TC2M Mod - The Making of Bath: Part 5

As the objects go onto the TC2M modded map, I re-arrange the initial tga file (terrain features) a little, adding fields around the farms and possibly changing some other features such as woods, brush, fields, etc.  I also do some minor details on the terrain file (the painted base of the modded map).  Once the houses are located on the tga file and I believe that the main terrain features are present, I convert the tga file into a minimap.

The minimap serves two main purposes. 

1) It becomes 1 of 4 TC2M map files that are needed to run a map in the game. The Bath map files will be labeled like this:

• Bath.lsl - This file has the topography and objects in it.
• Bath.tga - This file has the map in gray scale that corresponds to terrain features such as trees, grass, some rocks. Each shade on the gray scale has a number: 1 - 256
• Bath.csv - This file tells the game what terrain features to associate with which gray scale. For example: On the Bath map, gray scale 30 represents woods. The Bath.csv tells the game to put certain kinds of trees any place that the gray scale color 30 appears on the Bath.tga map. 
• Bath_MM.dds - This is the minimap that helps navigate in the game. 

2) Players use the minimap as a reference point for issuing orders, interpreting reports and drawing their own maps of troop positions. 

Anyone from Berkeley Springs or the Berkeley Springs historical society will immediately see that this map is not an accurate representation of Bath in January 1862. But it is close enough for a game. Martinsburg Road has been changed slightly (and re-named from an earlier incarnation in which it was called "Hedgesville Road.") The names have been selected randomly and are not representative of actual farms in the area at the time. Those disclaimers aside, here is what the map will look like: