Great news Drow has created an export function in his dungeon builder which can be pasted straight into this tool. With this you can create random dungeons in Maptool in a matter of minutes!! Here's the linkto his website.
Download:
Download Section
You can download it in three types:
1. rptok file, this makes it fully 'drop-in' however you'll have to create your own 'base' tiles. Just drag it into your current campaign file and create you own 'base' tiles.
Wolph42 - DungeonBuilder 1.6.rptok
2. rpmap file, save the fact that importing and exporting maps is still in beta fase, this is the best way to get the tool inside your current campaign. Turn map import on in the settings, then menu-->map-->import map and select the rpmap file.
Dungeon Builder v1.6.rpmap
IF YOU USE METHOD ONE OR TWO YOU NEED TO RUN THE ONCAMPAIGNLOAD MACRO ONCE AFTER YOU'VE LOADED THE MAP OR TOKEN. THIS MACRO IS ON THE 'DUNGEON BUILDER' TOKEN.
JUST SELECT THE TOKEN, GOTO THE 'SELECTION' PANEL, LOOK FOR ONCAMPAIGNLOAD AND RUN IT.
3. cmpgn file, especially if you want to try this out and experiment, this is the best option.
Dungeon Builder v1.6.cmpgn
Optionally you can download the attached excel file with some examples:
1. rptok file, this makes it fully 'drop-in' however you'll have to create your own 'base' tiles. Just drag it into your current campaign file and create you own 'base' tiles.
Wolph42 - DungeonBuilder 1.6.rptok
2. rpmap file, save the fact that importing and exporting maps is still in beta fase, this is the best way to get the tool inside your current campaign. Turn map import on in the settings, then menu-->map-->import map and select the rpmap file.
Dungeon Builder v1.6.rpmap
IF YOU USE METHOD ONE OR TWO YOU NEED TO RUN THE ONCAMPAIGNLOAD MACRO ONCE AFTER YOU'VE LOADED THE MAP OR TOKEN. THIS MACRO IS ON THE 'DUNGEON BUILDER' TOKEN.
JUST SELECT THE TOKEN, GOTO THE 'SELECTION' PANEL, LOOK FOR ONCAMPAIGNLOAD AND RUN IT.
3. cmpgn file, especially if you want to try this out and experiment, this is the best option.
Dungeon Builder v1.6.cmpgn
Optionally you can download the attached excel file with some examples:
What does it do:
Rough outline
It translates tab separated values (template text) into tokens in MT. The tab separated values can be created in e.g. excel and could look like this:
(click on thumbnail for larger picture)
Which, with the correct settings, will be turned into this by the Dungeon Builder:
With one template text you can create different types of maps with the settings like this:
The Dungeon Builder works with three types of tokens:
1. Atmospheric
2. Wallobjects
3. Objects
All three have unique items with a unique name and a unique starting letter.
How the three Token types work
Note that these tokens are gathered from the web, this forum or home made. They've all seen the inside of (my) photoshop cause they need to be in a certain format. When creating your own, check the current layout of the tokens. The 'Walls' are based on jshocks 'dwarf walls' (which should be available through the resource). The next version will contain art made by Torstan as well.
1. Atmospheric
These tokens will be distributed randomly on empty floor tiles ('F'). The size, position, layer, facing and amount you can set in the settings per token. You can also choose which types (and again the distribution) for that token must be used. I'll explain this part later. Basically these tokens will randomly appear on the floor of your dungeon. You can edit these but you will need to have corresponding tokens on your map.
E.g. a 3x3 square room would look like this
and depending on the 'Amount' settings one or more cracks, bloodspatters, chains etc will appear on the floor.
2. Wallobjects
These are the only objects that have a set name that can't be changed. These objects are:
"Floor, Door, Wall, Connector and LightWall"
Next to that all these tokens (except for the 'Floor') aren't IN the cell but on the SIDE of the cell. This means you have to set the side of the cell e.g. a door in the top of the cell would be "DT". Putting a light on the right wall "LR". The first letter designates the type of token (e.g.g (D)oor) the second the direction: (T)op, (R)ight, (B)ottom and (L)eft. So putting a door and a light in our earlier example:
3. Floor Objects
If you take the tool as is (so either the cmpgn file or the rpmap file) you will have access to the following base tokens:
Arm, Box, Chain, Illumination, Gold, Mucus, Pillar, Tomb, Skeleton
So putting an "S" somewhere will result in a Skeleton on the floor. For this reason its vital that every object must have a unique first letter.
(Hence "Illumination" in stead of "Light").
So putting a Skeleton and a chain in the room would look like this:Note that the Skeleton object is set to 'Large' so it must have space to be placed.
