New to FM, quick question on 'dungeon' style layouts

aster

Hey all, this is probably a simple question but for the life of me I can't figure out the solution...

I've got to put together a number of old-school Gygax-style AD&D maps for a project and will hopefully be using FM8 for the job. Started cobbling together some dungeon layouts but have run into an issue - the "room" tool creates rectangles with a solid border in its entirety. Is there a way to remove this border on a single grid square to indicate an open passage/archway? I know the "hallway" tool can do this, but that seems to work a bit strangely - occasionally adding a thin line instead of open passage, lack of ability to close it off with a dead end, etc. Also what if I'd like to have 2 full-sized rooms with an opening?

Essentially it seems like dungeon layouts aren't all that flexible in FM, or rather that the tools make one take some complicated steps for seemingly simple tasks. Any trips/suggestions/tricks for putting these together?

Ed_NBOS

Use one of the non-fractal tools, such as the rectangle or polygon tool. You probably dont want the 'Dungeon Room' tool here. Thats a 'custom tool' - thats just an example of using the scripting api to create a new drawing tool.

If you want to remove a section of the wall, you can do any of the following:

1. Draw the room shape and its walls separately. Use a filled shape for the room with the fill and line color set to the same color (or with a 'clear' line style), and one or more polylines for the wall. If you are snapping to a grid, this is very easy to do. You can group the walls and room if you want to keep them together if moved.

2. Draw a shape or line over the segement you want to remove, using a rectangle with the same background but no outline.. This is probably the most common way people do it.

3. Draw all the rooms & corridors with the corridors overlapping into the rooms. Then combine them into a single shape by using Actions -> Combine Polygons. This is what I usually do. This is particularly good for merging caverns together.

You can also leave the lines in, and instead add a small rectangle to denote a door (if its closed off)

I'm assuming this is what you are trying to achieve:

MarkOliva

Another thing you might want to try ... if you want the real Gygax AD&D 1E look ... is mapping with symbols rather than drawing tools. I forgot who made these, but you can get the free Blue Classic symbol set for FM8 here:

http://www.vintyri.org/downloads/blueclassic.zip (149 KB)