Will the QB system have randomly generated maps...

[Thomm]

Could someone please explain the mega tile concept to me (or direct me to a thread which does)? I mean, what would it mean to a bog-standard pick up and play fella like me? (I don't have the talent or patience to design scenarios myself). How would it differ from what we had in CMx1 and what we have in CMSF?

A mega tile is a self contained patch of multiple standard (8m x 8m) CMx2 tiles, which can have as much detail as desired down to flavor objects (e.g., street lamps).

The random map generator will pick mega tiles from a selection of pre-made mega tiles and arrange them randomly to form a new map. During this process, the map generator has to ensure that the selected mega tiles interface seamlessly, i.e., roads or rivers are not broken at the boundaries of the mega tiles, but run right across them.

In the end, the random maps will be random arrangements of high-quality sub-sections (mega tiles), connecting in a sensible manner.

Best regards,

Thomm

[panzermartin]

Well think of it of some kind of pre made mini maps put together to create a bigger one in a semi random manner. The tiles will be user made but in a way that can connect to each other in different ways/directions. So more complexity and sense than CMx1 generated maps and more variety than CMSF.

EDIT. I'm waaaay too slow

[Barkhorn1x]

Well think of it of some kind of pre made mini maps put together to create a bigger one in a semi random manner. The tiles will be user made but in a way that can connect to each other in different ways/directions. So more complexity and sense than CMx1 generated maps and more variety than CMSF.

EDIT. I'm waaaay too slow

Someone get Charlie Kibler on the line!!

[Battlefront.com]

There is no possibility of having a pure random map generator. Even a basic, really bad one would take a lot of time to make and it would suck, so why bother since nobody would use it?

The MetaTile concept has been discussed in depth in other threads and defined pretty well in the past few posts. But here's it in a nutshell...

End users make maps like they do for current QBs. They will have to be of some preset size, or perhaps sizes, such as 80m x 80m or perhaps 160m x 160m. The end user encodes the map with certain "tags" that help the map generator work more efficiently. The player specifies what sort of map he wants (sorta like CMx1) and the generator assembles one from the maps at its disposal. It smooths out "linear" things like walls, rivers, roads, etc. so the map has overall continuity. It also places down Setup Zones and Victory Conditions based on the player's settings.

It's fairly straight forward in concept, however we think it will take quite a bit of effort to get working well. The difference between this and a random map generator is we are sure that we will get a really awesome and powerful feature into the game for our development efforts. We have exactly the opposite feeling about a random map generator.

Steve

[Pete Wenman]

Steve while you're here - any chance the mega tile concept can be used so you can save a small area of tiles to a "resource bank" - so that church, graveyard and surrounding trees (as an example) can be used in mutliple scenario maps without having to be built every time. I would happily spend time on really well constructed tiles if I could save and reuse them. Hope this makes sense.

[Battlefront.com]

Yes, the idea extends to being able to bring MegaTiles into the Editor as well. How exactly this works is yet to be determined, but the idea is along the lines you just outlined.

Steve

[Mord]

EDITED: He beat me to it...

Mord...The Uber Groupie.

[TheGreatRadish]

Thanks, I understand it now. Sounds like a good concept that could prove to be very powerful.

[Squatdog]

I don't know what you guys are talking about.

And yes, it's cool that I can see all my little dudes running around shooting, but urban combat is a total nightmare. The abstraction of CMx1 made it more realistic IMO, because you just clicked "assault" on the buidling and would hear the sounds of gunfire and hand to hand combat and eventually one squad would prevail (the one with more SMGs usually). Now, in CMx2, you order an assault on a building and your dudes file nicely into a little column and into the room, stop, and then start to look around, guns at the ready. Oh wait!, by that time they're all shot to death by the 3 guys with AKs in the corner!

100% correct.

Building combat has been broken since launch and the devs have literally done nothing to fix it. Fudges like manually assigning fire for every single room is hugely wasteful and impractical, not to mention unrealistic as your troops end up firing wildly through the ceiling like Mexican bandits.