Difference between revisions of "User:SkeletonCrew"
SkeletonCrew (talk | contribs) (→Terrain system) |
SkeletonCrew (talk | contribs) (→Snow terrains) |
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<th>Old letter</th> | <th>Old letter</th> | ||
<th>Description</th> | <th>Description</th> | ||
| + | <th>Theme</th> | ||
</tr> | </tr> | ||
<tr> | <tr> | ||
| − | <td>Aa</td> | + | <td><i>Aa</i></td> |
<td></td> | <td></td> | ||
<td>snow "Artic"</td> | <td>snow "Artic"</td> | ||
| + | <td>snow</td> | ||
</tr> | </tr> | ||
<tr> | <tr> | ||
| Line 626: | Line 628: | ||
<td></td> | <td></td> | ||
<td>ice</td> | <td>ice</td> | ||
| + | <td>snow</td> | ||
</tr></table> | </tr></table> | ||
Revision as of 18:01, 4 November 2006
Contents
WIP
Terrain system
The goal is to convert the old single letter terrain system to a new multi letter system. The internal changes to the engine are almost done.
These are the proposals and explanations for the new system, once these are final and implanted these texts will move into the wiki.
Version: proposal 1.3
Last updated: --SkeletonCrew 22:05, 2 November 2006 (CET)
History:
proposal 1.1
- added the encounter terrains
proposal 1.2
- added the link to the new proposals of Mog and Eleazar
proposal 1.3
- added reminder to add fog/shroud to the editor
- added idea to maybe add support to add tiles at the top and left
proposal 2.0
- removed editor changes from proposal and moved to own topic
- removed the discussion points and wrote the conclusion
- rewrote User:SkeletonCrew#terrain_strings
terrain
Every terrain type gets a new field named string this will be the new string to use to refer to the terrain. The old char field will stay for the existing terrains, this is needed to convert older maps to be used with the new engine.
This string will exist of 2 to 4 characters, the allowed characters are all letters (the engine is case sensitive), all numbers and the symbols / | \. Note leading numbers are not allowed in the string, they might give confusion with starting locations. Other characters are reserved for special uses in the engine.
The limit of 4 characters is not the upper limit of the engine, but the upper level for easy parsing. The internal format uses 4 bytes and every character is 1 byte. This way it's very easy to convert the characters to the internal format. If more letters are required it will require some modifications to the engine.
I'm considering to allow 1 character terrains as well since I've some trouble to find a second letter everywhere.
Every terrain will also get a new field named theme this is explained in the editor section.
scenario map
The map will use the new strings instead of the old letters. For every tile a string will be used instead of one letter, these strings are separated with a comma. Between the string and the comma one or more spaces are allowed.
Instead of spaces tabs are allowed, but keep in mind what looks good in your text editor, might look horrible in the editor of somebody else. The official files should use spaces.
The WML for map will use the same format. The letter for map WML will use a single terrain string without comma's.
Terraingraphics
The need two modifications the map format and the type format.
map
This format will change a bit more than the other items. The old format is described here TerrainGraphicsWML. According to mog the letters in the map are never used, only the anchors are used. The new format will only accept anchors. The special characters . and * will stay the same.
This map file will no longer be space separated but comma separatedand. Odd lines will start with a leading comma instead of 2 spaces. Spaces are allowed for padding
Also here tabs are allowed instead of spaces, see previous section.
For example this
map=" 1 1 1 2 1 1 1"
will become
map=" ,1 1,1 ,2 1,1 ,1"
or
map=" , 1 1 , 1 , 2 1 , 1 , 1"
type
The type will be a list of terrains, comma separated. Spaces are allowed but then the items need to be between brackets. (A WML rule.) Also after special modifiers a comma is required (at the moment only the ! is a special modifier, but that might change in the future.)
Mog had an idea which will also be implanted, the * can be used in a terrain string, V* would match all terrain strings starting with the letter 'V'. Vh* would match all terrain strings starting with 'Vh' eg Vh, Vha, Vhaa but not VH or vH.
terrain files
Eleazar would like to move the terrains in subfolders, this seems to be possible with the current system. The required modifications can be found in the following changelog http://svn.gna.org/viewcvs/wesnoth?rev=14069&view=rev
I've no idea what the best possible directory layout will be. I'll ask Eleazar to do this change when I'm ready for it. At the moment I've some patches in my queue which will conflict with these changes.
terrain strings
The terrain strings will consist of 2 till 4 letters which indicate the terrain. Numbers are not allowed except for starting positions. These are allowed to be between 1 and 4 characters. (Note Wesnoth only supports 9 starting positions.) The following special characters can be used /|\ these should be used for directional terrains, which are only bridges at the moment.
The terrain letter _ is reserved for interal special terrains this will alway be used as leading character and not used inside strings.
