Let’s build… a Cave! – Aerosys' Blog

In this tutorial, we will build a cave. We will not use Snippets. This article explains to you how to define your dungeon’s overall design and how to individualize it by adding elements such as water, grass, dirt, boulders…

Space Map

Create a Map and call it „Cave Space“, or any other name. You decide. Choose a width and height and other settings like Tileset or BGM. Choose one ceiling and one floor tile and draw something like this:

The plugin scans for only these two tiles, so please draw them this way.

What’s up with the walls? We will do them later, don’t worry.

Parallel Events

You may add Events for background effects such as noises or weather effects. Please put them on any other tile than the two tiles we placed before.

Features

This Plugin scans for child maps that are under your Space map to enable an additional feature. If you don’t want to use it, simply remove or rename the map.

Tip: To temporarily disable a Feature Map, just append a symbol to its name, e.g., „Structures_“

Structures & Walls

Now, we define how walls should look like. Create a new Map, call it „Structures“ and draw something like this:

Well, I admit, this map looks confusing. You can just copy-paste this screenshot into your game or read further to learn how a Structures Map works.

Deep Dive: Structures

Main article: Post Processing – Structures

A Structures Map defines rules to replace parts of a generated Map with other tiles. It is usually used to scan for areas where the ceiling hits the floor to put walls in between, but it’s not limited to this mechanic.

Instead, it is written generically. It replaces whatever is on the left of the blank tiles with the tiles on its right.

Biomes

Our cave can have some sub-biomes – if you wish!

In this example, we will add grass and a crystal floor. As there’s no smooth transition from rock floor to crystal floor, I decided to not use a floor but invisible Region Tiles instead.

Example. Crystals will spawn on areas having the Region Id 22. We will define the crystals later.

Create a Map, call it „Biomes,“ and draw something like this:

You can safely skip grass or crystal floor when you don’t want to have grass or crystal floor.

Warning: You must have at least one tile on the right. If you don’t want to have this feature at all, leave out this map.

Dirt & Shadings

If you want to add some shadings, create a Child Map, call it „Shadings“ or „Dirt“ (both are okay), and draw something like this:

Hard to see: the tile below the 22 on the right is dark too, just like the tile on the top right

Why are there 2 rows? Because we have two biomes where we want dirt to be drawn. The default one and the one having the Region Id 22. If you don’t want to have dirt on the crystal floor, simply skip this row.

Deep Dive: Post Processing – Shadings

Grass

If you want to add some grass, create a Child Map, call it „Grass“ (exactly this name), and draw something like this:

The piece on the left must be your floor tile
There must be a blank tile
Put one grass tile on the right

Water

If you want to add some water, create a Child Map, call it „Water“ (exactly this name), and draw something like this:

A water tile is allowed to override the ceiling tile; this is why the ceiling tile is also there on the left.

Tip: Don’t be afraid of blocking the player. This plugin uses some algorithms and functions to put water only on tiles where it will never block the player.

Roads

If active, the generator will draw one or more roads to connect the map’s exits.

The rules of the Shadings Map apply. Create a Map, call it „Roads“, and draw something like this:

Details

Create a new Map, call it „Details,“ and put it below the Space Map. Draw something like this:

Wow, this is a lot. If want to learn how this Map works, read here: Post Processing – Details

Some tips from my side:

Groups 1 and 2 define those green plants. In group 1, I scan for the grass floor, and Region Tile 61 is closer than in group 2. This makes it more likely to grow plants when the floor is made of grass.
In groups 4 and 5, I define that crystals can only spawn on the area with the invisible Region Id 22, which we put in a few steps before.

Loot Chests, Monsters, and other Gameplay-related Objects

We define those objects in a Map called „Assets“.

Plugin Manager & Templates

In the Plugin Manager -> MK_RNGMaps_withoutSnippets -> Templates you can manage Templates. Here you can change or add new rules, e.g. assets or other details such as water, dirt, …

You can look at this later because there is already a pre-defined Template for Caves that provides many rules.

Eventing

Jump to: Eventing