(click on thumbnail for larger picture)
Which, with the correct settings, will be turned into this by the Dungeon Builder:
With one template text you can create different types of maps with the settings like this:
The Dungeon Builder works with three types of tokens:
1. Atmospheric
2. Wallobjects
3. Objects
All three have unique items with a unique name and a unique starting letter.
How the three Token types work
Note that these tokens are gathered from the web, this forum or home made. They've all seen the inside of (my) photoshop cause they need to be in a certain format. When creating your own, check the current layout of the tokens. The 'Walls' are based on jshocks 'dwarf walls' (which should be available through the resource). The next version will contain art made by Torstan as well.
1. Atmospheric
These tokens will be distributed randomly on empty floor tiles ('F'). The size, position, layer, facing and amount you can set in the settings per token. You can also choose which types (and again the distribution) for that token must be used. I'll explain this part later. Basically these tokens will randomly appear on the floor of your dungeon. You can edit these but you will need to have corresponding tokens on your map.
E.g. a 3x3 square room would look like this
Code: Select all
F F F
F F F
F F F2. Wallobjects
These are the only objects that have a set name that can't be changed. These objects are:
"Floor, Door, Wall, Connector and LightWall"
Next to that all these tokens (except for the 'Floor') aren't IN the cell but on the SIDE of the cell. This means you have to set the side of the cell e.g. a door in the top of the cell would be "DT". Putting a light on the right wall "LR". The first letter designates the type of token (e.g.g (D)oor) the second the direction: (T)op, (R)ight, (B)ottom and (L)eft. So putting a door and a light in our earlier example:
Code: Select all
F DT F
F F WR
F F FIf you take the tool as is (so either the cmpgn file or the rpmap file) you will have access to the following base tokens:
Arm, Box, Chain, Illumination, Gold, Mucus, Pillar, Tomb, Skeleton
So putting an "S" somewhere will result in a Skeleton on the floor. For this reason its vital that every object must have a unique first letter.
(Hence "Illumination" in stead of "Light").
So putting a Skeleton and a chain in the room would look like this:
Code: Select all
F DT F
F S WR
C F FCreating a map step by step
1. edit the settings:
First off, the titles of every cell have tooltips, hover over them for tips.
I can only say EXPERIMENT to get a feel for how it works.
A short breakdown of the different columns:
Name of Type (Atmospheric, Floor Object, Wall Object)
Type(s): you might have noticed that there are 5 tombs in the BASE (yellow) area: Tomb1, Tomb2,...,Tomb5. When you create a room with Tomb e.g.
The type of the Tomb will be picked from this setting. So if you put a '5' down there, only Tomb5 will be put in the cell. However if you put down 1,2,3 the tool will make a random selection of these three. Putting down 1,1,1,2 will result in a 75% chance for type '1' and a 25% chance for type '2' to be put down there.
Layer
I hope this is obvious.
Size(s)
There are 9 sizes in MT, 5=Medium, the standard. This works exactly the same as the 'Type' cell: '5' will result in only medium sized tokens, '4,5,6' will result in a randomly picked size.
Rotate
Here you can set the degree of rotation of a token. Completely random means rolling a 360 sided die: 1d360. Limiting it to a 90 degree angle: 1d90, Limiting it to a 10 degree random angle, while facing in a e.g. 70 degree angle: 65+1d10, etc.
Amount
This is the chance that 1 floor tile will contain that type of atmospheric token. '1' means 1 in 1000 tiles. This looks like its very small but note that a 32x32 size room counts over 1000 tiles!. Putting down '20' cracks, will means that that room will have 20 cracks in the floor.
2. Create a 'template map' file in excel:
The easiest way to do this is:
1. entering e.g. "F" in a cell then
2. ctrl+c (copy) that cell and then
3. select the area's that are floor (while selecting cells with your mouse keep the ctrl key pressed) when done hit enter or ctrl+v to paste.
3. Copy the 'template map'
When doing this make sure that you don't select an empty row at the beginning or end and no empty column at the left or right. IF there's only 1 character in that row or column its ok.
4. Paste the 'template map'
- Click on the red 'Paste Map' button.
- Make sure the text box is empty
- paste the 'template map' (ctrl+v)
- click 'save'
5. Render the map
- click 'Build Dungeon'
- click 'ok'
You can seperate the process by deselecting checkboxes, just do make sure that you run 'walls' AFTER 'floor'
Rendering floors goes pretty fast so you could do that first to see how the layout turns out.
The time each step takes (in general) from fastest --> slowest
floors --> atmosphere --> objects --> remove doubles --> walls
6. get some coffee.
Depending on the size of the map. The YAD template takes roughly 2-5 minutes to render (depending on your system).
