Map Size

[xwormwood]

I just looked through the beautiful manual of Global Conflict and tried to imagine who big the world map is.

Question:

how big is the map?

and additional question:

how much bigger could the map become?

The map looks very good, and big enough for a Global Game.

But as a longtime SC player you can't avoid to notice that the maps in former releases (PDE & PT) were bigger (as they showed only a part of the whole world).

Will the current game engine be able to use a world wide map of the same size (something like PDE & PT glued together with a lump of map for the miissing parts of the world), or is the Global Conflict world map right now as big as the game engine allows?

:confused:

[Colin I]

There is a problem with a bigger map - it slows gameplay hugely.

Nupremal's version shows the hot spots in detail and is excellent but takes ages to play.

In the current global there are some features that facilitate faster play - the supply and partisan information keys, the ability to make units sleep and the simplification of unit types (e.g. no AT). This is great it all helps you bang out a turn faster.

What you gain in a world version is strategic options (diplomatic, military, resources). To concentrate on these its good not to have to micromanage the operational side and here scale really matters. For example, if you have the world on a detailed scale you spend your life tracking and moving transports - especially as the Allies.

I want a game that I can get a turn done before work and see the results of my strategic thinking on a reasonable time scale. Other games do WWII operational warfare better but not strategy, so lets play to the systems strengths.

Besides - the modders will make the monster versions - I believe Nupremal is already on this.

[Franky-Boy]

I hope that the game will also include a campaign with the traditional big Europe map from Weapons and Warfare or at least give us the opportunity to import the Fall Weiss Scenario/Map form WaW.

Since I purchased and enjoyed all SC-Games so far, "Global Conflict" will be the game of the year 2010 for me.

[Cantona66]

I also really hopes for a Fall weiss scenario with just the oridinary europe map

[Hubert Cater]

Thanks for the positive responses, always much appreciated and I can confirm that the map can indeed be modded much larger to 512x256 tiles where the current Global maps, i.e. the one that will be included in the release, are 256x64 in size.

Officially there won't be any theater specific maps as we already have SC releases that cover those, but as usual there is no limitation from using the Editor to create these on your own. In terms of importing from previous releases, this is possible to a certain degree as much of it can be imported but due to the amount of data changes for the Global release some of the campaign info (and a few other items) will have to be redone by hand. It is certainly doable though as Pzgndr has already done this (for his very popular mod) for the Global release as well.

Hope this helps

Hubert

[xwormwood]

Yes, this helped!

Thank you!

[xwormwood]

Officially there won't be any theater specific maps as we already have SC releases that cover those,

Hubert, is there any chance that the other releases get an upgrade to the latest game improvements? I would even pay a certain amount of money to get all those older releases into Global Campaign or at a developement level equal to the Global Campaign state of the art level.

Maybe you could offer this some time after the Global Campaign release as Download content?

It is a bit sad that those old gems can't be played with the best possible / avaiable game engine of SC.

[Franky-Boy]

Hubert, is there any chance that the other releases get an upgrade to the latest game improvements? I would even pay a certain amount of money to get all those older releases into Global Campaign or at a developement level equal to the Global Campaign state of the art level.

I would also pay money for an engine update to the old SC2 titles, but I think it would be easier for Hubert to include the classic "Fall Weiss" Scenario with its big Europe map in "SC - Global Conflict" in a future patch/addon.

[xwormwood]

Just one more thought about the map:

i think it is a mistake that the railway tracks between Germany/Poland and the USSR and France & Spain are not interrupted. I work in the rail industry, and i can assure you: changing track width is not an easy task, usualy you need new & different trains and waggons, as nearly no bogie and abolutly no wheelset can be used on two different track widths.

Historical the Germans had massive problems to change the russian tracks to western european standards.

[Hubert Cater]

Good points and to be honest, and even though the difficulties that the Germans had when getting into the USSR are well known, for game play reasons, we'll just keep the straightforward implementation for now. The reduction of supply and reduction of roads in the USSR are there to sort of compensate for the rail reality so to speak.

[CSS]

In Texas!!! We live for the Nupremal monster MOD of Global war!!!

Julius Ceaser may have dreamed of the World Nupremal will let you conquer it!

[xwormwood]

To regain game speed (when playing with monster maps) i would like to suggest, that in a further release it may become possible to "cut" the world in two halves.

