What I want to do is remove all the AI triggers and rally points from the maps, and then create workable random maps for on line play.

I want to do this since my attempts at making maps have turned out to look very amateurish.

And these maps have very nice graphics.

Well designed maps are rare in C2. most players will not use the maps that came with BFE, because they are not balanced.

So it is likely that I will also try to work on those maps as well.

I just need to get the hang of this stuff.

I had been hoping that someone would step up. but I guess that there are not that many of us die hard C2 fans out there.

I'm hoping that some fresh maps, may spark some new interest.

Thanks for your help,

Daddio

Well Daddio,

If I understood it correct, you want to use a map , delete the 'mission' stuff and transform it into a Skirmish map.
Is it a missionS map from the campaigns, is it one from the tutorial campaign, is it a Sector map from the Total War mode or is it a battle map? Depending on which it is, certain additional actions may be required in order to delete any reference to scripts, zones,....

Your right, some of the maps do look good, though i have to say, i'v seen some pretty amateuristic made areas in some of these maps aswell, i could show you some screenies , but thats not gonna contribute anything. I understand that if you create a map, your not entirely satisfied of it. And indeed its a good way to learn how things work with an existing map.

Have you created a working skirmish map already ( of your own-from scratch)even if it looked bad in your opinion? Cause if its just a matter of learning to make a nice looking map, then you should learn that, and i could help you i guess, because using an existing map , will always have certain limitations to it. Unless you dont mind and think , this particular map would be cool to have for skirmish...
Still making your own maps is in my opinion the best way to get ' the hang of this stuff'.

I'll be honest, I only once created a skirmish map for CII a year or 2 ago. But at the time,i just didnt like CII, cause, lets face it , it was so different from CI. But now that i know there is more functionality to it, i got intrested again. I should have started making this site for CI years ago, but well, thats life...

Map creation has always been my favourite occupation when it come's to game's, there isnt a game that i have played that i havent created maps and scenario's~Campaigns for. I started making my first maps in 1998 if i remember well, that was for Caesar II. Moved to Caesar III then, and a few years ago Caesar IV. Also made maps for Children of the Nile, Empire Earth I & II, Command and Conquer Red Alert II, Yuri's revenge, C&C Renegade, C&C Generals and Zero Hour, C&C Tiberium, SimCity 4 and Rush Hour, Rome Total War (+BI & Alexander), Cossacks I , ...but unfortunately i have virtually no experience with Cossacks II... I think its about time that changes, epicly late, but hey...

So I'll help you out, cause I want to be able to do it aswell. I know pretty well how CI map creation works, but CII is somewhat a different cup of tea. Though its not entirely new its structure and usage of files , so I'm confident it will work out just fine. Just need to find out all the functions, options, hotkeys and usage of things.

So you say, that maps on Battle for Europe aren't balanced well, quite possible, haven't played that version to much actually. And you want to create more ' balanced maps'. I take it you mean create equal amount of resources for each player ( each access to the same amount of mills , mines,....) and somewhat equal space to build right? Sounds fair ;-)

Now as for your question in one of the above posts. Was the last picture above your post the link nodes/rally points/id zones you were talking about, or was it something else you were referring to?

I read Triger Tricky his ' quick start' on map making again, but it lacks a lot of information I realised. Though he did a great job, it can use an update, so I'll probably head off starting trying things out and write down along the way.
If you got any questions whatsoever, let me know, i dont mind at all.
Btw, which map exactly did you have in mind changing , or were the above questions more in general so you can apply it to any map?
Couple more things come to my mind, but its dinner time now ;-)

Regards

Angel

I have it pretty well cleared using your advice.

Just hope that a lot of the ai scripting does not interfere with the maps playability.

Yes I am a rookie map maker. and the TT map guide is a translated version and is hard to follow especially for me.

Thanks for your help.

Daddio

Tried to delete everything related to zones, capturable zones and all units and buildings.

I noticed if you save the map under an other name and then load it, those capturable zone's appear again, but all stuck toghether.
So you also have to delete any reference to them in the 'map options/Start parameters' in the toolbar.
Then save.

The only thing that is left on my map now, are those circled areas, which i dont know at the moment how to delete, and also for each player there is still a command center present, though the building is no longer there,( you can still see it in the mini map) and if you click on it you get the image of the command center, but no way of deleting it so far.
I gotta think where this is defined, probably in starting positions somewhere, but havent found it yet.

Dont worry bout the ai interfering with your map, if you save it under another name, the ai script that is supposed to work with that map shouldnot work on it, simply cause it has no reference to its name.

All im worrying about are those circles left on the map and the command centers, because, if you will place new command centers, its possible that troops that are scare will rally towards those spots rather then the new ones you create.

Not so easy after all.

I have placed my roads, mines/Mills and stone.

But am up against it on the setup of the mines and mills.

I think i have it set up. but no one comes out of the buildings in peace mod. Plus i get no icons ether.

So I must be doing something wrong.

But my head hurts, lol

Try again tomorrow.

Daddio

Added (06/May/2009, 9:51 Pm)
---------------------------------------------
I believe everthing is ready to go, but Have you ever used the map loader?

I filled it out, but I get a message that C2 is running, and I need to close in order to load.

Of course its not running, and I even rebooted, and it still say the same thing?

Daddio

No , i havent used it to be honest. Which version are you using it on. 1.00, 1.1 or 1.2,.. ?

How's the map going?

Been working on one aswell, but it goes a bit slow, haven't done a lot last days...

If it doesnt work, there is still the regular way to test it, or even use other programms to pack up the files to distribute ( easy-click install, ...)

