[CF List] BIGworld

[Mark Wedel]

Todd Mitchell wrote:

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      So I got the CVS and cracked her open in the good ol CFJavaEditor.  Well the
     
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      tiling is sweet, no more goofing around with miles of invisible exits and
     
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      overlapping maps (I love the way you can skip from map to map with the
     
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      ctrl+arrow A.V.).  Unfortunatly I had some problems with the sheer volume of
     
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      worldmaps (editor couldn't handle it and blew up - am downloading JRE1.4.1
     
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      to see if this helps---*it did*). 
     
     
  There are some options when you run java that may help this out: -Xmx<num>mb 
increase the heap size the program can use.  The default of 64 mb on unix (at 
least) is a bit small for these big maps.

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      Perhaps splitting the world maps into a
     
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      couple of
     
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      folders would be more friendly - there are 900 maps.
     
     
  Perhaps.  If new continents were added, they should certainly be in different 
folders.  Any split right now would be purely arbitrary (there aren't any clear 
lines on the map where to split them - for new continents, splitting them in the 
oceans works fine, but for what there is now..)

  Other than navigating the load pane, 900 files in one folder isn't that big a 
deal - at least the order is pretty straightforward, so isn't too hard to find 
the one you want.

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      How does this work?  I get it that all main level maps are plopped directly
     
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      onto the world map (have to make some period piece street light arches to
     
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      hold those lights - Scorn by gaslight)  How much should mapmakers change the
     
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      landscape?  My first
     
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      thought was to make a huge grassland since I didn't see much of that, then
     
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      some
     
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      rivers.  It looks to be a pretty rocky and hilly place, even the forests are
     
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      too small for my tastes.  I realize I could generate my own map, but hey, it
     
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      is such a big empty map and I wanted to contribute to the common pool.
     
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      Also is there any snow happening?  I believe the map was generated prior to
     
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      the addition to winter terrain in the arches.  How fixed is bigworld anyway?
     
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      What about the elevation?  If I was to make a desert that ran for many maps,
     
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      would I set the elevation manually?  How drastic could changes to the world
     
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      maps be?
     
     
  It's fairly open.  Before doing something big, you should certainly send a 
message to the mailing list saying what you want to do and where on the world 
that would be.

  The basic world map was computer generated, so isn't ideal.  There are 
certainly areas that can be improved upon (remove that mountain, extend the 
forest, etc).

  elevation is a future enhancement - would get used for weather/other possible 
effects.  There is no easy way right now that I know of to set that for large areas.

  There isn't really any winter terrain - those arch's were added after the 
basic world map was done.


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      Say I wanted to make a haunted forest with a ruined city and put all the
     
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      mobs directly on the world map(where else would you put them - it is pretty
     
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      empty) - would they run off?  Is there some plan to be able to fence them
     
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      in, (like a blocking arch with a connection flag you can set on the monsters
     
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      to lay out encounter areas?) can they cross maps even?
     
     
  Monsters can cross tiled maps.  Its unlikely they would run off (the map won't 
get loaded until someone visits it).  But if someone was adventuring there, and 
decided it was time to go back to town, it is certainly possible that some 
monsters may follow him.  However, unless the monster and playes speed are very 
near each other, pretty much the player will either have to fight them off, or 
will likely out run them.

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      A few more questions in point form:
     
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      -Any thought to making a smaller map initially (half the size? one third?)
     
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      and then
     
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      adding a second continent later on to make it a bit easier to manage and
     
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      populate?  Adding in new lands wouldn't be too hard, you could even generate
     
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      them now and just have a keep off sign and no way to get there for the
     
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      meantime until a certain density has been built up on the first area.
     
     
  Making one continent was deemed a better idea - this way, it is all related 
together.  Having a bunch of continents that seem unrelated doesn't make play 
quite as interesting.  Also, changing the size later on would be next to impossible.

  Additional continents can of course get added.  But there should be some 
reason to do so - it will probably be a while before the current continent gets 
enough stuff on it to warrant another continent.

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      - How about countries?  The Imperial Empire, the three Kingdoms and
     
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      surrounds  - the Hegemony (coming fall 2004...?  All the guards have new
     
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      uniforms...)
     
     
  Certainly, the idea of countries has come up.  Many of the cities aren't 
really tied together at all.  For countries to be relevant, has to be some 
effect of the different countries; eg different passes to get into town, society 
structure, whatever.

  I certainly wouldn't want to go for different currency, even though it may be 
the most obvious, it would most likely just prove to be a pain for the players.


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      - Any ideas for a name?
     
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      - is there a bigger plan here?  Where is it posted?
     
     
  No real name.  No real bigger plan, other than the old continent was just way 
too small.