click on the “New” button, and a New Campaign window pops up. Complete it as per the following screenshot.

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After you have clicked “Proceed”, on the Scenario Editor window click the “Select” button. On the New Scenario Setup window click “Make a new empty map”.

Then just save the scenario by clicking on the “Load/Save” button at the bottom of the screen, see screenshot.

Image

Name the scenario, and click “Save”, then just exit the editor by clicking on the “Exit” button at the bottom of the screen.

You will then find that a scenario folder (using the scenario name you chose) has been created in My Documents/My Games/FieldOfGlory2/CAMPAIGNS.

Now, navigate to that folder and create a new work sheet titled Elephant Victory, or whatever the scenario name is. I use Microsoft Excel for this worksheet, but you can use Word or Notepad or anything you like really, it is just so that you can make notes from your research and design your scenario, it will not be loaded into the game.

This is not a really big battle, far less than 64 units on each side, so I know that I can create this scenario at the normal FOG2 representational scale (force multiplier equals 100%) without it causing graphical stuttering on older PCs. RBS has suggested a limit of 64 units per side for scenarios uploaded to the Slitherine server, as we have found that larger scenarios can cause problems.

The other thing to consider is the size of the battlefield. From the worksheet, you can work out the deployment, and therefore the frontage that the armies will cover. Your map should be wide enough to accommodate the armies and allow for at least 10 extra squares on each flank. The height of the map should be enough to accommodate both armies, the space between them, and at least another 10 squares behind each army to allow for routing/rallying etc. You might need extra room, if the historical battle had any elaborate manoeuvres, ie flank marches, retreats etc. The maximum map size is 64 squares. If the battle is not going to fit at your chosen unit strength representational scale, you will have to increase it. I will explain how to do that later.

Start the game and choose “Editor”, select your scenario, in this case Elephant Victory and open it up. Click on the button at the bottom of the screen with the big + sign, the tooltip says “Create a new map, or resize this one”. On the “New Scenario Setup” window select the size of the battlefield that you want. In this case I want X axis to be 64 and Y axis to be 34. Once you have set the desired size, click on the “Make a new empty map” button. This is the only time you want to click on this button, at the very start of the map design process, do not click it later on, I will explain more about that later. Don’t worry too much about the size of the map at the moment, as you can always increase or decrease it later.

Now, you can then start to create your map. When designing single player scenarios, it is usually a good idea to have the AI defending the right hand side (or the top, depending upon how you look at it) part of the map. This is because you can sometimes use an AI masterplan in the scenario scripts to control the AI, and that only works properly when the AI is deployed on the right. Don’t worry about that now, I will explain AI scripting later. This sometimes will not be possible anyway, depending upon the historical scenario. At Telamon for example, there were two Roman armies deployed with the Gallic army in between. Don’t worry if you cannot have the AI side on the right, there are other ways to program the AI behaviour.

If you want to, you can select each object and terrain tile and place it yourself. That’s going to take a long time. Fortunately there is a useful plugin tool which can create the map for you. As information on battlefields in this time period is very rare, most of the details are going to be guess work anyway, so we can usually let the plugin select the battlefield for us. We can then amend it as necessary to add any known features.

Click on the “Plug in Tools” button at the top of the screen, it is the one with the crossed Hammer and Saw, a new window called Scenario Editor appears. Click on “Slith Random Map Plug in”. A new window pops up, called Random Map Generator, and you need to click “close” on the Scenario Editor window. In the new window you can select the Terrain type that you want, by clicking on the left and right arrows you can scroll through the options available. For this map we need Mediteranean Agricultural. Then click on “Create Map”. After a short delay your map should be populated with terrain tiles and objects. If you don’t like what has appeared, maybe there are too many woods, or you don’t want rivers or coast, just click on “Create Map” again. You can carry on clicking until you get something approximating to what you want. When you are satisfied, click “Close” on the Random Map Generator window.

Now, you may want to amend the map slightly. You might want to add a town, or a river or some other known feature. Similarly, there maybe things added by the Random Map Generator that you want to amend or delete. How to place tiles, overlays and objects is all explained in the manual (chapters 25.1 to 25.4), so I will not attempt to explain that here.
Last edited by Paul59 on Fri Oct 27, 2017 9:17 am, edited 1 time in total.
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rbodleyscott
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Re: Scenario creation guide part 1

Post by rbodleyscott »

Many many thanks Paul, once again.

