To keep this short: I am fairly new to mapping (never done it for empires anyway), but am somewhat familiar with hammer and am very familiar with a few 3D modeling tools that are similar enough in layout. The mapping itself has been fairly straightforward. However, after completing a very BASIC closed room (floor ceiling, 4 walls with no leaks), 1 nf and 1 be spawn entity and 4 light sources, it compiles, but generates an error when attempting to run in empires. My question is are there certain criteria that must first be met before empires will accept or be able to run a map? (Such as dimensions? entities?...anything?). I appreciate any assistance, let me know if you need any other information.
if thats all entities you placed you miss emp_info_params and emp_info_map_overview also take a look at the wiki-section on mapping -> http://wiki.empiresmod.com/index.php?title=Mapping
Thanks for the help, that issue has been resolved! Also, I had already visited the wiki, but failed to notice the documentation bar on the top of the page, so didn't get the other info I needed. I'll set to making some larger maps and then attempt to figure out the assigning spawn points issues (fun fun...). Again, thanks for the assistance flasche and blizz!
I'd also check out http://wiki.empiresmod.com/index.php?title=Releasing_a_Map It has a lot of good information related to mapping in Empires. Pay particular attention to the optimization section. That's usually the hardest thing to get right in Empires.
I considered modelling, but I'm only proficient in Solid Works and I highly doubt that engineering models will port over to source... Hey...if I had someone standing over my shoulder for the first week while I underwent the painful process of acclimating myself to the modeling software (would probably use blender)...then maybe, but I really don't have the inclination to learn anything on my own. As of right now I'm just dicking around with maps and if I publish one great, if not w/e. On a side note, I was somewhat overzealous the other day and broke the compiler with some intense geometry...I may or may not have made a map with a giant and extremely detailed/complicated mountain in the middle of it that was too much for the compiler to handle ...eh...time to start from scratch lol. Anyone have any map ideas that DON'T pertain to jeep racing? Think vehicle based maps of some sort. I'm already working on a king of the hill map that is starting to be completely reworked due to the aforementioned error.