In addition to providing a tile-based mapping utility, NWMap includes the ability to annotate tiles with a text description, and add objects such as doors, NPCs, creatures, items, traps, and portals to the tiles.
Jargon: I use standard computer-speak in this document. For example, "left-click" means "press and release the left mouse button"; "shift-click" means "hold down the Shift key while left-clicking"; "click-and-drag" means "hold down the left mouse button while moving the mouse". I know, this is painfully obvious, but you never know...
Next we see the Tile Palette, with its features labeled.
The Palette Window contains a Tabbed-window display; each tab contains the tiles available in a particular layer. The selected Layer Tab determines which layer you are working on in the map. You can only work on one layer at a time. The default Tilesets contain only two layers: a Base Layer for ground and floor textures, and an Upper Layer for everything else. Tiles in the Upper Layer are drawn Transparently on top of the base tiles underneath them. The series of buttons along the left side of the Palette Window allow you to enter different Drawing Modes. You can also toggle whether the Palette is always on top of the Map window, and whether only the current Layer is displayed in the Map, using the two checkboxes at the top of the Palette Window.
The default mode for upper layers is called "Normal Mode". In this mode, you simply select a tile from the palette and click anywhere in the map to place the tile there. You can rotate the Tile left or right by shift-clicking the left or right mouse button (or by pressing the < or > keys). If you hold down the mouse button and drag the mouse, a copy of the Tile will be placed wherever the cursor goes. Note that the currently selected Tile is drawn transparently in the Map cursor, and that a preview of the map Tile is displayed in the upper right of the Map Window. This shows the map Tile as it will look if you place the selected tile.
The default mode for the base layer is called "Blob Mode" (or "Draw Terrain" in the Map Window). Select any of the Base Layer tiles in the leftmost column to enter Blob Mode. Clicking anywhere in the map will draw a "blob" of that type of terrain, consisting of a solid base Tile where you clicked, surrounded by edge and corner "transition tiles" in the neighboring map locations. By dragging the mouse, you can paint down large areas of terrain quickly, and the edge and corner tiles will automatically make everything join together properly. Note that you have to drag the mouse pretty slowly to avoid skipping over tiles.
Blob mode is fast, but not so precise. You can turn off Blob mode for any terrain type by un-checking the box to the left of the terrain's row in the Palette. You will then be in Normal mode for that terrain type.
In the Upper Layer, there is a series of buttons on the left of the Palette, instead of check boxes. These buttons place NWMap in a "Box mode" or a "Snake mode". Each button has a descriptive icon of what kind of object it draws, and the object is also described in the Map window (e.g., "Draw Rivers").
Box modes place rectangular objects in the map, such as buildings, walls, or rooms. When in Box mode, you drag the mouse in the map to define a rectangle over which you'd like to place an object. The correct interior, edge and corner Tiles are then automatically placed and rotated.
Snake modes place long, curving objects on the map, such as roads, rivers, or fences. When in Snake mode, you drag the mouse over the path which you'd like the object to follow, and the object is drawn with the correct tiles and rotations to make a continuous, snaking object following the mouse cursor. Note that you can also intersect the objects correctly. It is even smart about doing this between different kinds of objects. For example, if you snake a road across a river tile, a bridge is automatically placed across the river.
At the top of the window, you can enter a short name for this location. The location ID is also displayed. This number will be drawn on the tile in the map. You can change the order of your described Tiles using the "Change" button.
The main part of the Description window is a series of Tabs. The first of these ("Description") contains a large box in which you can write a text description of the area. Perhaps an explanation of how it fits into the story, or a description that you will want your players to see (NWN will have text popup windows for just this kind of thing).
The remaining Tabs have a similar function, they manage a list of objects of a certain kind (NPCs, creatures, items, events or portals) that are present in the Tile. For example, here is the NPC tab:
In the upper left, there is a list of attributes which can be assigned to the object. The NPCs can have a name, an alignment, a race, a class, and the name of a script (this last is optional; NWMap does nothing with scripting, but you might want to keep track of how many custom scripts you'll need). You can also describe the object in the description box. Once you have entered all data for an object, press the "Add" button, and it will appear in the "XXX Present" list. By clicking on an item in the list, you can re-edit its data. Important!:Don't press "Add" again when re-editing an object. Your changes are updated automatically. Press "New" to clear the data fields and start on a new object.
You can quickly add simple doors to any tile using the Numeric Keypad on your keyboard. There are 5 positions that doors can occupy, and you toggle the presence of a door with a different number in the keypad: North Edge (NUM 8), East Edge (NUM 6), South Edge (NUM 2), West Edge (NUM 4), and Center (NUM 5). The center door can be vertical or horizontal, so NUM 5 is a three-way toggle.
However, this only lets you place standard doors in the map. If you need a special door (e.g., locked, secret, hidden, one-way, false, etc.), you'll have to use the Doors Window, which can be opened from the right-click popup menu. Here's a screenshot of the Doors window:
There is a detailed image of the selected Tile in the upper left. On the right is the list of possible Door locations, and along the bottom is a combo box containing all possible Door types. To place a door, highlight the desired position in the list, and then select the desired door type from the Combo box. The different Door types are color-coded in the detailed image, and in the map.
| "<" or "," or [Shift]+Left-click | Rotate palette tile counterclockwise |
| ">" or "." or [Shift]+Right-click | Rotate palette tile clockwise |
| "-" or "_" | Zoom out (x 0.5) |
| "=" or "+" | Zoom in (x 2.0) |
| <spacebar> | grab Map tile under cursor |
| "h" or "H" | Show/Hide Tile Palette |
| "g" or "G" | Show/Hide Grid lines |
| "T" or "T" | Open Tile Description Window |
| "d" or "D" | Open Doors window |
| "s" or "S" | Toggle size of Palette Window |
| NUMPAD 8 | Toggle North door |
| NUMPAD 6 | Toggle East door |
| NUMPAD 4 | Toggle West door |
| NUMPAD 2 | Toggle South door |
| NUMPAD 5 | Toggle Center door |
| ARROW KEYS | Scroll Map (has some issues...) |
| left-click (Map Window; Normal Mode) | Paint selected tile |
| left-click (Palette Window) | Select tile for Normal-mode painting |
| click-and-drag (Normal mode) | paint multiple copies of selected tile |
| click-and-drag (Group mode) | Place large rectangular object in selected rectangle |
| click-and-drag (Smart mode) | paint continuous object over dragged path |
| click-and-drag (Blob mode) | paint continuous, amorphous base-layer terrain |
| Right-click (Map Window) | Spawn popup Menu |
Would you like to contribute to NWMap? I encourage you to use the blank tileset template to design additional tilesets, which I will include in the next release. Also, if you want to improve the documentation, or provide a tutorial, please feel free! You might want to let me know first, in case someone's already doing it.
If you really want to get your hands dirty and help me with the programming,
ask me for the source code! However, you'll need Borland C++ Builder 4 to
compile it (it may work with BCB5, I haven't tried it).
Please send feedback to: nwmap@hotmail.com.
For the latest information about NWMap, see the official homepage.
Also, check out
the NWMap Message Board. It
hasn't been very active lately, so please jump in and start some threads!
Thanks for using NWMap! I hope you find it useful.
Jason Harris