4 replies to this topic

[asmartgoat]

Hey, will the game have bigger maps, because i eventually want to create a WORLD MAP. which would be awesome

Also, in atlas could we have the option to make a circular map, its annoying to always have to go into the XML file to change stuff .

Thanks,
Luke

[feneur]

That depends on how big you want to make them =) I don't remember exactly the max size, or the exact reason, but there is a limit to exactly how big they can be, but I believe the max limit is quite a bit bigger than the current maps. If nothing else there are of course the limit of how big maps a computer can handle, or how big maps a human can keep track of for that matter

[Pureon]

The editor still needs a lot of work, selecting between circular, square, and rectangular maps is planned for the user interface.

I wouldn't worry too much about map size, one of the maps i opened was bigger than any map I'd ever seen in an RTS, so it is possible. The limit will always be your computer, there's no fun in having a map so big that it's completely unplayable.

[Ykkrosh]

Performance is probably the biggest problem - doubling the map's width and height means it takes 4x as much RAM and disk space, and certain algorithms that process every tile (AI scripts, pathfinding-related stuff, rendering, etc) will take 4x longer, and you'll probably need 4x as many trees and rocks etc so that'll all go slower too. Designing the engine to work independently of the size of the map (as is necessary in e.g. MMORPGs) would add significant complexity so we've assumed the maps are small enough to load and process all at once.

There's a few strict restrictions because of other assumptions the engine makes, e.g. if it's larger than 724x724 tiles then the pathfinder will complain of integer overflows, and position datatypes will likely run out of bits at 5792x5792 tiles (or probably much earlier), etc. I think currently the Median Oasis map is 256x256 tiles, so you'd have to be quite a lot bigger before hitting those limits

[asmartgoat]

So how do we change the size of the Maps?