Super Transball 2

SUPER TRANSBALL 2 MAP EDITOR

Description

To create new levels for Transball 2, you will need 3 programs:
    - The mapeditor.
    - The encoder.
    - Notepad.

The process is as follows:
    1.- First you have to create some levels using the map editor
    2.- Then you have to create a level file.txt using notepad.
    3.- Encode your level file using the encoder to create a .lp file
    4.- copy your levels and levelfiles to the "maps" folder (the game will look for *.lp files in the "maps" folder).

In the downloads section, you can find the Map Editor, the Encoder, and a sample level-pack composed of 2 levels (they are really hard!!), also a couple of replays showing that those levels are "passable" are included ;). In the sample, I've included both: the sample-levels.txt and sample-levels.lp, but only the .lp file has to be provided with a level pack.

THE LEVEL FILES

The level files can be created using any text editor (EDIT, NOTPAD, etc. DON'T USE WORD!!!).
A level file is basically a list of maps, for instance, this can be a typical level file:
2 FILE sample-pack/directional.map TITLE some directional cannons PASSWORD START! FUEL 50 FILE sample-pack/directional2.map TITLE some extra tanks... PASSWORD trompo FUEL 50

The first number is the number of maps of the level-pack, and then the list of levels is written. For each map, you have to specify 4 items:
    - the map file
    - an introductory text
    - the password (6 characters in lowercase)
    - the initial fuel (0 is no fuel and 50 is maximum fuel)

Note that the passwords have to be written in lowercase, and the first level desn't need any password (so I've written "START!"), but you can write anything there...

THE ENCODER

The encoder is a very simple program that encodes a text file so that nobody can read the contents. it works as follows:

c:>encoder mylevels.txt mylevels.lp
After that, the encoder will have encoded the file "mylevels.txt" and stored its encoded contents in the file "mylevels.lp". That easy!!

THE MAP EDITOR

The map editor is intended for all those advanced players who don't have enough with the standard levels of Transball and want to create their own levels. The map editor allows you to edit absolutely everything in a level.You can create maps up to 256x256 tiles (the biggest one in transball is o 96x32). You can add up to 256 doors, 256 switches and 256 tanks andas many cannons and lassers as you want.

This is a screenshot of the mapeditor:

The maps are composed of tiles, each tile is a 16x16 pixels bitmap. On the right part of the screen you have the tile palete. There you can find all the tiles (walls, cannons, lasers, pipes, etc.). You can select tile with PGUP/PGDOWN.

You can place a tile in the map by pressing SPACE, and delete one by pressing BACKSPACE. To move the cursor around the map use the ARROW KEYS.

As not all the map fits in the screen, you can move the map by using: W,X,A,D. (in the bottom of the screen, you can see the CORNER: x,y indicator, that tells you where are you in the map).

To change the dimensions of the map: press U,J to change the X dimension and I,K to change the Y dimension (the current dimensions are shown under the map in the DX:size DY:size display). The range for the x or y dimensions is between 8 and 256.

To place a tank, just press T, and to change the kind of tank you want to place, press Y.

Each time you place a switch, over it will appear a label (B1, B2, etc...). This is the identification number for that switch.

Each time you place a door, two lines of text will appear over it, the first will be OPEN or CLOSED. This represents the initial state of the door in the game (in the map editor, all the doors are always drawn closed). The second line of text represents the event that triggers the door: BALL means that the door will open/close once you got the ball, and B1/B2/... means that the door will open/close when you press the button B1/B2/... (press S and E to change the parameters of the door).

To change the background, you can press:1 for earth background; 2 for snow background and 3 for tech background.

To load a map, just press F1 and then type the name of the file (eg: "map3.map").

To save a map, just press F2 and then type the name of the file (eg: "mylevel.map").

Downloads

Map Editor v1.0 (540KB)
Encoder v1.0 (14KB)

Sample pack (2KB)
Sample replays (4KB)

Who am I?

Well, my name is Santi Ontañón, I'm from Spain. And I am a Ph.D. student at the IIIA (Artificial Intelligence Research Institute) in Barcelona.
You can visit my very boring but serious web page at: http://www.iiia.csic.es/~santi
Or you can contact me by e-mail for busines at: santi@iiia.csic.es
Or for gaming stuff at: santi.ontanon@terra.es