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WorldMaster™ Help
General Controls
Moving the camera
Moving/Panning
Mouse Shift + Right click + Drag mouse
Keyboard The Arrow Keys (Shift + Arrow Keys will pan slowly)
Note: Scroll Speed may be adjusted in the Edit menu under Program Options.
Tilt Camera
Mouse Alt + Right click + Drag mouse up or down
Keyboard Alt + Up/Down Arrow Keys
Rotate Camera
Mouse Alt + Right click + Drag mouse left or right
Keyboard Alt + Right/Left Arrow Keys
Keyboard Shortcuts
Getting Started
The Tools
General Tools
History
The Battle Realms™ WorldMaster features a Photoshop-like History feature,
brought up with the H key or the Edit menu. This feature tracks every map
change as a separate entry, allowing the user to undo and redo every action
done during that program session. Note that non-volatile tools, such as Select
Vertices, do not store undo/redo information in the History. The History list has
a maximum number of entries coupled with a maximum size of memory that it
may take up. Once either of these limits is reached, the oldest history is lost.
Brush Settings
Many of the WorldMaster tools involve using a brush to “paint” a specific attribute
onto the terrain. The brushes used for these tools can be customized to suit your
needs.
Different tools use different attributes of a brush while ignoring others. For
example, the Paint Texture Tool does not use the Softness, Strength, Falloff
or Smoothing Rate values stored in each brush. Experiment with these values
to suit your specific needs.
Brush Options
Constrain Proportions
When toggled, the brush’s width and height will always share the same value.
Brush Width/Height
These numbers and sliders determine the height and width of the brush. Note
that all brushes are round, thus a brush with greater height than width will be a
tall oval, not a tall rectangle.
Softness
Every brush is gradated so that painted effects are smoother and more natural
looking. This value determines the end value of the brush’s gradation. If you
wanted a very hard-edged brush, the Softness value would be 0.
Softness Falloff
This graph determines when the brush starts gradating towards the softness
setting set above. A straight line denotes a straight gradient. A convexly curved
line would denote a harder brush with little gradation on its edges, while a
concave line would denote a soft brush that is almost entirely gradated.
When using this graph, note the changes in the Brush Preview in the lower right
corner of the dialog.
Smoothing Rate
This value determines how much smoothing the Smooth Terrain tool does per
click/cycle. A high value will smooth jagged areas to smoothness quickly, while a
low value is better suited for detail work.
To save your current brush configuration for loading at another time, right click on
a brush and select “Save Brushes”. To load a saved brush file, select “Load
Brushes” and then specify the brush file to load.
Clear Selection
Space bar
In addition to its strategic uses, height also affects passability; units will not be
able to walk on areas at a 30 degree or greater incline and players may not build
on areas with an incline of 10 degrees or greater.
For more information on passability, see the Define Path Data Tool section
below.
The rate of smoothing is set via the Smooth Speed slider in the Brush Options
dialog. For more information on Brush Options, see the General Tools section
above.
Note: The height value flattened to is that directly beneath your cursor.
Select the checkbox if you want to constrain the tool to flatten to a specific height.
Move the slider to your desired height, and anything painted will conform to this
height only.
Roughen Terrain Tool
The roughen tool exists for aesthetics alone. While smooth terrain is natural,
maps look stale if they’re too smooth. The roughen tool random raises and
lowers vertices under the brush within a threshold set with the tool’s slider. While
extreme values don’t look natural, low to medium values can give a smooth face
some pleasing unevenness.
Roughen Terrain
Left click
Rice and Forest terrain do not naturally generate rice plants or trees, so they may
be used aesthetically. To populate these terrain types with their intended objects,
see the Paint Forest Tool and Paint Rice Tool descriptions below.
In order for peasants to be able to gather water from a lake, there must be Water
Gather Points present. After painting your lakes, click the Generate Water
Points button to evenly place Water Gather Points towards the edges of the
lakes. The edge of a lake must be passable in order for a Water Gather Point to
be placed there. Should a desired area not get water points, display the path
data with the Define Path Data Tool and smooth the edges of the lake with the
Smooth Terrain Tool.
Paint Color
Left click
Erase Color
Ctrl + Left Click or Paint white coloring
This tool uses the Brush Opacity setting, thus soft brushes will apply less of the
coloring at a time than a hard brush. For more information about Brush
Settings, see the General Tools section above.
