Home Download Mapping NPC’s Items Extra Files/Add Ons Hosting for Multiplayer Step by Step Walkthrough

Games made with Eclipse Screenshots Scripting Troubleshooting Frequently Asked Questions Contact Us Eclipse Forums Links

powered by FreeFind

Mapping

Run your Server again and log onto your Client (Just enter acct. name and password) Then select your character and hit “use character”.

Once you are in the game, if your character does not have Admin powers, go back into your accounts folder and

recheck to make sure you are Access=4.

You'll appear in the game and everything will be black around you. This is because you have not made any maps yet.

Hit the button on your keyboard F1 and it will open the Administration Panel. Then hit the button in the Menu that shows on the right Map Edtor or simply type /mapeditor.

Above : the Admin Control Panel

Map Editor

After opening the Map Editor you can start making maps. To start mapping, just click on the desired tile then click anywhere on the map to place it there.

Above : Picture of what the map editor looks like when you are editing a map.

Layer Explanation

On the right of your Map Editor Menu check off where it says “Layers” on the right. Then you will have a choice to make it either ground, mask, fringe, or animation.

GROUND: Tiles that are on the ground. (Grass, Dirt, Floor, etc…) These will be below any of the other layers.

MASK: These tiles appear above the ground layer and will not show the color black. This

is useful for tree trunks, bushes, gates, and doors. Also, this layer disappears when a key is used on it, if there is a key attribute here (you’ll see later). The ground will appear below mask so anything in the mask layer will appear to be on top of the ground.

MASK2: This will appear above MASK but your guy will still walk on top of it.

ANIMATION: This is used for making tiles, such as lava and water, appear real. It flashes every second and replaces the mask tile, so when used with a tile that is related to a mask tile can give the appearance of an animation. There are some tiles in the Tile sets that are designed specifically for this. For example, water can be put down, then choose a water tile which has the slightly different ripples on it on the Animation layer, then it gives the appearance of rippling water. Each Layer except ground can be animated.

FRINGE: These tiles will appear above all others. This is used when you’re walking under tree branches and bridges and things. It appears to be above both ground and mask, and all NPC’s will appear to walk under it.

FRINGE2: This will appear on top of FRINGE.

Attribute Explanation

This is really cool! It allows the placement of special features on your map. See the explanations below....

BLOCKED: Players will not be able to walk on this tile. Used for like bases of trees, mountains, buildings, etc.

ITEM: First you must make an Item. Thn click on this attibute and left click on the mao to make it spawn there. A player must stand on it and hit “ENTER” to pick it up. It will re-appear (respawn) every 30 minutes if it is picked up.

NPC AVOID: If you don’t want npcs (monsters and other non-player characters NPC definition – Non Player Characters. The monsters and people in your game that you preprogram as to behavior, speech, and items they might drop) to go in a certain spot, like on stairs, use this attribute. Players will still be able to walk on these tiles.

KEY: Set's a key for a treasure chest and such. You will have to have made a “key” item first. 1) Go to your Admin CP and Edit Items and make a key, choose a pic that resembles a key and set that item as a "key" ( for example "Brass Key") 2) Then go to your Map Editor and make a building with a door on it. Make the door as "mask" ( because then the key will appear to open the door when you use it) 3) Go to Attributes and click on "Key", then designate the particular key for that attribute as the "Brass Key" you made earlier 4) Put that attribute on the door on your map and a "K" will be there 5) Hit the SEND button and save your map.

6) Then obtain a Brass Key ( the same one you made, just do it as an item respawn or something temporarily)

7) Walk up in front of the door and open your inventory and high light the "Brass Key" and Use it. 8) The door will open and you can walk past 9) Usually this is also used in conjunction with a "Warp Door" just behind the key so that you are warped to the "inside" of the building which is on another map.

KEY OPEN: Automatically opens the key attribute specified in the x and y of the settings. You must set “key opn” with the exact coordinates ( X, and Y) where the “key” is. The mask layer on that coordinate actually disappears so it can be used to make doors that appear to open when you walk up near them.

HEAL : This will make that tile completely heal any Player who walks on it. I usually place this “heal” attribute in a bed, or near a “hospital, or maybe and “altar” or a healing spring.

KILL : This will kill any player. I usually place this attribute in hot lava, or maybe some poisonous area.

SHOP: After you make a shop using you Admin CP and going to “Edit Shops”, you can select what shop you want to appear on this map. I usually make the shop look like a shop, with a counter, shelves, and stacks of items. You can even place the actual items for sale on a counter by using the “Item” attribute so people can see them. Just be sure that players can get to the items and just take them! Use the block feature to keep them back a bit from the counter.

BANK: This is a real working bank! You can deposit or withdraw up to 50 items in your bank. (I made a way in my game for people to “cert” food items so they would take up less room in the bank.) When you walk up to a bank, a window pops up and the controls are self explanatory, easy for anyone to understand. When I make a bank in my game, I usually make it look like a bank, with storage chests, tellers, and a nice counter.

WARP : This will make any player who steps on that tile to “warp” to whatever map and coordinates you set it to. A “w” will appear on the map editor map when you set a warp there

PLAYSOUND : This will play a sound in the game when any player steps on that tile. I sometimes use monster sounds in the vicinity of a monster infested map. For example the sound of dogs barking on a map with 8 dogs.

SCRIPTED : This will perform any scripted event that you have programmed into the “main.as” file in your scripts folder in the Server. You will need to have “scripting” knowledge to do this. See my page on scripting for more info.

CLASS CHANGE : This will change a players “class” ( the pre set designation of a player that they chose when they registered for the game. Usually each “class” will have a different looking character, with different levels of skills. I myself do not use this much because the design of my game doesn’t make it that significant..