The last two steps can't be automated unfortunately
7. Arrange 'floor' tiles to the back
- Open the 'Map explorer' frame (menu-->window-->Map explorer)
- Open the 'background' folder
- Select all floor tiles (click on the first, scroll down, shift+click on the last)
- right mouse click on the selection --> arrange --> send to back
This will make sure that the atmospheric tokens are on top of the floor.
8. Remove walls behind doors
This only needs to be done with doors on the edge of the map. The inner doors won't have walls behind them.
- goto the background layer
- click on the door, which is in the object layer so instead you will select a 'connector' token. Delete it
- click again on the door, this time you should select a 'wall' token, delete that too.
- now copy paste a 'connector' token onto the spot where it originally was.
Done!
Other stuff
Rendering on a different map.
With version 1.5 you can do the rendering on any map. Just copy paste the main macro buttons (on the lib:token) into the campaign panel. Set the correct settings, change to or create a new map. Click on the macro buttons to start the rendering.
First off, the titles of every cell have tooltips, hover over them for tips.
I can only say EXPERIMENT to get a feel for how it works.
A short breakdown of the different columns:
Name of Type (Atmospheric, Floor Object, Wall Object)
Type(s): you might have noticed that there are 5 tombs in the BASE (yellow) area: Tomb1, Tomb2,...,Tomb5. When you create a room with Tomb e.g.
Code: Select all
F F F
F T F
F F FLayer
I hope this is obvious.
Size(s)
There are 9 sizes in MT, 5=Medium, the standard. This works exactly the same as the 'Type' cell: '5' will result in only medium sized tokens, '4,5,6' will result in a randomly picked size.
Rotate
Here you can set the degree of rotation of a token. Completely random means rolling a 360 sided die: 1d360. Limiting it to a 90 degree angle: 1d90, Limiting it to a 10 degree random angle, while facing in a e.g. 70 degree angle: 65+1d10, etc.
Amount
This is the chance that 1 floor tile will contain that type of atmospheric token. '1' means 1 in 1000 tiles. This looks like its very small but note that a 32x32 size room counts over 1000 tiles!. Putting down '20' cracks, will means that that room will have 20 cracks in the floor.
2. Create a 'template map' file in excel:
The easiest way to do this is:
1. entering e.g. "F" in a cell then
2. ctrl+c (copy) that cell and then
3. select the area's that are floor (while selecting cells with your mouse keep the ctrl key pressed) when done hit enter or ctrl+v to paste.
3. Copy the 'template map'
When doing this make sure that you don't select an empty row at the beginning or end and no empty column at the left or right. IF there's only 1 character in that row or column its ok.
4. Paste the 'template map'
- Click on the red 'Paste Map' button.
- Make sure the text box is empty
- paste the 'template map' (ctrl+v)
- click 'save'
5. Render the map
- click 'Build Dungeon'
- click 'ok'
You can seperate the process by deselecting checkboxes, just do make sure that you run 'walls' AFTER 'floor'
Rendering floors goes pretty fast so you could do that first to see how the layout turns out.
The time each step takes (in general) from fastest --> slowest
floors --> atmosphere --> objects --> remove doubles --> walls
6. get some coffee.
Depending on the size of the map. The YAD template takes roughly 2-5 minutes to render (depending on your system).
The last two steps can't be automated unfortunately
7. Arrange 'floor' tiles to the back
- Open the 'Map explorer' frame (menu-->window-->Map explorer)
- Open the 'background' folder
- Select all floor tiles (click on the first, scroll down, shift+click on the last)
- right mouse click on the selection --> arrange --> send to back
This will make sure that the atmospheric tokens are on top of the floor.
8. Remove walls behind doors
This only needs to be done with doors on the edge of the map. The inner doors won't have walls behind them.
- goto the background layer
- click on the door, which is in the object layer so instead you will select a 'connector' token. Delete it
- click again on the door, this time you should select a 'wall' token, delete that too.
- now copy paste a 'connector' token onto the spot where it originally was.
Done!
Other stuff
Rendering on a different map.
With version 1.5 you can do the rendering on any map. Just copy paste the main macro buttons (on the lib:token) into the campaign panel. Set the correct settings, change to or create a new map. Click on the macro buttons to start the rendering.
Tips and Tricks
1. Deleting current map: when you delete the current map make sure the 'Selection' frame is hidden or closed. This will speed up the deletion process considerably. (In case of large maps this can save you up to 5 minutes
2. Floorpatterns: you can rotate floortiles. You can do this randomly with 1d4*90 (always use a 90 degree turn). If you want to rotate a floortile every row or every column you can make use of the current coordinates that the system uses 'c' for column and 'r' for row. The system uses a strformat function to calculate the eventual properties of the tile. This means you can set e.g. %{c}*90 or %{r}*90 in the rotation field. This will turn the tile one quarter every next column or row.
