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building a custom world
- Thread starter Seraphym
- Start date
jumpnjahosofat
Sorceror
You might ask God how he did it in 7 days. 
What type of customs are you looking to have?
What type of customs are you looking to have?
jumpnjahosofat
Sorceror
If you want to build a custom map, i think there is a thread on how to do it. I know you have to use worldforge to change a bitmap file over to the map.mul I'm not much help on the map. 
After you get your map finished, you need to build your cities, towns, dungeons, and decorate etc. Then you need to freeze all the statics. Get the map files, static files, and staidx files from your server and then put them into a patch for your players to download. I know thats a quick explaination, but I'm sure that you can find the thread that goes into more detail on it. Good luck! Custom maps take a loong time to set up and they have to be spawned manually. 
After you get your map finished, you need to build your cities, towns, dungeons, and decorate etc. Then you need to freeze all the statics. Get the map files, static files, and staidx files from your server and then put them into a patch for your players to download. I know thats a quick explaination, but I'm sure that you can find the thread that goes into more detail on it. Good luck! Custom maps take a loong time to set up and they have to be spawned manually. http://www.runuo.com/forums/faq-forum/69407-how-make-map-beginning-end.html
Please be sure to make use of the Search feature. It's there to help.
Please be sure to make use of the Search feature. It's there to help.
HellRazor
Knight
Check out Ryandor.com, lots of useful info on world building there.
jumpnjahosofat
Sorceror
Thanks for helping with the links guys. I knew that I had seen them before but for the life of me, I couldn't remember the thread names.
You might have an issue if you want to stay current with the UO patch from osi... But that all depends on what you do I would possibly wait to create a world until someone makes a world builder that uses map0 seperate from map1.. I think it would be awesome to have both worlds seperate from the diff file. Thus get more maps to work off of... You could make a light side and a dark side of your world this way because you may be able to just copy your map0.mul and just change the 0 to a 1 and it will be the exact map but you can make different statics for it... Not sure if that is totally possible though...
Almrac Avanti
Sorceror
I have 100% custom map - after working close to 10,000 hours I am still only about 75% done. My advise is dont do it. Truely. Just manipulate the UO map to suit your needs. I am sure there are alot of custom maps out there that took alot less time to create, but, they also lack content. If your going to do and do it right ..... its going to take 4 to 5 years to complete.
jumpnjahosofat
Sorceror
Almrac Avanti;681288 said:
Building a custom map doesn't take quite that long. If you have good staff with a good imagination, you can do it in a month or so. The map itself is the hard part. Only one person can do it. Once you have that done, just get a few good staff members with knowledge of UO Architect and Pandora's Box and let them build away. When they are done, freeze it and send out your patche(s).
Almrac Avanti
Sorceror
As I said ......
"I am sure there are alot of custom maps out there that took alot less time to create, but, they also lack content."
The less time it takes, the less content you will have. I have been on custom maps that had A FANTASTIC starting town - with wonderful spawn in and around town, but then nuthin, everythig is crammed into one little area, and no content and no story line to follow after that.
Hell, I spent over 400 hours just hand writing the story lines. Heres a link to some of the writings :
Aessonnia Welcome Page
Just this very small island has 1 large city, 2 smaller villages and 12 fully spawned dungeons. 12 fully spaned multi leveld dungeons, I dont think Britania had that to begin with.
"I am sure there are alot of custom maps out there that took alot less time to create, but, they also lack content."
The less time it takes, the less content you will have. I have been on custom maps that had A FANTASTIC starting town - with wonderful spawn in and around town, but then nuthin, everythig is crammed into one little area, and no content and no story line to follow after that.
Hell, I spent over 400 hours just hand writing the story lines. Heres a link to some of the writings :
Aessonnia Welcome Page
Just this very small island has 1 large city, 2 smaller villages and 12 fully spawned dungeons. 12 fully spaned multi leveld dungeons, I dont think Britania had that to begin with.
jumpnjahosofat
Sorceror
Some people just work quicker than others. My custom map is full of detail and completely spawned. You shouldn't assume that just because a shard is built quickly that it doesn't have the detail. You know that saying about assumptions.....
ROFL... I'm sorry I agree with 'jumpnjahosofat' on this topic!
Almrac, your map may have taken you a long time to create but a lot has changed in the last 2 years with newer map editors, better tutorials, and even sample maps to spark creativity in most people. Map making is a tedious business no matter how you look at it, but it can be done (in detail) within 5 to 10 weeks depending on how creative the map maker is and how much time they are willing to devote to the project.
As for WorldForge, which is now known as Punt's WorldMaker Suite, and Dragon - Forget they even exist! These too programs, imho, are headaches because the developers have done nothing to make them more user friendly. Just read that long drawn out tutorial that someone posted on this site! I assure you making a custom map is A LOT easier than following those steps.
Now Lets Look At A Tool That Works!
Anyway good luck with your map!
Almrac, your map may have taken you a long time to create but a lot has changed in the last 2 years with newer map editors, better tutorials, and even sample maps to spark creativity in most people. Map making is a tedious business no matter how you look at it, but it can be done (in detail) within 5 to 10 weeks depending on how creative the map maker is and how much time they are willing to devote to the project.
