Who doesn't want to see their ideas and handiwork in their favorite game? The answer: NO ONE!!! It is one of the most satisfying events to watch an idea or vision unfold into an actuality in the game. Build a historical based map! Make an epic grudge match! Better yet, just let your imagination and creative impulse run wild out into the great unknown and build away! Then crush your foes! It is not hard to use the map editor: all it takes is a little time and practice. This help file should aid you in that.

Help topics

Introduction

Creating a Draft
The Map Editor
Map Setup
The Trigger Editor (for ADVANCED map designers)

Activating Your Own Maps to Play
Sending Maps to the Developer


Special thanks to

Feedback

Introduction

Here you can learn how to designin a Random or a Skirmish map
- A random map can be used on your own device as a normal random map, you can not create multiplayer game out of it since others does not know the map, later when we have MAP Market we can share the maps we have and can launch multiplayer games on it.) A random map can contain only terrain and “terrain” like objects (deers, bears, big stones and so on)
- A complete skirmish map will appear in the Campaigns/Own maps section, you can play the map, but you will not receive any gems for completing it.

Where to Start?: Creating a Draft

First things always come first. The first step to creating a map is starting a draft for that map. Creating a draft is extremely easy.

Navigate to the "Design a Map" menu. Select the "Create new" option at the bottom of the menu. A dialogue will pop up.

There are two fields that you must fill out, being: the "Map name"  and the "Map size".

The Map name is the name of your draft and, later, the name of your completed project. The Map size is measured in terms of tiles - how many tiles make up the rows (horizontal), and how many tiles make up the columns (vertical). For instance, a draft with the measurements Rows = 20 and Cols = 30 will create a draft with the measurements 20 tiles x 30 tiles (length x height).

The two types of map drafts that you can make are Skirmish maps and Random maps.

Press the "Create draft" button to create your draft. The game will take you to the map editor.

The Map Editor

The next screen that you will be taken to is the Map Editor - a rather overwhelming sight. But do not be daunted. There are many tools meant to ease the production of maps. After you learn a few things about them and get a little experience using them, you will be a pro in no time! Here is a quick help overview of the map editor to help:

Activating Tile Editing:

Two basic tile types may be laid with the Map Editor - Terrain and Unit. When tile laying is activated, this banner will appear at the bottom with the text "Tap to Place Tile". To activate editing for a tile type, you must use the tile selection menus, depending which type you wish to edit. When tile laying is activated, select a tile selection menu to open the selection menu. Opening the selection menu allows you to choose what tile gets laid.

The upper tile selection menu is the Unit tile selection. It opens up a dialog window with all tiles you can chose and some other things.

The menu is subdivided into easy to navigate sections. The first is Water These are units such as ships that have the ability to travel over water. The next section is Melee  These units are your units which do not have a ranged attack, meaning they can only attack an enemy on the adjacent tile. This broad group includes common units such as the Swordsman and the Knight. The third section is Ranged  These units are all units such as Archers which have a ranged attack (can attack from more than one space away). The final category is Structures  These are the stationary units and buildings. The column of colors to the left of these section icons determines the player control of the unit to be placed. The top color is assigned to player 1, the second to player 2, and so on. The final color (which will be grey) is assigned to neutral.

In the selection menus, you can toggle the organization of tiles between List View and Grid View.

The second tile selection menu is the terrain selection menu.

There are three categories of terrain. These are Normal, Decorations, and Obstructions. Normal terrain is just that: Normal. The normal everyday terrain you see in every map, ranging from grass to desert to water to forest - essentially the backdrop that your armies interact and move on. Likewise the Decoration terrains are fairly self explanatory. These are simply nice looking decorations that can be added on top of Normal terrain tiles in the map in order to spice up and enliven your creation. They do not change the way the Normal terrains function, they only change the appearance (for example adding flowers to grass, or lilypads to water). obstruction terrain, on the other hand does change the function of the Normal terrain. It obstructs, or acts as impassable objects that your units can neither walk, roll, or sail over; but must instead travel around the obstructions. Another way to understand this terrain type is to view it as Decorations that your units cannot walk over. Examples of these include large tree trunks or stones.

The Terrain tile selection menu also has the grid view / list view toggle option. To the right of this button is a dropdown list that you can use to filter what types of terrain will be shown (the use of this would be if you wish to view only water tiles, or only desert tiles).

The Toolbox:

After exiting from the tile selection menus will navigate you back to the main map editor screen. See now? It is already less forbidding than before! Now the most conspicuous aspect of the editor is the row of weird looking buttons along the top of the screen. You may be relieved to know that none of these buttons will launch a nuclear ICBM, so we can now continue our exploration of the editor without that worry. These tools were all created to be easy to use and perhaps even helpful to you, the user. They are as follows:

These  are the zoom in and out buttons. It is pretty straightforward what their purpose in life is. You can use these buttons to zoom in and out of your map-in-progress.

