TOAW IV EDITOR INTERFACE

[Curtis Lemay]

[center]TOAW IV EDITOR INTERFACE[/center]
[center]By Bob Cross[/center]

Assuming one has successfully installed and set up TOAW IV (including choosing a language), this start screen will appear upon running the game:



This article will detail the Editor User Interface of TOAW IV. But I will also try to incorporate a primer on scenario design along with it.

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So, after clicking on the “SCENARIO EDITOR” button, this screen appears:

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The Editor opens in Map editing mode. There is nothing different about map editing from TOAW III. However, you can now change the map scale:



We’ll stay at 2d Large.

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But before we draw the map, we must have a source of information. Now, if you are using a board game, you’ll have its map as a source. Then it’s just a case of copying the hexes on the game board to the TOAW map. But, if you’re working from scratch, just eyeballing the information on your source map onto the TOAW map will result in a very unsatisfactory looking mess. That will proclaim your scenario to be less than top rate, regardless of the quality of any other component of the design. You need a more systematic method of transferring the information on your source map to the TOAW map.

While there are several competing methods available, my technique, that I’ve used on all my “from scratch” maps is described in this thread:

tm.asp?m=2231136

It identifies the latitude and longitude values for each hex, allowing the use of a digital map source (with a lat/long tool) to locate features on the map. The map projection it creates is Sinusoidal – very good for wargaming.

If projections are unclear to you, I also have another article on map projections here:

tm.asp?m=2231107

Once you’ve completed that process, you should know just what tiles go into each hex. Now it should just be an issue of knowing how to use the map editor.

Step one: You should now know the width and height of the planned map. You need to set that using the “Set Map Boundaries” dialog. Access it via the Edit Pull-Down:

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The Set Map Boundaries dialog is invoked:

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Note that the new map limits are 700 x 700. This is over five times the map area available to TOAW III designers. Other map features’ limits have been increased accordingly.

Set the boundaries as shown, then hit “Done”:




The map should now be 41 hexes wide and 34 hexes tall.

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Now to start placing tiles. To do that, you must first select the tile from the Tile Palette on the right. It shows half the tiles available. To access the second half, right-click on the down button:

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But let’s start with the deep water tile. The best first step is usually to map out the coastline. This scenario doesn’t have a coastline, but it does have a river that will be built of deep water hexes.

The Draw Mode starts out in “Point”, and that is what most drawing will be done with. Leave it there. I’ve drawn the Tennessee River using deep water tiles here:




I’ve also placed some anchorage hexes, as well.

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Next, change the tile to “Shallow Water”. This is used here for some side creeks:

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Change to “Major River”. This is used for creeks here:

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It’s time to look at “Auto-Contouring”. It’s been on so far. It automatically makes the connections between similar tiles – as seen above with the creek being linked together from hex to hex. However, when those similar tiles start to get too concentrated, the auto method makes every connection possible. That can be more than desired, requiring lots of erasures. At that point, it becomes best to turn auto-contouring off:

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With it off, you have to make the connections yourself – but that can still be less work than erasing all the bogus connections that the auto-contour feature makes. It’s a judgment call as to which is better sometimes, but be aware of the on/off option of the feature. Here are some more Major River tiles that were connected by hand instead of automatically:

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Now switch to the Minor River tile. Again, auto-contour judgments must be made on the fly:

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Now switch to the Improved Road tile. Again, auto-contour judgments must be made on the fly:

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Next, switch to the Road tile. Again, auto-contour judgments must be made on the fly (and note that Road will auto-contour with Improved Road, so there will be even more times to turn it off):

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Now switch to the Forest tile. Auto-contour should remain on for this tile:

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For the Forest tile, there was an area in the top right where the “Fill” Draw Mode could be used:



But, to use it, I first had to enclose the area to be filled with Forest tiles – and the map edges don’t substitute for that. Without that enclosure, the Fill command would have filled the entire map with Forest – and I would have to hit the “Undo” button immediately – or be stuck.

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Switch to the Flooded Marsh tile:

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Next, switch to the Light Woods tile (the Light Woods models the Peach Orchard):

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Next, switch to the Wadi tile (the Wadi models the Sunken Road):