Mapping for Dummies?

[Mattn]

Is this a mapped entry that could relate to anything, or is there something in the .map/bsp file that makes it a/b/c?  For example, lets say I wanted to include 'road ends here' as an option.

It can be everything you like - the a/b/c just make sure, that you can pack suitable tiles together - a tile with an "a" and other tile with an "a" - but they can both be very different as a map

Is (a) always overridden to mean any tile, or must it be another tile with (+a) mapped in that location, so the single tile curve pieces, mapped as (+bc), could *never* exist there?  Or would you need to make it (abc) to TRULY include 'any' tile in this position (similar to the coutryd.ump file)?

sorry - i don't understand your question here.

Does b in any tiling map always mean b in any other other tiling map?  So I'd have to simply 'know' in the script file (by means of comments or whatever) that (b) means 'horizontal road'?

as i said in the first part already - it's up to you which letter you will use for similiar tiles like roads - you can use a, b, c, g, whatever you like

Are the characters case sensitive?  Is a-z the only characters available (not that I could see needing more, but hey...)?

Not sure atm - i would have to look at the code, too

Is the wiki needed map list up to date, especially on random maps?  A large portion of these seem close to ready, if not completely.

every random theme could need new nice tiles - some can be used in their current form, but others (ice[dn]) are not useable at the moment

[Edit] Whoops, forgot a piece.  In the readying of a .ump, must you have single tile maps available to the builder, or can it use tiles from portions of maps, and just not include the overhang?

If you want to use portions of other maps, you have to extract them and create a new tile

What I mean in a different way: You scale a map to be 5x5 in the builder, and you've only built 2x2 tile maps to be included.  Can it use say, the bottom two tiles from a map and attach them for the final build?

no (see above)

[Wanderer]

The answers to some questions are intuitively answered by others, so I'm not surprised some of the questions didn't make sense to you.

Is (a) always overridden to mean any tile, or must it be another tile with (+a) mapped in that location, so the single tile curve pieces, mapped as (+bc), could *never* exist there?  Or would you need to make it (abc) to TRULY include 'any' tile in this position (similar to the coutryd.ump file)?

sorry - i don't understand your question here.

You answered it above.  (a) is not a generic 'anything', it's a specific tile type, same as (b) and (c).  It just happens to be the most common.

Are the characters case sensitive?  Is a-z the only characters available (not that I could see needing more, but hey...)?

Not sure atm - i would have to look at the code, too

You might want to put this higher on your 'todo' list then, you're almost out of room in the country.ump.

 Every random theme could need new nice tiles - some can be used in their current form, but others (ice[dn]) are not useable at the moment.  

I'd prefer to be able to find the worst offenders/most wanted list for this, especially if there's known maps that are desired from your overall lead perspective that are needed to get random maps online, and the rest are 'nice to have's.  

The fact that the list is stored in wiki at all, and you can't really tell how up to date it is, makes it suspect.  Just more want to confirm if there *is* a master list of 'Needed maps', and who's got the [WIP] on them, and if the page on the wiki is that actual list, and that the list is here: http://ufoai.ninex.info/wiki/index.php/Mapping/Suggestions

In case you can't tell I want to do everything I can to help get crashed ufo's into the game.

As always Mattn, thanks for the help!

After about, oh, 7 reads I finally understand MOST of this file.

:-D  So thats why I didn't understand it really - read it only ~3 times! *g

When you get the plan of it, could you do a 'for dummies' version of this as well?

Sure.  Figured that'd be around lesson 4, but I could skeleton one out in the meanwhile, or try to help clean up the explaination in the existing tutorial... hm.  Lemme think on which would be best, I dislike huge edit's on someone else's author pages.  I also don't want to end up building a skeleton even MORE confusing then the original tutorial.