How to download and install user made maps

Overview

This guide explains how to download and install maps from the German website Wikinger-tommy.de.

Introduction

Welcome to the tutorial about installing user made maps and levels in 8th Wonder of the World. The guide tries to ease finding new maps on the German website Wikinger-tommy.de, which is otherwise a website in the German language. Later down the line I may do other tutorials for other websites, but this is by far the biggest Cultures map database out there.

Either way, enjoy reading and playing some new content!

Browsing the database

You can access the website right here[www.wikinger-tommy.de].

You will be greeted by the following page:

The 5 big buttons in the most left red box are 5 different ways to look for content. Clicking any of these redirects immediately to a new search. The options are:

• “Mapper” – Translates to ‘map maker’. This allows you to search maps by creator.
• “Map” – Translates to ‘map’ (yes, it does). This allows you to see the whole map list, with the newest map first, and search by keywords.
• “Kampagne” – Translates to ‘Campaign’. This allows you to access certain campaigns, which are sequences of multiple maps. To my knowledge there are only two English campaigns available.
• “Genre” – Translates to ‘Genre’, but it’s basically ‘search by type of map’.
• “Sonstiges” – Translates to ‘Other’. This button shows other content, which are not levels for the game. Think of calenders and games. There is no English content in this category though.

Furthermore, there are several options to aid the search. Change these first before you start a new search.

• “Sprache” – Translates to ‘Language’. You can choose between German (DE) or English (EN). I recommend setting this option to English before every search, always, unless you are interested in German maps.
• “Single/Multi” – This allows you to only show either Singleplayer maps, or Multiplayer maps.
• “Sortierfolge” – Translates to ‘Sorting order’. This allows you to sort the maps alphabetically on either the release date (‘zeitlich absteigend’), title (‘Titel’) or the creator (‘Mapper’) of the map
• “Maps pro Seite anzeigen” – Translates to ‘Maps per page shown’. Simply allows you to define how many maps it should show per search page.

This allows you to pick the name of a creator from the list. Note that it will show all creators who have ever contributed a map to the database. If you have set the search engine to English only, it will still show map creators who have made only German maps, but the maps themselves won’t show.

After you select a name, simply press “neue Suche” (new search).

This allows you to search the whole database. With default settings it will start with the newest map.

Simply click “neue Suche” (new search) to load the maps. You can also enter some text in the text bar to filter only to your input.

This will show all the available campaigns, whether they are in German or in English. If you put a language search filter up, campaigns in a different language will show empty.

The only two English campaigns I know of are “Mighty Swords” and “Cultures Academy”, both created by Alix. After you select a campaign, simply click “neue Suche” (new search) to load the maps within the campaign.

This will only show maps of a certain type. Available types are:

• “(leer)” – This shows all maps without a
  defined type.
• “Kampf” – Translates to ‘Fight’ and it shows
  all maps where fighting is the main objective.
• “Handel” – Translates to ‘Trade’ and it shows
  all maps where trading is the major component.
• “Bummelbauer” – I think you could define it in English as ‘Sandbox’? There are no English maps available in this category though.
• “Rätsel / Logik” – Translates roughly to ‘Puzzle / Logic’ and contains all puzzle / mystery solving maps.
• “Gemischt” – Translates to ‘Mixed’ and it shows all maps which use two or more of the previous types.

This contains all miscellaneous content. There is no English content here. The German content includes pictures, printable puzzles and calendars, screensavers and things alike.

Downloading a map

At some point during your happy time browsing the database, you may come across several maps which seem interesting to play.

The name, description, preview and download button should be self-explanatory. The marked area called ‘Details’ shows some finer information about the map. The blocks are described below, from left to right:

1. The first block (empty in screenshot) will show a ‘K’ if the map belongs to a longer campaign.
2. This block explains in what language the map is. DE stands for German, while EN stands for English.
3. This block defines with what editor the map was made. “Nor.” stands for Normal Editor, which is the default editor delivered with the game. “Int.” is the Internal or Developer Editor, which is only available to a small group of experienced people. (Please do not ask me about this editor.)
4. This block shows whether the map is Singleplayer (S) or Multiplayer (M).
5. The last block shows which game the map was made for. RNN stands for Northland (Reise nach Nordland) and DAW stands for 8th Wonder of the World (Das Achte Weltwunder). Generally you should be able to run the map in the wrong game if you do not own one of the games, but it’s not recommended. The majority of maps are made for 8th Wonder of the World.
6. The box below the 5 small boxes shows the type of map (or “Genre”).

In some cases it will also show an ‘update’ message to the right of the map description, which indicates whether the map has been updated after the initial release.

You can download a map by simply clicking “Download”.

Installing a map

For this chapter I downloaded the ‘Valley of the Tribes’ map from the previous chapter. After the download is complete, launch the executable. Don’t worry, it doesn’t contain any viruses.

When it launches, you will be greeted by this window.

You can accept the terms by clicking on “Annehmen” (Accept) or cancel the installation by clicking “Abbrechen” (Cancel).

If you want, you can tick the “Uninstaller” to allow an additional uninstaller to be unpacked. Without an uninstaller you have to manually remove the map from the game folder. With an uninstaller, you don’t have to do that and you can just run the uninstaller.

Click on “Weiter” (Next) to continue. “Zurück” (Back) sends you back to the previous screen.

If you click on “Durchsuchen” (Browse), you can select the installation folder for the map. This should be the folder of 8th Wonder of the World or Northland. These folders are by default located here:
C:Program Files (x86)Steamsteamappscommon…

Click on “Installieren” (Install) to start the installation process.

It should install almost instantly. Click “Beenden” to exit the installer after it’s finished.

Check the map out ingame

After you launch the game, the map should now appear in the Freeplay map list, under a newly appeared category “User maps”. In case you downloaded a map which was made with the Internal Editor, the map will instead show up straight under “SINGLEPLAYER MAPS”.

Naturally, in case of a Multiplayer map, it will show up in its respective category at the Multiplayer section.

Note that in the screenshot below, along with Valley of the Tribes, I also have a map called The Sandships installed.

Now just click the map and watch it launch. 😀

Conclusion

That wraps up the tutorial! Now some small shameless self-promotion…

The map featured in this tutorial, Valley of the Tribes, is one of the few maps I made for this game back in 2009 to 2010. I truly enjoyed this game and I loved putting my creativity into these maps. I hope some people here may find some fun in them too. You can find all my maps by searching for Mapper, then select “basss”. Please don’t be too strict with them, they were made by a 14 year old non-native English speaking me and may have some grammatical errors in them.

As a finishing touch, I hope you will truly enjoy some of these many amazing maps on this website. This is a part of an internet community I don’t want to see dying.