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Map Editor/Modkit for Demigod?

By on April 1, 2009 2:41:58 PM from Stardock Forums Stardock Forums

Is there any information about a map editor or a modkit?

I really hope we'll get something better than the pre-alpha-supcom-mapeditor... Something like the Warcraft III or the AoE III editor would be nice, easy to handle, but still very powerful.

It would also do it's part to a good community because good tools lead to good mods which leads then to a strong and long lasting community...

Just imagine Warcraft III without it's custom maps...

0 Karma | 23 Replies
April 1, 2009 3:11:21 PM from Demigod Forums Demigod Forums

Yeah, I'd love to try my hand at designing some maps for Demigod.

If you take a look at Starcraft, the most popularly played maps now, many years after the release, are usermade ones.  Giving users the ability to create their own content is the best way to ensure ongoing content for a game, as opposed to continuous expansions from the developers.

April 1, 2009 6:11:48 PM from Demigod Forums Demigod Forums

There was a map editor in the first beta. It was basically a slightly adjusted SupCom map editor and easy enough to handle if you have some experience with SupCom mapping. The maps for Demigod are a lot more complex but the basics havent changed that much from what Ive seen. Unfortunately the map editor was removed later and I have tried to get the newer map versions to work with the old installation without success.

A map editor for Demigod would be apprechiated, while it is a lot of work to make new maps, it would be possible to edit existing maps (balance, portals, daytime, lighting, textures...). I dont mind if it is buggy, crashes sometimes or needs to be poked and prodded to do its work. Much of the balance stuff can be edited with a text editor and swapping textures isnt that hard either but it would be nice to have some visual help.

The editor from beta 1A was perfectly fine IMO, it only needs to be updated for the RC.  Can we have it back please? 

April 1, 2009 6:38:06 PM from Demigod Forums Demigod Forums

i don't know any successfull multiplayer game (mmo obviously don't count) that doesn't have some kind of map editor. Demigod needs it!

April 1, 2009 7:03:43 PM from Stardock Forums Stardock Forums

There's quite a few without a map editor that do just fine. Still, I'd love to see a map editor for this game. It simply speeds up the speed of content release at no additional cost to dev's (asides from releasing the editor). And everyone loves content. Mmm, content.

April 2, 2009 2:36:57 AM from Demigod Forums Demigod Forums

And free content at that!  *nom nom nom*

Sins has a map editor.  I'm all fer a map editor as well!!!

April 2, 2009 9:51:30 AM from Demigod Forums Demigod Forums

I assume most maps are actually modelled in 3DStudio or Maya. They look too intricate to be spawn of a map tool... at least the physical form of a map.

April 2, 2009 10:01:56 AM from Demigod Forums Demigod Forums

You are right WarlokLord, all maps are unique 3DStudio files, the only thing the Demigod editor does is letting you place the flags, citadels, towers et.c

 

As such making custom maps will be very hard since each one of them require soo much detail.

April 2, 2009 3:30:24 PM from Demigod Forums Demigod Forums

Well What if You could at least alter the pathways and such. That wouldn't be too hard would it?

April 2, 2009 4:06:30 PM from Demigod Forums Demigod Forums

Gas powered games and Stardock are both a fan of custom mods.  They plan to have mods in the game after release at a later time.   My guess is probably 4 months after release.

April 2, 2009 4:19:00 PM from Demigod Forums Demigod Forums

You are right WarlokLord, all maps are unique 3DStudio files, the only thing the Demigod editor does is letting you place the flags, citadels, towers et.c



As such making custom maps will be very hard since each one of them require soo much detail.

Not really more than Custom maps for 3D-Shooters. Yah the artistical quality of the 8 official Maps is very high but custom maps don't need to look as good as those if they provide good gameplay.

April 2, 2009 4:52:17 PM from Stardock Forums Stardock Forums

Quoting TheBigOne,

You are right WarlokLord, all maps are unique 3DStudio files, the only thing the Demigod editor does is letting you place the flags, citadels, towers et.c



As such making custom maps will be very hard since each one of them require soo much detail.


Not really more than Custom maps for 3D-Shooters. Yah the artistical quality of the 8 official Maps is very high but custom maps don't need to look as good as those if they provide good gameplay.

