--- /dev/null
+-------------------------\r
+MapEd 2.0 Release Edition\r
+-------------------------\r
+\r
+I) Intro to Maped 2.0\r
+II) Running Maped 2.0\r
+ A) Moving within Maped\r
+ B) Selection modes\r
+ i) Layer Modes\r
+ a) Tile Layers\r
+ *) TileEd\r
+ b) Special Layers\r
+III) Our friend the Program Menu\r
+ A) Save/Load Functions\r
+ B) Map Properties\r
+ C) Layers\r
+ D) Options \r
+ E) Fun Crap(tm)\r
+ i) MOD Player\r
+ ii) CD Player\r
+ iii) Columns\r
+IV) Miscellaneous\r
+ i) Bug Fixes\r
+\r
+I) Intro to Maped 2.0\r
+---------------------\r
+MapEd 2.0 is essentially the same program as the one users had grown accustomed\r
+to with V1 but with significant enhancement and miscellaneous Fun Crap(tm). \r
+If you are unfamiliar with MapEd, it can be described as the "heart" of VERGE. \r
+Most of elements that will be seen by the player in terms of characters (entities)\r
+and backgrounds (tiles) will be setup within MapEd. \r
+\r
+Some of the most notable features of MapEd 2.0 are the windows-like enhancements;\r
+Dialog boxes can be dragged by their title bars and text boxes can be advanced\r
+with 'Tab'.\r
+\r
+Items added since the beta release are annoted with '***'\r
+\r
+I) Running Maped \r
+----------------\r
+MapEd can be run from the command line simply as 'maped' or with the \r
+specification of a map. (i.e. 'maped vospram1.map')\r
+\r
+MapEd 2.0 can be started without an additional map parameter, unlike its \r
+predecessor, to load a blank map and vsp. This has been stabalized from previous \r
+betas to load the default palette. Once inside the program, use the mouse to scroll \r
+around the map by moving it to the borders of the screen or use the cardinal \r
+direction keys.\r
+\r
+A) Moving within MapEd\r
+ \r
+You can scroll the map a screen at a time by using one of the quick scroll keys:\r
+\r
+Page Up - Up\r
+Page Down - Down\r
+End - Right\r
+Home - Left\r
+\r
+You can summon the mini-map (just what the name implies) by pressing 'M'. \r
+Move the white screen outline to a portion of the map and click to move there \r
+quickly. \r
+Pressing 'Escape' while in the mini-map mode will return to MapEd without moving \r
+the screen.\r
+\r
+B) Selection Modes\r
+\r
+At the bottom of the main MapEd screen is are boxes indicating the current \r
+layers of the map. To the lower right is the information HUD for that layer.\r
+\r
+\r
+i) Layer Modes\r
+\r
+a) Tile Layers \r
+The numbers located in the lower left portion of the main MapEd screen are the \r
+tile layers available. (see the layers section of the menu chapter for instructions \r
+for adding new tile layers)\r
+\r
+Pressing the corresponding keyboard shortcut or clicking on a number shown in these \r
+boxes will toggle that tile layer's visibility and its background will become red to \r
+indicate that it is visible. (When switching to the special layers, all available \r
+tile layers will be shown.) \r
+While you can press a layer's number to make it immediately visable, you must click \r
+on it or press "shift+layer number" in order to hide it.\r
+\r
+When one or more of the tile layers is selected, two tile boxes will appear in the \r
+lower right portion of the screen to indicate the tile assigned to each mouse \r
+button. The left box is assigned to the left mouse button while the right is assigned \r
+to the right mouse button. (I hope your head isn't hurting, yet) \r
+\r
+Pressing 'Ctrl' while in the tile layer editing mode, will cause the \r
+'Maped 2.0 Tile Selector' to pop-up. Basically the same as ME1, simply press up or \r
+down or mouse scroll through the VSP and click on a tile to select with the mouse \r
+button you wish to assign it to.\r
+\r
+While in tile layer editing mode, A/Z will change the tile assigned to the left \r
+button and S/X will change the tile assigned tot the right. \r
+The former letter scrolls forward through the VSP while the latter scrolls back.\r
+Also while in tile layer editing mode, clicking on a tile while holding '/' will \r
