Post by Heiko Alkema on Jul 18, 2012 19:36:02 GMT
One of the things new players have the most trouble with is how to manipulate maps in a battle. This guide is a quick rundown of how to do this.
First and formost, you should probably download a better program than the standard MSPaint. I recommend Paint.net. It's what I use and will be using for this tutorial. It's free, and its interface is intentionally similar to MSPaint so that new users have an easy time grasping it. Get it at www.getpaint.net.
Now for simply editing maps we aren't going to use most of the buttons, in fact, we'll only use about four.
1. Magic Wand - will select the object you click on. How it works is it detects the color you click and then selects every pixel around that point that has a similar color within a certain tolerance. Very handing for picking up unit markers and moving them without disturbing the surrounding area.
2. New Layer - This creates a new blank layer that will lay on top of any layer underneath it. This is how we can make movement lines all over the place and still keep the base map neat and clean.
3. Line tool - makes lines...
4. Brush tool - use it like a brush...
Now that we have our tools and know what they do, let's edit a map.
1. Save the last map.
- Simply right click the map in a thread and save it where ever you want. If you aren't particularly computer savvy, just save it to the desktop.
2. Open the map in Paint.net
3. We're going to use the Magic Wand to select a blue friendly dot.
4. Then ctrl+c to copy it. Ctrl+v to paste it and then drag it to a new location on the map. Rinse and repeat for the other units.
5. Once your units are in their new locations, create a new layer. This will be our movement/firing line layer.
6. Use the line tool and simply connect the old unit markers to the new ones.
7. Draw any firing lines with the line tool again.
8. Click on the "background" layer and Erase the old markers either usuing the eraser tool or by using the brush tool and covering them with the appropriate background color.
9. Your movement map is complete! Save it. Make sure to select the .png format from the file type drop box. Any other file type gets compressed and degrades the quality of the map down to an unusable level after only a few turns.
The program will also inform you that it must flatten the image. Let it do this.
10. Once its finished saving your movement map, undo the flattening.
11. Now delete the second layer to get rid of all the lines in one swoop.
12. Save again. This is your clean map. The moderator will use this clean map for the basis for his own mod map.
13. Almost done, now all that's let is to upload them map to an image hosting site. The two most popular ones for players are Photobucket and ImageShack. These sites will host your image for free and give you a link which you can use to post your map in your post.
First and formost, you should probably download a better program than the standard MSPaint. I recommend Paint.net. It's what I use and will be using for this tutorial. It's free, and its interface is intentionally similar to MSPaint so that new users have an easy time grasping it. Get it at www.getpaint.net.
Now for simply editing maps we aren't going to use most of the buttons, in fact, we'll only use about four.
1. Magic Wand - will select the object you click on. How it works is it detects the color you click and then selects every pixel around that point that has a similar color within a certain tolerance. Very handing for picking up unit markers and moving them without disturbing the surrounding area.
2. New Layer - This creates a new blank layer that will lay on top of any layer underneath it. This is how we can make movement lines all over the place and still keep the base map neat and clean.
3. Line tool - makes lines...
4. Brush tool - use it like a brush...
Now that we have our tools and know what they do, let's edit a map.
1. Save the last map.
- Simply right click the map in a thread and save it where ever you want. If you aren't particularly computer savvy, just save it to the desktop.
2. Open the map in Paint.net
3. We're going to use the Magic Wand to select a blue friendly dot.
4. Then ctrl+c to copy it. Ctrl+v to paste it and then drag it to a new location on the map. Rinse and repeat for the other units.
5. Once your units are in their new locations, create a new layer. This will be our movement/firing line layer.
6. Use the line tool and simply connect the old unit markers to the new ones.
7. Draw any firing lines with the line tool again.
8. Click on the "background" layer and Erase the old markers either usuing the eraser tool or by using the brush tool and covering them with the appropriate background color.
9. Your movement map is complete! Save it. Make sure to select the .png format from the file type drop box. Any other file type gets compressed and degrades the quality of the map down to an unusable level after only a few turns.
The program will also inform you that it must flatten the image. Let it do this.
10. Once its finished saving your movement map, undo the flattening.
11. Now delete the second layer to get rid of all the lines in one swoop.
12. Save again. This is your clean map. The moderator will use this clean map for the basis for his own mod map.
13. Almost done, now all that's let is to upload them map to an image hosting site. The two most popular ones for players are Photobucket and ImageShack. These sites will host your image for free and give you a link which you can use to post your map in your post.
