Opinions on using the map from Victoria Revolutions? It may be a good compromise, but it could take a lot of work...
Last edited:
-
We have updated our Community Code of Conduct. Please read through the new rules for the forum that are an integral part of Paradox Interactive’s User Agreement.
As with most things, I've thought of a work-around solution to the problem of having a single cpu trying to work with almost 3-times as many provinces as in the DH map. Yes hansnery's Turning Point mod and my own Putinmod used the E3 map, was played a lot by guys and found to have problems "later on" with bigger armies etc etc. Also fast-forwarding the game caused it to slow down.
It would be great if you could upload the tools again and give a step-by-step tutorial on how to use them. I have read very old threads on this, but they always had error problems and the Tools seemed very prone to thowing up strange errors?
I was only musing about it and wondering about tools and methods. My solution is in the software side of the map, not the actual drawing of the map. So things have changed since yesterday, when I figured the map would have to be re-drawn, not so to remove provinces. I still have to test my theory, but I'm confident it will work. Cheers
EDIT: Just to be clear, I'm writing about removing provinces from areas of the map where it would not matter for gameplay, places like antartic seas, huge inland desert areas, the amazon jungle etc etc.
Last edited:
- 1
I would be also interested by a comprehensive tutorial. I have no time to make the planned WiF3 map real now but if nobody comes forward willing to do this, I may take the matter in my own hands... not before a couple of years, though.
Let me see what I can do for you guys. Won't happen before the middle of January though, as I am away for the holidays. But unless the map really becomes unplayable I seriously advice against removing too many provinces. The map redrawing is very time consuming.
Please let me pick your brain for a moment.
This is my idea:
The physical map stays as it is, no changes. The "software" controlling the map changes.
As a for instance, in Brazil I see lots of provinces which are actually in deepest jungle, no wars happening there, so I can remove them from the "software".
As a test I choose 3 provinces. I would prefer to merge these 3 provs into 1, but I don't think I can do that?
In the files I remove any mention of these 3 provinces, and change the adjacent provinces to now being adjacent to the provinces on the far side of the missing provinces. So an army travelling across this region would jump across the missing provinces... from adjacent to adjacent, across the missing provinces. In this way I remove 3 provinces.
If it works I continue.
Does this sound do-able?
Well that might be possible, if a bit confusing for the player. He sees the provinces on the map but they do not really exist. But by all means give it a try. You don't need the mapeditor for this.
On further thought: you might try to delete a couple of provinces from province.csv and the relevant mention in the scenario files. Then run the mapmaker again but only do the adjacencies. I don't have access to the mapmaker now, but you probably have to first extract the map files again. The deleted provinces might show up black on the map and the adjacencies calculated around them. But I am not sure. You will most likely run into a boundbox problem because the mapmaker still sees the painted provinces and calculates boundbox and adjaencies based on that.
OK, so I've been messing about with the dh map as a trial. So far I have the map open in MapViewer.exe.
If you want to mess about too, then here is what I did so far.
This is the old thread with the instructions: https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/foru...ility-information-thread.356985/#post-8478683
OR here: http://oldforum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/showthread.php?819186-Tutorial-to-map-modding
Jamie's Map Utility can be found here, well the link is also in one of those pages above: http://www.mediafire.com/file/gtrjx8w3j001t79/MapUtility+v1.2.5b.rar
So make a folder on your desktop and extract the map utility files into it.
Open up the Hoi folder you see there and copy all the files to the main folder, so all the files are in one folder (they need eachother).
Open up the settings file and change the path. Mine was GamePath=F:\Darkest Hour
NOW, if you run MapExtractor.exe, you will just get the DH Lite map, so it must be reading from the map folder and not seeing the Map_1 folder.
SO make a copy of the dh/map folder to some safe place, so if all fails you can simply replace it back again.
Delete the contents of the dh map folder, so you have just an empty folder called map.
Copy and paste in to this map folder, the contents of the Map_1 folder you copied earlier.
Now when the MapExtractor.exe reads the DH map folder, you will be getting the DH Full map and not the DH Lite map.
Run MapExtractor.exe, it runs and closes automatically.
It gives you a folder called "exported maps".
Copy the contents of this folder into the main Jamie's Map Utility folder. So now everything is in one folder, the main Jamies Map Utility folder.
Run MapViewer.exe. It runs and if you click on Go, you can now see the DH Full map. Zoom by changing the zoom setting and clicking GO.
EDIT: As I said, this was just a test. Doing the E3 map should be something similar. It only took a few seconds to extract the files, and this is Windows 10, so it works ok.