NOTICE : Any player who steps on this tile will receive a pre- typed in message in his text box. I usually use this as “warnings” of danger, or for important info.

DOOR : This will open a door on a map. It is different than a “key” or “key open” because it automatically opens without having to set “key open” near it.

SIGN : Any player who steps in front of this tile needs to hit “ENTER” to read a pre- typed in message in his text box. I usually use this for wall signs, or signs with important info.

SPRITE CHANGE : This will change a players “sprite” or the look of his character. It is possible to charge money to have this done. Keep in mind if you are using “paperdoll” that the armor and weapons will appear on any sprite they change into, so keep the sprites human in that case. (I usually place this attribute with a special sprite that appears to be in a small vehicle. The character in the vehicle is still human so the paperdoll appears properly)

CLASS BLOCK : This will block any player from entering an area who is not of the proper class. For example, you can make a “Magic Guild” and only allow the Mage Class to enter it.

ARENA: This will allow fighting between players. It also sets it so that no loss of items or penalty is incurred when you die.

Map Properties Explanation

Go to your “map editor”. Select Edit then choose “Properties”. A window pops up that lets you set some interesting properties on your map….(see pic below)

NAME: Set's a name to appear overhead a map. (Such as 'Town of Baron' or 'Death

Dungeon')

NORTH/SOUTH/WEST/EAST: It connects maps. It sets the map that the player will appear on, if he or she walks

off the current map, in that direction. Let’s say the player is on Map 1, you set Left to "2". When the player walks off of Map 1 to the LEFT, he will enter Map 2.

Above: An example of a map grid. They maps “connect” in the game because I set the properties of the maps to work that way.

MORAL: Sets a "Zone" for the area.

*NONE: Player-Killing grounds, players lose experience and the items they are wearing when they die.

*SAFE ZONE: Used for Towns and such, No attacking players in these areas.

*NO DEATH PENALTY: Used for areas that allow fighting but incurs no loss of items, or exp.

*HOUSE: Can be used if you are making a house a Player Owned house

NPCS: You can set the NPCs you want on this map. You will have to have made an NPC first of course. It is nice because it has a “copy” feature if you want to put in several of the same NPC.

MUSIC: Select the song you wish to play when users are on this map. Music loops. An Eclipse game has the ability to have music in the game. You can insert Music in the file in the Client folder named “Music” Make sure your game is “set” in the Client folder to play the right kind of music......Midi, Mp3, or WAV To “set” the Client before you distribute it, go to the following > Client > Config (set Music to “1” for Midis)

 #1 Here are the steps I suggest to get the Music Working.....Make a “Music” folder containing about 50 Midi files that have the appropriate music for your game. If you can’t find some good Midi files anywhere here is a link where you can find some....... Midis for Games

SAVE

When you are done mapping, make sure you “Save” it before you exit or close out the window, if you like what you’ve done. If you hit cancel, all the mapping you just done will be lost, and it’ll be the same as before you edited it. Make sure 2 people aren’t mapping on the same map. Two people cannot map on the same map at the same time.

Map Tiles

The Map Tile is the thing you use to make maps on your game. You go to Map Editor and click on the tile you want to put in, then click on the Map to place it there, then hit “Save” to save it.

8 bit vs 16 bit

The original tile set that comes with the Eclipse Server/Client is an 8 bit set. It is a bit more crude and it has the advantage of working quickly with no lag. The 16 bit sets you can use are far more detailed with cool graphics, but tend to lag up the game a little.

Here is a nice example of a customized 16 bit Map tile. Plz note it is NOT an actual working tile set, its just a shrunken non usable version for you to see......

Customizing your Tiles

It is possible to customize your tiles! Use “paint” to add things to the tiles that you would like. What you have on this Map Tile is what you can use to make maps, and if you “customize” this Map Tile to your liking you can make better maps, but do all this before the people playing the game download the Game Client so that they will see the same things you do when you map!

You can “paste” in bits and pieces from other tile sets or even from pictures (if they are appropriate to the game) by using your “Paint” program and making a square around the object and right clicking and “copy” then go to your tiles and right click and “paste” them in.

However you must take care to “line up” the objects properly in the individual tiles. Here is a tool to give you an idea of how to line up objects in a tile set.

Transparent Background

All your tile sets should have a transparent background, so when you use “MasK” or “Fringe” they appear to be an object on top of the ground, and are NOT surrounded by a black (or other color) square because the background isn’t transparent.

To ensure that the background is transparent be sure that the “first” tile in the top left corner is all black. This tells the game that that color is the transparent color for that whole tile set.

Let me explain it again.... to make the background transparent you must make the top left tile (32 x 32) to be all black (or what ever color you want to be transparent) Color that first tile solid black then that tileset will have the background transparent!

A warning about tile sets file types

If you accident put a tile set that is anything except a .bmp file , your game Client won’t load! You have to make sure that the tile sets are all .bmp , I learned this once when I accidently saved a tileset as a GIF file and then my game wouldn’t work!

A cool shortcut

Sometimes you want to select and put more than one tile at a time on your map. The way to do this, when your in your “map editor”, is to select a tile then hold down the “shift” key, then click where you want your selection to end. See the pic below for clarification…..

The Art of Mapping

When you map your game this is going to define your games world! So it stands to reason you want it to look as good as you can. I saw a master mapper of Eclipse ( a guy named Soljah) give a demonstration of good mapping and I feel its important to share it with you…..

Above : A map that a brand new Eclipser made

A map done by a talented experienced mapper, Soljah, where he demonstrates superior mapping