Unlike most map editors, the actual construction of cities for use in Tanarus is relatively easy. What it essentially comes down to is balancing the cities for gameplay - both looks and playability. This manual will get you familiarized with the map editor, but the actual layout and design of cities is completely up to you.

The majority of players in Tanarus like some open areas (be it a field, parking lot, courtyard, etc.) where they can dogfight. This doesn't mean you can't build a metropolis, it just suggests to leave some areas without too many obstacles so tanks that just want to engage in a big melee can do just that.

Another important consideration is the placement of recon stations, both base and neutral. Each map is 128-by-128, so using the coordinates to place recons in an even manner across the city is a good idea. The last thing you want is to build a city that has more recon stations by one base versus another base.

As a final measure, surrounding your city with a wall at the border helps show players where the city really ends (as opposed to running into an invisible wall marking the city's boundaries).

The first time you run the MapEditor you'll need to set it up. Under the File menu, select New Map. Next choose Open Texture Set, also under the File menu. Left double-click on Cityset to load the textures (art).

Each time you begin a default map the bases are positioned in each of the four corners. While you can relocate the bases, it's a good idea to keep them in the corners to ease gameplay balance. Now we'll move on to selecting the type of map you want to build.

Pull down the Settings window and select Map Settings. Never change the Scaling size, Visibility Threshold, or Ambient Light values. The options you can change are the sky height and whether you want the standard 4 team base layout, or league (2 teams of 5), or 10 vs 10 map.

The default Sky Height is always 12, which is equal to a 12 story building. You always want to make sure you have your sky height at least five units higher than your tallest building. For example, if you have a 10 story building, make sure you have a minimum value of 15 as your Sky Height.

Choosing whether or not you want to make a standard four team map, two team map, or ten versus ten map is up to you. The default for any new map is always four teams of five (red, blue, green, and gray). Check-marking the Two Base Map option under Map Settings will leave only the red and blue bases, diagonally positioned from one another. Each base has five players each. Choosing the Two Base Map by itself is if you want to try and build a city specifically for team, league, or dueling.

After check-marking the Two Base Map, another option becomes available - Ten vs Ten. This allows you to build a map specifically for the Ten vs Ten style of play in Tanarus. Now let's move onto the next chapter which covers the basics of construction.

This chapter will cover all the basic building aspects in the MapEditor. Let's start with a standard four team map. Select New Map then open the Cityset texture set. We'll begin with the Toolbar.

Above the actual map layout is the Toolbar. This is where you can select virtually all the tools you need to work on your map.

The UNDO button lets you remove the last action you've performed (generally used to undo a mistake).

After highlighting an area, you can click on the C button to copy it into memory. This won't affect the structure you've copied in any respect - it's just an effective means at copying one building and pasting it to another location in the city.

Similar to the COPY button, the CUT button copies whatever you have highlighted into memory for pasting elsewhere. Unlike the COPY button, the CUT button also completely removes whatever you've highlighted from the map - in other words, its best usage is to move a structure from one area to another (instead of duplicating like the COPY function).

The PASTE button allows you to paste whatever is in memory onto the actual map. You need to have either copied or cut a location before being able to use the PASTE function. After selecting paste, a border will appear showing you the size of the area you're pasting. Select where you want to paste then just left-click to drop that structure into the map. Don't paste areas that already have structures - the paste will basically overwrite anything underneath it.

These four buttons represent the Red, Green, Blue, and Gray bases. Only click on these if you want to place a base in an area other than its default starting position. To move a base, just click on the Base color button you want then where you want it to be placed. Keep in mind that bases must always have solid structures beneath them. This means that if you raise a base a few stories that the foundation underneath that base must be whole (no floating blocks - just regular basic blocks).

These buttons are the Satellite and Tank starting positions for the bases. In general, it's best not to mess with these. If you do, keep in mind that a four base map must have five starting tanks and seven starting satellites at each base. In a ten versus ten map, you must have ten tanks and twelve satellites at each base.

This is the recon station placement button. The default color is white, meaning neutral. To change a recon station to a team color, go to the Selection menu and choose Select Team Color. Neutral recon stations are the only recon stations that can be captured by teams during actual gameplay. In general you only want to use team colored recon stations near the respective bases (placing red recon stations by red base, etc.). Make sure that you always leave a solid foundation underneath a recon station (don't place one on a floating block).