As for WorldForge, which is now known as Punt's WorldMaker Suite, and Dragon - Forget they even exist! These too programs, imho, are headaches because the developers have done nothing to make them more user friendly. Just read that long drawn out tutorial that someone posted on this site! I assure you making a custom map is A LOT easier than following those steps.
Now Lets Look At A Tool That Works!
UO Landcaper:
Download From: OrBSydia DevNet.
this set of programs, while they still are in development, work exceedingly well when creating a map! The tools it comes with will give you more control over the way the map is compiled than Dragon and WorldForge.
What Does Our Future Have In Store?
In the next year or so (maybe quicker) a new program called Genesis will be making an appearance; its an all in one art (.mul) editor and map (.mul) editor and it too will be available through OrBSydia DevNet. I am really looking forward to the completion of this project!
Anyway good luck with your map!
HellRazor
Knight
Nagozi;681555 said:
Punt's worldmaker suite is not Worldforge. There is an OLD program called Worldforge that was the first map editor in existance. Punt also wrote a new program called Worldforge that was similar to the old one. The Worldmaker Suite was a complete rewrite with loads of new features, such as real-time display of altitude in the map view.
Punt's worldmaker suite is not designed to paint broad strokes like bitmap-to-MUL programs are. It's designed for tweaking your map and doing detail work. It's an excellent editor for that type of work. It's not intended to build an entire map from scratch with.
As for Dragon, how soon people forget. Every bitmap-to-MUL converter that followed Dragons owes the authors of Dragon a debt. The basic mode of operation these programs use still follow Dragon's basic methods. Dragon's transition scripts (mostly done by Stormcrow) formed the base transitions that UOL and Map Generator 2 later utilized and built upon. Dragon is still the easiest of all the BMP-to-Mul editors to use and probably still has the most complete transition sets, although it does have limitations (limited to 256 altitude/terrain combos due to being on one bitmap; doesn't support 3 way transitions).
UOL is a great tool. However unless I missed an update, UO Landscaper has an annoying and major memory bug that prevents most people from being able to compile a Britannia sized map unless you have a massive amount of memory. Correct me if I'm wrong about that but I don't recall that ever being fixed.
There is also a program Map Generator 2 by punt, which is very similar to UOL. It does not have the memory bug, but the transition sets are not as complete as UOL.
As you can see, there are tradeoffs for just about every utility out there. Everyone has their preference. But I think it's unfair to diss tools that programmers have taken the time to give the community, especially without talking about the pros and cons. Too many people tend to look at it as some kind of big contest and our community is much too small for that.
Almrac Avanti
Sorceror
I guess we can agree to disagree. Content takes time, if you rush through it, your players will know, thats all I am saying.
Im not saying because you did your map quicker than I did mine that your shard is worse than mine or mine is better. I am simply saying 100% custom shard is not a fast thing and should not be under taken unless you have YEARS to commit to finishing it.
Im not saying because you did your map quicker than I did mine that your shard is worse than mine or mine is better. I am simply saying 100% custom shard is not a fast thing and should not be under taken unless you have YEARS to commit to finishing it.
Naruto_Uzumaki
Wanderer
i would use foppydisc's mul editor if you want 99% accuracy in your map
i would use dragon + photoshop to build your land masses/ground tiles (forest, town area, grass, mountain etc), then go into MulEditor and build everything by hand
takes more time, but gives you almost 95% accuracy
i would use dragon + photoshop to build your land masses/ground tiles (forest, town area, grass, mountain etc), then go into MulEditor and build everything by hand
takes more time, but gives you almost 95% accuracy
yeap
aint that the truth homie hahah
ive been working on a custom map for about a year and a half im almost done now. but then again its only me doing it and im insane about detail. but fully custom doest take its sweet time. and ive used worldforge, dragon, punts suite, even building items custom on runuo and using the [freeze command to send them out just to get everything right. i dont think i could have done a good map without using about a dozen or so 3rd party programs. that and time.
Almrac Avanti;681728 said:
aint that the truth homie
hahahive been working on a custom map for about a year and a half im almost done now. but then again its only me doing it and im insane about detail. but fully custom doest take its sweet time. and ive used worldforge, dragon, punts suite, even building items custom on runuo and using the [freeze command to send them out just to get everything right. i dont think i could have done a good map without using about a dozen or so 3rd party programs. that and time.
jumpnjahosofat
Sorceror
You guys are getting away from the question that the thread starter asked. Telling him that its hard to do is just discouraging him. Why be that way, especially when it really isn't hard at all?
not at all
not doing that at all,. i wrote a faq here to explain how to do it to help people out. wouldnt want to discourage him from doing it at all. i just saw someone already directed him to my map building faq thread, so i didnt do it i was just responding to buddy up there agreeing with the work it takes to do it up.. its all good.
jumpnjahosofat;681781 said:You guys are getting away from the question that the thread starter asked. Telling him that its hard to do is just discouraging him. Why be that way, especially when it really isn't hard at all?
not doing that at all,. i wrote a faq here to explain how to do it to help people out. wouldnt want to discourage him from doing it at all. i just saw someone already directed him to my map building faq thread, so i didnt do it
i was just responding to buddy up there agreeing with the work it takes to do it up.. its all good.