2017 release Map work

[DRG]

I'm still experimenting with it myself. The Goldap map started as a Venhola generated contour map ( I LOVE that program and HIGHLY recommend that anyone who wants to try their hand at map making for the game learn to use..it is NOT difficult at all once you understand you need to flood fill the entire map to start with page 2, upper left button clear terrain to see the contours..(and also that you need to click maybe three or four times to make sure all the contours are placed...sometimes the game needs to "build" a hill in steps and those additional clicks ensures that is done ) then I add details based on Google map info and working from a 1940's era contour map of the area as the Town is larger now than it used to be.

Depending on just how big an area you are working on the splatter effect can be adjusted to suit the particular circumstances...an entire 200x160 map or a tiny 20x20 but I find for adding in final random details something like 8 or so for area then maybe 12 for splatter allows you to say...add random bits of red earth through a forest that can be built up with extra clicks here and there that can enhance the map.....same thing with pines.....build a forest using the regular trees then add a swath of pines building more here......less there. Or blending combinations of high grass and the other grass types with a touch of earth or red earth or the forest ground cover terrain creates a visual effect on the map that was possible in the past but would have been highly labour intensive.

I also find adding those details is best done with the map zoomed all the way out to see the "big picture" but afterwards you have to check roads for gaps but setting fill range to 2 and splatter to zero allows you to line a road with trees as trees do not paste over roads....other terrains will, but not trees which is VERY handy .

[DRG]

This is a terrain priority list for both games as of March 2017. This is for the serious map markers who may need a reference, beyond practical experience, that show which terrains will dominate and which will be dominated by other terrains higher up the priority list.

So the first ones on the list are the lowest priority and the end of the list is the highest. There are many other terrains not listed ( trees , roads, railway for example because they are handled differently than "earth" terrains.

winSPWW2 and winSPMBT terrain priority as of March 2017

P10_TER95 - Red Earth
P11_TER81 - Earth
P12_TER63 - Red Sand
P13_TER83 - "Beach" Sand
P14_TER65 - Gray Sand


P17_TER20 - Sand
P18_TER55 - Volcanic Sand

P20_TER70PB - Dry Grass

P22_TER00 - Green Grass
P23_TER87 - Grass_2
P24_TER89 - Grass_3

P26_TER44 - Mud



P30_TER93 - Forest Groundcover


P33_TER36PB- very light snow








P42_TER70PB Winter scrub

P44_TER07 - High Grass


P46_TER14 - Sand Dune Patches
P48_TER85 - Cobblestones-Brick red
P49_TER86 - Cobblestones-Stone grey
P50_TER28 - Pavement Hex


P53_TER10 - Snow

P55_TER37 - Winter Snow Drifts
P56_TER35 - Winter light snow


P59_TER72 - Tall Dry Grass


P62_TER02 - Rough

P64_TER79 - Red Sand Rough
P65_TER18 - Sand Rough

P67_TER67 - Gray Rough


P70_TER12 - Rough Snow


P73_TER16 - Winter Swamp


P76_TER62 - Swamp 2 ( Jungle )


P79_TER05 - Swamp


P82_TER48 - Impassible Ground level


P85_TER17 - Winter Crops


P88_TER42 - Rice Paddy



P92_TER58 - Tilled Fields


P95_TER04PB - Green Crops


P98_TER33 - Yellow Grainfield


P101_TER60 - Mid Winter Fields
P102_TER04PB - Harvested Field
P103_TER74 - Crop Stubble Fields ( winter )





P109_TER78 - Winter Stream Joins









P119_TER76 - Ice
P120_TER22 - Water
P121_TER97 - Deep Water

[DRG]

OK Thanks. I need to know from someone actively map making it they think having more than 12 undo/redo's would be useful or not. I have a test version with 36

[Imp]

If its simple some one might find it useful but I think its adequate as it is. That many errors would probably be quicker to fill back to clear terrain possibly following contours & redo it.
I would probably make a save & then edit as needed.

[DRG]

......not so much if you just added a complicated stream pattern then realised it wasn't in the correct place and every twist and turn was placed individually or if you built up a forest in small amounts with the splatter feature then decided it wasn't quite the way you wanted it.

If anyone wants to "playtest" a 36 undo/redo version, PM me with your email address...just remember it will only work with the CD version

[RightDeve]

So I opened the Goldap map, and man, it's got to be the most painting-like and yet realistic map I've ever seen! The colors, the layout of the terrain, they don't look rigidly artificial, but smoothly organic.

How long to create such beauty?

Cheers!

[DRG]

Originally Posted by RightDeve

So I opened the Goldap map, and man, it's got to be the most painting-like and yet realistic map I've ever seen! The colors, the layout of the terrain, they don't look rigidly artificial, but smoothly organic.

How long to create such beauty?

Cheers!

I have no idea.... an hour here, an hour there in-between other work over a few weeks. I didn't keep track but it went through a number of revisions and one was moving the main hill to the south of town using our map tool cut and pasting. Today the Russian border of the Baltic enclave is almost right at the north Map edge ( but that was unplanned ).

To guess I would say 20 hours but that could be way out .......there was lots of 20 minutes here and there tweaking things

Glad you like it.......... if you try a generated battle on it as the Germans be aware the AI for reasons unknown likes to put a Russian force to the north west that gets trapped by the water

[RightDeve]

Originally Posted by DRG

I have no idea.... an hour here, an hour there in-between other work over a few weeks. I didn't keep track but it went through a number of revisions and one was moving the main hill to the south of town using our map tool cut and pasting. Today the Russian border of the Baltic enclave is almost right at the north Map edge ( but that was unplanned ).

To guess I would say 20 hours but that could be way out .......there was lots of 20 minutes here and there tweaking things

Glad you like it.......... if you try a generated battle on it as the Germans be aware the AI for reasons unknown likes to put a Russian force to the north west that gets trapped by the water

I see. Maybe smaller maps could be 10 hours or less. I'm planning to create maps for Kaliningrad & northeastern Poland area for a scripted campaign, so this already created Goldap map could come very handy.
How do you crop a map generated from Venhola though?

[DRG]

Originally Posted by RightDeve

How do you crop a map generated from Venhola though?

With the Extended map editor. You can decide how big you want it then make a blank map that size and save it.... then generate the Venhola and select the same size area on it and using the Select tool. Then after that has been cut you open the blank map and paste it into the upper left corner.....you can make the cut from the Venhola a bit larger.

The key word here is "experiment"

[RightDeve]

Originally Posted by DRG

With the Extended map editor. You can decide how big you want it then make a blank map that size and save it.... then generate the Venhola and select the same size area on it and using the Select tool. Then after that has been cut you open the blank map and paste it into the upper left corner.....you can make the cut from the Venhola a bit larger.

The key word here is "experiment"

Ah.. so what I've been doing essentially.
I thought I read somebody's post in the Venhola thread we can crop the generated map (like "cropping" an image in photoshop). My mistake.

Thanks anyway!