+assign that tile to the chosen mouse button. (Also, pressing 'H' will toggle tile\r
+highlighting.)\r
+\r
+Back to the Tile Selector, the buttons seen on the panel at the bottom of the \r
+screen are somewhat self explanatory.\r
+\r
+-Add Tiles adds the specified number of blank tiles to the end of the vsp.\r
+\r
+-Animation (can be called with 'V') brings up a dialog box showing an animation \r
+ specified in the vsp. The Up/Down keys change the shown animation, while the \r
+ text boxes across from it alter the shown animation's traits. Start and End \r
+ are the animation's starting and ending tiles (Animations must be tiles in \r
+ sequential order in the vsp.), Delay is the amount of time in milliseconds \r
+ between each frame (100ms = 1 second), and mode is the animation's display \r
+ mode. (0 = Linear(normal); 1 = Reverse; 2 = Random; 3 = Loop Back and Forth)\r
+\r
+-Import PCX/Import VSP are used to pilfer tiles from an existing image or \r
+ tileset respectively. Import PCX is more complicated in that you are prompted\r
+ to choose whether or not the imported image is a tileset or an image. If the \r
+ pcx is set up as a tileset (with 1 pixel padding) then import it as a tileset.\r
+ If appears as a normal image, import it as such.\r
+ ***When selecting tiles to import, those which have already been imported will \r
+ appear with a grey mask. You can still import multiple copies of each tile, but \r
+ the masks will keep track. Pressing 'B' will build a list of imported tiles, \r
+ automatically greying duplicates which already exist in the VSP. 'N' will \r
+ import all non-existing tiles within the image to the VSP, while 'A' imports \r
+ them all, regardless.\r
+\r
+-H/P toggles tile selector highlighting and tile padding respectively. Tile \r
+ padding adds or removes a 1 pixel border in between tiles to make them more\r
+ distinguished.\r
+\r
+-Select/Edit modes determine what happens when you click on a tile. In 'Select \r
+ Mode' the selected tile is assigned to that button as previously mentioned, \r
+ unlike 'Edit Mode' which causes TileEd to be launched and the selected tile to\r
+ be loaded. You can also enter edit mode by pressing 'E' with the cursor over the \r
+ tile to edit.\r
+\r
+While in the Tile Selector with the cursor positioned over a tile you wish to \r
+copy, press 'Ctrl+C' to copy that tile onto the clipboard. If you wish to carbon\r
+copy the tile onto another, position the cursor over the tile you wish to overlay\r
+and press 'Ctrl+S'. If you only want to paste the non-0 color portions of the \r
+tile, press 'Ctrl+T'.\r
+\r
+To delete a tile entirely from the VSP, postion the cursor over it and press \r
+'Ctrl+D'. If you accidently delete an important tile from your VSP by mistake,\r
+you can reload the map it to recover the lost tile. Also, be warned that the tiles\r
+are recognized by number and as such, deleting a single tile will cause the \r
+following tiles to move one number higher. This will seriously screw up your maps,\r
+so be careful. A work around is to delete the tile then insert a blank one in its\r
+place to be used later. \r
+***The Super Delete function, 'ctrl+alt+d' will alter the map information so that \r
+all of the deleted tile's instances on the map will be replaced with the default,\r
+rather than creating a big mess.\r
+\r
+To insert a blank tile into the vsp, position the cursor over the tile\r
+you want to add the blank one before and press 'Ctrl+I'. \r
+***Similar to Super Delete, Super Insert, 'ctrl+alt+i' will insert a blank\r
+tile while reassigning the current tiles to their original artwork.\r
+\r
+***Note*** Do not super delete or insert too quickly, do it slow and\r
+rhythmically... i know it sounds stupid but for some reason, doing it too fast\r
+messes things up.\r
+\r
+X/Y/Z- X and Y will mirror chosen tile upon the pressed key's related axis. 'X' for \r
+instance, will flip the tile left to right, 'Y' will flip it up and down.\r
+'Z' however, will turn the tile 90 degrees clockwise.\r
+\r
+*) TileEd \r
+\r
