RFC: Map Editing Manual

[Edi]

All those who have had trouble with the instructions in the mapedit.pdf, please let me know what the most problematic commands are, what information is missing and what could use clarification.

I figured that as long as we're getting a new modding manual, we might as well go for broke and toss in a new Mapmaking manual too. I have a fairly complete draft version ready and the following things have already been somewhat addressed and clarified, but if you feel like commenting on them wrt the original mapedit.pdf, please feel free.

• Map file parsing vs game setup, what happens where
• #terrain command and terrain masks explained in significant detail
• Poptype command and how it works wrt independent province defenders, including how to set NI poptypes.
• #feature & #knownfeature and how they work wrt unique sites and how #knownfeature works wrt "on discovery" properties of sites
• Clarification of formatting and where number information can be used
• Whole document reorganized for easier readability
• Some clarification on god commands, but I'd like feedback on just what information exactly is missing and how they work, limitations etc.
• All tables updated to contain complete information. No need to refer to mod manual for nation numbers.

That's the main highlights. Now, sing out. This is your chance to give feedback and affect things.

[Edi]

Hmm... Things to add:

• Mention of white pixels and how provinces are determined
• Some more clarification on map image editing
• Red borders & automatic neighbor determination
• Section on Random Map Generator

[Ballbarian]

Great idea Edi!

I was going to mention the confusion with map images, white pixels and borders, but it looks like you have that covered. I wish something like this would have been available when I started fiddling with maps.

[Edratman]

Good idea.

I think the section detailing actual map making should be the last section of the guide. From my experiences map editing, I am not making a map and do not possess the skills to comtemplate making a map, but I am editing existing maps. I think many more are like me.

Maybe include a example map edit, with a pretender given some items would be a good idea. I really learned how to edit from some examples Gandalf posted way back when. The guide makes sense now that I know how to edit, but seemed pretty confusing initially.

[Sombre]

I think the manual should contain a suggestion of the kind of size the graphic should be in relation to the number of provinces. I mention this because I recently resized a 50 meg map to 10 meg and it's almost impossible to tell the difference, because of proper use of the default map zoom.

[Edi]

Can you give me any hard numbers on that particular example, Sombre? It'd be helpful. Such as what the map dimensions were initially, what they were after and what you changed the defaultmapzoom to.

[Sombre]

Well I'm not really the right guy to ask about maps because I don't do map graphics. I resized the image to 50% and the defaultmapzoom is currently on 1.00, but I don't remember what it was originally.

I think some of the mappers here will be able to give guidelines though.

[Edi]

If you resized to 50% of original, just double the pixel count on dimensions, e.g. 800x600 >> 1600x1200. With targa files, pixel dimension size correlates directly to file size, obviously. I've played around with defaultmapzoom myself, so I'm familiar with it.

[Sombre]

Yeah I know the pixel size (2000x1700 from 4000x3400), I'm saying I don't know the original defaultmapzoom.

Anyway 2000x1700 for 180 provinces on mapzoom 1.00 and it looks pretty good.

[Edi]

Update/changelog:

• Section on obsolete commands and their limited functionality in some cases
• Missing #defaultmapzoom entry added
• Start location commands have detailed explanations
• God commands thoroughly tested and corrected accordingly