Post: #1

So you say you want to create a custom map, but never picked up a brush in your life. There are ways to plan your map using a few very simple techniques.

This tutorial does not cover the building of map files, but your zoomed in map should help you in using and understanding the ~6,000 pixel wide map created by MapGenerator2. For this tutorial we are only using the "mspaint.exe" program, specifically the one for Microsoft Windows 7.

1.1 Download the TownsCastles.png attached to this post. We will be looking at this image to gain an understanding of planning "inland" and "coastal" cities.

1.2 Open with paint, preferably Windows 7 because it has the "Show Grid" option in the program.

1.3 When you first open the image, it is recommended to right click the file and left click "Edit" in the drop down box that appears. This way you are not opening it with a previewing program.

1.4 You are not likely to see each individual pixel (smallest square box that you can dot with color with the pencil tool). So use the scroll wheel on your mouse to flick forward 3 times to zoom in that much, or press the zoom in button in the paint program until it no longer zooms.

1.5 Take note that this map is not a full size map, but has been "cut out" to a resolution to where you can view this chunk of the map without overloading the memory inside your computer.

2.1 So we have opened up the map and zoomed in fully. You should see a LOT of magenta. This is the SEA.

2.2 Now, with the mouse, we need to drag the right hand scroll bar to the very bottom, and drag the bottom scroll bar to the right UNTIL we see the white area with the outline of a black box drawn. The white area is the LAND.

2.3 This black box shows the "walls" of a town. This is not anything the game needs, and this map actually can't be converted directly into a game map, it is just a PLANNING map for helping us develop a REAL map.

2.4 You should notice the walls look like dashes and having dots at the corner. I do it this way for appearance. You can draw walls however you like, in whatever size suits your purposes. Each dash in my walls is 3 pixels long, and does not overlap the grid in case I want to change the wall later.

2.5 You might have noticed by now that there is more than one town drawn on the land. One important thing to consider is how large your towns are in relation to the landmass you are working with.

2.6 Another important consideration is how close or far away each town is from one another. As you can see, from the corner of the bottom (southern) most town to the town up and right (northeast) of it, there are 8 white boxes. Each white box consists of 9 white pixels. 3 across, and 3 up and down. So the number of white pixels between town A and town B is 24. But! This does not count the grid lines, and the grid lines would be part of the real map too. So count them - 9. So we roughly have 24+ 9 pixels of distance from town A to town B. That's 33 pixels.

2.7 Imagine yourself playing the game, and the number of square spaces you would see in the game window if there was a grid overlaying it. You would have about 12-18 squares extending in any direction from your character. So we will assume a full screen's length to be 23 squares.

2.8 You realize then, that these two towns are actually very close together compared to regular UO! Sometimes this is useful to promote socialization. Other times this would be an undesired layout. This is why it is vitally important to understand proper spacing.

3.1 So we have two small towns outlined, but no road between them or houses inside the walls. This is where you open up the other attached PNG with "Ireland" in the name. Follow steps 1.2-2.2 for the Ireland map.

<WORK IN PROGRESS>