Fantasy Wars Map Editor

Lesson 1: Creating a basic map

While FW is a 3D game, the map editor uses a hexagonal 2D tile system that is translated into 3D when the map is loaded into the game. This makes creating the battleground geography fast and straightforward. The editor itself is quite simple to use and is similar to using the AoW or HoMM editors on many levels. This lesson will cover the basics of creating the terrain, setting up troops, and establishing a victory condition and assumes that the reader has played the game and has already looked at the editor and has noted where the various tools and options are located.

Important limits: the practical maximum map size is 32x32 hexes, and the maximum troops present on the map is 65 if you don’t want to cause a computer to catch fire when trying to run your map.

1 The Geography of War

The first step of creating your map is to select New Map from the File menu or the toolbar near the top of the frame. The Create New Map window has 3 tabs you will want to look at. The first tab, Map Size, sets the area of the map and the depth of the off map border area. If you look at the maps in the game you will see that approximately 20x20 hexes is a common size, with an off map border area of approximately 30-50% of the distance across the usable area of the map. Next is the Appearance tab, allowing the choice of season and other visual details of the terrain. This tap also contains the controls for choosing ingame music. Finally you have the Map’s Image tab, which allows selecting an image to be displayed on the map selection screen in the game. Note that this option is not active when you first create a map; you have to come back after the map has been saved to choose an image (this is found under the Map menu at Size and Appearance).

Once you have the basic map choices out of the way, it is time to paint some terrain. You can choose your terrain bits from either the Resource Tree in the upper left window or the Object Palette window, first click on the desired terrain piece and then click on a hex of the map to place it. You can also increase the brush size to paint several hexes at a time with the same terrain piece. Also note the Extended Terrain choices for placing rivers, roads, and impassable hexes.

After the terrain is designed you can add Buildings (village/town/castle) or Locations (altars/ships at sea/wrecked zeppelins/etc) for use at quest locations or tactical objectives. Once you place a building or location you can right click on it to select it’s properties and name it, choose who owns it, etc. Place a town on each side of the map as a victory objective for each side. Once all this is done place the deployment hexes for the sides are required.

2 Defining the Enemies

On the Maps menu select Fractions; this window defines the combatants and sets opening conditions for the battle. Select a side and click on the Edit button to open the Change Fractions Properties window. On the Basic Parameters tab you can set the colour and race of the side, how much money the side starts with, whether this is a player or computer controlled side, and how many troops the side can muster (this defaults to –1 which I suspect mean no limits). On the Units for Deploy tab you can choose the units that the player can select at the start of the battle. Use the Units Available for Buying to select units that can be purchased at friendly towns. The Pool of Artifacts tabs allow selection of artifacts that can be distributed to the units during deployment.

You can also place units directly on the map if you want specific units in specific locations for either side. Right click on the unit and under Properties you can select the side and any special bonuses like extra perks, artifacts, or spells.

3 Controlling the Events

On the Module menu select Trigger Editor. This tool is a very flexible event scripter that can be used to deploy reinforcements during the battle, set victory conditions, trigger conversations and messages, create quests, and more. To create a basic map three events (called “tasks”) need to be created with the Trigger Editor; deployment, the story, and the victory conditions.

The Trigger Editor organizes the tasks in the window on the left (List of Tasks) and controls the detail of the task in two windows on the right (Selected Object and Conditions and Actions). Go to the bottom and click on the Add a Task Group button (it is the only active button). You need at least one Task Group for all your tasks, but you can organize your tasks into multiple groups if you have a lot of them to keep track of. To add a task to the group click on the Add a Task button.

First click on the Add a Task button and then name the task “Deployment” in the Name field on the Selected Object window. In the Conditions and Actions window click on the Conditions icon under Completing the Task and then click on the Add button in the lower right corner (note that there is a set of buttons under each side of the Trigger Editor window) and open the Create Condition window. Select Condition – Mission Starts from the drop down window and close the Create Condition window. Select the Action icon under Completing the Task and click on the Add button to open the Create Action window. Select Game – Round of Deploy from the drop down menu and then close the Create Action window. Troop deployment is complete. Use the sequence described here to set up the other tasks needed.

Now click on the Add a Task button and name the task “Victory: Player”. Set the condition for Player - A Controls Town. Below the drop down menu is a field displaying the condition parameters. Click on Players to choose the appropriate player and then click on Town to choose the village, town, or castle that is the victory objective (look at the properties of the town to see the designator used here). On the Create Action window choose Player – Victory and set the player to match the one selected for the condition (you can also set up multiple victory task for Gold, Silver, and Bronze victory levels). Create another task called “Victory: Computer” and set the condition and actions for the computer side victory.

Finally, create a third task called “Story” with Condition – Mission Starts. Choose Interface – Show a Message for the action. In the Action Text window are the controls for the message. Click on Message: Message and type in the background for the battle. This can be a bit of history or a set of orders to the commander of the side. Next, click on Player to choose the human player (the computer player doesn’t bother to read messages), click on Message: Caption to type in a header or title for the background or orders, and then pick an image by clicking on Icon: GUI Icon.

4 Refinements: Divisions and Computer Behaviour

There are times when a mapmaker wants to control how the computer uses units, usually in the case of defense of objectives. This is done with Divisions and the Trigger Editor. Divisions are sub-sets of a computer-controlled army that can be assigned specific orders such as to hold a city.

To create a Division, go to Map > Fractions, select the computer-controlled side, click the Edit button, and then select the Divisions tab. Click on the Add button and then assign a name or number for the new Division. Close these windows and return to the main map editor screen.

Place a unit in the city you set as the victory objective and then go to the unit properties to set the unit as part of the new Division you just created.

Go to Module > Trigger Editor and create a new task with Condition – Mission Start. Set the action to Division – Hold an Area, set the Location to the victory objective town and the Division to the new Division you just created.

Use Divisions and Triggers to set up a network of defensive positions for the computer army.

5 Conclusions

By following this lesson you can set up a basic map with deployment, an introductory story or set of orders, and victory conditions, as well as refine the defenses so the computer can protect specific positions or towns more effectively.