The Colossus Battlelands Builder

1 BattlelandsBuilder

BattlelandsBuilder is a (crude) tool to interactively create Battlelands for use with the " Colossus " Game. It has the same requirements as Colossus itself, see README and Colossus build-HOWTO .

To create the program, just type "ant bbjar". See the Colossus build-HOWTO . for more details. This should create the BattlelandsBuilder.

You can use it directly, starting from a bare plains hex, or you can give a pre-existing Battlelands as a starting point by loading the previous Battlelands with the File menu.

Editing is point-and-click : click in the middle of an hex to get a popup-menu to change the type and elevation of the hex ; click near the border of an hex to get a popup-menu to change this border of this hex (warning: beware slope or wall who can easily be put on the wrong hex, as there's not much visual clue of their orientation).

If at least on hex is selected (surrounded by red), that means the terrain use a startlist, i.e. custom entry hexes for the defender (like the Tower in regular Titan). If no hexes are selected, normal rules apply.

The "File" Menu:

• The "Load Map" menu item is used to load a Battlelands file in the map. The loaded battleland is merged with the currently displayed battleland. Use "Erase Map" below if you want to start from scratch.
• The "Save As" menu item save the Battleland to a file choosen by the user.
• The "Show Battleland" menu item dump the Battleland on standard output (can be seen only if you have a CLI or a way to access standard output...)

The "Special" Menu:

• The "Erase Map" menu item return the map to the default, i.e. only Plains of elevation 0, and no hexside. Warning: startlist is unchanged.
• The "Terrain is a Tower" is used to specify if the terrain is designed to be a Tower or not (i.e. the TOWER flags explained in FileFormat ).
• The "Remove StartList" removes all hexes from the startlist. See the file format link above for a startlist description.
• The "Fill Edge with Slope" put a slope on every hexside between plains with a difference in elevation of exactly one, unless an hexside was already present.
• The "Fill High Edge with Cliff" put a cliff on every hexside between plains with a difference in elevation of two or more, unless an hexside was already present.
• The "Fill Sand Edge with Dune" put a dune on every hexside between plain and sand, unless an hexside was already present.
• The "Randomize" submenu items are used to generate a random map from a description file (many are predefined). See the BattlelandsRandomizer for a description of the input file. The loaded battleland is merged with the currently displayed battleland. Use "Erase Map" from the File menu if you want to start from scratch.

2 Frequently Asked Questions

• Q I can't get the hex side popup-menu, or my hex side is on the wrong hex

  A To get the hex side menu, you must be quite close to the side itself. You must also not be on one of the outer side, without a neighbor hex, as you can't put a hex side there. Finally, if the hex side is put "backward", that means you clicked on the wrong Hex ; for instance, you must click behind the straight border, on the Sand, to get a proper Dune. Clicking where you intend to get the round part will put the Dune backward.

• Q BattlelandsBuilder let me do something dumb!

  A Well, yes. It's designed that way : you can do whatever you please with it, including surrounding a Tree with dune or filling the map with Volcanoes. It will try to flag some obviously "dangerous" or "wrong" combinations with warnings, but you can use the output anyway (the warnings are comments that will be ignored by Colossus).