These four buttons are ramp placement buttons, laying ramps in the direction that the arrow points (West, East, North, and South). Note that ramps must always connect with a block. You can also extend the length of a ramp by simply laying them over an area to the block. For example, a single ramp connecting to a block will make that ramp 45 degrees steep. However, connecting three ramps leading to that block (lets say three West Ramps leading to a block) will make a longer, gradual ramp leading to that block. As a final note, never place a ramp at the border of a city (the very edge).

These buttons depict the basic building block, floating block, and floating plank. These are by far the most common tools you'll be using to build your city.

This sets the height for floating blocks and floating planks. For example, if you want to place a floating block three stories up, simply click on this first and enter three as the height. Now go back and click on the floating block icon to lay floating blocks three stories up.

The Zoom functionality is handled by these two buttons: the + symbol zooms in whereas the - symbol zooms out.

Like the building blocks, you'll be using the rendering tools extensively. These tools allow you to select an area, render it in 3D, and work with it in 3D. After highlighting the area you wish to view, simply click on the Set Render Area button followed by either the Display in 3D with Grid or Display in 3D without Grid. Selecting the Grid shows the ground whereas the latter does not show the ground (purely for speed purposes when working in the 3D view).

This chapter will cover how to build structures in the MapEditor. First select New Map under the File menu. We'll start with simply placing blocks on the ground. Left-click on the Basic Block on the Toolbar.

Zoom in so that you can work on a small area. Now simply left-click on the map layout itself to start laying blocks. Try left-clicking on the same location a few times. Blocks will stack on top of each other. Now try right-clicking on existing blocks - right-clicking will delete blocks, one at a time.

Select the Floating Block and try placing a few floating blocks by left-clicking on the map. Floating blocks show up as blue blocks - the number within reflects the height. The default height for floating blocks or floating planks is always two stories high.

Select Set Height and enter three as the value. Now choose Floating Planks and lay a few floating planks. Floating planks show up as yellow squares. The value of floating blocks and planks is that they don't block any tanks from driving underneath them. They serve well as catwalks, overpasses, ceilings, and more.

Highlighting areas serves many purposes, from laying groups of blocks, ramps, or planks all at once to area texturing or copying and pasting. To highlight an area, simply hold down the left mouse button on the map and drag it diagonally. Once you've selected what you want to highlight, simply let go of the left mouse button. This will leave a white outline on your map display. Let's move onto the benefits of highlighting.

Select the Basic Block on the Toolbar then highlight a small area on the map. After highlighting the area, press CTRL-B - this will group-lay a series of blocks within the white outline. You can do the same thing with floating blocks, planks, and ramps.

Lay a few blocks on the map then highlight the area where you've laid the blocks. After highlighting the area, click on the C button to copy that area into memory. Now click on the P button for pasting and you'll see a purple outline showing the size of the area that you copied. Move this elsewhere on the map and left-click to drop a duplicate of what you've just copied. Cutting works the same way, except that it erases the original location - you can still paste it elsewhere, though.

The best way to get to higher ground is via ramps. Lay a 2-by-2 section of blocks so that it looks like the following:

When laying ramps, be sure that a ramp always connects to a block. You can widen a ramp easily by merely placing another ramp facing the same direction directly parallel to another ramp (naturally you need another block for it to connect). The slope of ramp (how steep it is) can be easily adjusted from being sharp to gradual. We'll start with a single ramp connecting to these blocks from the side. Always make sure the ramp you choose on the Toolbar is facing the block.

We now have a two-wide ramp facing to the east connecting to the basic one story block. The actual angle of the ramp from the side to the blocks is in the next illustration:

A single ramp to a single-story block is approximately 45 degrees. To make the slope smoother, simply extend the length of the ramp.

By placing more ramps facing the same direction, the MapEditor will automatically calculate the new slope.

The new ramp slope using a three-long ramp is now considerably more gradual than the one-long ramp. In general it's better to try to use three long ramps as tanks handle better going up the smoother slopes versus extremely steep slopes. And since Tanarus uses a physics model, the steeper the ramp the more of a hit a tank takes in speed while trying to climb it.

Let's start by selecting New Map under the File menu. Zoom into an area and place a 3-by-3 structure on the ground (highlight the 3-by-3 section, select a Block, then hit CTRL-B for the fastest application). Now press CTRL-R twice - this raises the highlighted 3-by-3 structure two more stories. You now should have 3-by-3 three story building.

This structure is untextured, meaning that the actual building faces have no art applied to them. To texture a building in 2D, all you need to do is highlight the structure and press ALT-T (short for Texture Area, found under the Area menu). Let's start by highlighting the building but including a little ground as well.

