there is no doubt we have a spy here, this was posted yesterday:
OGA: For those familiar with the basics of GIMP there is a quick way to create a custom, decent looking, world map.
http://opengameart.org/forumtopic/fanta ... ment-28612http://opengameart.org/content/fantasy-world-map-0Now we have a good guidelines to follow in the future, but having those little trees and cities animated would be a crusade for me.
I want to see those mini-trees swinging at the wind and little carts rolling around
Programming wise that shouldn't be too hard, until the moment you let users add custom campains <.<
Which means you no longer have a fixed positions, nor sizes.
And there needs to be a method for players to add shapes of land, adjust the size to it as well as the need for building in checks on overlaping land, a logical flow of campains over the lands.
I can think of a way for this, maybe making the map composed of small elements? something like the map being empty (an empty canvas) and you add each country separately, along with its destroyed version (to replace when level is finished) linked to mission (making the country a clickable "object" like a weirdly shaped button, that ligths up when mouse is over it) giving them a X/Y position by hand. That way the game just checks when doing a "onmouseclick"(or whatever ogre uses); making sure checks on overlaping land are correct would be their duty, not too hard if we make a tutorial explaining how to cut the map on gimp/photoshop and some positioning tips.
Decoration elements (like sea monsters or birds) can go anywhere if everything is ordered in 4 rendering layers; 1st empty canvas with sea, 2nd sea decorations, 3 countries, 4 decorations over land (birds,clouds, dragons...)
Countries itself coul be animated textures already including all the little animated elements i mentioned before, so there is no need to add a miriad of small elements by hand.
Couldnt all the above even be stored i a xml file like what we use for levels if broken like this?
However in the youtube example you have given they make use of little 3D objects as marker.
We dont need those at all, this video was the closest example to what i wanted to show.