Sorry about the long delay in replying properly (RL and a heavy summer cold are my excuses). As I write this the vault is working properly again and I have test-downloaded the Kara-Tur add-on. As promised here is the explanation that I was writing for you when I ran out of time this (yesterday?) morning.
Right I'll start at the beginning. I first created Map Mats as a tool for creating interactive
local area maps. That is the type of map that the PC can walk on and is used to supplement or even bypass the standard area transition mechanism of NWN. I describe it as an aid because while it is possible (using the techniques shown in
Demangels Dragon riding system) it works much better with miniature placeables (
such as the soz_mini placeables by thegeorge).
There are 102 placeables in all. They are designed to emulate the ink and paper part of a map. So you have large "mats" with various coloured designs on them overlaid with dark blue lines. For placing on top of these there are what I have termed features - rivers, roads, lakes, canals, streams and miscellaneous. Also included are three custom waypoints, some optional scripts and a single skybox.
Following its initial release I received a few requests for larger area (i.e. the realms, greyhawk etc.) maps. So I looked into it, found some map images that were suitable and released 3 add-ons. To be suitable a map image has to be quite large, be of a good standard and have no pre-existing grid-lines either straight or hex.
After the first three I looked around and found some more suitable images and went through the process of making them suitable for release as well. While I was doing this I realised there was a problem with using these large area maps in game in that there was nothing to click on. I therefore created what I'm calling targets. These targets are simply totally transparent placeables that come in 4 different sizes for placing where you want the player to be able to click to go to and leave the map.
The contents of the main Map mats package are a single hak file, a single erf file (which makes the contents of the hak available "to go" in the blueprints), 3 pdf files (an illustrated read me, a visual catalogue of every placeable in the package, and a simple usage document) and 6 small modules (the catalogue in mod form so you can walk around and get a feel for what's in the hak, a catalogue (again in mod form) of all the placeables in thegeorge's soz_mini hak for the same reason, a tutorial module to accompany the hak, a test (demo) module so that you can get the feel of how some of my placeables (I only included a few of the designs) appear in an actual module, and 2 starter modules (1 with soz_mini pre-loaded and 1 without, both of course with Map Mats hak and erf pre-loaded)). In addition I have included 2 internet shortcuts to take you to the vault pages mentioned above.
The contents of the add-ons are 2 haks (1 with the additional placeables that make up the large area map and a tiny one with four textures (see later)), 2 erf files (1 containing an area file that has the large area map pre-fab, 1 with the blueprint details of the targets), 3 pdf files (an illustrated read me, illustrated release notes and an illustrated addendum to the main Map Mats catalogue), 2 starter modules in the same vein as the ones in the main package. Each starter module has an additional area when compared to the original starter modules. This additional area has the large area map pre-fabbed on it. The blueprints of these starter modules come with the blueprints of the "mats" that make up the map and also those of the targets. The tiny hak is intended to be used during the module builders design phase as it contains replacement textures designed to override the ones in the add-on's main hak. Their purpose is to make the targets visible while they are being positioned on the map. Once this done the tiny hak should be removed from the custom content list.
In order to encourage comments (and not as a points generating mechanism) I have also included an internet shortcut to the Map Mats vault page in the add-ons. I did this because I would like to know if people who download my package find it useful once they actually get it and if there are any improvements they would like to see. As I see it points are nice but comments are more helpful to me.
I designed the add-ons to be just that. They do not have any scripts associated with them. They don't have the skybox or the custom waypoints or the links to pages on the vault other than mine. The documentation is only relevant to the add-ons. Can they be used without the main package? Absolutely if you are prepared to have a mostly empty new category in the blueprints.
Have they any use other than as maps? Well with the addition of the targets I think you could make a mean jigsaw puzzle with them. Other than that I don't think so but I would love for someone to prove me wrong. Have they other possible uses than just area transition? Again yes, I think they could be quite useful for cut-scenes especially when used with cutscene ghost effect. Also the PC doesn't have to walk on them if you implement the techniques Demangels Dragon riding system.
I hope that answers any questions you might have.
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Modifié par Tarot Redhand, 30 juillet 2010 - 12:08 .
