map limitation

[blow56]

I came up with the idea of doing a rolling campaign - basically, btn v btn, no supertroops or massed tanks, just a couple of opposing btns stuck in the bocage near St Lo. What I wanted was to take a 1kmx1km (approx) initial map for Battle One and then the last third of it or less as the start for a Battle Two map.

I discovered an interesting fact - using one map as a template for another eventually results in a limiter for expansion.

The last map of a four-battle sequence would not let me add more than 800m to the previous one. I can only presume it is reading it as ONE 4x4km map, even though nothing of the original maps are left once deleted.

Any way round this?

[De Savage]

I discovered this too. Have you streched map to BOTH directions? It seems normal map is centered and it can be made larger to certain limit. So to maximize map size you need to enlarge it to all directions.

Hope this help.

[LemuelG]

I suspect the map can only be expanded a certain amount in each direction, I have one that is little more than 2km wide and can only be expanded to the east, having added much ground to the west already it wont go any further.

Please fix

[LarsS]

My memory might be way off, but I think someone else brought this issue up a while back, and the fix was to delete all area objectives. After that free expansion of the map was possible again. (Best to save the map before you try, obviously.)

[LemuelG]

Aww, I got all excited - but then I realized I hadn't assigned any objectives, I double-checked to be sure, and there was nowt.

Am currently sitting at 2368m horizontally; westward expansion is not possible, it freely extends to the east out past 2500m (too lazy to go further).

[blow56]

Does not matter if you kill of all objectives, or increase the map in both directions, there is a cut-off point. I am trying to increase southwards in each case and have deleted about 900m of a 1600m map and am trying to get it back to 1600m on the bottom end. By Map 4, this is not happening and I can only assume the AI is calculating all my previous map additions and capping it at 4km as if it was one map.

[Broadsword56]

Here's an approach I'm using to make maps for battalion-level campaigns near St-Lo:

Make a 4km x 4 km map (in progress, see thread: http://www.battlefront.com/community/showthread.php?t=97115&page=7 ) and keep it as a "clean" template (tiled and with roads, but no objects). Then, for battle #1, do a "save as" and use the full 4km x 4km map each time, but mark your current battle #1 boundaries with "landmark" dots. If you want to "enforce" the boundaries, place a row of mines all along them. Do the objects and detailed mapping only within your current battle area. For battle #2, rinse and repeat -- if you want to have the details and objects from the battle #1 area remain in your battle #2 area, then start your "save as" using the battle #1 map and then build on it from there. But be careful on such a large map not to detail too large an area, though, or you may run into excessive computer strain. The nice thing about this concept is that you can do things like place remote artillery observers in their own little setup zones (say, in a church steeple behind the lines). Also, you'll see a landscape in the distance around your battle, instead of the "green carpet" effect on standard smaller maps.

You'll be welcome to use my map for this once it's done, if you don't mind waiting. But the more maps, the merrier!

[StoneAge]

This is where we need a copy and paste ability in the editor. Even if it is used to quickly place a X road, Farm Houses complex or orchard.

If we had this blow56 would be able to just copy his map into a new map and be able to keep mapping until he hits germany. Also would make it easier to combine 5 maps that cover the same area into one larger map without having to rebuild 4 of them.

[JSB]

Argh!

Several weeks of work on a historical map will go to the trash... unless the editor would allow me to shift the whole battlefield 300 meters northwards.

It should'nt be hard to add this feature? X1=X+n, Y1=Y+n

while waiting for a Copy/paste tool

Designing a good map is enough work, the boring repetitive part (like copying a 2x2km map 300m northwards) should be handled by the game editor.

What should I do? Wait for a (not too far) future planned feature? or start a new map from scratch?

[blow56]

Broadsword56's idea has a lot of merit - but my idea was to get round the fact that 4x4km maps seriously damage your machine's health. By using a rolling map, incorporating part of a previous map terrain, you could have a campaign running all the way to Germany if you wanted, and still play it on a 'normal' machine. Obviously the Cut and Paste tool would be brilliant but I am still not sure everyone has quite grasped what I am trying to do.

All that's needed is a bit of sense for the AI, which says that if you delete 90 per cent of a 4x4km map you can add 90 per cent new terrain on one end of it and design from there. Or rinse and repeat that procedure on a series of 1x1km maps to infinity and beyond. At the moment, it won't let you do that, apparently. If you use a portion of an old map and add new terrain it will, eventually, max out at what it reads as the 4km mark of a single map.

B

[De Savage]

+1 for cut & paste. This would really help to make continous large map (campaign).

[LemuelG]

Agreed, it would be nice to be able cut small chunks off large maps for ease of editing and viewing, pasting them back in later.

It would be nice to have a comprehensive explanation of the algorithm behind map-expansion from someone familiar with the code. At least let us plan around limitations.