If you want to mess about too, then here is what I did so far.
This is the old thread with the instructions: https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/foru...ility-information-thread.356985/#post-8478683
OR here: http://oldforum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/showthread.php?819186-Tutorial-to-map-modding
Jamie's Map Utility can be found here, well the link is also in one of those pages above: http://www.mediafire.com/file/gtrjx8w3j001t79/MapUtility+v1.2.5b.rar
So make a folder on your desktop and extract the map utility files into it.
Open up the Hoi folder you see there and copy all the files to the main folder, so all the files are in one folder (they need eachother).
Open up the settings file and change the path. Mine was GamePath=F:\Darkest Hour
NOW, if you run MapExtractor.exe, you will just get the DH Lite map, so it must be reading from the map folder and not seeing the Map_1 folder.
SO make a copy of the dh/map folder to some safe place, so if all fails you can simply replace it back again.
Delete the contents of the dh map folder, so you have just an empty folder called map.
Copy and paste in to this map folder, the contents of the Map_1 folder you copied earlier.
Now when the MapExtractor.exe reads the DH map folder, you will be getting the DH Full map and not the DH Lite map.
Run MapExtractor.exe, it runs and closes automatically.
It gives you a folder called "exported maps".
Copy the contents of this folder into the main Jamie's Map Utility folder. So now everything is in one folder, the main Jamies Map Utility folder.
Run MapViewer.exe. It runs and if you click on Go, you can now see the DH Full map. Zoom by changing the zoom setting and clicking GO.
EDIT: As I said, this was just a test. Doing the E3 map should be something similar. It only took a few seconds to extract the files, and this is Windows 10, so it works ok.
@fabfeingold , the e3 map did not work at all using the method described above for the dh map. It gave out of range index error. I presume this could be the province id file which also lists the RGB colours? The limit is 3999 while there are 8021 provinces.
So it appears you are the only guy who has done this successfully. Can you please advise and help?
Since the number of provinces is directly affecting the optimisation of the game, these 8021 provinces need to be culled drastically, possibly in Africa, Asia etc, maybe making those areas more like the dh map? This is my plan.
Your help would be much appreciated.
So it appears you are the only guy who has done this successfully. Can you please advise and help?
Since the number of provinces is directly affecting the optimisation of the game, these 8021 provinces need to be culled drastically, possibly in Africa, Asia etc, maybe making those areas more like the dh map? This is my plan.
Your help would be much appreciated.
Nova, yes you also need the respective id file for the map, which lists the RGB codes for all the provinces. You then need to change the limit to 8021 provinces. I tried everything using your method. Also in vain. Thankfully Mumia provided me with the files I needed. You can PM him or wait till I get back home (6th January). I am sorry I cannot help you sooner, but I don't have access to these files on my notebook. I believe if we really want to reduce the number of provinces we need to it propoerly and that means repainting the relevant areas of the map. Bear in mind that Mumia very carefully painted his map to account for a multitude of historical border changes. Hence if you want to merge provinces be very careful which ones you choose, otherwise we would really spoil his work. But I am all for reducing the number of provinces, if it really helps in speeding up the game. We would just have to strike the right balance.
Thanks for the prompt reply, as I know you are on holidays.
2 weeks ago, I knew nothing about maps, but now I feel I'm starting to get an understanding of what is involved and how it works. Using Jamies Map Utility on the DH map explained a lot. But moving on to the E3 map threw spanners into the works.
First it crashed on the E3 map, but as you say, one of the things was the id file only has 3999 ids for the DH map, but the E3 map needs more than 8021? I saw that it changed the RGB colour every 32 points, figured I could do the file and change it to every 16 points and I should have enough different colours? But then I thought of you and that you had already done the work for your own map. Hence the post.
Reading the old hoi2 tutorials on Jamies tools, it was mentioned that the number of provinces directly affects how well the game runs. In my experience with the putin mod, the E3 map struggles, especially the AI struggles.
I see the different layers and how they work. But the Dh map has 4 layers, colorscales, provid, borders and tiles. Yet the E3 map has 6 layers? But the settings file in Jamies tools only allows for 4 layers. I did try changing it, but crash as well.
SO, still more stuff to sort out. I can wait until you get back. Please enjoy your holiday!
.....
I see areas like south america, internals of africa, lots of sea provinces, central asia etc etc as places where the map provinces can be culled. Places where war does not generally get to. I mean keep europe, russia, middle east, mediterranean areas as they are, just cull the peaceful areas. A possible nuclear option in my head is to drop the dh map onto the E3 map, remove the E3 provinces, drop in the dh provinces and join it all up. No need to touch rivers or country borders, just the internals. Just an idea. ... I know how accurate stuff has to be.
