Masking colour palette request

[The G]

Hello there, I'm currently making a game with AGS and rather than spending ages trying to cover any hotspots with the tools given I've decided to use a mask. I'm using MS Paint and am met whenever I try to import it with an error message instructing me to use the correct colour palette. Unfortunately I have no idea what this is, where I can find it and how I can use it in paint, short of getting all 15 RGB values. I've worked with AGS in the past but after making a couple of rooms I got bored and started on a new idea. This time I'm going to try and finish it to the best of my ability so any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks! 

[Gilbert]

The masks have to be saved as 256 colours.

[The G]

They are saved as 256 colour bitmaps.

[Gilbert]

The problem with M$Pain (and 99.99% of Windows graphics software) is that you have little control over how the palette is managed. For the image to be usable as a mask you need to make sure that in the bitmap the colours used to signify the ares need to occupy the first slots of the palette (for example, most areas have a limit of maximum 15 areas, that means colour 0 is for 'no area' and colour 1-15 are for the different numbered areas). As I always use applications that can work natively with 8-bit images that is not my concern, but for generic apps. like M$Pain it may be a difficult task as they love to mess up your work.

Try searching for topics about masks in the forum. I'm sure that someone had posted about tips for successfully making masks.