For readability terrains should start with a capital letter followed by one or more lowercase letters (with a maximum of 3 lower case letters). The official terrains must follow these rules, the custom terrains should follow these rules.
There will be some letters reserved for user made content these letters are Y, y, Z, z. This means every terrain with one or more of these letters inside are custom terrains. This way it's easier to integrate a new terrain without having to change the terrain-graphics.cfg.
Since UTBS is mainline the custom terrain used there will be moved to the new system.
aliases
The aliases will also be a comma separated list, where the same discussion about the + and - can be started as in the types.
terrain list
This list is obselete, it was an initial proposal, Mog and Eleazar both created a new proposal. Both of them can be found here User:Mog This list remains for historical reasons.
| Letter | String | Theme | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| A | Vhsh | village, snow, hill | human (snow) hill village |
| a | Vhh | village, grassland | human hill village |
| B | Vda | village, desert | desert village (adobe) |
| b | Vhm | village, mountain | human mountain village |
| C | C | castle | castle |
| c | Wu | water, common | shallow water, "coast" |
| D | Vu | village, cave | underground village (cave, village), "dungeon village" |
| d | Pds | plain, desert | sand, (old desert) |
| E | road, desert | desert road | |
| e | Ves | village, snow | elven (snow) village |
| F | Fs | forest, snow | forest (snow) |
| f | F | forrest, common | forest |
| G | Pgs | plain | savanna (grass) |
| g | Pg | plain, common | grass |
| H | Hs | hill, snow | hills (snow) |
| h | H | hill, common | hills |
| I | Pd | plain, desert | desert |
| i | Pi | plain | ice (tundra) |
| J | Hd | hill, desert | desert hills |
| j | Ms | mountain, snow | -nothing- (will be snowy mountains) |
| K | K | misc | keep (castle) |
| k | Wf | water | river ford (grass, shallow water) |
| L | Vtf | village, forest | tropical forest village (savanna, village) |
| l | Yl using Y for strange items | misc | lava (canyon) |
| M | Md | mountain, desert | desert mountains |
| m | M | mountain, common | mountain |
| N | Cr | castle | ruined castle |
| n | Ce | castle, common | encampment (castle) |
| O | Co | castle | -nothing- ( will probably be an Orc Castle one day ) |
| o | Cd | castle | dwarven castle (castle) |
| P | Wo | desert | desert oasis |
| p | Vd | village | dwarven village |
| Q | Crw | castle, water | sunken ruin |
| q | Crs | castle, water | ruin (swamp) |
| R | plain, common | road (grass) | |
| r | plain | dirt (grass) | |
| S | Pt | plain | tundra |
| s | Wd | water, common | deep water |
| T | Ft | forest | forest (tropical) |
| t | V | village, common?? | village |
| U | Vdt | village desert | desert village (tent) |
| u | Pu | cave, plain | cave |
| V | Vs | village, snow | snow village (tundra, village) |
| v | Vh | village, common | human village (village) |
| W | Yu | cave, impassable | cavewall |
| w | Ws | water | swamp |
| X | Yc | misc | canyon (replaced by chasm in trunk) |
| x | reserved for UMCs | ||
| Y | Vws | village, water | swamp village (swamp, village) |
| y | reserved for UMCs | ||
| Z | Vwm | Village, water | mermen village (shallow water) |
| z | reserved for UMCs | ||
| / | bridge (grass, shallow water) | ||
| | | bridge (grass, shallow water) | ||
| \ | bridge (grass, shallow water) | ||
| ~ | fog, can this be used in game? | ||
| void/shroud (it uses the "space" character), can this be used in game? | |||
| [ | Pur | plain, cave | rockbound cave |
| ] | Fu | forrest, cave | mushroom grove |
| ' | Pui | plain, cave | illuminated cave |
| ? | Yet | forrest, misc | great Elven tree |
| & | Mi | mountain | impassable moutains |
new terrains ordered
C castle castle Cd castle dwarven castle (castle) Ce castle, common encampment (castle) Co castle -nothing- ( will probably be an Orc Castle one day ) Cr castle ruined castle Crs castle, water ruin (swamp) Crw castle, water sunken ruin F forrest, common forest Fs forest, snow forest (snow) Ft forest forest (tropical) Fu forrest, cave mushroom grove H hill, common hills Hd hill, desert desert hills Hs hill, snow hills (snow) K misc keep (castle) M mountain, common mountain Md mountain, desert desert mountains Mi mountain impassable moutains Ms mountain, snow -nothing- (will be snowy mountains) Pd plain, desert desert Pds plain, desert sand, (old desert) Pg plain, common grass Pgs plain savanna (grass) Pi plain ice (tundra) Pt plain tundra Pu cave, plain cave Pui plain, cave illuminated cave Pur plain, cave rockbound cave V village, common?? village Vd village dwarven village Vda village, desert desert village (adobe) Vdt village desert desert village (tent) Ves village, snow elven (snow) village Vh village, common human village (village) Vhh village, grassland human hill village Vhm village, mountain human mountain village Vhsh village, snow, hill human (snow) hill village Vs village, snow snow village (tundra, village) Vtf village, forest tropical forest village (savanna, village) Vu village, cave underground village (cave, village), "dungeon village" Vwm Village, water mermen village (shallow water) Vws village, water swamp village (swamp, village) Wd water, common deep water Wf water river ford (grass, shallow water) Wo desert desert oasis Ws water swamp Wu water, common shallow water, "coast" Yc misc canyon (replaced by chasm in trunk) Yet forrest, misc great Elven tree Yl using Y for strange items misc lava (canyon) Yu cave, impassable cavewall
terrains sorted per group
This list shows the new proposal for the terrains, which takes in account the idea's of Mog and Eleazar. The italic strings are reservations for terrains. The only terrain which isn't backwards compatible is '*'. The other terrains will be converted.
