Converting Maps to Beta4

[KGB]

SnotlinG,

Is the Beta4 Map Editor ready yet for us to start converting maps from Beta3 to Beta4?

KGB

[SnotlinG]

Not yet. Im currently on vaccation in Germany, but will be back in a few days
You can play around a bit with it, but there is a major risk that the converted beta4 maps will not be usable until I have made the final adjustments to the code.

[SnotlinG]

The Mapeditor for Beta4 is now open and working!

[zorro]

How am I supposed to know how big my old maps were?

A note somewhere would help, I dont want to destroy my old maps

[SnotlinG]

zorro, you can use the "Import Beta3 map" as many times as you like, until you get the size (and offset) right. The Beta3 map will not be overwritten or deleted. A new beta4 map will be saved if you are happy with the import and press the Save-button (so even then your old Beta3 map will still be there).

All old Beta3 maps have width 100 tiles and height 150 tiles

[KGB]

Cool.

Looking forward to converting Bullrun and tinkering with the map size, terrain and sites.

Plus I've been waiting and wanting to create a couple new maps.

Has the map limit per user been lifted? If not, can you 'gift' a map to another player under the limit

KGB

[SnotlinG]

Yes, the maplimit has been increased.
Copy-pasting from the News section:

1. Capital starting income increased from 60 to 80.
2. Normal city has now a max (randomized) starting income of 40 (instead of 60)
3. Finished games are keept for 3 days, without FOW, so you can easily check what happened
4. No "level 4" units will be randomized as starting armies in normal Neutral cities.
5. It is only possible to buy SeaCreatures in cities that have adjacent Shore-tiles.
6. The instant-join time has been increased from 10h to 24h (instant join is not possible for ladder games)
7. Increased the number of maps you can work with in the Mapeditor to 10.
8. Increased the number of maps you can have as Finalized to 5.

[KGB]

Snotling,

Of course I read the news after I had already posted. D'oh.

A couple of questions for you (you knew they were coming):

1) What are Level 4 units? Are those the 4 and 5 turn units like Dragons, Archons, Devils or are they something else?
2) I guess there is no way to place an item on the map (ground or city). That ability would be a nice wish list item for later in Beta4 (no huge rush). It would be cool to be able to place artifact item like the Grandfather in a well guarded city to ensure it's definitely in the scenario and players have to work to get it.
3) The editor lets me place armies on the Capitol. If I do that, does the player get those armies in addition to his starting armies or do they only appear if that side is not used. For example it might be cool to make a map called Dragonlords and give everyone a starting Dragon. Or be able to place a hero in a city (you can't place a hero at all right now) so players start with potentially 2 heroes on turn 1.
4) I don't see any way to specify anything about team starts. As can I select which cities go with which sides in a team start for a 2v2 or a 2v2v2 or 3v3 or 4v4 setup? This would be handy to be able to do especially for maps like Middle Earth where you want Isengard/Mordor allied against Rohan/Gondor type thing instead of simply placing the players at random.

And 2 bugs

1) First, I tried to import Bullrun in the editor. At first when I entered the editor I selected a map size of 150x150 as what I guess the editor thinks is a new map. Then I selected Import Beta3 map->Bullrun. Then I tried to save. I know saving takes time but the browser hung for 45 seconds without even letting me name my map. This caused your site to crash. By crash I mean I was unable to ping Warbarons.com or .net. After an hour or so when I tried again the site loaded. So maybe it just got hung instead of crashing. In any case it seems that if you don't cancel out of the editor when you first enter it, you seem to create 2 maps in memory or something. The second time I made sure to cancel then import and it saved fine.

2) Take a look at the screen shot of my map after I imported, saved and reloaded. The mini-map has a strange black portion on the right. Even though there isn't any issue with the right side of the map itself. Is this normal for 150x150 mini-maps? Also the mini-map now overlaps the main map area. As a result I can't edit the upper right corner (2 wide, 7 deep). How do you edit there?

KGB

[SnotlinG]

Yes I had a feeling they were coming


1) Yes, the units are divided into lvl 1-4, for making the randomized-production process easier. So what I call lvl 4 units are Dragons, Archons, Devils, etc

2) Sorry, it is not possible now. In order to speed up b4, we have decided to move "Scenario"-mode into b5. Which makes sense as we will build the tutorials as next step, and they will be using the Scenario-mode.

3) In normal mode, the city used as the players capital will be emptied at gamestart. So no troops or production will be saved there. In Scenario-mode (see 2) this will be possible. Not sure about extra Hero though as you would have to name him in the Editor also then, but its a good idea, will see what I can do.

4) Yes you can. You have a small button called "Map settings" on your right side. Click this one and you can set the teams. Layout is a bit broken though

Bugs:
1. Havent seen that one, sounds more like the site went down, or an Internetproblem. But will make some tests

2. Its a small color/layout issue at the moment for maps 150 tiles wide. Piranha will fix a bigger background image soon, and it should go away. Just dont finalize it yet, as you will then get that black border.
Good point, havent really tried to edit the top-right corner of such a big map. Will think of something

[KGB]

Snotling,

Thanks for the answers.

I'll take a look at the Team Layout part in more detail as I didn't look in there last night when I was quickly converting the map to 150x150.

As for the site crash, it was clearly on your or your providers end because I was still able to access and use the internet. The fact it happens *right* when I tried to save the map makes me highly suspicious it was related to that.

I suggest a 'hide mini-map' button in the editor that hides the mini-map like the grid/co-ordinates buttons do for the grid and co-ordinates.

And no worries about me finalizing the map. I have a fair bit of editing to do after re-sizing.

KGB