Stickied.
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stefankollers
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Re: Scenario creation guide part 1

Post by stefankollers »

This will be very useful for people like me who can only do the very basics with the editor. Most of us can only marvel at your creations. It also may help others to create battles. Thanks .
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Re: Scenario creation guide part 1

Post by eddieballgame »

Looking forward to this.
Hoplite1963
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Re: Scenario creation guide part 1

Post by Hoplite1963 »

Hi Paul
Thanks very much for this you have inspired me to start working first off on a remake of the Mons Badonicus scenario I did for Fog 1 BTW it looks as of army names for the Immortal Fire and Legions Triumphant modules have already been set up in the editor.

Looking forward to the next installment.

Regards
Ian
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Re: Scenario creation guide part 1 (Getting started and Terr

Post by piteas »

Thanks, Paul!

This text is very useful for the rookies in the map editor, like me :wink:
76mm
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Re: Scenario creation guide part 1 (Getting started and Terr

Post by 76mm »

Thanks for this, but I can't get the map to save--I get an error saying "Failed to save map file, please ensure the path is writable and try again". I don't know where the file is being saved, but I tried to make all of the obvious locations writable, without success--the next time I check the folder it is still read-only. Meanwhile, I can save a scenario as a "campaign" even though there is only one battle, but cannot open it... I have Win10.
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Re: Scenario creation guide part 1 (Getting started and Terr

Post by pipfromslitherine »

76mm wrote:Thanks for this, but I can't get the map to save--I get an error saying "Failed to save map file, please ensure the path is writable and try again". I don't know where the file is being saved, but I tried to make all of the obvious locations writable, without success--the next time I check the folder it is still read-only. Meanwhile, I can save a scenario as a "campaign" even though there is only one battle, but cannot open it... I have Win10.
Check whether you have any contents in the My Documents/My Games/FieldOfGlory2/CAMPAIGNS folder. This is where the game attempts to save user campaigns. It is possible either that your folder is protected or that a file you are trying to overwrite is. Or it could be your AV (though generally not).

Deleting the offending folders or sub-folders should do the trick.

Cheers

Pip
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76mm
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Re: Scenario creation guide part 1 (Getting started and Terr

Post by 76mm »

Weird, didn't do anything and it started working suddenly... thanks
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Re: Scenario creation guide part 1 (Getting started and Terr

Post by vakarr »

Thanks for this, it really got me going, but I made the map too big and after making it smaller now find that it displays the terrain outside the edges from the deleted parts of the map. Is there an eraser to delete those bits of terrain or some way I can get rid of them? Is the only solution to start again - yeah I rushed in and put in everything else, would rather not have to do it again.

Also, how does your scenario become a campaign - does that happen automatically when you create a second scenario?
rbodleyscott
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Re: Scenario creation guide part 1 (Getting started and Terr

Post by rbodleyscott »

vakarr wrote:Thanks for this, it really got me going, but I made the map too big and after making it smaller now find that it displays the terrain outside the edges from the deleted parts of the map. Is there an eraser to delete those bits of terrain or some way I can get rid of them? Is the only solution to start again - yeah I rushed in and put in everything else, would rather not have to do it again.

Also, how does your scenario become a campaign - does that happen automatically when you create a second scenario?
It won't become a campaign I am afraid. (Technically, the engine regards it as a campaign, because it regards all folders containing scenarios or campaigns as campaign, but it will in fact be a series of unconnected battles). The multi-battle campaigns in the game use random map battles not preconstructed scenarios.
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Paul59
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Re: Scenario creation guide part 1 (Getting started and Terr

Post by Paul59 »

vakarr wrote:Thanks for this, it really got me going, but I made the map too big and after making it smaller now find that it displays the terrain outside the edges from the deleted parts of the map. Is there an eraser to delete those bits of terrain or some way I can get rid of them? Is the only solution to start again - yeah I rushed in and put in everything else, would rather not have to do it again.

Also, how does your scenario become a campaign - does that happen automatically when you create a second scenario?
I'm afraid there is no quick and easy way to delete the unwanted terrain objects. The only way is to do it manually by clicking on the "Object Placement Mode" button, then select an object, I usually select the Bridgeriver, and then delete each unwanted object by holding down the keyboard's Delete button and mousing over the objects. It actually doesn't take too long. Good luck!
Field of Glory II Scenario Designer - Age of Belisarius, Rise of Persia, Wolves at the Gate and Swifter than Eagles.