Snow terrains
| String | Old letter | Description | Theme |
|---|---|---|---|
| Aa | snow "Artic" | snow | |
| Ai | ice | snow |
encounter terrains
This list maintains the encountered terrains by the user this list is used in the help function to decide what to show and what not. This is now a comma seperated list. The new version will also be a comma separated list but with the new terrain strings instead of letters. In order to keep it backwards compatible at startup the system will check for encountered_terrains and encountered_terrains13 . Then test the following conditions is this order:
- if encountered_terrains13 is found these are loaded.
- if encountered_terrains is found, these are converted to encountered_terrains13 format and loaded
- none are found, nothing will be done.
When writing only encountered_terrains13 will be used.
The reason to keep it backwards compatible is that if somebody tries an 1.3.x version and doesn't like it, it's no problem to return to 1.2.x. If we convert encountered_terrains to the new format it might give troubles when loading it with 1.2.x.
editor
The editor also will need an overhaul due to the changes, since the terrain consists of a maximum of 4 characters I propose it writes the terrain as a string of 6 characters; the terrains string followed by a comma and padded with spaces. eg the following terrain string
Vh,Vha,Vhaa,Vha,Vh
will be written as
123456123456123456123456123456 (numbers won't be written.) Vh, Vha, Vhaa, Vha, Vh
Discussion: Should the editor be able to write the old format terrain or not.
custom terrains
Zookeeper told me there's no option to add custom terrains at the moment. I want to add a button to add a custom terrain, once clicked it will prompt for the terrain string and insert the tile to the list of available tiles and allow to use this tile. The tile will be 'painted' with the terrain string. When loading a map with unknown strings these will be added to the list of terrains. The only problem will be the location of the terrains but I'll worry about that later.
There should also be an option to add fog/shroud tiles to the map. See http://www.wesnoth.org/forum/viewtopic.php?p=192326#192326
Discussion: Would this solve the unkown tile problem?
themes
In my opinion the list with terrains to browse is pretty long and this will only grow in the future. I want to add an extra grid of buttons with theme's the buttons will have an icon for their theme. When a button is clicked the list of terrains is filtered per theme. eg when the theme villages is selected only village tiles are shown. Every terrain gets one or more themes for example a snow forest can be in the theme forest and the theme snow, so with either theme this tile is shown. There will be 2 special theme's favorites and map. Favorites are your favorite tiles saved in preferences and can contain unknown terrains. Map are all tiles already used on this map, including the unknown.
Discussion: Is this handy?
resize map
maybe there should be an option to add tiles to the left and top instead of only to the right and bottom. See http://www.wesnoth.org/forum/viewtopic.php?p=192326#192326
Small maps
It would be handy to be able to create maps smaller than 20 x 20 for WML usage. IMO as soon as the map goes below this threshold a warning should be shown, that the map might nog work properly as main scenario map. See http://www.wesnoth.org/forum/viewtopic.php?p=192435#192435
Todo
Thing I plan to do after I finished my WIP's.
team sides
After the terrain system has been modified it's possible to define more teams, EdB asked this in irc at 20061027.
It would be nice to support 12 sides in multiplayer with their own tcolour. The engine should support more sides for the AI to use. These will use and scenario WML defined colour. It's not sure whether WML supports this if not the support should be made. EdB will look for an possible algo to define nice auto colours.
terrain archtypes
Eleazar had an idea for terrain archtypes in the terrain thread. It looks sane and would be nice to implant. http://www.wesnoth.org/forum/viewtopic.php?p=191410#191410
Misc
Various things I want to look at at some time.
- version checks for WML, needed or not?
- modulo WML, needed or not?
- continue to work on the Python AI