 

And some people specialize in textures anyway. I've seen amazing stuff made mod-wise for games. It's not hard to work off a texture someone else made and alter it or to simply work on a texture and pass it off. So completly new looking levels isn't out of the question for modders, we just need a big enough of a community.

April 2, 2009 5:43:36 PM from Demigod Forums Demigod Forums

Most FPS use some sort of brushes as bases in their maps which are then modified, this makes for a "Lego" approach to mapping. In Demigod the whole levels themselves are created in 3DStudioand as such it increases the skill level for map making to be quite much higher.

Mods are easier.

Demigod still retains the mod function from SupCom, its just not available ingame so custom textures/items and even demigods should be fairly simple to add once they allow for modding.

April 2, 2009 9:57:33 PM from Demigod Forums Demigod Forums

Quoting Sevenix,
Most FPS use some sort of brushes as bases in their maps which are then modified, this makes for a "Lego" approach to mapping. In Demigod the whole levels themselves are created in 3DStudioand as such it increases the skill level for map making to be quite much higher.

Mods are easier.

Demigod still retains the mod function from SupCom, its just not available ingame so custom textures/items and even demigods should be fairly simple to add once they allow for modding.

 

Still, I feel like it should be possible to create levels with some kind of prepackaged level editor a la Super Smash Brothers

April 6, 2009 8:45:05 AM from Demigod Forums Demigod Forums

Quoting Sevenix,
You are right WarlokLord, all maps are unique 3DStudio files, the only thing the Demigod editor does is letting you place the flags, citadels, towers et.c

 

As such making custom maps will be very hard since each one of them require soo much detail.

Well, I'm hoping that they change that. The longevity of a game tends to be based on its moddability. It seems wierd to release an RTS these days without a map editor. I don't think that placing things on the map will be enough to extend the life of the game.

 

I still buy Demigod, and definitely get my money's worth out of it, but eventually (probably) the game will need a map editor to keep me going. Unless they release maps frequently and new game modes.

April 6, 2009 12:00:40 PM from Demigod Forums Demigod Forums

Hi all,

My first ever post on these forums, this topic is one that really interests me.  From reading this thread if the maps are done in 3d studio max, and if this isn't going to change, then i can actually make maps with 3d studio max.

However if maps were made, would it be possible to make pathways for the creeps and place citadels on the map.  How could this be done without a map editor?

Furthermore if it does turn out to be that we can make maps this way, which would be longer than a normal map editor, can we then go about making maps with multi levels ?  like multi-platform maps, or maps that ascend up a mountain side, 2 gods on either side with a strategic flag at the top of the mountain for instance ( random thought )

I think when a map editor becomes available that multi level maps are taken into consideration, where the camera would make the upper levels transparent if zoomed in enough for when you units are on the lower levels for example.

Hope a stardock moderator can get bac kto me on this thread about these questions raised,

regards

p.s thanks for reading my first post everyone

April 6, 2009 1:03:19 PM from Demigod Forums Demigod Forums

However if maps were made, would it be possible to make pathways for the creeps and place citadels on the map. How could this be done without a map editor?

 

Actually, that's what the map editor would do -- it would let you place that stuff, but not actually design the map.

 

The multiple level maps sound interesting, I wonder if that is possible given the nature of the UI...  differing heights is doable, but actually having overlapping levels I'm not so sure...

April 6, 2009 1:38:37 PM from Demigod Forums Demigod Forums

Quoting Ron Lugge,


The multiple level maps sound interesting, I wonder if that is possible given the nature of the UI...  differing heights is doable, but actually having overlapping levels I'm not so sure...

From quotes back in early development hear and on GPG's forum, it seems like multiple levels are problematic.  If I recall correctly, the engine is built around 2D perception of reality and 2D physics.  This means that if someone were on a higher level, a ranged character would shoot above and through the floor and hit the person.  Apparently there is no way to prevent fire like this from occuring other than to have the 2nd level far enough away from the 1st level to be out of range.  Also, I doubt the engine supports making the upper level transparent for teired maps.

