FreeCountry - Updates

[TogaMario]

Hello everyone,

Just letting those interested know that I've updated the GUI to be more intuitive in a few places, and I've also fixed a few major bugs that I had not anticipated or noticed (like the tile library list getting longer and longer everytime you resize the window ... oops ) Anyhow, please test this one out and let me know how it goes.

FreeCountry Download

Next update will include:

Speed-Optimization
Alpha slider for transparency

Also, I'll be planning to sell the first set of tiles for use with it after I get these programming jitters out of the way. More info on that when it comes time.

Thanks again,
-Tyler

 

[TogaMario]

I just made the quick addition of the HTML help documents, so if anyone wants the new bundle, the same link above works for the new download. The only thing I added was the help docs. Have at it, then

 

[TogaMario]

MAJOR UPDATE:

The link above has been updated with the new version of the program. The major update is for the speed issues that have plagued the program. They should no longer exist, no matter how large your map is. Please test this as much as you can, and let me know how it works! I create a 50x50 inch map tonight, and boy howdy, I am pleased with the performance!

I suggest a redownloading immediately! And as always, have fun with it!

 

[TogaMario]

MAJOR UPDATE 2:

Undo! Yay! You can undo up to 10 steps in paint mode. Token undo is coming eventually, and then they'll be married together, so that you may trace your steps exactly. If 10 step undo works well, I'll pull it up to 20, and if that causes no problems, I'll keep going till it does

NOTE: If you make a 50x50 map, undo has the very real possibility of eating up 700+MB of memory. This is one of the hitches that still needs some working over. However, the memory needed is exponentially less as it goes down in size, and should work fine. This may inhibit paint's undo, but not token's (when it's introduced).

FreeCountry now has a redesigned token modification interface. Toying with your tokens should be a whole lots easier now. I think it's pretty intuitive, but in case you're confused, after selecting a token, you will see it's two mod handles (rotate and scale). Clicking and holding either rotate or scale and moving your mouse left and right should do it for you Note: I'm aware that the image selection bounds don't currently change, nor do the handles move with the image's scale. Fixes are on the to-do.

Link above updated. Have fun!

 

[Ferghis]

Define large-scale countryside tiles a little better and you may have it quicker than you think, lol. I'm ad-hoc developing right now, since there are so many things that need to be done and I'm the only one doing them, heh.

Well, for starters you need a hex grid, since that's what most folks use. If you already have one, I couldn't find it.

Then you need a some simple colors to represent terrain. I think the following could just use a color:

• frozen sea (blue-white)
• deep sea (dark blue)
• sea or lake (light blue)
• beach (light yellow)
• plains (light green)
• desert (medium yellow)
• tundra (grey-white)
• rocky terrain/wasteland (light brown?)

These probably need a simple drawing:

• swamp (floppy plant on a blue-green background)
• light forest (a few trees on medium green)
• dense forest (more trees on dark green)
• forest w/hills (trees on medium brown)
• hills (bump on light brown)
• low mountains (wide > pointing up on medium brown)
• high mountains (slim > pointing up on medium brown, with a white tip)
• city (dark wall w/ towers)
• town (dark houses w/ 1 tower)
• village (two dark houses)
• outpost/fort/tower (dark tower)
• lighthouse (dark tower w/bright yellow window up high)
• ruins (one dark column fallen, one standing)

And then there are a few "line" elements, that you can do simply by making a tile real small and continuously drawing it. These would be:

• river (light blue)
• dirt road (dark brown)
• paved road (grey)
• political boundary (red)
• regional boundary (light red?)

A legend tile would be nice, just so you could plop it in an out of the way spot and when you save the file you don't have to figure out whether light yellow was wasteland or beach.

I don't think you really want to get into fonts, but it would be rather important to name cities, countries, and other geographic features. But I would be happy even without that.

BTW, the "Jump to" dropdown menu lists the categories twice. Awesome 'lil program though. Nice work.

 

[TogaMario]

Thanks for the list and bug heads up I will most definitely get to work on this idea as soon as I can! I love the idea of making regional maps with it, I just hadn't thought about that as an option yet, but now I can design with that goal in mind too I'll knock out that bug soon, too. Thanks again!

 

[Ferghis]

Thanks for the list and bug heads up I will most definitely get to work on this idea as soon as I can! I love the idea of making regional maps with it, I just hadn't thought about that as an option yet, but now I can design with that goal in mind too I'll knock out that bug soon, too. Thanks again!

Oh and if and when you feel like embarking on this, please don't make the trees conifers, but make them as generic as possible. Tropical jungles represented on a map by pine trees are really disconcerting. Thanks again for the great work.

 

[TogaMario]

I'll try to keep it as diverse as possible. I understand the need for different types of trees, mountains and misc features, and of course, I'll post progress on the forums to let everyone know how it's going.

Thanks again