Under the Selection Menu, choose Select Texture. Use the arrows to cycle through the textures - look for the following gray window texture:

Left-click on the texture and an orange border will surround it, reflecting that you've selected the current texture. Now that you have a texture selected, press ALT-T. This will bring up the following menu:

You can now choose what areas you want to texture by simply left-clicking a check box to the left of the desired texture area. Or you can tap the underlined key in most selections to auto-check a box.

Block Tops: Textures the top of blocks, both basic and floating.

All Block Walls: Textures the North, South, West, and East sides of both blocks and floating blocks.

North/South/West/East: Lets you texture the individual side of blocks.

Ramp Tops: Textures the surface of ramps.

Ramp Walls: Textures the side of ramps.

Ceilings: Textures the underside of floating blocks.

Plank Tops: Textures the surface of floating planks.

Plank Walls: Textures the side of planks.

Plank Underside: Textures the underside of planks.

Ground: Textures the ground floor.

Since we're just dealing with walls for the time being, left-click the All Block Walls option (or press the A key). Now click on OK. In 3D, the building would look like the following:

All four faces of the building have been textured, but both the ground and roof (block tops) remain untextured. Under the Selection menu choose Selection Texture again. Select a gray texture to place on top of the building, press Alt-T, check-mark Block Tops, then OK. That takes care of the building itself.

As a final measure, select a grass texture and texture the ground. Your building would now look the following:

You now understand the basics of using the Texture Area mode. While using the Texture Area mode is efficient, it lacks the ability to texture single blocks at a time (adding damaged windows, etc.). The next chapter will cover working in 3D Mode which allows for more precise texturing as well.

Before proceeding any further, be sure that you've gone through the first three chapters and understand the basics in making structures. Select New Map under the File menu. Start by laying a 2-by-2 section of blocks. Now build a 6-by-6 section of blocks three empty blocks to the right of the 2-by-2. Keep both structures at one story height so that they look like the following in 2D mode.

Now build a ramp two wide and three long connecting to the 2-by-2 structure from the south.

Let's connect the 2-by-2 with the 6-by-6 structure using a floating plank. First you need to make sure the floating plank is at height one, so select the Set Height on the Toolbar and enter a value of 1. Now lay a 2 wide plank to between the 2-by-2 and 6-by-6 structure.

At the center of the 6-by-6 structure raise the center 2-by-2 up one story (highlight it and press CTRL-R).

Select Set Height on the Toolbar and set it to 3. Choose Floating Blocks and lay a 4-by-4 section centered on the 6-by-6 structure.

Now highlight this entire structure and left-click on the (Set Render Area) button on the Toolbar. The border will now turn purple, indicating the area that will be shown in the 3D View. Simply left-click on the (Display in 3D with Grid) to render the area. Everything is currently white, meaning all objects (including the ground) are untextured. The next section will detail the 3D View's Toolbar.

Whenever you render an area, the initial camera point of view is toward the center of the map. The structure you just made is flat-shaded because you haven't applied any textures yet. We'll start with covering the Toolbar located at the top of the 3D window.

  toggles the ground on or off in 3D view. Sometimes when working with a large area it's best to

turn the ground off for speed purposes.

 change the camera's viewpoint when working with structures. The

switches the camera by a direct 180 degrees. Useful to viewing the other side of a structure.

  deletes any highlighted objects.

  adds blocks to highlighted areas.

  applies selected texture to highlighted face(s).

  strips texture from highlighted face(s).

  toggles between texture and flat-shading modes.

  brings up the Texture Selection menu (for use in Texture mode).

  prompts the Color Selection menu (for use in Flat-shading mode)

While the cameras in the 3D Toolbar let you jump views, they don't let you have full control of the environment. Using the structure that you created at the start of this chapter we'll cover the standard camera controls while working in 3D mode.

Zoom-In: Either hold down the left-mouse button and drag down or press the Up arrow.

Zoom-Out: Either hold down the left-mouse button and drag up or press the Down arrow.

Turn Camera Left: Hold down the Left arrow.

Turn Camera Right: Hold down the Right Arrow.

Strafe Camera Left/Right: Hold down the CTRL button and either the Left or Right arrow respectively.

Raise Camera: To lift the camera vertically, hold down the Home key.

Lower Camera: To lower the camera vertically, hold down the End key.

Pan Camera Up: To look up with the camera, hold down the Page Up key.

Pan Camera Down: To look down with camera, hold down the Page Down key.

You'll end up using the 3D View mode mostly for texturing your structures. While the 2D Area Texture Mode works great for general texturing means, it lacks the ability to add smaller details.