Field of Glory II Medieval Scenario Designer.

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Re: Scenario creation guide part 1 (Getting started and Terr

Post by vakarr »

Thanks, that worked a treat, should be called "place bridge of sighs"!!
Bussy zu Pferd
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Re: Scenario creation guide part 1 (Getting started and Terr

Post by Bussy zu Pferd »

Which tiles are considered impassable terrain for any troops ?

Mountain Cliff tiles ?
River tiles (as a strategic position on the flanks)?

Considering that there are no fortification tiles (unless exported from Shot & Pike)

these being impassable for cavalry or war engines except by a gate.
Are the developers planning to introduce them ?
I suppose I could try to modify the existing tile... a program like GIMP ?

medium wall tiles (imported from Pike & Shot) only work on flat surface and sink on the edge of a base tile or bury
themselves in part on the slope. I found out that more wall tile can be piled on top of each other in these buggy areas
(I don't know how else to define them) but all refinements are gone a moment later.
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Re: Scenario creation guide part 1 (Getting started and Terr

Post by rbodleyscott »

Bussy zu Pferd wrote:Which tiles are considered impassable terrain for any troops ?

Mountain Cliff tiles ?
River tiles (as a strategic position on the flanks)?
Yes, both of these. (Not stream tiles).
Considering that there are no fortification tiles (unless exported from Shot & Pike)

these being impassable for cavalry or war engines except by a gate.
Are the developers planning to introduce them ?
They are on the wishlist. Note that fortifications are objects, not tiles, and in fact the game does include field fortification objects, albeit (as they were not included in the original brief) the textures aren't quite correct. But they do work, and are scripted in the game. They are not impassable to cavalry though.
medium wall tiles (imported from Pike & Shot) only work on flat surface and sink on the edge of a base tile or bury
themselves in part on the slope.


True, although P&S has special versions of light fortifications for going on slopes. It is impossible to get these to work correctly for all angles of slope.
(I don't know how else to define them) but all refinements are gone a moment later.
I am not sure what you mean by this.

Note that you can also find some modded fortification objects in Odenathus's Phillipi and Alesia scenarios, that can be downloaded in game.
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Bussy zu Pferd
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Re: Scenario creation guide part 1 (Getting started and Terr

Post by Bussy zu Pferd »

Thank You Scott... all clear now :)
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Re: Scenario creation guide part 1 (Getting started and Terr

Post by wzfcns »

Try to make a single battle on silkroad mod,but can't save the map and showed "Failed to save map file, please ensure the path is writable and try again".
Working on the Silk Road mod for FOG2 and FOG2:Medieval.
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Re: Scenario creation guide part 1 (Getting started and Terr

Post by rbodleyscott »

wzfcns wrote:Try to make a single battle on silkroad mod,but can't save the map and showed "Failed to save map file, please ensure the path is writable and try again".
Make a new folder inside the "Silk Road v1.2" folder, and call it SCENARIOS.

Then you can save your scenarios, and the folder will appear in the Epic Battles menu (under the name "Silk Road Skirmishes v1.2"),

(Don't try to create scenarios in the campaign version).
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Re: Scenario creation guide part 1 (Getting started and Terr

Post by Gwydion2 »

I really like the Alesia Scenario and wanted to use some of the extra fortification types in scenario's of my own. Not just the ones in the scenario, but some of the others in the Alesia object file, like the medium fortifications.

I copied the object file to my new scenario, but the new objects are only available in the Northern Europe map style.

How do I make the new objects available in (for instance) a southern europe map?
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Re: Scenario creation guide part 1 (Getting started and Terr

Post by rbodleyscott »

Gwydion2 wrote:I really like the Alesia Scenario and wanted to use some of the extra fortification types in scenario's of my own. Not just the ones in the scenario, but some of the others in the Alesia object file, like the medium fortifications.

I copied the object file to my new scenario, but the new objects are only available in the Northern Europe map style.

How do I make the new objects available in (for instance) a southern europe map?
Very easy. In the Editor, Toggle "Advanced Mode" ON and then you can use objects from all of the sets .
Richard Bodley Scott

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