Hail: I started this thred so we can help each other out in H5 Tote, map making. Those of you who can script, congrads, but a lot of us can not, and do not want to have to learn how. This thread is for us. It is simply ways to make better maps, using the editor, without scripts. I ask everyone to post what they know here.

Messages: You can place a message on a monster, and if you kill the monster, it will display the message. Thus, you can get messages on or about day 2/5/8, ect by having them on monsters in your path. For later, you can use sign post for the same thing.

Fog of War: You can clear this in segments using the hut/eye of magi. Each eye forms a circle of 9x9 grid clearing the area. You set them to group 1 to show the starting areas of the other castles. Then another set in group 2 to expand the area from group 1, and so on. Now you can SEE most of what the computer is doing during its turn.

Blocking the enemy: Sometimes we want to keep that Dungeon Lord in the Dungeon, so we can attack him at end game. But we want to keep all the spells in the game also. Simply block his exit path/your enty path with border guards. However, on your side make it only 1 tile wide, and put gold/gems, ect, on each tile so he can not fly/telepot over the border guard. He needs a Clear spot to land on.

Water Elms: Make a semi circle of Rocks in the water, with a small opening. Place chest/shipwreck surrivors in the semi circle. Use, "Raise" tool, and make a small spot of land at the entry point. Place a Water Elm on that spot of land. Now Lower it back to water again, and you have a monster guarding the entry in the water.

The AI is dumb, and always has been. Give all the computer players at least 1 wood mine to start the game with. This stops them from doing nothing, and building almost nothing because they did not flag a wood mine.

and the rest of you................

I love the idea of this thread! I'm not at all opposed to scripts, but as a newbie at mapmaking, my head is spinning trying to figure out how to make my ingenious ideas (so says me!) come to life.

One thought I had was to have an approaching hero checked for combat strength (or army size) and if they exceed a certain number, combat is initiated.

The storyline idea is that a city would be basically the gateway to another area, but they would only allow access to those "true of heart" or "believers of peace" or something along those lines.

Any thoughts? Without knowing scripts I was thinking maybe a signpost with clues and a sacrifice altar with a trigger that opens the area if a certain number of creatures are sacrificed? I guess it would still require scripts, but maybe not as difficult to do?

Thanks!

Dan

Hail: When you place a monster on the Map, and add creature stacks to make a army, and then select the creature to be, Friendly, always join, the entire army will you.

Now I have a question, that i can not figure out. I read all the guids but am still confused.

Point Lights.
Pos
x
y
z
Color
x
y
z
Radius
----------------------------------------------

OK, I select the item, ie a crystal in the dungeon. I choose the color Green, and choose the radius of 50. What do i put in the x,y,z,value the first set, and what do i put in the x,y,z value in the second set?
Lets say i want the light to go up some, and out from the center of the object.

Looking at other maps, i see stuff like this.
x-0
y-0
z-8
color-red
x-0
y-0.501961
z-1
radius-25

except for color and radius, i have no idea where the other numbers came from, or what they mean. Help please. Thanks.

Hail: I got the Point lights figured out. The first x-y-z, you only need Z, as it is the height of the light. Most use a number between 5-8. then just choose the color, and the radius.

Teleporters. If you block a teleporter with a monster, you actually end up attacking the monster, "from your side of the teleporter". This is also true if you place a bunch of treasure around it. You actually reach thru and grab the treasure, that free's up the tile, but you have to click again to go thru the teleporter.

Add expierience: You can click and edit treasure chest. By changing from random to custom. I put in 50, and you get either 25,500 gold or 25,500 expierience. Change it to 100, and you get 50,000 gold or exp. This can be used to level up your BOSS enemy for the end game fight.

Teleport/dimension door: When you are able to teleport on the main map, you can go 8 grid sq. So, to stop someone from just teleporting over the garrison or wall, or whatever, just block the areas to the side of it, and place 8 gems, gold, whatever in the 8 grids behind it, and he has no where to land.

8 Town Max: To get around this limit, you can just make a town. Put up the Walls, and a Garrison entry. Then place level 1-3 structures inside it. Then place, Random structures 4-7, and in their options, set them to, "Like Player # ?, and you would have a town of stronghold creatures as example.