Commonwealth of Marathon

[thundercrack83]

mightygoose: Ah, 255! That was the problem—I just chose any random blue and green for the tiles, not 255 for each. Thank you so much!

Battlecat: Thanks so much for your help, my friend!

Luke09: Thank you!

Matt (threestooges): Hey, Matt! It was the 255 variable that tripped me up. I was going to make my own bitmap, but then you made one for me, so I didn't have to! Thank you very much for your help, Matt!

nerdly_dood: Sorry if I was unclear—my problem was that there was no region showing up at all, just the background. Thanks for trying to help, though!

Dark_Jedi06: Thanks, my friend! The terraforming was quite meticulous, I wanted to tear my hair out a few times, but in the end I think it was worth it! Thanks for coming by!

bluesinjid: I am so sorry for missing your question, my friend. From the link you posted, I'm a bit confused, though, as to what you're looking for. Is this what you are looking for? If not, just let me know which one it is and I'll be more than happy to help you out! Sorry again, and take care!



Well, well, well...

Thanks to the great advice from our friend mightygoose, and the config.bmp by our friend Matt (threestooges)...

...we got it figured out now! Thanks so much, friends!

The above is the working model for the entire Commonwealth of Marathon region. The fun part? Actually making the region! However the chips fall, I'll be posting the results here!

In a bit!

[Alfred.Jones]

This is looking very interesting Dustin

Cannot wait for more!

[bat]

Nice to see that you solved for problem! Looking forward to more from that region!

[Battlecat]

Very cool!  It'll be interesting to see how this huge island fits into the rest of the area!

[mightygoose]

good to see region working, blimey i haven't manually edited a config file in over a year that was a blast from the past...

[threestooges]

Happy to help Dustin, and mightygoose, I know what you mean. It's been a while since I last touched them too. Also, not sure if this was mentioned, but as long as the pertinent color is set to 255, you can alter the others to whatever you want too. This is particularly useful when working on larger files with many lots of the same color next to each other. Adding a bit of a difference to the hue can make it easier to see just how many quads of what you're working with. Looking forward to seeing how this map takes shape (and also some new works from Marathon itself.
-Matt

[KoV Liberty]

Cant wait to see the next update! Also you are very skilled at LE so could you tell me how to transit enable a lot? Thanks!

Alex

[thundercrack83]

Alfred.Jones: Thank you, my friend!

bat: Thank you, bat! Though, you can thank Matt (threestooges) and mightygoose for solving the problem!

Battlecat: Thanks!

mightygoose: Hi! It's been quite some time since I even thought about the game regionally, let alone fiddle with the "config.bmp" file. Thanks again for all your help!

Matt (threestooges): Hey, Matt! You've answered yet another of my questions—how did the bitmaps have different colors beside red, green, and/or blue 255? Your explanation answered it perfectly, my friend! And you read my mind! Thanks for stopping by!

Alex (Driftmaster07): Hello! Thank you for your wonderful faith in my LE skills, but unfortunately, I have yet to master the art of transit-enabling. Actually, it would more truthful to say that I haven't even attempted it yet. First step, though, is that you need the SC4Tool. Then, I'll refer you to a tutorial done by our friend Dan (dsrwhat316) entitled Creating Transit-Enabled Roadtop Parallel Parking Stalls, which illustrates transit-enabling in Steps 14-17. If you have any other questions, feel free to ask, and I hope I was able to be of help! Take care!

UPDATE XXX
Wading—Cautiously, Tentatively, and Other Similar Adverbs—Into a Region
26 March 2009

Well, here we are at Marathon's Thirtieth (XXX^th?) Update!

As my most recent posts and teasers have indicated, I've been putting a lot of thought into the most dreaded aspect of this project for me...expanding Marathon beyond the friendly confines of Marathon Island. Why do I dread this? I dread the expansion for a myriad of reasons, but the most pressing is the fact that, when it comes to terraforming a region, I am far from an expert. Meticulous terraforming like the terraforming done on Marathon Island isn't all that difficult to do, it just takes a whole lot of patience. Regional terraforming, on the other hand, is a horse of a much different color, and it's a color with which I have yet to become adept.

So, in typical Commonwealth of Marathon fashion, I've given this region expansion a lot of deliberation, hence the reason why things have been a bit slowly on my part here...that and the fact that I got a new 120 GB iPod that's kept me a bit busy. But, anyway—the plan I came up with is a sound one in my head, and it rests on being able to find a pre-terraformed map that fits the mental picture of the region that I have, and then tweaking it to my needs and wants. This method is two-fold: 1) it avoids me having to make the region from scratch, which is my weakest game attribute, as I've mentioned, and, 2) it also challenges me to reconcile my vision for the region with a finished map, which more than makes up for the easy way out I've taken by not building the entire region from scratch.

To start, let's go back to...

...the blank region, config.bmp by Matt (threestooges).

So, which map did I choose?

I have chosen the NHP Corpus Christi, Texas Map by blade2k5, one of dozens of great maps that I culled through to find what I was looking for.

After a lot of back-and-forth, in-tile and out-tile, I've got a rough merge of the Corpus Christi map and Marathon Island...

This map coincides with the vision that I had in my head of Marathon Island, which was the island to be in proximity to the mainland, and accessible to it from the northern, southern, and western shores. Also noteworthy is that I changed the region from a 7x9 to a 9x9, also leaving me with two more tile columns to work with on the western edge. I'm not sure if that'll stay that way or not, though.

But, there's a lot of work to do...

As the circle above illustrates, there are two large and six medium tiles that were original supposed to be water that must be turned into land to serve as the western shore access for the island.

Let's look at the map...

As you can see, the map as it was downloaded is a 7x9 large tile map. Our reconciliation process takes a 2x3 block of large tiles and makes them medium tiles for...

...Marathon Island.

The next step is adjusting the map to give the western and southern shore access points. I have not gotten this far yet in the game, but I've drawn up an INCREDIBLY ROUGH sketch...

In the sketch, I wasn't concerned with details and making it pretty, I just wanted to get a rough idea of where land reclamation would take place in order to satisfy the access issue. As you can see...

...this circle illustrates where a bit of the in-game reclamation has begun, with the southern shore tunnel from the island being reconciled with the mainland.

That is where the regional expansion stands as of right now. As always in Marathon, though, I am working on a few different things, and will be bouncing around from idea to idea, so at bore neither you nor myself with having successive updates dealing with the expansion.

More from Marathon to come!

[Alfred.Jones]

That is amazing Dustin!! That is incredible work!

Excellent idea. Can't wait for more

[mightygoose]

very thorough planning... love it.

[art128]

Excellent planning and idea my friend.
Can't wait to see more.

[MandelSoft]

I'm wondering about the end product  I wish you success with terraforming!

[emilin]

Hi there, friend!

It's been so long since I had the time to read up on your wonderful journal. I can't even begin to comment on everything that has happend, so I will have to settle for a general: congratulations on an EXCELLENT MD. Updates are concise and informative with beautiful pictures of interesting development.

And als: a big congratulations on hitting #1000 comments.

[Battlecat]

Looking good!  That's going to be a very roomy region to play with! 

[Nexis4Jersey]

Can't wait till this is Done, it will look very cool 

~Corey

[KoV Liberty]

Wow thanks! I'll check it now. Also do you have Widows Vista? If you do could you tell me or possibly give me a link to importing maps? Anyways I can't wait for the region to develop! 

[Jmouse]

Wow - amazing doesn't even come close to describing this. I had no idea it was possible, nor could I imagine undertaking a region with 81 large tiles!

Good luck...
Joan

[LE0]

that giant region would crash my computer

hopefuly not yours

[Luke09]

awesome!!I just think that the big island(at left of marathon)is TOO BIG for that space...its just my opinion...but great job there

[metarvo]

Sooner or later, you are bound to run out of space on Marathon Island, so it is nice to plan ahead.  I see you've "bought" some more land, including some mainland areas.  Whatever direction Marathon goes in at this point, I trust that it will be the best one.  Keep up the good work, Dustin!