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ectizen's SP:WaW Scenario Designer's Quickies - 2nd Beta
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What are SD Quickies
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Scenario Designer's Quickies are a collection of tools, some simple some not,
for tweaking Steel Panthers: World At War maps and scenarios. They all share
some basic controls - a place to specify the original map, a place for the
processed map, somewhere to give the processed map's new name, a button to
start the processing, and an exit button. Most also have extra controls of
varying complexity, and some brief but helpful instructions.

These tools work by reading the original map, making changes to any applicable
hexes, and finally writing the modified map to a new file. Normally, SP:WaW
maps are compressed. Since I'm far too lazy to write a compression routine,
the new maps are not fully compressed (although the parts that haven't been
changed will still be compressed). This means that they'll be a bit larger
than the usual size. These maps can be recompressed by loading them into the
in-game Map Editor, or Fred Chlanda's WAWMap and saving them.



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How to use SD Quickies
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There really isn't much to it. You specify the name of the original map, then
the name of the new map to be created, adjust the options and then press the
"Process" button.

When you start a Quickie, it will try to find your SP:WaW map directory. If it
doesn't, it will default to a directory that probably doesn't exist. Once you
have performed a task, it will remember your settings the next time it starts.



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The various option controls
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The "Chance" slider is used to influence how much the map is changed. Every
time something that can be changed is found, a coin is tossed to decide
whether or not to actually perform the change. The "Change" slider allows you
to rig the coin toss. Setting it to "100%" results in the changes being made
every time, and "0%" means that nothing will be changed. Higher numbers give
more changes, lower give fewer.

The "Grouping" slider is used to further rig the coin toss. When set to values
greater than 1, random changes are more likely to occur next to other changes.
4 can give very patchy results. 3 and 2 are less patchy, while 1 should give a
fairly even distribution of changes. To get an idea of how this works, use Mud
Machine to add 30% mud to a flat, featureless map. Load the map into SP:WaW.
The hexes with mud will appear as dark brown in the mini map - hexes without
mud are light brown. With a grouping of 1, the dark brown dots should be
evenly spread around. With a grouping of 4, you should see large patches of
light and dark brown

The "Strict" checkbox is used to adjust the behaviour of the Grouping slider.
When checked, isolated random changes are not permitted. All changes must be
adjacent to other changes. Note that even when using strict grouping, you may
still see isolated changes, depending on the particular task.

The "Density" slider is used by some tasks to determine how much change to
apply when a change is made. For example, a density of 100% when adding smoke
will produce very thick smoke.



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The various Tasks
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Inferior Roads
  This will remove the "secondary road" attribute and optionally add the "mud"
  and/or "trail" attributes. Another option can add the "rough" attribute to
  neighbouring clear hexes. All of this is done without changing the images.
  This allows you to have roads that are difficult to traverse. They will
  appear on the map, but will actually be clear terrain or mud. The rough edges
  and trail can help prevent the AI from taking shortcuts.

  WARNING:
   - Once you have created inferior roads, do not attempt to add more
      secondary roads using the game's editor. This will cause all of the
      secondary roads to disappear.


Mountainiser
  This will raise an entire map by 30 metres. By repeatedly raising a map and
  carving away unwanted hills, you can use this to build mountainous maps.

  Since SP:WaW handles raised water poorly, an option is available to choose
  how water is handled. When "Raise water" is not checked, water will not be
  raised. This leads to the situation where a stream becomes a 30+ metre deep
  chasm - not very realistic. Alternatively, when "Raise water" is checked,
  water will be elevated, and will look the same, but its underlying terrain
  will be changed. Streams and canals become swamp, gullies and trenches
  become rough. While not an ideal solution, it's better than the chasm...

  WARNINGS:
   - Due to the delicate nature of the maps created by this task, you are
      advised to avoid making any changes to terrain that has been raised to
      over 30 metres. While some changes may work, others will cause display
      problems.
   - If a hex contains two or three slope images, only one will be shown. This
      will happen if you have sloping valley between two or three adjacent,
      but seperate hills. For example, if you place a level 10 hill at (10,5)
      and (10,7), then (10,6) will contain a level 5 slope, with two slope
      images. After mountainising, (10,6) will contain a level 35 slope, but
      only one of the images will be visible.
   - When elevated water is enabled, large bodies of water, such as wide
      rivers and oceans, will have height problems at the shore.

  KNOWN BUGS:
   - In some situations, and at maximum zoom, a display glitch can occur when
      features such as walls are placed on sloping terrain. In these cases, a
      small gap will appear in the wall. Zoom out, and the gap will disappear.
   - If a hex contains a slope, a building, trees and a stream/path/gully/
      ditch, the slope won't be visible.


Mud Machine
  This will add or remove mud, without changing the terrain graphics. Using
  this can produce brown, clear terrain, as well as green, muddy terrain.


Rough Enhancer
  This will make rough terrain more difficult and treacherous for vehicles.
  Optionally, rough hexes may be made impassable. Also optionally, walls can
  be added to immobilise vehicles. In this case, the underlying rough image
  is duplicated at tree height to disguise any collapsed walls. Note that
  dust is still produced when a vehicle collapses the walls. Also, any trees
  in the hex will not be displayed. Note also that the hazardous features
  will not be applied to rough terrain with other features (streams,
  buildings, roads, etc...)


Smoke Machine
  This will add or remove smoke, which can be handy for simulating a foggy
  battlefield. Note that the smoke may not last for an entire battle - it
  tends to clear up after a while.

  WARNING:
   - Adding too much smoke to a map may cause performance problems for some
      slower computers.


Swamp Enhancer
  This will make swamps and marshes much more treacherous for vehicles. Bocage
  and walls are added to slow and immobilise vehicles. The underlying swamp or
  marsh image is duplicated at tree height, to disguise any collapsed walls.
  Note that dust is still produced when a vehicle collapses the walls. Also,
  any trees in the hex will not be displayed.


Tree Surgeon
  This will change the appearance of trees, their density, and their ability
  to stop or immobilise vehicles. Trees can also be added or removed.



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The future of SD Quickies
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SD Quickies are a temporary solution to the problem of performing automated
processing on SP:WAW maps. Eventually, they will be rendered obsolete by a much
more powerful, general purpose processing tool named "Terraformer". Terraformer
will do everything the Quickies do and much, much more. Everything it does will
be customisable and distributable. That is, if you come up with some settings
that perform a difficult or impressive task, you will be able to save those
settings and share them with others. The goal is to have a tool that will be
very versatile and allow the experienced scenario designers and customisers to
easily share their advanced knowledge with even the most novice designer.

Until then, we have the SD Quickies :)

The more I think about Terraformer, the more complicated it becomes. This may
take a while...



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The distribution details for SD Quickies
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SD Quickies are freely distributable. They can be found at:

  http://www.ectopia.net/~ectizen/



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The disclaimer for SD Quickies
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SD Quickies are distributed As-Is, and you use them at your own peril.
Seriously.



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The author of SD Quickies
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ectizen! Contactable via email to:  ectizen@ectopia.net

2nd Beta bug reports, and suggestions for this document will be appreciated.