For more information on painting textures, see the Paint Textures Tool
description above.
Add Trees
Left click
Remove Trees
Ctrl + Left click
If you want to re-randomize the placement of a certain group of trees, remove the
trees and repaint them. This will place them in a new random configuration.
After placing trees, click the Update Tree Shadows button to apply shadows
beneath new trees and remove shadows from removed trees.
Add Rice
Left click
Remove Rice
Ctrl + Left click
Keep in mind that each rice plant is an object in the world, and there is a limit of
one thousand objects on any given map. If too many rice plants are placed on a
map, the WorldMaster will prompt you to remove some rice before saving.
For more information on painting textures, see the Paint Textures Tool
description above.
Place Objects Tool
Objects can be placed on the map to enhance the map’s mood and general
atmosphere. In addition to objects, particle effects and other props can be placed
via this tool, as well.
Add Object
Left click
Move Object
Left click + Drag mouse
Rotate Object
Alt + Left click
Note: When rotating an object, the “front” of the object will turn to face the cursor.
Raise/Lower Object
Ctrl + Left Click + Mouse Up/Down
Note: Before an object may be raised or lowered it must be unlocked. Right click
on the desired object, toggle Always on Ground off, and click OK.
Notes on start points and AI players: For an AI player, the start point is perhaps
the most valuable piece of data that can be used. In order for a map to be used
wisely by an AI player a few things should be considered.
• Keep start points reasonably close to unique supplies of rice and water
• Don’t put start points too close to each other
• Try not to let multiple start points be closest to the same rice patch or
water source (this will generally cause the AI to fight over this patch
initially, and be weaker in the starting phases of the game)
• Keep start points on passable ground
• Try to put start points in large areas of building passability (this will make it
easier for the AI to find good building placement)
Horses
Horses are an essential resource in Battle Realms, used to mount units and give
them important damage bonuses and extend their longevity.
Wolves
Wolves aren’t essential, but they’re fun. Wolves will hunt down all units (except
the Packmaster and Werewolf) and attack them if given the chance.
To specify the creature generated by a spawn point, Right click on the point to
open its options menu. Choose the Creature from the menu, set the number of
creatures desired, set the radius you’d like them to spawn in, and hit OK.
Defensive Objective Points are not required, but will increase the AI’s ability to
use the map effectively and generally provide a better experience.
For more information on Water Points, see Paint Lakes Tool description above.
For more information on passability, see the Define Path Data Tool description
below.
There are two categories of passability that can be viewed: Walker and Building
Placement. Check the “Display Passability” check box to view these passability
maps. Default passability is generated by the map’s slopes and water depth.
Walker Passability
The Walker passability map shows in red the areas where units and creatures
cannot walk. Units may not walk on slopes greater than 30 degrees, or in water
depths greater than one meter.
Paint Impassibility
Left click
Initial Humidity
This determines the humidity level of the map when the map is first loaded. In
order to make a map always load with rain, set this value to at least 80.
Min Humidity
This slider determines the minimum humidity level possible on the map. If you
want it to rain all the time, set this above 80. Note that the Minimum Humidity
value cannot be set lower than the Initial Humidity value.
Max Humidity
This slider determines the maximum humidity on the map. Set this below 80 if
you never want it to rain.
To adjust the area affected by a particular sound point and the sound point’s
volume, right click on the point and set them in the Options dialog.
Additionally, one can set the Shadow Brightness on the map. After adjusting the
slider, click the Recalculate Lighting button to view its effect on the map.
MISC
Stats
Use the statistics to view specific numbers of things either on the screen or over
the entire map.
Screen statistics are useful for balancing individual areas of the map. For
example, one might zoom the camera to one corner of the map to see how many
rice plants are local to this particular corner, and then increase or decrease the
rice depending on how much is in the other areas.
Map statistics are useful for viewing total numbers throughout the entire map.
At this point in time, you should give your map a name. Go to the Level
Settings dialog in the Edit Menu, and type in a name for your map. This is how
your map will be sorted inside the game.
Save your map out to the Levels directory of the folder where you installed Battle
Realms. Typically, this will be something like
“C:\Program Files\Liquid Entertainment\Battle Realms\Levels”.
The next time you play the game, your new level should appear in the list of
levels to choose from.