While player 1 makes his turn in the west, player two should do so in the east.

When both are ready, the players changes the side, watch the turn of the other player, and start again.

This way it should be possible to reduce the time you are waiting for your human and / or (most important) your AI opponent.

This could safe significant amounts of time.

[bowenw]

Thanks for the positive responses, always much appreciated and I can confirm that the map can indeed be modded much larger to 512x256 tiles where the current Global maps, i.e. the one that will be included in the release, are 256x64 in size.

Officially there won't be any theater specific maps as we already have SC releases that cover those, but as usual there is no limitation from using the Editor to create these on your own. In terms of importing from previous releases, this is possible to a certain degree as much of it can be imported but due to the amount of data changes for the Global release some of the campaign info (and a few other items) will have to be redone by hand. It is certainly doable though as Pzgndr has already done this (for his very popular mod) for the Global release as well.

Hope this helps

Hubert

You use the word modded Hubert, I hope I can explain myself properly on this, can I change the map size of the global game without having to redo units etc. or if you do use the large map you have to do everything from scratch, it does not seem to me like that can be done without starting over.

Bo

[Hubert Cater]

To clarify, changing the map size does just that, i.e. it just changes the dimensions of the map but after that you would have to pretty much redo everything in order to fill in the empty space otherwise you either have the original map in the top left corner (if you made the dimensions larger), or you would have cut off portions of the map if you made the dimensions smaller.

Basically it doesn't scale, i.e. you have to do the work of map making all over again but there are some handy guides/tools in the Extras folder that can auto generate maps of varying sizes. These have been around since the first Blitzkrieg release and most modders end up using them as doing the maps by hand can be quite tedious.

Hubert

[Snowstorm]

Extras folder....sorry Hubert, but I don't recall seeing that. Could you elaborate on that a bit more as to where specifically it can be found? I'm having trouble locating it. :confused:

[Hubert Cater]

With every release, in the SC installation directory, there is a folder called 'Extras'. In there you will find some handy items to help Edit the game as well as some alternate bitmaps, sounds (if applicable) and even some docs on how SC works behind the scenes.

[Snowstorm]

OK, I did find the maps in the Extras Folder, but I still don't understand how to take those maps from the folder and use them in editor to make a bigger map for an existing scenario or campaign. I must still be missing something. :confused:

[Hubert Cater]

To be honest I haven't done it in a while but there should be a README file in there with a pretty good explanation. See if it helps and I think it goes something like you cut out a portion of the map you want to use, then run the MapGen.exe on that new bitmap file and then import the indexes into the Editor using the Import Map Indexes function.

After that you have a basic tile map that you can start working from etc., hope that helps!

[Snowstorm]

Thanks Hubert, I'll try and figure that out. Appreciate the help.

[Bill101]

Snowstorm, I have used this tool quite a few times so please feel free to drop me a line at Bill@furysoftware.com if you do get stuck.

[Desert Dave]

Snowstorm, I have used this tool quite a few times so please feel free to drop me a line at Bill@furysoftware.com if you do get stuck.

Rather than do this one person by one, by one by one, and etc,

Just put up a "sticky" and start at square one, literally,

And go right down the line, step by step,

And include screenshots at each level of X-planation.

That way, everyone who is interested in learning this procedure that you have mastered, can do so... AT THE TIME they are actually working on their own project, eh?

They can just look it up as needed.

In the "sticky thread."

Maybe, copy/paste your simple, but all-inclusive instructions so they are right at hand.

Like that.

[Snowstorm]

Excellent idea, Desert Dave, :cool:

it makes it so much easier that way, not just for me, but all the rest out there who might like to pursue this. How about it, Bill101?

[SeaMonkey]

Ditto that DD. They have the SC2 scenario and mod forum. Maybe that would be a good place to have the editor's fundamental operations stickied. Hopefully HC and the Betas could categorize things and everyone would have a chance to post their innovations, shortcuts, and ideas of how to optimize usage.

Call it the "SC Editor Catalogue".

[Snowstorm]

That's an excellent idea too, Sea Monkey. :cool:

Now if only we could get some feedback from Hubert and/or the beta/mod testers....

[Bill101]

Hehe, I've been a little busy testing a product that I think you'll all be interested in.

But as soon as I get a chance I'll draft something up on the Map Generator.