Regards

I still haven't been able to delete the Command centers.

But do not think they will show up during the game.

Just need to load the map, and get past this last bug.

Daddio

(mail preferably)

Still haven't found a solution to those com centers beeing displayed.

Daddio

Yes, i received it earlier this week. Had a quick look at it yesterday, but haven't played it.

I think it looks pretty good ( in general), eg you roadworks look good, nice division of resources.

Though a few suggestions which I noticed on a first look.

You use the small stone's to extract from the stone menu. I dont like this, it looks really ugly. If you do want to use these, use control and select all stone's one by one, and then paint them, it will look more random and slightly better. Use the smallest brush and create random stone mines, instead of a big round pile of stones. It will add to realism. But the best way for stone's, is actually not to use these, but go to the tree menu, and use the #STONESTOEXTRACT. These look a lot better, and are also the one's used by gsc in game. Again, with ctrl for randomization. Secondly, to add more realism, you can also use #STONESAC, these cant be harvested, but placed around the extractable stone's, will make it look like a real stone mine.

What a cool move you did with those blue areas, you moved them over the water. Very creative given the circumstances. Barely noticable if you dont know.

Another thing was, in the middle on the top, where you moved the 'blue' command center, and deleted buildings and threes, try repainting that area or place threes on it, cause it looks a bit ugly.

Also, i noticed, that some of the 'village's have already soldiers standing nearby. Up on loading/Starting the game, it will add soldiers again, hence doubling the amount. You could say, well then its harder to capture them, yes, but thats not how you should do it. If you want it harder, use the additional settlement information and increase the squad size (cop).
Some of the village dont have them. This is because you probably did it in more then one time and saved in between.
Be carefull with this. To avoid this from happening, after loading the map, load it again straight away and there wont be any extra soldiers and only then save.
Upon starting the game to play, it will work properly then without having double peasants on food mines and double soldiers amount in the villages. I hope this makes somewhat sense.

There were a couple more things , but they cant have been too important, cause I already forgot them.

About the earlier post concerning the map installer. I have tried it out and for me it works fine. I dont have the problem you encountered saying that the game was running.
Clean up your pc, look if the game is properly registered in regedit, make sure the tool is installed on the drive where your OS is installed.
If this problem persist, i suggest taking contact with the creator of the tool. I recently had contact with him, and he seems a nice guy. So I'm sure he will help you out on it.
Alternatively, untill a solution has been found, do you know how to get your map running, without the tool?

I'll post it quickly, in case someone else is reading and wants to know, because i dont remember that been written down in the tutorial.

Save your temporary maps in the (default) Data/designed folder.
Once you want to test the map from the skirmish/battle menu, copy the m3d from the designed folder and paste it in the Data/Mission/Skirmish folder.
Rename it to the next skirmish ( eg Skirmish11.m3d)
Go to Data/Missions/singlemiss.txt and there add +1 to the total amount on top (eg 11 instead of 10). Add the name Skirmish11 at the bottom of the list.
If for some reason , like on my computer, it doesnt allow you to save the file, then there are two options. Copy the file to your desktop, change it there, save it there, then copy and paste it back in the data/missions folder and replace if asked. Alternatively, set the UAC for the whole CII to your ownership ( Vista) and on XP untick the 'read only' box in properties.

Next file to change is Data/Missions/Text/SkirBatlnames.txt. This file will define the name that will show up in the skirmish/battle mode. Eg #Skirmish11_TXT Angels Training Grounds or whatever you want to name it.

And then one more file to change. Data/Missions/Mission.txt
At the bottom copy the one from Skirmish10 and paste it and change for skirmish 11.
Eg:
#Skirmish11
#Skirmish11_TXT
-
Missions\Skirmish\Skirmish11.m3d
Missions\Skirmish\Skirmish11.txt
2
Interf3\maps\skirmish\skirmish10.jpg 700 330
91 305 847 229

I used the picture of skirmish10, because I couldnt be bothered to make a preview as long as the map is in test stages. Only change this once the map is in the final stage, otherwise its a waste of time making a preview for it.

All of the above can be done from within the editor with the control +E and it will automatically save it all up for you, but quit frankly, at the moment, i think this is the easiest way.

This was in case you want to make a skirmish from your map. If you want it to be a battle, use the same logic but then for battles.

Another thing, if you want to quicktest your map without having to go trough all the above, you can test it from within the editor, there's this hotkey for it, and i cant remember it exactly now, but its something like ctrl+A, alt+A or ctrl+Q , alt+Q. It waits a few seconds, and then it loads up the game, and you can start off playing with the color that was previously selected.

Ah, yes one more thing i remember now from your map. Though i haven't played it, some of the villages are set up kinda weird in my opinion, its possible that it works fine, but, thing is, for example the mills. You have set up the information for them, and they will work, but since you only selected the mill in the group, i dont know where the peasants will go to to drop their resources, since they need a building in the mill group to drop off the resources, and then the packhorses bring it from there to the closest storehouse/towncenter. So, when you set up a resource group, select the resource generator +1 building and then create the group. You can still add additional buildings near these groups for additional defence. Also, i dont know where the peasants should come out if the villages is recaptured since there is no building attached to the group. Have you placed those farmers/peasants, manually on your fields? If properly set up, there is no need for manual placement of peasants, except the starting peasants.

Well there you go, just a couple of ideas to make your map even better.

If any of the above didnt make sense, pls let me know.

Ill play the map tonight or tomorrow to see if there's anything else.

Regards

Angel