+TileEd primary method of drawing tiles, and has improved exponetially from ME1.\r
+Most of the manipulation functions are self-explanatory or ported similarly from\r
+ACE, but there are a few new features. Key shortcuts are courtesy of Ric:\r
+\r
+CTRL/S + mouse click - (over edit window) Pick up colour under mouse\r
+SPACEBAR - toggle between draw mode and select mode\r
+CTRL+Z or U - one level undo\r
+CTRL+A - select all\r
+CTRL+U - unselect all\r
+CTRL+C - copy selected area\r
+CTRL+X - cut selected area\r
+CTRL+V - paste\r
+DEL - clears selected area\r
+CTRL+R - reverts the tile to the original (like undo in maped 1)\r
+G - toggles grid on/off\r
+H - toggles hilight on/off\r
+M - toggles mask on/off\r
+I - inverts mask\r
+X - mirrors image\r
+Y - flips image \r
+L/R - Rotates tile 90 degrees anti-clockwise/clockwise\r
+Q/W - Steps through animation (in tile edit mode) if any\r
+A/Z and S/X - changes the left or right drawing colours\r
+PGUP/PGDN - Colour shift up/down\r
+[ and ] - toggle screen resolutions\r
+ALT+X - quits to DOS (Note: This doesn't prompt you to save nor does \r
+ it save automatically at the moment. It just dumps you \r
+ straight to DOS)\r
+\r
+b) Special Layers\r
+The letters adjacent to the tile layers in the lower left portion indicate the \r
+map's special layers as follows:\r
+\r
+O - Obstructions \r
+----------------\r
+Areas the main character and designated entities cannot enter. When editing in \r
+layer mode, you simply left click the area upon which you wish to add an \r
+obstruction or right click to remove it.\r
+\r
+N - Zones\r
+---------\r
+Zones are triggers that link to events in the map's vc code of which there may be \r
+a maximum of 256 per map.\r
+Pressing A/Z scrolls through the available zones (or shift-clicking a zone to \r
+adopt it), and pressing 'ctrl' will bring up the zone info box for the active zone. \r
+\r
+Name: A description of the zone for the creator's use alone. The player will \r
+ never see it.\r
+\r
+Script: This is the number of the event in the map's vc code that will be called \r
+ when the player successfully activated the zone.\r
+\r
+Chance: This value determines whether the zone will be activated by determining \r
+ the randomness of success. A value of 0 will cause the event never to occur \r
+ (unless over-ridden by Adjacent Activation) while 256 (the maximum) will \r
+ cause it never to fail.\r
+\r
+Delay: A value of 0 is assigned to the chance of the zone before this number of \r
+ steps have been taken within the zone. From then, the Chance it returned to \r
+ the default you've set and calculated normally. For instance, on a map if the \r
+ chance of incurring a random battle is 50%, and the delay s 10, a minimum \r
+ of 10 steps must be taken after each battle before another may occur. \r
+\r
+Entity: This specifies a script number to be executed when an entity enters the zone. \r
+ 0 means no script.\r
+\r
+Allow Adjacent Activation: If this is checked, then the player may stand in an \r
+ adjacent tile and while facing the zone, activate it with the 'Talk/Confirm' \r
+ button. This over-rides the chance factor.\r
+\r
+E - Entities\r
+------------\r
+Entities are generally the characters that roam your maps but can become more dynamic \r
+if you so choose. In entity editing mode, clicking on a blank space on the map creates \r
+an entity doppelganger there and assigns it the lowest untaken entity number. Pressing \r
+'Del' while the cursor is over an entity will prompt you to erase that entity. When \r
+done so, that entity and it's properties will be gone and the next numbered entity \r
+with become one number lower and so on. (i.e. Deleting Entity0 on a map will cause \r
+Entity1 to become Entity0 and Entity2 to become Entity1, etc)\r
+\r
+Clicking on an existing entity will call that character's information dialog box.\r
+(Pressing Up/Down while in this box will scroll through the available entities.)\r
+The entity properties include a description (for your benefit alone), the XY \r
