The Editor – Templates

In The Guild 3, the map editor is one big tool that integrates everything the development team uses to create maps. We will be releasing it at the same time as the launch for the players to create everything your imagination (or your historical research) inspires you to do. We will be covering the editor in many postings. The first one will be mainly about graphics, and how the map editor is used to create templates of buildings in the game.

The game comes with a number of building types and each has specific functions. For example, a carpenter isn’t interacting in the same way as a church or a wall gate. It should be noted that we are using templates in The Guild 3 to achieve a vast array of different visual styles for buildings, while still giving the players something familiar to recognize in order not to confuse the gameplay too much. A template is essentially a tool we can use to “dress up” a building and its assets. A carpenter’s building will always have the same basic frame, but accessories, layout and other elements can be infinitely combined to it. There is also a brush you can use to add texture, grass, flowers, trees and many landscape designs. This enables us to create variety, but also to present neighbourhoods differently from one another.

One example of such a templating system would be the castle. The castle is a building, evidently, but it is also much more than that. In some cities, for instance, the castle in itself can be an entire neighbourhood. The “inside” of the castle can have blacksmiths, a prison, a guard house, etc. As a matter of fact, technically, your entire city could be within the confinements of one big castle. All of this can be recreated in The Guild 3, using the map editor.

To do so, there are two simple steps to follow. First, you have to create your map, the physical layout, with a height map and natural elements like water, rocks and trees. Then, you can create a complex series of streets, all within the castle, with other elements in it, all connecting to them. The length of the road can also determine how many buildings (and the size of these buildings as well) you can connect on it. While linking buildings and city elements, it allows you to make them accessible for every other buildings, thus creating varying style of cities. Every city can possess its own design elements with different products and different professions within its gates.

As you can see, it’s really up to you and your imagination. And because each part is modular, and we have dozens of them, you can create an infinite array of combinations and layout. The end goal of the map editor is to enable the player to create worlds of unlimited possibilities, which could be shared and played between all The Guild 3 players. Possibilities are wide open, so just wait and see for yourself… Soon!

This week, to show you a good example of what can be done with the map editor, we present you three beautiful pictures of in-game scenes. The first one is a couple of buildings in a festive alley, the second one shows a town center with buildings like houses and businesses ”built up” together and the third one is the castle that you could build, using templates and different tools from the map editor, all of which will be ready to use in The Guild 3.