BASIC TUTORIAL by Mithrylblade
==============
Every map is made using the following format:
Knowing HTML would make the following a lot easier, but here goes anyway...
1. Terrain
----------
There are 2 primary tags that can be used in the terrain section, namely:
which colours the blocks specified afterwards.
The xxxxxx is a three or six digit hexidecimal code (0 - 9, A - F)
which specifies a colour.
(see http://www.w3schools.com/html/html_colors.asp)
An example of this:
If we want to colour blocks H 3 and D 7 red, the code would be:
Please note the to indicate that we are finished. This
applies to most tags. In the above example, we have coloured two
blocks, but you can colour as many blocks as you want to.
which fills the blocks specified with
the image at the given URL. The blocks themselves are 30x30px so
the pictures should be this size. When you use a tag,
you can again specify as many blocks as you want, but be sure to
close it again with .
It is also possible to combine the above into a single tag:
and the same rules apply.
If a block is specified more than once in terrain, only the last
reference will be applied.
2. Objects
----------
Each block is a 30x30px space that can contain HTML code, so anyone who knows
HTML can go wild here - or at least as wild as the space allows. The general
format is as follows:
or a more specific one:
The above code fills the letter 'S' into block a 9. When your mouse is moved
over it, a popup appears explaining that it represents a skeleton.
If you don't know any HTML, take a deep breath... here are some codes you can
use:
where x is some letter, number or character will fill that into
the specified blocks.
<x> will show the text "y" when the mouse moves
over the character 'x' in the specified block.
<
> will show the picture specified by the URL.
Again, the picture should be no bigger the 30x30px.
Again, a particular block should only be specified once.
3. Final Code
-------------
And now to bring it all together in a final example:
Once you have completed your map, save it as a text file and compile using the
Map Maker. You will be asked to specify the location of the input file.
Once you are happy with your map, it must be uploaded to a server so that it can
be viewed by others. If you do not already have webspace, try Geocities
(http://www.geocities.com) or Bravehost (http://www.bravehost.com) for free
hosting.
4. Hints
--------
In order to make maps more quickly, it is also possible to address rectangular
sections of the map in one go. Whereas above, we always addressed blocks
individually using, for instance:
H 3
We could instead specify a number of blocks at once, eg.
H 3 -> M 9
This will address all the blocks between H 3 and M 9 inclusive. Example code:
N 9
C 14 -> K 19
It is also possible to specify a maps name in the input code. Instead of using
you can use
tags to do this.
5. Changing the Map Size
------------------------
This is done using the tag. Simply specify the bottom right-most block, as
in the following example:
D 7
This will create a map consisting of 4 rows and 7 columns so that D 7 is the
last block.
6. Linking Maps
---------------
Linking maps is fairly easy to do using the HTML tags. These tags are
wrapped around the contents of the cell, eg.
< Cell Contents >
M 30
Happy Mapping!
Mithrylblade
(mithrylblade@yahoo.com)