+coordinated of the entity (which are useful when you want to move a single entity \r
+without disrupting the whole order of your entities by deleting one), the number of \r
+the chr (as referenced to the chr list (see below) which may be accessed by a button \r
+adjacent to the chr text box), the speed of the entity (see Appendix A), and the \r
+activation script called when the entity is activated.\r
+\r
+Pressing the 'CHR list' from the entity properties box will bring up a listing of \r
+chrs that may be used in the map. Clicking on an empty text box to enter the chrs \r
+name with the attached extention, or choose browse to search for the file locally.\r
+\r
+Once the chr for the entity has been chosen, the appropriate chr will be displayed in \r
+the upper right corner of the property box.\r
+\r
+The addtional boxes control:\r
+\r
+-Autoface- Causes entity to face the player when "activated."\r
+\r
+-Active/Adjacent Method- If active, the entity will be activated when faced and \r
+ "talked to" by the player. In Adjacent mode, it is activated as soon as the player \r
+ comes in contact with it by occupying the space adjacent to it.\r
+\r
+-Obstructable/Obstruction- If the entity is obstructable, it will be stopped as the \r
+ player would by map obstruction. If obstruction is unchecked, the player will be \r
+ able to walk through the entity. (useful for flying chrs or invisible trigger chrs)\r
+\r
+Below these are the Movement Code/Scripts for the entity which control its movement \r
+behaviour in the game.\r
+\r
+The MoveCodes are:\r
+0 - Stopped\r
+1 - Causes the entity to roam aimlessly the specified number of steps before \r
+ pausing for the specified delay.\r
+2 - Causes the entity only to wander within a specified area.\r
+3 - Causes the entity to wander within a specified zone.\r
+4 - Causes the entity to enact a movement script specified in the 'scripts box'. \r
+ (see below)\r
+\r
+If you select 4, fill in the last text box with the *number* of the movement script\r
+you wish the entity to use, not the actual movement code. \r
+\r
+Scripts: This button brings up a list of the predefined scripts for the entities to \r
+follow. Using Up/Down you can find the numbered slot to fill in the movement script \r
+using a letter followed by the value of the direction. \r
+\r
+The letters are: \r
+U - Up\r
+D - Down\r
+L - Left\r
+R - Right\r
+X - Move to X axis value\r
+Y - Move to Y axis value\r
+Z - Special Frame\r
+F - Face (See Appendix B)\r
+W - Wait\r
+\r
+If you wanted the entity to move up two spaces, left 1, then move to 21 on the X axis, \r
+face down, pause for one second, and display its 22nd frame then repeat, you would use:\r
+\r
+ U2L1X21F0B\r
+\r
+III) The Program Menu\r
+---------------------\r
+The program menu is the most crucial and integral part of MapEd 2.0. How else would you \r
+get to Columns? It can be called by pressing 'Esc' or (if you have a three-button mouse)\r
+with the middle (or third bound) mouse button within the main editing window. \r
+\r
+A) New/Save/Load Functions\r
+\r
+Using 'New MAP' from the menu will abort the current map (after a prompt) and begin\r
+an blank map and VSP. In order to use an existing VSP with the new map, you must enter\r
+one in the MAP properties (see below) or use the 'Import VSP' function from the tile \r
+selector.\r
+\r
+The Save/Load features are fairly obvious; Pressing 'F10' or accessing 'Save MAP' from \r
+the menu will save the map contents including the VSP, map contents and it will compile\r
+the map's VC code into the map itself. \r
+***Saving a new VSP does so in a compressed format, although Maped2 and the engine can \r
+load older, uncompressed VSP formats. Maps must be resaved in order to be used, however.\r
+-If you save a New MAP generated from the menu or one generated if maped is run without \r
+a map parameter, it will automatically be saved as "untitled.map" with "untitled.vsp"\r
+Load will bring up a Load Map Dialog box. Either enter the map's name (with .map \r
