PC Map Editor

The highly anticipated second release in the Panzer Command series, featuring an updated engine and many major feature improvements. 3D Tactical turn-based WWII combat on the Eastern Front, with historical scenarios and campaigns as well as support for random generated battles and campaigns from 1941-1944.
User avatar
Mad Russian
Posts: 13255
Joined: Sat Mar 15, 2008 9:29 pm
Location: Texas

RE: PC Map Editor

Post by Mad Russian »

ORIGINAL: Stridor
What we are saying is that there are THOUSANDS of scenarios and maps made by CM scenario designers...THOUSANDS OF THEM...while at the moment there seem to be less than a dozen people making maps for PC. SOMETHING is wrong!!

The PCK installed user base is probably 2-3 orders of magnitude less than the CM user base at a guess.

And if Matrix wants to keep it that way the best way to do that IMO is not supply a workable, easy to use editor. If on the other hand Matrix wants to start closing that sales gap with CM then that same workable, easy to use editor will start to sell A LOT more PC games.
I doubt at this stage that even if PCK offered up a MM which could directly read your mind and then make your map in a blink of an eye, that anything would change.

One thing that would change tonight is that I would start making HSG scenarios in suppport of the PC game system. As it stands now I won't.
At any rate no MM for PCK was ever advertised or promised by Matrix.

Okay. That's fine if Matrix wants PC to be a low end sales game. If Matrix wants PC to be a high end sales game IMO it must have a good editor and an easy to use MM.
As a curious side note I know from download statistics that more than 50% of people who have download the MM have had little trouble making maps for PCK.

Regards

S.

The issue is that the tutorial and the actual feel of the MM is not an easy job. More than one program is required etc......not everybody is proficient at using photo shop style programs. Now Stridor is this where I tell you that 20 people that have downloaded that program, that was an example, not a specific.

Good Hunting.

MR
The most expensive thing in the world is free time.

Founder of HSG scenario design group for Combat Mission.
Panzer Command Ostfront Development Team.
Flashpoint Campaigns: Red Storm Development Team.
rickier65
Posts: 14252
Joined: Thu Apr 20, 2000 8:00 am

RE: PC Map Editor

Post by rickier65 »

MR,

Maybe it would help Matrix and Kois if you would put some specifics about what you expect an "easy" map maker to look like. What Stridor has done is give those of us who want to make maps now a tool we can use, and I think a failry easy one.

Eric at Matrix I think was looking at possibly a map maker/editor in the next release of the PC system, so what Stridor's done is a bonus.

And I'm pretty unknowedgeable about paint programs. But can use paint.net well enough to do this.

But to get back to the point, and maybe what you wanted this thread to be, how about putting some specifics? If you were sitting down at the keyboard, what do you want to see on the screen to start you making your maps? What are the things you want to be able to do with the map maker?

Rick
User avatar
Stridor
Posts: 1391
Joined: Sat Sep 08, 2007 11:01 am

RE: PC Map Editor

Post by Stridor »

Maybe it would help Matrix and Kois if you would put some specifics about what you expect an "easy" map maker to look like. What Stridor has done is give those of us who want to make maps now a tool we can use, and I think a failry easy one.

Agree 100%

Simply saying "I want a powerful easy to use map maker" is actually just stating the bleeding obvious as far as I am concerned. Not very helpful.
And I'm pretty unknowedgeable about paint programs. But can use paint.net well enough to do this.

I am a firm believer of not reinventing the wheel. If a MM needs a comprehensive 2D editing suite which has been done to death 10^99 times before and much much better than I could do why not just leverage that. Especially when it is free and comes on your machine by default.

I wonder how many CM scenario designers used an external word processor to type up their scenario backgrounds/briefings etc [;)].

Regards

S.
User avatar
Prince of Eckmühl
Posts: 2459
Joined: Sun Jun 25, 2006 4:37 pm
Location: Texas

RE: PC Map Editor

Post by Prince of Eckmühl »

ORIGINAL: Mad Russian
Okay. That's fine if Matrix wants PC to be a low end sales game. If Matrix wants PC to be a high end sales game IMO it must have a good editor and an easy to use MM.

Good enough, but BF had what you consider a good map editor and they dropped its associated game because they couldn't justify the latter's development on economic grounds. Where do we go from here?

PoE (aka ivanmoe)
Government is the opiate of the masses.
User avatar
Prince of Eckmühl
Posts: 2459
Joined: Sun Jun 25, 2006 4:37 pm
Location: Texas

RE: PC Map Editor

Post by Prince of Eckmühl »

ORIGINAL: Mobius
Plenty of sides can be run with the Russian delays: Italians, French, N. Koreans, Syrians, Egytians, modern Russians again.
I'm gonna think really, really hard, sleep some, and then start a new thread regarding this approach to developing a righteous sequence of play for a tactical wargame. Even now, though, bleary-eyed and anti-histamine sedated, a boardgame titled Wellington's Victory is rolling one 10/7 split, after another, in this tired old head of mine.

You've been warned! [;)]

PoE (aka ivanmoe)
Government is the opiate of the masses.
User avatar
Mad Russian
Posts: 13255
Joined: Sat Mar 15, 2008 9:29 pm
Location: Texas

RE: PC Map Editor

Post by Mad Russian »

ORIGINAL: Rick

MR,

Maybe it would help Matrix and Kois if you would put some specifics about what you expect an "easy" map maker to look like. What Stridor has done is give those of us who want to make maps now a tool we can use, and I think a failry easy one.

I'll use whatever you come up with.

Eric at Matrix I think was looking at possibly a map maker/editor in the next release of the PC system, so what Stridor's done is a bonus.

I agree fully.
And I'm pretty unknowedgeable about paint programs. But can use paint.net well enough to do this.

But to get back to the point, and maybe what you wanted this thread to be, how about putting some specifics? If you were sitting down at the keyboard, what do you want to see on the screen to start you making your maps? What are the things you want to be able to do with the map maker?

Rick

This discussion is going nowhere. The comments I make seem to be viewed as a direct attack on Stridor and his work. That's the last thing I want to happen. I have nothing but the greatest respect for what he's doing and is continuing to try to do.

Matrix hasn't entered into this discussion at all. To assume that they are interested in another form of map maker would be presumptuous on my behalf.

Until Matrix joins the discussion I don't see there being a reason to discuss a map maker. Stridor has a map maker mod for the series now. That's obviously working for some of you. That's enough said about it.

Good Hunting.

MR
The most expensive thing in the world is free time.

Founder of HSG scenario design group for Combat Mission.
Panzer Command Ostfront Development Team.
Flashpoint Campaigns: Red Storm Development Team.
Post Reply

Return to “Panzer Command: Kharkov”