This is the Stamp tool which you use to place single tiles of either terrain or units. This is your bread and butter tool in creating maps and is very easy to use. When the tile laying is activated, simply click anywhere on the map. The chosen tile will be laid down.

The Fill tool  is a variation of the stamp tool. Why lay down one tile when you can lay down many more with as little effort? The fill tool will stamp down the selected tile type, replacing not only the former tile, but also every tile connected of the same type.

The next two tools are eraser tools. The Decor eraser  erases the Decorations and Obstructions from the terrain, while the Unit eraser  erases the units. These tools operate the same way as the stamp tool. The only difference is that the stamp tool adds one tile while the eraser tools remove one tile. NOTE: Normal terrain tiles are not erased. To remove a Normal terrain tile, simply stamp over it with the desired tile.

The Dropper tool is a quick way to copy tiles already on the map without having to open the tile selection menus. To use it, simply select the Dropper tool and tap the tile you desire to copy. That tile then becomes your selected tile. You can now use the Stamp or Fill tool to lay it.

The next tool, the Scroll-lock tool is an interesting case. When you activate this tool, the map is locked in place and you can no longer scroll around to view different areas of the map. Instead your Stamp tool now works differently: a swipe of your finger will place a row of tiles instead of scrolling or placing only one tile. Use the Scroll-lock tool to save time by transforming your Stamp tool into a "Brush-like" tool. When the Scroll-lock tool is activated, you can no longer scroll; in order to enable scrolling once again, select your Scroll-lock tool once more to deactivate it. This will restore your scrolling capability.

The map editor has been equipped with a function referred to as Autotiling. The idea behind Autotiling is to speed the process of building a map by automatically generating tile transitions (hence "Autotiling"). An example is as follows: a plain grass tile is placed adjacent to a water tile. In order to appear neat and tidy, a "transition" tile (a tile appearing as a "shore" transition between the grass and water tiles) must be used. A map not using transitions has an extremely blocky and unprofessional look. However, finding the correct transition tile to use in every case proves to be a very time consuming task. Thus, with the Autotiling function turned on, much time is saved by the editor finding the correct transition tile to use. By default, every new draft that is created has the Autotiling function turned on. It is understood that some map creators may enjoy the freedom provided by turning the Autotiling function off (for instance, it is sometimes quicker to add Decorations with Autotiling turned off - or some individuals may just enjoy wasting time). Therefore, to toggle the Autotiling function on and off, simply tap the Autotiling button.

The final tool in your illustrious toolbox is the Undo button . Perhaps this may soon become your most favorite of all the tools. You can use this to fix a mistake or accidental tap. Just hit the button to undo previous actions.

These are your tools in your toolbox, your Dragon's Teeth, by which you will create the hordes you will conquer and demolish. With these you now have the mechanical capabilities of building maps.

Map Setup

You are able to build Random Maps, but setting up Skirmish Maps requires an extra step. Opening the options in the map editor, will enable you to access the "Map Setup" options. These are the options that you use to create the settings for the game.

The first two options determine the turn amount to award three stars, two stars, and one star.

The next is "Map visibility". This determines the "fog of war" settings. Fog of war darkens the tiles that your units cannot 'see'; the enemies in the darkened tiles are not visible as they are outside of your units' sight range. The three options are "Reveal", "Explored", "Fog". Reveal shows the entire map without any fog of war. Explored shows the terrain, but has fog of war. Fog has fog of war and also blacks out unexplored terrain.

The next setting is Starting technologies. "No techs" means that no technologies will be researched at the beginning of the game. "All techs" means that all the technologies will be researched at the beginning of the game.

Next is "Enable upgrades". "Yes" means that Upgrades purchased with GEMs from the upgrade section can be used on this map. "No" means that only the default units can be used on the map. The number (0,5,10) refers to the amount of consumable upgrades that can be used in the map.

You can choose the "Number of Players". On the player options you can edit the players' names, colors, and teams. you can also choose what controls the player: Human, AI-hard, or AI-light.

The final option field is the "Intro text". This is the flavor text that appears on the map's launch screen.

You now are able to create not only random maps, but also skirmish maps. To make your map really "come alive" and set it apart, you may consider implementing triggers on your map. It is not so difficult once you learn and the result can be very satisfying. Let's go ahead to the next section and learn how!

 

The Trigger Editor (for ADVANCED map designers)

Dude! Have you played the first tutorial map yet? You've got to try it! It was made using triggers. Using triggers in your maps can really make the map come alive. It is a great way to immerse the player in the story or battle, or otherwise interact with the player. The trigger logic implemented in Age of Strategy is similar to that used in the popular rts game Age of Kings (Age of Empires II). Examples of trigger usage include "if a certain of your units dies, you lose", "if a certain unit arrives in a given area, units spawn", "if your units reach a certain area, you win", AND SO MUCH MORE!!! The options run endlessly of possibilities that can be accomplished with triggers!