+extention) or press the 'Browse' button to search for the map locally. You will be \r
+prompted to save the current map before it is aborted.\r
+\r
+Save VSP will save just the VSP independant of the map and entailing information. \r
+Useful if you were to create a few nice tiles, yet accidently delete a layer.\r
+\r
+B) MAP properties\r
+\r
+This dialog box is used to enter the important map information and the map resize \r
+function. \r
+\r
+-Music: This is the initial music file that will be played upon map startup.\r
+-VSP: The VSP this map will use. Note that if you use the same VSP for multiple \r
+ maps, all alterations made to it will affect ALL of its maps.\r
+-Rstring: This indicates the order and display values of the layers. (see below) The \r
+ order of the the layer numbers determines in which order they will be \r
+ displayed. Also, the letter 'E' should be added in order to determine upon \r
+ which layer they will be shown. Additionally, you may add an 'R' to \r
+ determine where to display a hookretrace script or you may define a specific \r
+ script begun with an 'S' followed by the script number appended with an 'X'. \r
+ Therefore, if you had four map layers, the obligatory entities drawn on the \r
+ first layer and script 3 to drawn over all the other layers, your Rstring \r
+ would look like: 1E234S3X\r
+\r
+-MAP Resize:\r
+ This calls a box used to edit the X/Y sizes of the map. Just enter the new values and \r
+ press 'Resize'.\r
+\r
+C) Layers:\r
+ Layers are a somewhat complicated aspect of your map. Accessing 'Layers' on the \r
+ program menu calls a submenu which is used to add or edit existing map layers.\r
+ 'Add Layer' will generate a new layer for the map. After adding it to the \r
+ Rstring (IIIb), you can then add tiles to it as you would the other layers. 'Edit\r
+ Layer' allows you to edit the layer properties including parallax and \r
+ h-line/transparency. The parallax values alter the movement of the layers in \r
+ accordance with the party's movement. The X/Y multipliers alter the direction of the\r
+ layer opposite to the party while the divider does vice versa. Keep in mind that\r
+ these are multipliers and dividers, hence, are fractions so an x multiplier and \r
+ divider of 20 reduces to 1/1 and cancels movement.\r
+ 'Import Image' directly crops all tiles from an image and places them in proper order\r
+ directly onto a selected layer. If the selected layer has tiles currently on it, that \r
+ information will discarded. ***The checkbox 'Eliminate Duplicates' will not crop and \r
+ tiles that are identical to ones already a part of the vsp, instead substituting the\r
+ original when they are actually imported.\r
+-Destroyer: \r
+ Destroys specific elements entirely from the map. Destroying Zones will get rid of \r
+ the physical placement of the zones while destroying zone data will eliminate the \r
+ information about the zones from the zone's property box. You can also eliminate\r
+ all entities and obstructions with destroyer.\r
+\r
+D) Options\r
+Most of these values are self explanatory; You can toggle smooth scrolling as opposed \r
+to tile based scrolling, mouse scrolling, whether you cursor will have a white tile \r
+outline and alternate between graphics modes. \r
+You can also set the color of the window title bar, box background, highlight color, \r
+and white offset color. \r
+The window color options are based on the numbers of the currently active palette.\r
+\r
+E) Fun Crap (tm)\r
+\r
+These are some assorted throw ins that are determined to throw all sorts of road \r
+blocks in front of you as you attempt to concentrate. \r
+\r
+i) MOD Player\r
+This is a simple interface for loading MOD, XM, or S3M music file. In the future it \r
+may be used for playing ITs as well. Simply enter the name of the music file or \r
+browse for it locally and press play.\r
+\r
+ii) CD Player\r
+This feature is capable of loading and playing CD music tracks. Unfortunately, it has \r
+some issues conflicting with Windows' Auto-Load and CD-Player.\r