2. Small rotations: If you fill a room with boxes they will be very neatly situated in a room. By setting a small rotation for an items you can order them while keepping a natural touch. This is done by settings the rotation to -5+1d10. This will rotate object somewhere between -5 to 5 degrees.
4. Different Floor tile colors: in the near future I will add the option to manually set the type you want to use on the map e.g. F=floortile from settings, "F1"="Floor1" token, "F2"="Floor2" token. For now there are two ways to set different floortiles: a. create a new object in the object list with a floortile name e.g. "zFloor" with type 1 and rename the floortile "zFloor1". Now you can put Z1 in squares where you want that floortile. b.) use layered runs, which I will explain next.
5. Layered runs: With this method you can start asking whether its not faster to just create a map in MT straightaway, but who knows. The builder actually only needs 1 tile in the top left corner (0,0 postion) to designate a set area. You can use this to build a map out of different layers. Here an example:
Say you want to create a floor with two types of floortiles say A and B like this:
Then in excel you create two maps like this (Note that for clarity I mark the empty spots with "-", for this method they should be really empty.).
The "DB" makes sure that the 0,0 spot remains the same.
Note that you can use this for anything. If you want to fill a room with objects while there are also wall e.g.
You can do an extra run with this map
These two runs will first create two room with a door and in the second run fill the right room with boxes.
6. Atmospheric tokens "L"etters are still useable: The first letter of the atmospheric tokens aren't used so they remain optional for use for objects. Meaning you can have 'Scorch' and 'Skeleton', 'Hole' and 'Hatch'.
2. Floorpatterns: you can rotate floortiles. You can do this randomly with 1d4*90 (always use a 90 degree turn). If you want to rotate a floortile every row or every column you can make use of the current coordinates that the system uses 'c' for column and 'r' for row. The system uses a strformat function to calculate the eventual properties of the tile. This means you can set e.g. %{c}*90 or %{r}*90 in the rotation field. This will turn the tile one quarter every next column or row.
2. Small rotations: If you fill a room with boxes they will be very neatly situated in a room. By setting a small rotation for an items you can order them while keepping a natural touch. This is done by settings the rotation to -5+1d10. This will rotate object somewhere between -5 to 5 degrees.
4. Different Floor tile colors: in the near future I will add the option to manually set the type you want to use on the map e.g. F=floortile from settings, "F1"="Floor1" token, "F2"="Floor2" token. For now there are two ways to set different floortiles: a. create a new object in the object list with a floortile name e.g. "zFloor" with type 1 and rename the floortile "zFloor1". Now you can put Z1 in squares where you want that floortile. b.) use layered runs, which I will explain next.
5. Layered runs: With this method you can start asking whether its not faster to just create a map in MT straightaway, but who knows. The builder actually only needs 1 tile in the top left corner (0,0 postion) to designate a set area. You can use this to build a map out of different layers. Here an example:
Say you want to create a floor with two types of floortiles say A and B like this:
Code: Select all
DB
A B A
B B B
A B ACode: Select all
DB
A - A
- - -
A - ACode: Select all
DB
- B -
B B B
- B -Note that you can use this for anything. If you want to fill a room with objects while there are also wall e.g.
Code: Select all
F F WL F F
F F WL F F
F F DL F FCode: Select all
F - B B B
- - B B B
- - B B B6. Atmospheric tokens "L"etters are still useable: The first letter of the atmospheric tokens aren't used so they remain optional for use for objects. Meaning you can have 'Scorch' and 'Skeleton', 'Hole' and 'Hatch'.
Some example maps
Click on them for larger picture
Pillars and Tombs:
Swirl:
Dungeon:
W40k storage facility:
Pillars and Tombs:
Swirl:
Dungeon:
W40k storage facility:
change log
Version 1.6
Lost most of my log and also track of what i was doing but this is what I remember:
- Added extra step in the building process to remove double walls, floors and connectors. During the process its inevitable that sometimes the same object is placed twice at the same spot. This step cleans that up.
- You can now render the graphics on ANY map. The source tokens and lib:token need to be on the same map though. You can set the name of this map (so where the lib:token resides) in the settings. Through the campaign macros you can run the tool on any map.
Lost most of my log and also track of what i was doing but this is what I remember:
- lots of extra material added
- split up the floor and atmoshphere build, this means it will take longer but the arrangement problem (floor to the back) is solved with this.
- extended the settings for wallitems with layer (didn't work), size and rotation (be prudent in their use though!!)
- menu settings of build dungeon are saved
- added Torstans barred wall, normal wall, door and rubble.
- added Portculis wall
- added pallisade wall
- added stone wall
- changed all the big tokens to medium size as this is set in the settings anyway, gives more space for other stuff.
