Campaign/Scenario edit question...

[Malakie]

Hi all,

I am in the process of working up a multi-scenario campaign for CMSF. Currently it has 24 scenarios all with their own designed maps, layouts and sizes. The campaign and storyline are already done, in fact I have 5 completed in entirety. I have drawn on my military background and real life to create the campaigns although they are all hypothetical scenarios of course. ;-)

Now I am simply drawing/laying out the maps, placing the units and so forth.

However this is getting a bit tedious in some ways using the built in editor. The one area especially is in actually drawing the map terrain. I have a few questions about this:

1) Is there some way to 'fill' the entire map or a section of the map with a terrain type, much like the fill command in a paint program?

2) Is there a way to just save ONLY the map itself without roads, buildings and units?

3) Is there perhaps a third party editor that can be used to create maps that is a bit more friendly for drawing the raw maps?

Some of the maps in this campaign are larger and it is not only taking a while to do the layouts but my system really bogs when I try to zoom out so I can see as much of the map as possible during the layout.. If I can find some faster way of doing this, I will have all these campaigns finished in short order now that all the other work is done.

Currently the status on my campaigns are:

a) Campaign is completed except for drawing of the maps for each scenario - The first campaign is a hypothetical attack on U.S. mainland soil and the ensuing struggle to defend against the attack.

Campaign is completed except for drawing of the maps for each scenarioThe second campaign is based in Korea.

c) Campaign is completed except for drawing of the maps for each scenario, some victory locations and a few emplacementsThe third campaign is based in Germany.

d) Campaign is completed except for drawing of the maps for each scenario, unit makeup for two missions, victory locationsThe fourth campaign is based in the upper Atlantic region, Sweden/Denmark/Norway.

e) Campaign is completed except for drawing of the maps for each scenario, victory locations The fifth campaign is based in Taiwan and China.

I Also have 6 other campaigns in design that are about 1/4th completed in story and layout.

Of course I was limited unit wise by what is available but hopefully over time with expansions and such I will be able to update these as they come out with proper unit vehicles etc.

Anyway, if anyone can help on the questions I posed is sure would speed things up...

Malakie

[missinginreality]

1) Is there some way to 'fill' the entire map or a section of the map with a terrain type, much like the fill command in a paint program?

2) Is there a way to just save ONLY the map itself without roads, buildings and units?

3) Is there perhaps a third party editor that can be used to create maps that is a bit more friendly for drawing the raw maps?

Sounds like excellent deep work Malakie; sadly in answer to your questions:

1- Only way is to use the biggest brush and paint the whole thing

2- Just to save the map as a base map BEFORE you add all those things then re-open it and re-save with the different elements added. Though can get confusing!

3- Nope coz the map itself is an integral part of the .btt scenario file but would be sooo handy if there was, even if height maps could be imported, a point oft raised in the forums, or fora perhaps?

Good luck with it all

MiR

[Malakie]

Sounds like excellent deep work Malakie; sadly in answer to your questions:

1- Only way is to use the biggest brush and paint the whole thing

2- Just to save the map as a base map BEFORE you add all those things then re-open it and re-save with the different elements added. Though can get confusing!

3- Nope coz the map itself is an integral part of the .btt scenario file but would be sooo handy if there was, even if height maps could be imported, a point oft raised in the forums, or fora perhaps?

Good luck with it all

MiR

Crap that is what I was afraid of.. Ok will take me some time to get the maps completed then. At least once they are done, updating units to the proper ones for each campaign in the future will be easy to do.

Malakie

[Paper Tiger]

Well, that's a pretty ambitious project you've embarked upon there sir. Just out of curiosity, how familiar are you with the map editor? Your remark about the program bogging when you zoom out tells me that you're working with BIG maps. I would STRONGLY advise you to try your hand at drawing up some small maps with no more than a company on each side and learn how to program the AI to do what it's got to do. While it's not difficult in theory, it requires a lot of work to get a credible computer opponent and since a campaign can only be played against the computer, your skill with the AI will be the most important skill you'll need.

Maps are not difficult to do if you're not too concerned about making them photo-realistic. If you plan to make them highly detailed, then you're looking at about 1-2 weeks minimum just to draw each map.

Then, finally, you must playtest and playtest and playtest each individual mission to catch some of the most glaring errors. The larger the campaign the more errors you'll miss. Trust me, I know because I made a 10 mission campaign and I was appalled at what slipped past me in spite of four months of work.

Good luck with your project. If you need any help with it, this is the place to ask.