+\r
+iii) Columns\r
+If you want to know the real reason V2 was delayed, look no further. The great spanning\r
+abyss of wasted time, this is Columns!\r
+In case you've never played the original SEGA classic, the object of Columns is to align\r
+three of the same colored crystals (orbs) and they will disappear. \r
+Pressing 'Up' will alternate the colors of the orbs, and Left/Right move the stack \r
+accordingly. Press 'Down' to accelerate the stack.\r
+\r
+To change the difficulty setting, alter the 'difficulty' variable in MAPED.CFG (found at \r
+the end of maped.cfg) \r
+\r
+(Courtesy of vecna:)\r
+The difficulty levels are as follows:\r
+ 4 - Normal\r
+ 5 - Harder\r
+ 6 - Your death is assured. ^_^\r
+\r
+ The difficulty controls not how fast the blocks fall, but how many\r
+ different colors of blocks are on the playing field. A value of greater\r
+ than 6 will error the program, and a difficulty less than 4 is outright\r
+ cheating. If you ever LOSE with a difficulty less than 4 you have\r
+ serious problems.\r
+ \r
+ You can now skin the background and sprite graphics for Columns. The\r
+ default is still hardcoded into the EXE, however, if the external files\r
+ COLBACK.PCX and/or COLSPR.PCX are found, they will be used. You can\r
+ download the default skin from www.verge-rpg.com, and other graphic sets can\r
+ be found at Extended Play. \r
+ (http://www.doc.ic.ac.uk/~rwkl97/ep/download.html#me2skins)\r
+\r
+iv) Quitting!\r
+Accessing 'Exit to DOS' from the main menu or 'Alt+X' will quit to DOS.\r
+\r
+IV) Miscellaneous\r
+-----------------\r
+***'F11' will take a proper screen shot, making the 'prntscrn' method obsolete.\r
+ Map movement has been retooled so that it will scroll independant of CPU speed.\r
+ \r
+There are a few other features such as the trippy built-in screen saver that are\r
+left for you to uncover. ^_^\r
+\r
+*) Various Fixes \r
+----------------\r
+(From whatsnew.txt in Maped Beta 3)\r
+ - Out-of-Bounds rendering protections reintroduced to the map renderer.\r
+ These were originally in ME2 a while ago, but somehow along the line\r
+ they got lost while juggling around different copies of the source.\r
+ This should prevent ME2 from crashing even if a mapfile or VSP is\r
+ partially corrupt.\r
+ - Fixed a problem with an internal tileset helper array not being\r
+ updated if you loaded a map from the commandline, resulting in the\r
+ map being drawn erratically.\r
+ - Problems with the sound system crashing the DOS box if sound\r
+ couldn't be initialized fixed. Now you just won't hear sound if\r
+ there are problems; The only reason ME2 should crash on startup\r
+ now is 1) you're running Windows NT or 2) you need to use the\r
+ nocdaudio option in MAPED.CFG\r
+ - Increased the tilebay size from 2048 tiles to 10240 tiles.\r
+ - Some improvements have been made with the CD audio situation; Exiting\r
+ ME2 will no longer stop the CD playback unless you used the ME2 CD\r
+ player. This was causing problems with people who were using Windows\r
+ CD Player to listen to CDs while going in and out of MapEd, which could\r
+ get very annoying. ^_^ It's still not perfect tho.\r
+\r
+***The map movement clipping has been fixed so you can now access every tile \r
+in the map.\r
+\r
+***Maped2 won't crash and burn hardcode if your map is less than the screen\r
+size. Not that you shouldn't have maps less than the screen size, but if you're\r
+stupid and try it, it'll handle it. \r
+This will become an issue with the multi-res versions of Maped.\r
+\r
+========================================================================================\r
+\r
+Appendix A: Entity/Character Speeds\r
+-----------------------------------\r
+ Speed Pixels/second\r
+ 1 25\r
+ 2 33\r
+ 3 50\r
+ 4 100\r
+ 5 200\r
+ 6 300\r
+ 7 400\r
+The default speed of the main character is 4.\r
+\r
+Appendix B: Face direction values\r
+---------------------------------\r
+\r
+ 1-Up\r
+ |\r
+ 2-Left - - 3-Right\r
+ |\r
+ 0-Down\r
+\r
projects / 16.git / blobdiff