nwg

Folks, We are blessed with heaps of really good maps in NTW2, a huge quantity supplied by our very own Gunner24 as well as significant contributions by The Lordz (of course!), Totola and a raft of others.

I don't want to be critical in this thread, if you simply don't like a map then don't bother posting here, this thread is meant to point out real issues that are present in some maps so that they can either be potentially corrected, deleted or otherwise gotten around.

Regards,
Moopere

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Ongoing List of problem maps:

1) Greinsalz

Not a big problem, but probably solvable. The main buildings in the defenders zone can be shot at and will catch fire, but after they are 100% destroyed the graphic of the building actually looks fine. I think there is a sprite (or whatever its called) for burned down/rubble buildings and this would be a possibly better result.

2) HillTopHavoc

(Sniipet from apost by CeltiberoFrog ) That village on a huge central hill is full of unit bug motions. the defenders got caught mostly because they could not really deal with those tricky moves between houses.

3) Saalfield

The village casts a shadow, but doesn't actually appear. Still obstructs movement. Frustrating

4) DENNEWITZ 1813

There is a wall around the main building that seems to be floating in midair, OK thats only cosmetic doesn't affect game play.
There were some problems in and around the buildings in moving units into and through areas where there looked like plenty of room.

5) Openfields5

There is a wall floating in mid air around the bunch of buildings near the centre of the battlefield. Some of the buildings also hang off the hill in the air a little. Constricts movement and is generally weird.

6) NeutralGround

This map is "artillery bugged" with artillery movement impossible in certain places....

To get the ball rolling. I was playing the Marsh map today and noticed that several of my units were killed off immediately, even before I could deploy.

To recreate the problem start a 2v2 game as the attacker. Before deployment you will notice several dead soldiers in the marsh pools.

Gunner has created a very similar map called:

04_Marsh_NEW

Which I suspect he has done to correct this problem with the original Marsh map (I think he posted about this). My suggestion would be to replace the original with this replacement map.

Cheers, Moopere

Correct M.

This is a very good example, there are many maps that need "correcting" (i m o). Some of which are mine.

But, this is a tricky subject :

Who is it up to ?.
Who says a certain map needes correcting ?.
Who does the work ?.
How do you get everyone to upload the new maps ?

You see the problems, some get corrected and the old ones deleted and pretty soon you have mayhem in the lobby becasue everyone has different maps. This is something for the Lordz to do I'd say.

I did the marsh one for just this reason and not one person (other than you) has made any comment about it at all.

I'd bet there are over 50 maps that could be vastly improved with a few hours work, but I'm not going to get involved in that unless asked to by the Lordz and it's all then packaged by them and used by the whole Community - otherwise it's wasted time.

Meg /bdc / badger: are you looking in here ?.

At the moment I find it's easier to make brand new ones, and just not use the old ones that are not popular !.

The Lordz for those maps that they have taken under their wing. Up to the individuals or 'caring' others for the rest.




Which is why I put in my little disclaimer. This thread is not meant to be a popularity (or other) contest simply a list of maps which have indisputable physical issues.

We could start another list whereby folks list maps they don't like and put up intelligently thought through reasons for that dislike - but not on this list please.




Whomever the 'maintainer' of the map is. We can run this type of thing much like open source software. The author is usually the maintainer, but if there is a lack of interest, and contact should be attempted to find out the interest level, then others can put their hand up. Or, if there is little willingness then the maintainer of the core software, which in this case is NTW2, deletes or otherwise sidelines the affected problematic software.




Via the Lordz. They are the ultimate 'hub' as they say themselves, for all things NTW2.




** Nod **




Its a fine map actually, very nice. Hear that guys? Play this map - its tough. Think hundred hills but harder (and better!)

"Saalfield" (sp?)

Active in 1v1+ games.

The village casts a shadow, but doesn't actually appear. Still obstructs movement. Frustrating.

Thanks Conq. I've added your report to the list.

Regards, M.

Gunner24,

My I suggest, in order to reduce the mess about the maps between members you often denounced, you upload all your maps.

That way, all NWG players, at least, will have the opportunity to be brought into line with you. If I understand well, NTW2 and CB maps are the same. Therefore, only one upload would be enough and we download it twice in each folder.

What may be your opinion about that idea?

Cheers,
Paul.

I'm so confused about the maps "issue" I really don't understand it any longer.....I have put my maps everywhere for people to upload if they wish. Many will not upload new maps unless they come from the Lordz - for some reason.

Moopere has put ALL the maps into one map pack as well on the nwg wiki site......

Moopere did explain the current problem on the chat page a week or so ago but I'm not going to re-install the whole of ntw2 just because there are a few map problems......I think it might be sorted out when / if the Lordz issue a new map pack.

If they don't do a new one, well, we will have to deal with that later.

No, I'm sorry to say it won't. The problem is with the reuse of existing co-ordinates by differently named maps. So long as the older maps remain in someone's directory they will struggle when others try to join games with these maps.

Its a real problem. Only way to fully solve it now is to ask for a community wide purging of the maps directory followed by a reinstall of all maps.

M.

You know what M - I pointed this out on the Lordz site over a year ago.....it was always going to lead to problems if it was not looked after correctly.......see here :

http://forum.thelordz.co.uk/viewtopic.php?t=7868


I agree, this seems to be the only way to resolve it, BUT who will do that, the Lordz (all 2 or 3 of them) don't seem to have much time for ntw2 nowdays.

SVK is making it's own mod that it wants all to use - I'm not sure if that will work out or not.....is there is no one in Command of ntw2 any longer !.

Please see this post on the Lordz : http://forum.thelordz.co.uk/viewtopic.p ... 884#110884

Hi M.
OK have found the map i mentioned its DENNEWITZ 1813
There is a wall around the main building that seems to be floating in midair, OK thats only cosmetic doesn't affect game play.
There were some problems in and around the buildings in moving units into and through areas where there looked like plenty of room.
Not sure i can be more specific than that M.

Thanks for the report DougieJ. Its worth noting even cosmetic problems as they can often be fixed relatively easily.

I've got to think about paying some attention to this list now as I'm not certain any fixes are likely to come from the usual places. We (NWG members) need to think about whether someone has the skills to fix maps with problems or whether we should just push them aside for now by deleting them and keep copies in an archive someplace for possible future work.

Regards, M.

Fixing maps is VERY hard work, I've amended two of mine, one was easy and the other very hard.

Deleting maps is not a good idea in my opinion. What will happen is what has happened, they sit there and don't get used much.

But if you want them "fixed" I could have a look and see, BUT, is it ok to fix a map someone else made ?. I'm not sure about that.

Its true, the different maps might not be under a released open licence from the original author. We could ask said author if they have any issues with an update but they may not respond or may not grant permission - which is why I suggested deleting these maps from the standard bunch. This is more or less how things work in the OSS world. You use software under an open licence until is no longer functions (for one reason or another) then you either fork the work (modify it) or ask the original author to do more work. If an arrangement can't be reached then you move the offending software out of the way and either replace it or learn to live without it...whatever seems appropriate.

The NWG can probably host an official-unofficial maps pack including all maps without known issues and that are free to redistribute.

Regards, M.

Regards, Moopere

Oh, a thought that just came to mind. Its come to light recently (for me anyway) that M2TW is just a veneer over RTW and that the engine is either the same or almost the same as for RTW. If this is really true, and I've not tested the theory, is it possible that the maps are constructed in the same way as well? Are there any map editors out there for M2TW which are a bit easier to use than the rather clunky thing that was provided for RTW?

Anyone know?

Regards, M.