April 6, 2009 5:05:34 PM from Demigod Forums Demigod Forums

Oh yes plz!

And an Demigod editor please

 

I would take an Minotaur and scale it up on 1/2 Rook size and give him some nice skills or .... an Regulus in black with an dagger as weapon and stealth abillity!

 

We need an Demigod Editor!!!

April 29, 2009 8:04:19 PM from Stardock Forums Stardock Forums

Hey just joined this forum to comment on this thread. I work as a 3d modeller and game designer. The design and look of the map is possible to be done in 3ds and then have a collision mesh done which is used for the ground but this is highly unlikely as it would result in very buggy and incredibly long times for creating maps. It is much more likely that they created an editor to work with their engine.

The level design is not complex and there is very little intricate details so you would most likely see the developers of this game creating their levels with an editor very similar to that of warcraft 3, and this game being as short and dull as it is will deffinetly need to release and SDK fast to gain a good community. I myself play DOTA on Warcraft 3 quite often and find that to be a much better game, it has about 95 different characters and a couple of hundred items.

I finished a tournament on demigod on the hardest difficulty within a few hours and im not even that great of a DOTA player so don't expect any good dota players to start playing this instead, which was the developers intention.

Iv put this game down now and most likely wont pick it back up until an SDK comes out so that i can build dota in it

 

May 6, 2009 4:48:12 AM from Demigod Forums Demigod Forums

 I play this game shitloads and I was saying to my friend the other night how much this game could be improved if the community could get a mod kit for the game. Particularly some UI changes, like i have no fucking clue when I am slowed, or have spit on me unless I look at the UI or see my character up close and even then the icon is very small. Even with my HP I don't really find looking at t a decreasing green bar is helpful, i'd rather xxxx/xxxxx to calculate how many more hits I can take. If there was a kit to do that it would make the game a lot easier to play.

May 6, 2009 5:56:02 AM from Demigod Forums Demigod Forums

As a long time War3 Modder, I can appreciate the value of a good editor, however, in the case of DemiGod, I kind of prefer that it's all official. Maybe a year from now if we dont have new DemiGods delivered as promised I might jump on the editor bandwagon.

May 6, 2009 6:47:43 AM from Demigod Forums Demigod Forums

Trig: Did you not, uh, play Supreme Commander? The entire purpose of the creation of the engine as opposed to simply ripping off another engine is that it's capable of true 3d physics for every projectile. However for Demigod this capability seems to have been removed for increased accessibility...

 

As for modding and mapping, it's perfectly possible to create your own maps and mods. What it's not possible to do is play other people online with them. I am however working on a solution to that.

May 6, 2009 12:38:08 PM from Demigod Forums Demigod Forums

Quoting ZoltanJr,
Hey just joined this forum to comment on this thread. I work as a 3d modeller and game designer. The design and look of the map is possible to be done in 3ds and then have a collision mesh done which is used for the ground but this is highly unlikely as it would result in very buggy and incredibly long times for creating maps. It is much more likely that they created an editor to work with their engine.

The level design is not complex and there is very little intricate details so you would most likely see the developers of this game creating their levels with an editor very similar to that of warcraft 3, and this game being as short and dull as it is will deffinetly need to release and SDK fast to gain a good community. I myself play DOTA on Warcraft 3 quite often and find that to be a much better game, it has about 95 different characters and a couple of hundred items.

I finished a tournament on demigod on the hardest difficulty within a few hours and im not even that great of a DOTA player so don't expect any good dota players to start playing this instead, which was the developers intention.

Iv put this game down now and most likely wont pick it back up until an SDK comes out so that i can build dota in it

 

 

Zoltan, other than your post indicating your are a DOTA fan, I wasn't clear on what you were saying.

 

Demigod does use 3D models for maps, only lightly translated to add things like lanes, portals, etc etc.  Fact.  That's been stated by devs.

 

Ergo, it's impossible to use a 'war 3 like' map editor, or at the very least represent a huge amount of coding.  Look at the existing maps, and you'll see that even with such an editor, it would be impossible to produce maps of the quality already given us.  To many 3d features, like the pillars holding up the platform in crucible, the canals undercutting cataract, etc etc.

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