The Populous Vault

Introduction
This guide is designed to help potential map-makers out there with the basics to making an enjoyable level. This guide will be demonstrating various map-making tecniques through the use of ALACN's map editor primarily. Other tools will also be used, such as, but not limited to, Ted's Symmetry Tool.

Land Editing
Land editing in Populous is an art. Land that is carefully sculpted will yield a better desire to play your levels than land that is simply thrown on the map in about five minutes and published. Below is an example of bad map editing practices and good map editing practices.


A sloppy map design with no rounded peaks, just jagged cliffs. Took about fifteen seconds to make.	A nice mountain with a smooth slope which is easier for followers to travel on. Took about five minutes to make.

What would you rather have in your map, nice rounded peaks, or sloppy cliffs? If you really care about the quality of your work then you will spend the time making nice rounded peaks on your work. To achieve these kind of results, you must spend some time on your maps. Don't just slop something together in fifteen minutes and call it art, what it deserves to be called is trash. When programmers design a game and create levels for it, they don't slop levels together in fifteen minutes. Much of the time, especially in newer games, the design process for a single level can take weeks. Now since this is an RTS game and much of the level mechanics are simplistic, a week would be overkill. A true level designer will put, at the very least, an hour of hard work into a map before even remotely considering it to be finished. After the rough design is complete, the writter will then test their map to ensure that it is bug-free and ready to be published. "How long should it take to make a map", one might ask, it really depends on several factors. One factor is the speed of the person designing it. If you are new to computers and slow with the mouse, it may take you awhile, whereas a person who has used a computer for many years who can point and click through screens like a hot knife through butter may get the job done in half the time. The point is, make an effort to spend at the very least, an hour's time on your map. More time on it would, of course, be better. A good practice to releasing map-packs that people are excited for is to never give out release dates. Take your time and release it when it is ready, the people who play your levels will appreciate them much more than having to go through ten BETA releases before all of the bugs are fixed.

There are people out there who brag that they can make an entire map-pack (which I consider to be no less than ten maps) in a few hours. These are the kinds of people who submit map-packs that never make it onto the Populous: Reincarnated Matchmaker because the quality of their work is so horrible that anyone who played these maps would probably quit Populous they are so bad.

It is very important that map-makers use smaller brush sizes in the map editor for more precise changes. This is how they are able to make those more natural looking mountain slopes. Use the larger brush sizes to throw down some land to work with, but always use smaller sizes for those tiny precise changes.

Symmetry
Ever since TedTycoon released his Symmetry Tool, it has somehow gotten lodged into the brains of every map-maker that levels have to have perfect symmetry. This is not true under any circumstances! Levels do not need to be perfectly symmetric to be fair. While the Symmetry Tool is very nice, it has spawned some of the laziest map designers out there. It is not a bad thing to use this program, however, just do not abuse its power. Treat it with respect and you can make some nice maps, abuse its power and your maps will be dull and boring after the first few uses.

The Symmetry Tool is nice for the early part of map developement, though its use to you is strictly optional. It can be of good use to design a rough overview of the map you are working on, then make a symmetric skeleton. After this has been done, you should go back and add some features to the symmetric map skeleton. There is notihng wrong with giving a tribe more land than the other as long as you balance it out. For example: you could give blue less land, and more wildman, while red has less trees and room for one or two more huts than blue. Balance is all that is required to make a map fair, not symmetry. Symmetry is taking the easy way out. If you want easy, have someone else make your maps for you, else do things right the first time. Having different advantages and disadvantages for each tribe, is a very excellent way to add replay value to your levels. Experimentation is a very important procedure in the level design process, if you are unwilling to take chances with such things, then you may as well quit while you are ahead. A few exclusive BETA releases can help you hammer out these bugs and achieve the perfect balance for each level.

As far as objects go, do not make the object symmetric at all. As you can read in the preceding pharagraph, you can change the number of objects and their position for each tribe to create a set of advantages and disadvantages for all to enjoy. Never use the Symmetry Tool to mirror objects.

Object Editing
How you place objects on ytour map is a very important factor in deciding whether your map is a work of art and fun to play, or if it is just a piece of trash that is doomed to the fate of never being played. When placing objects, you should make an effort to do the job right the first time. Below is a list of things that you should avoid doing when making maps.

Never place objects on top of eachother unless you are placing a prison on top of a shaman or a prison on top of a stone head. Followers may also be placed on top of eachother.

Never place objects adjescent to eachother. Always make sure they are atleast one square apart. The only exception is when you are placing followers.

If there is a reincarnation site for the shaman on your level (all multiplayer levels with shamans have them) do not place objects within a 4 block radius of the shaman.

To perfectly align your wildmen inside the Reincarnation Site on the multiplayer levels, place braves (instead of wildmen) in the reincarnation site of that color's shaman. For example, blue braves go in the blue reincarnation site while yellow braves go in the yellow reincarnation site. In multiplayer, they will be automatically be changed to wildmen.

Do not exceed 300 objects in any level that has braves, wildmen, trees, shaman, and stoneheads. If you add buildings, subtract the total number of buildings from the total number of objects and ensure that the number remains below 300. When this number is exceeded, the game will sometimes crash ilater on, or some spells will not cast.

It is very important that map-makers follow the preceding rules to ensure stability and fun in their work. Below is an example of a bad objhect editing practice and a good object editing practice.


This is a bad practice because there are objects obstructing the reincarnation site. At the start of the game, the shaman will burn all of the wood that obstructs her reincarnation site.	This is a good object placement because the reincarnation site has enough room to be made and the wildmen will be properly aligned.

As you can see, the image (above) on the right is the best object placement. It took about the same amount of time, mabye a few seconds longer, to come up with that set up, yet it already looks more pleasing.

Stoneheads
Stoneheads are very important in a map because they give a strategical element for all of the players to fight for. Although having none is usually a bad idea, having too many can make the game one sided because it all goes down to who can get them first instead of using skills to win. Never make stoneheads too powerful unless it is the generalized theme of your map. Below is a screenshot of how the stonehead is made below.

Notice above that that the trigger itself shares the same square as the stonehead. With that being the case, note the settings in the Trigger window. In the Links window, you can see that the trigger is linked to the discovery and the volcano effect. This means that once the trigger's requirements are met, then the player who worshiped the stonehead will get the discovery and trigger a volcano. Since Create Player Owned is checked, a volcano, property of the tribe that worshipped the stonehead, will be created.

Headers
Headers are very importand for Populous level files. These are the files that save all of the default restrictions for the level as well as the textures and object types being used. This file is vital for your level to run. It is a good practice to specify the default restrictions for your level so people will not be confused when trying to play it. You also need to set the number of players your level has so that it will show up on the right list for the right number of players when hosting. After doing that, all you need to do is choose your landscape colors and tree styles that you would like to be used in your level. HEaders themselves are very simplistic, just don't forget to configure them.