 The Basic Structure of Triggers is fairly simple. A trigger is comprised of two parts. The first half of the trigger is the conditions. The conditions are the requirements that the game evaluates to be either true or false. So the conditions are a "test" that the game runs. An example of a condition is "if the Hero unit reaches Area 1". Each turn the game will run that test. When the "Hero unit" is not in "Area 1" the test returns as false; however, when the "Hero unit" has reached "Area 1", the test returns as true. If the tests on all the conditions in a trigger are seen by the game to be true, the game then initializes the second half of the trigger. The second part of the trigger is the effects. The effects are the actions that the game executes. So the effects are the things that happen in the game as a result of the trigger. An example of an effect is "Create Archer at Area 2". When the conditions governing this effect are true, the game will create an "Archer" at "Area 2". A simple way to view triggers is the conditions "trigger" the effects.


Trigger Quick Guide Now that you know what a trigger is made of, it will be easy to learn how to make one. Below is a Quick Guide for reference.


The top half of the trigger editor is split down the middle into two columns. The left column lists your triggers, while the right column lists the conditions and effects in the selected trigger. A trigger or condition or effect is shown to be selected by the small filled in dot to the right of each trigger, condition, or effect listed. The '+' and '-' buttons directly underneath the list of triggers adds a new trigger or deletes the selected trigger respectively; the buttons underneath the conditions/effects list likewise have the same operation.

The lower half of the editor contains the fields to assign values to the variables referenced in the triggers. The List of the Variable Fields are:

The Method of Creating Triggers is not too complicated. It may seem like an unnecessary amount of steps, but after trying it a bit, you will discover that it is not so time consuming as it might appear.

  1. Create the first trigger by tapping the green '+' icon underneath the trigger list. The first trigger will appear in the list.
  2. Select this trigger. The small dot to its right will be highlighted.
  3. Create the first condition for the selected trigger by tapping the green '+' underneath the conditions/effects list. The first condition/effect will appear.
  4. Select this condition as in Step 2.
  5. Set the type of condition (condition definitions will be denoted by the prefix "Cond:" while effects are marked by "Eff:") (To refresh the definition list, select a different definition than the one already selected).
  6. The fields not required for the definition of this condition will be filtered out from the group at the bottom of the screen, leaving only those fields which must be filled. Fill these all with the correct values.
  7. Repeat steps 3-6 until all desired conditions are created.
  8. Create the first effect for the selected trigger by tapping the green '+' underneath the conditions/effects list. A condition/effect will appear.
  9. Select this effesct as in Step 2.
  10. Set the type of effect.
  11.  Fill the fields all with the correct values.
  12. Repeat steps 8-11 until all desired effects are created.

Each condition has a single specific test, but by using multiple conditions you can test for a very specific scenario (such as "Hero unit" being destroyed as well as any enemy at "Area 1"); likewise, by using many effects you can produce an innumerable amount of executed actions. Below is A List of Conditions and Effects along with a brief description of their function:


Objectives:

You can define a trigger to be "Objective" meaning its description will appear in the map datasheet like this:

Objectives

Showing the
a) progress if you have finished the given Objective or not (in games you are still playing in)
OR
b) showing the "You will lose if..." cases, eg. "Your Hero must survive" objective.



So there you see: it is not near so hard as it seems to use triggering. As far as the payout to effort ratio goes, adding just a couple of simple triggers can vastly improve a map or add to its immersive quality. A few interesting (and exceedingly fun) maps that used triggers are: Small RPG built by Lancer in the FAN section, and many of the Holiday maps. All it takes is a little practice to learn to trigger well, and it is very simple once you have the hang of it. And when you have mastered triggering, you are officially a Super-awesome Master map-maker of Age of Strategy! 

Activating Your Own Maps to Play

When you quit from the mapeditor it automatically saved the draft that will appear in the drafts list 
1. longclick on the map and you see the “Activate as Random map” / “Activate as Skirmish map”, hit the option
2. now the map appears in the 
a) random map list (when you create a random map you will see your map)
b) Own maps list, where you can play the designed “FAN” map.

Modify map: You can modify the draft anytime and re-activate it after any fixes.
Deleting draft: If the activated map is ready, needs no further fixes, you can delete the draft by lonclicking on it

Sending Maps to the Developer

By longclicking on a map, you can send it to developer to offer it for implementation into the core game as normal gem paying FAN map / as a built in random map, or to form a campaign with a few of these maps.

Important: Please send a fullmap screenshot with the map too to help the dev observing it.

Feedback

Any comments, feedback, suggestions on Age of Strategy please write to us using the link below.
zerotouchsystems@gmail.com

OR! Join the forum and discuss it with the community on the FORUM: http://www.ageofstrategy.net/

Special thanks to