New map - West Berlin, British Sector

[CapnDarwin]

Plodder, my reply to your question apparently got lost in the Verizon void. The spreadsheet values are the target RGB value of the OTS art for the HexDraw maps. The Automapping function is hard coded to look for and tally up those values to determine the composition of a hex and apply the game related values to the location. A custom map not made with these colors as the vast majority of pixels will not scan properly. Thus, if making a new map with other art/colors requires the hand entry of all the values in the editor.

Hope this helps and makes sense. Add posts this time.

[Plodder]

ORIGINAL: Capn Darwin

Plodder, my reply to your question apparently got lost in the Verizon void. The spreadsheet values are the target RGB value of the OTS art for the HexDraw maps. The Automapping function is hard coded to look for and tally up those values to determine the composition of a hex and apply the game related values to the location. A custom map not made with these colors as the vast majority of pixels will not scan properly. Thus, if making a new map with other art/colors requires the hand entry of all the values in the editor.

Hope this helps and makes sense. Add posts this time.

So once I've finished this map, if I make a copy and change all the colours on it to the official ones,I should be ok to use that to automap?

ORIGINAL: Mad Russian

It takes a good while to create maps like these. The most often question we get is why our maps weren't as pretty as <insert modder's name here> maps. This is one huge reason why. I could make one of our maps in a few days. We created more than 25 maps. We all have full time jobs just like you do and we would be still at the stage of making the maps instead of contemplating the next release if we had gone to the level you're going to.

Yeah, this map is definitely going to take a while, I'm constantly re-aligning hills and such, as well as working out what terrain to put where.I'm also constantly researching to see what area was built up in 1989. It's a lot of fun. I'm enjoying it more than the remakes though, as this is entirely my own creation and I'm really going to town with it.

[Plodder]

I've made a mock up of part of the map for testing to make sure I'm on the right track. I'm going to hack up this map to test it in the auto mappper.

[WildCatNL]

Plodder, what works for me is using partially transparent patterns for the urban / forest / fields areas (1 color suffices), so the Map Values tool is still able to see the underlying elevation color.
See the image below (GIS data from Osnabrueck rendered in FCRS compatible colors, with manual stream placement).

Getting the roads to be recognized proved hardest for me. I fell back on the 2.01 Map Values editor.

William

[Plodder]

Nice! I just used the colour replace tool in paint shop pro:

[WildCatNL]

With those forest/lake combinations, be sure to set the edge buffer zone value to its max (9 pixels), so the scanner doesn't see too much of the forest pixels spilling into lake. It might end up with a combination of Forest, Lake.
The fact that you started out with a Hex grid is going to be very helpful.

Good luck. I look forward to your Berlin.

William

[Plodder]

Using the re-coloured map worked quite nicely, I did have to save the map for the roads to be recognised though. I haven't made a huge amount of progress the last few days due to work but I made quite a few changes to the elevations as I managed to obtain a height map from the Berlin city council site. My previous attempt was from GE data and dead reckoning but the council data is accurate to 20cm so I've gone off that. I've also extended the map 3 km east to include more of central Berlin and the Wall.

[Plodder]

Forgot to add a pic. Here's the new elevations:

[Plodder]

..and here's where I'm at overall. I still have to extend the road net and Wall:

[CapnDarwin]

Just a great looking map. [&o][&o][&o]

[Mad Russian]

That attack is going to have to come in at the choke point created by those bodies of water. That won't be easy.

Good Hunting.

MR

[jds1978]

ORIGINAL: Mad Russian

That attack is going to have to come in at the choke point created by those bodies of water. That won't be easy.

Good Hunting.

MR

Yeah....I always assumed the Soviets would just block off West Berlin with a ton of Cat B & C units rather than assault it.

[Plodder]

ORIGINAL: jds1978

ORIGINAL: Mad Russian

That attack is going to have to come in at the choke point created by those bodies of water. That won't be easy.

Good Hunting.

MR

Yeah....I always assumed the Soviets would just block off West Berlin with a ton of Cat B & C units rather than assault it.

Just remember that West Berlin was surrounded on all sides..[:)]

Reading about Zentrum, it seems, imo, that West Berlin was more important to the East Germans than the Russians. It's probably why it was an East German-led operation with the majority of units being East German border guards and "Combat Groups of the Working Class". The only "front-line" units involved were the 1st NVA MR Division and the Soviet 6th Independent MR Brigade.

[Plodder]

Made some good progress today, got the road net and wall done, and managed to get most of Spandau done.

[Mad Russian]

You may want to cut out some of the minor roads. The AI may have a pathing issue with all those roads. If every hex becomes a road hex then you may not get the AI to cooperate.

Just something to keep in the back of your mind.

Good Hunting.

MR

[Plodder]

Most of those roads in are in urban terrain and are mainly for me use as boundaries for the urban terrain tiles. Correct me if I'm wrong but isn't urban terrain automatically considered road anyway so it shouldn't matter?

[MikeGER]

Plodder, if i undertand map making corrcet the final map (after the autoscan and adjusting values by hand) is just a 'picture'.
so maybe you like, when the map is done, to replace two very special hexes in Berlin with two sepcial handcrafted city hexes in your artistic style

1. would be the Reichstag Building
(it tried to get something close to your art-style by working with an aerial shot and color reduction to 4, then Paint ...but my skills are minor.
but you get the idea...mine has way to much detail ...and it should fit your city-hex-style and no stick out.. its more like an 'easter egg'
my 'concept example' is 82 x 105 pixel, because i saw the RS-City1.png overlay was 82p)



2. would be the "Brandenburger Tor"

[MikeGER]

...update [;)]

after some recherche i found out that in the scale of the game with 500m and 64 pixel a hex both famopus buildings are in the same hex.
(so i took a google map picture of 500 x 500m of the area, shrinked it to 64 x 64 pixel, and copy and pasted 'Plodder-Art'-stencils over the right places until it fits)

here is the 64 x 64 pixel hex of Reichstag and Brandenburger Tor in games scale: to paste onto the map
(well, may need some finetune on single-pixel level)

google

[Mad Russian]

ROFL!!! So, now we start to get historically accurate city maps by actual building and street layout.

You guys are finally getting some kind of an idea just how versatile this program is.

Good Hunting.

MR

[Plodder]

MikeGER, that's pretty cool,You'll be pleased to know I'm planning to give the landmarks justice.[:)] In the screenie below you'll see the Spandau Citadel. I'm slowly making my way east, pretty happy with the progress so far. I'm finding that I'm also tweaking water shorelines as I go when I find it doesn't feel right.