IDEA: MP map selector

[Magyar Khan]

Its been an old idea but it wouldnt harm to bring it up here again....

It would be nice if u could in a MP-online game select a map from the campaign map.... just move your mousepointer over the campaignmap and select the area u want and that particular map is loaded....

another solution could be that u could select them offline and add favorites to your map selection and when u get online and host a battle u could pick one from your favorites.....

Every map from the campaignmap is centred on a specific (X,Y) location so it should be available to anyone....

Any suggestions or drawbacks on this?

And yes, the maplayout should -altho small- somehow be available to anyone joining the game

HoooWl Magyar

[Kagemusha]

This should be completely doable as this is exactly how modders choose custom battle maps from their campaign maps.You pull out a consol and use a command line to show the x and y coordinates from a place at the map you are pointing at.Then you just add those coordinates to the text file controlling the locations of custom battles.It just needs a tool to be easily used in MP.

[Magyar Khan]

well it would solve so many things.... we can play every map from the sp game,.... unlimited numerous of maps....

[Kagemusha]

I understand and this is definetely something CA should take a look at.

[ELITEofWARMANGINGERYBREADMEN88]

Plus Magyar, I think we should be to do that with the maps we make ourselves if they include a map editor.

[Kocmoc]

It really depends on how much CA wants to involve the community.

I see some kind of hype right now, now call me pessimistic, but till today CA almost never surprised me with good and innovative ideas or solutions.
Its mostly luck, if things are good or bad, otherwise i cant explain me the current situation, if u play NTW with 2 times or more the same faction.

Now we go and hope that S2 will be pretty good and its once again very nice to see words like "focus on Mplayer", ... alright, i remember many promised things, like a MP Campaign back in STW.
Where is the replaysystem? Where went the logfiles?

2 steps forward, 1 step back.

As i said, it depends on how much the community will be involved. Since the publisher always put pressure on the programmer, i surely wont see my suggestion, but well... i bring it on.

CA coud just bring a standalone Mapmaker and let Player create maps before the game get released. There wont be much time needed to get hundreds of maps, now CA could choose themselves.
To back up some memories they also can remake old maps, like totomi. Not much to do, just remake it and done.


Apart the map, this is already so far...

If the game is good, i dont mind starting with just a few maps. The game itself hast to be good, many other things can be solved with patching.
The basics has to be done, like colored armies, good connections, running units = better controlling, no border bugs, transparent woods, singleunit grouping and so on....

Imo we have to make 10 real important points, which has to be implemented in the game, call it a must.
Im not a programmer, im not in charge of the PR of this game, but what i saw the last years is an old game, which keeps same, just the time it plays at changed.

[Magyar Khan]

eventually we will bring some order in priority of the wishlist.....

[Orda Khan]

It's been a long time since community involvement. Map editor went from a simple, efficient tool into a pain in the rear. It wouldn't surprise me if there is no editor, I expect they will do a recreation Totomi. I doubt there will be much else.

[Magyar Khan]

if i have more time i will make a photoshopped idea around this.... programmwise its very easy to select maps from the campaignmap..... or at least store them as favourites...and make them uploadable when hosting/joining battle....

if u can select any map from the gamemap with or without a castle than i think we have enough to start with....

[Orda Khan]

Magy,
I made maps in M2TW using the x/y co-ordinates, elevation and the particular terrain type I wanted. The annoying bit was the map never delivered what it promised, was usually slightly uphill march for attackers. Most needed editing to at last make the map interesting and a bit fair. When I think of the total maps I had in Shogun and hear what's on offer now .... LOL.
This game could be groundbreaking if they have any sense.

[Magyar Khan]

well orda.... a suggestion would be that every game is played over 2 battles with the same army, as defender and attacker..... ranked battles that is and let the server calculate who won... its easy to be done and brings a lot of fun..... imo more fun that former goodies like king of teh hill and such...

wasnt the number of usefull maps in rome a let down?

[UglyElmo2]

Its been an old idea but it wouldnt harm to bring it up here again....

It would be nice if u could in a MP-online game select a map from the campaign map.... just move your mousepointer over the campaignmap and select the area u want and that particular map is loaded....

another solution could be that u could select them offline and add favorites to your map selection and when u get online and host a battle u could pick one from your favorites.....

Every map from the campaignmap is centred on a specific (X,Y) location so it should be available to anyone....

Any suggestions or drawbacks on this?

And yes, the maplayout should -altho small- somehow be available to anyone joining the game

HoooWl Magyar

That is a really cool idea Magyarkhan. I like it.

[Magyar Khan]

here is a simple example.... lets discuss it

[Swoosh So]

We need something for stw2, the maps in ntw are darnright awful and i mean really bad. I really hope they dont screw up the game with a crap selection of maps, if anyone from ca is reading this, dont put impassable terrain in your games maps and this includes buildings too if your engine and units pathfinding cant handle it ESPECIALLY for multiplayer rolling hills with woods are what people want to play on not the very poorly designed maps of mp napoleon totalwar.
The only half decent map in ntw is galcian ria and it would be 10x better with none of the buildings in it.

[UglyElmo2]

Magy: I guess we are assuming they are going to a campaign map typical of the past few games or do you think maybe they might go for a retro, province-based map like the original (except it will be in 3D this time) ?

If they will have specific provinces, then it would just be a matter of clicking on an area of the map. If it will be the 3D campaign map, maybe the first thing the host would need to do is to pick a map size, then a large square outline (selection box) would appear and the host could drag it around the 3-D map until he found something he liked.

[Kocmoc]

While is might be a good idea, i doubt CA gonna use this idea.

The best we can hope for are some good base maps to start with and a mapeditor.
Again, with some good betatests the unplayable maps should be noticed. Its so obvious, especially since there are 90% of the maps almost unplayable. Not like you wouldnt notice while testing it.