So please enjoy your holiday and I'll watch for your post when you get back. Cheers and Thanks
I take it you have seen these two threads, probably won't teach you anything new:
https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/foru...apeditting-tutorial-discussion-thread.529566/
https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/index.php?threads/noobs-guide-to-map-modifications.366310/
I can't remember what the step values of the index are. Probably 8, 16, 32.
Disregard the other two layers. I don't know what they are there for. I believe for nothing. I don't know how to access them either.
Unfortunately your nuclear option won't work. The scales of the two maps are completely different. I believe the best would be to merge provinces. That would take the least amount of work as you just have to erase the borders between them in the colorscales and border levels and then repaint the id color of the deleted provinces with the id color of the remaining provinces in provid. That shouldn't take too long. But if we are talking 1000+ provinces it would still take long hours to do.
https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/foru...apeditting-tutorial-discussion-thread.529566/
https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/index.php?threads/noobs-guide-to-map-modifications.366310/
I can't remember what the step values of the index are. Probably 8, 16, 32.
Disregard the other two layers. I don't know what they are there for. I believe for nothing. I don't know how to access them either.
Unfortunately your nuclear option won't work. The scales of the two maps are completely different. I believe the best would be to merge provinces. That would take the least amount of work as you just have to erase the borders between them in the colorscales and border levels and then repaint the id color of the deleted provinces with the id color of the remaining provinces in provid. That shouldn't take too long. But if we are talking 1000+ provinces it would still take long hours to do.
- 1
I believe I am beyond the age when companies employ people, so I have plenty of time.
That's good news, because you'll need it. Happy New Year!!!
Hey fabfeingold, please see the site cartographersguild.com. All about how to make maps.... great tutorials etc etc.
I have made some modification for E3 Map to look more like DH-full style(With out topographic look).
here some screenshots from putin mod.
Download:https://mega.nz/#!BZECTYwL!DaNud-eztR1z3CDyvOg39q-jxGJTHjRQU9ITjEjCQiU
here some screenshots from putin mod.
Download:https://mega.nz/#!BZECTYwL!DaNud-eztR1z3CDyvOg39q-jxGJTHjRQU9ITjEjCQiU
Last edited:
- 3
I have made some modification for E3 Map to look more like DH-full style(With out topographic look).
here some screenshots from putin mod.
Download:https://mega.nz/#!BZECTYwL!DaNud-eztR1z3CDyvOg39q-jxGJTHjRQU9ITjEjCQiU
Hello! We here are map novices and are trying to take control of this abandoned map so we can improve it and get it to play better.
Unfortunately the Jamie map utility software crashes when I tried to open the map.
You must have mumia's original map files and have also figured out how things work? Can you kindly assist by uploading your files? Can you give a quick explanation as to what is what and how you did your changes?
Thanks
Here are the files that I modded :https://mega.nz/#!hAUiGKSY!LpGqieo5dDUehJDrca4I_Wv_3LO1Pel-Yfq28ak2CsE
and Map utility by mumia :http://www.mediafire.com/file/m9sgdff3gfbxq8y/MapUtility.7z
It only has to work on colorscale to remove all of the provinces border and keep the coastline. after that use the map maker to make the map twice or more than twice if you have more than two layers do you wanted to show on the map. then make a standard layer (lightmap 1 and lightmap 2) and borderless layer (lightmap 3 and lightmap 4). finally combined the lightmap and the DH-style map is finished.
ps. sorry for my bad English
Here are the files that I modded :https://mega.nz/#!hAUiGKSY!LpGqieo5dDUehJDrca4I_Wv_3LO1Pel-Yfq28ak2CsE
and Map utility by mumia :http://www.mediafire.com/file/m9sgdff3gfbxq8y/MapUtility.7z
It only has to work on colorscale to remove all of the provinces border and keep the coastline. after that use the map maker to make the map twice or more than twice if you have more than two layers do you wanted to show on the map. then make a standard layer (lightmap 1 and lightmap 2) and borderless layer (lightmap 3 and lightmap 4). finally combined the lightmap and the DH-style map is finished.
ps. sorry for my bad English
EXCELLENT!
Thanks for taking the time.
Could you possibly upload the ids.csv, objects.txt and settings.txt files as well please? Even attach as a text file and I can change it later.
I ask as I have the DH map working ok, but the E3 map is so much larger that you need to adjust the settings in these files to suit the E3 map. It crashes otherwise.
Thank You.