The first thing you need to know is how to highlight a surface. Right-clicking on the side of a block/ramp/plank will highlight it, letting you work with that individual object. Shift-Right-clicking will un-highlight whatever you have highlighted.

To highlight the entire side of an object (such as wall), hold down CTRL while right-clicking the desired object face. Now let's move onto the next section and start texturing the structure you made at the start of this chapter.

Whenever you want to texture large areas, the 2D Mode is more efficient. Start by highlighting your structure (and some of the surrounding area) in 2D Mode.

Under the Selection menu choose Select Texture and choose the Grass (turf) texture. Press ALT-T and checkmark Ground then OK. Since the ground is a fairly large area, it's best to use the Area Texture in 2D mode. Now we'll move onto working on the rest of the structure in 3D.

Set the render area to encompass the structure and the area that you applied grass. In the 3D View, your structure with the ground turned on should look like the following:

Let's start with the ramp and the adjoining 2-by-2 structure. Move the camera around and highlight the ramp sides and block sides then click on the Texture button. Select the following texture:

Now just tap the T key (a shortcut to apply texture in 3D) to apply the texture to highlighted area. Your structure should now look like this:

Let's move onto the outside walls of the 6-by-6 structure. Move the camera around the structure and hold down the CTRL key while right-clicking the lower walls. This highlights all the walls. After highlighting the walls, bring up the Texture menu and choose the following texture:

Press the T key again to apply this to the highlighted walls. Your structure should now look like the following:

Now just experiment using different textures to complete the texturing of the structure. Remember to texture the underside of the plank and the ceiling, too. This basic exercise was to familiarize you with working in the 3D view.

Chapter V: Exporting & Viewing A City

The best way to achieve a good feel in design and game balance when creating a city is to drive the various tanks through it. While the MapEditor lets you view portions of a city in 3D, it's hard to grasp the scope of the city unless you actually pilot a tank within the city. When you launch Tanarus you're given the option to go to Training. Under Training there is a Review City option which allows you to drive tanks through a city offline.

You don't need to wait until you've finished your city completely to view it - in fact it's often better to take a work-in-progress city and view it through various progressions. What you do need to do is export your city. This is a fairly time intensive process - a finished city can often take six hours or longer for a full export.

Under the MapEditor Export menu you'll find three options:

The first option is Export Full True 3D. This exports your city completely, but it takes the longest to complete. When you want to submit a city for play on the Tanarus server, you must only use Export Full True 3D. When you select this option, simply enter the desired name for the city and click OK (keep the city name 8 characters or less). You can further specify what directory you want to export your city into - if you don't choose another directory, it will export the city into your main MapEdit directory.

A successful Export Full True 3D will generate three files with the following extensions: .T3D, .AMP, and .DAT. So if you called your city BIGFUN, the exported names would read BIGFUN.T3D, BIGFUN.AMP, and BIGFUN.DAT.

To view the city all you need to do is copy the .T3D and .AMP files into your main Tanarus directory (such as copying BIGFUN.T3D and BIGFUN.AMP from the prior example into your Tanarus directory). After you've copied the two files into your main Tanarus directory launch Tanarus, select Training, and choose Review city. Scroll down the list until you see your city name, highlight it, then click on OK. You'll now be able to drive through your city, use recon stations, and test the balance to your liking.

A faster way to export your city is to checkmark the Use Radial Visibility option under the Export menu. While this is checkmarked, pull down the Export menu again and choose Export Full True 3D. This leaves out the Calculating Region Visibility phase which is by far the longest (and most tedious) phase in exporting a city. This will export the same three files as a full export: a .T3D, .AMP, and .DAT file. As with before, just copy the .T3D and .AMP files into your Tanarus directory and view the city under Training/Review city in Tanarus. Keep in mind that you should only use Radial Visibility while testing your city - don't submit a city that used Radial Visibility for play on the Tanarus server.

The final option under the Export menu is Export DAT file only which you can basically ignore. This is primarily used for debugging purposes, and you should never have to use it.

To submit a city for play on Tanarus make sure you first export your city under Export Full True 3D without having the Use Radial Visibility checkmarked. Using Radial Visibility is fine for testing your city out, but for actual submissions never use it - it causes a frame rate hit because it skips the important Calculating Region Visibility phase.

Once you've successfully exported your city under Export Full True 3D, compress the three exported files with the extensions .T3D, .AMP, and .DAT into a ZIP file. So again if you named your city BIGFUN, you would compress BIGFUN.T3D, BIGFUN.AMP, and BIGFUN.DAT into a BIGFUN.ZIP archive. Email the archived city to tanarus@verant.com and use the subject header City Submission.