Using the Elemental Map Editor to generate maps for Dominions

[Foodstamp]

One of the cool things about Elemental is the way maps are handled. As you zoom out, the map starts to look like a cloth RPG style map. I've attached a couple of maps to give you an idea of what it looks like. These are randomly generated with no fancy stuff added. You can also build maps from scratch. This seems like the perfect tool for making cloth style maps for dominions.

[Gandalf Parker]

Those look great. Thanks for posting them.
Another reason to look at that game.

[LDiCesare]

It needs a lot of wortk before being usable.
Seriously, did you try to make a map with this tool?
Right now, it is slow, slow and slow. It crashes easily, and it's very awkward to create large land masses.
You'd have to draw the borders and white pixels by hand of course. Reusing the textures and using the tool for these purposes are also not legit with the beta license. Might be ok with the final license, though.

[Foodstamp]

Originally Posted by LDiCesare

It needs a lot of wortk before being usable.
Seriously, did you try to make a map with this tool?
Right now, it is slow, slow and slow. It crashes easily, and it's very awkward to create large land masses.
You'd have to draw the borders and white pixels by hand of course. Reusing the textures and using the tool for these purposes are also not legit with the beta license. Might be ok with the final license, though.

I'll try to answer point by point.

Yes, I seriously did try, or why would I have posted the screenshots?

It takes about 30 seconds to generate one using the largest map size , multiple continents on my computer. (They are ugly though, and like you said, you have to manually add the provinces afterwards, but isn't this a flaw with any external map making tool?

The Stardock CEO said that one of the functions of the map making tool was to be able to generate maps for use in RPGs etc outside of Elemental. I would be very surprised if they tried to sue you for making a Dominions map with their tools. A significant number of the maps made for Dominions are made using map makers from other games.

[Gandalf Parker]

Altho it probably is best not to draw attention to something in another companies license when uploading to a corporate owned forum. They might not search-&-destroy but they cant turn a blind eye either.

Brad likes us I think. If asked directly he might be thrilled and give specific approval.

[LDiCesare]

Brad wouldn't worry about it, but I just wanted to point out the legalese stuff anyway.
Right now the tool is really awkward to use, frankly. I hope it'll be usable when the beta is finished, but I'd rather write a script to generate a map (it's xml format) and then load the file in the map editor than use the editor as is.

Also, I was thinking of creating the map manually usiung the tool, not generating it with their generator.

[Foodstamp]

Oh yeah, you still need to add the pixels and borders (if desired) .