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### Creating a New Map

Creating a new map is a simple process (but if you are coming from Sauerbraten, it is different from there). There are two ways: Using the wizard, and manually. Both methods are described below.

## Using the Map Creation Wizard

The map creation wizard is the simplest way to create a new map and get started with it. It basically involves just filling in a small form on the Syntensity website:

- Go to your account page.
- Under Tools, click on Map creation wizard.

- Pick a 'location' for the map, which is the path for the map asset. For example, base/my_new_map.tar.gz (all map assets must start with 'base/', and end with '.tar.gz' - this is explained later in this page).
- Leave the 'original map asset' at its default value of emptymap (unless you want to start from another map). Emptymap is a simple, empty map, and a good starting point.
- Leave 'Requisition and select a server' at its default value of checked, so that a server will be prepared for you.

- Click submit.

- The website may work for a short while, after which you will see a notice about success.

- You can now connect to the server running your new map: Run the client program, log in to the master server, and then do 'connect to selected...'

That's it!
You can now work on your map. See the workflow page for some tips on saving changes and so forth.

- Note that when you leave the server running your map, it will shut down (to save CPU, and to be ready to run other maps if people ask it to). So if you log into it later, it may not be running a map, or it may be running some other map. In order to continue working on your map, requisition a server. Also, don't forget to save changes to your map before you leave the server, by uploading the map, as explained in the workflow page.

## Manually Creating a New Map

Creating a new map this this way takes longer, but you do learn some things about the platform along the way.

- Create a map asset. This is an asset that will contain the map geometry (map.ogz), map script (map.js) and entities (usually entities.js), and possibly additional scripts and other files like images.

- To create a map asset, the easiest way is to 'clone' the 'emptymap' asset. On the main website, www.syntensity.com - not in the client program - look for an asset with location base/emptymap.tar.gz and owner __initial_data_creator__. To do this go to the Tracker (see the link in the upper right on the website) and click on the Assets tab. View that asset (by clicking on its location) and clone it (or, you can clone any other map, in which case you will start from a copy of that map).
- You can then edit the map asset information. It is important to edit the location property, as this determines the name of the directory used for the map (if it collides with other existing maps, that will prevent proper caching of data, and people using that asset will experience unnecessary downloads). It is also a good idea to edit the comment property at this time.

- The location should be in the form base/MAPNAME.tar.gz, where MAPNAME is some name for the map. Note that the location starts with base/, which indicates it is a map, and that it ends with .tar.gz. The .tar.gz part is necessary because map assets are archives (bundles of several files - the map geometry file, map script file, map entities file, etc.). See assets for more information. Note that you can also use names like base/scifi/mars_station.tar.gz, that is, to use a hierarchy of directories (here, 'mars_station' under 'scifi') - this is fine as long as the location starts with base/ and ends with .tar.gz.

- Create an activity. An activity is always linked to a map asset, and contains additional information such as how many people played it in the past, etc.

- In the asset page, click 'Create an activity based on this asset.'
- Note that you can edit the name of the activity, so it is easier to find later.

- Run the activity in a server instance. Server instances are the 'game servers' that your client connects to when you play a map. To edit your map, you need to connect to a server instance that is running that map (or more specifically, that activity). There are two main options:

- Requisition a server instance, or
- Run your own local server instance

Updated on Oct 15, 2009 by Alon Zakai (Version 18)