Map Drawing Tools

[PhyseterCatodon]

Hello everyone,

I was wondering whether it is possible to draw on the world map, either through a function in-game or through a custom layer. I remember watching a YouTube video a while back in which the player did just that, but I am having difficulty finding out exactly what he did. Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Greetings,

-Physeter Catodon

[Amnectrus]

Unfortunately, there is no way to draw on the map. If it was being done in a video, it was probably done with the video editing software after the video was recorded. You can make reference points on the map in the game, and you can make rectangles or circles of reference points, and you can change the names of reference points, but there's no way to draw your own arrows or other markings on the map like you would in a paint program.

[kevinkins]

To my knowledge, you can not "draw" on the map to create novel geographic features i.e. water, land boundaries or elevations like in a game like Combat Mission. In other words, you can't add missing islands or create canals where they do not exist in the Command world. The Command world is the world. You can add facilities like air bases and ammo dumps. But that's not what I think you are asking about. You can add a custom overlay layer that makes Command's world look more like Google Earth in the areas where you place the overlay. From a top down view. That's a nice feature. But Command does not recognize the overlay in its internal physics combat model. So the overlay is cosmetic from what I understand.

Kevin

[PhyseterCatodon]

Thanks for your replies!

To clarify, what I meant by "drawing on the map" was drawing simple shapes to keep track of my own planning. Arrows to show which air bases are launching strikes at which targets, for example. Or circles around important targets so I can keep track of them. In some scenarios there's a lot to keep track of.
I understand it's not possible. A shame! I think it would be a great feature.

[stilesw]

There is one way to do something sort of like you want. You can create a "No Navigation" zone and uncheck all the options per below. All your units can freely enter the zone and it will show up as a highlighted area.

-Wayne Stiles

[stilesw]

Addendum. It would be nice if there were an option to select different colors for the zones instead the standard maroon one.

-Wayne

[kevinkins]

PhyseterCatodon

Based on the end result you would like, it might be easier to keep track of that stuff on a physical note pad or print out screen shots of critical map sectors and inked them up based on your plans. The Command map can get very crowded even as is.

Perhaps a way to tab through missions and their progress by displaying filtered map views could better way to organize the "tactical control center". But even that produces a different kind of clutter i.e. dozens of tabs.

No one person would in reality command the operations we fight in this sim. There are dozens of trained people in front of banks of computer screens to do that. At least since the computer age.

Kevin

[Cik]

it would be neat. DEFCON has this feature, granted it's multiplayer so you can guess what happens.

but theoretically it's a useful planning feature :^)

[BradOrbital]

There is a program called Epic Pen. It creates a transparent layer over your game etc. and allows you to draw and so forth then save as an image. Perhaps that could be a solution for now till drawing is added (if ever)? Google Epic Pen, it's free. So basically, you'd show the area you want to do a drawing over, load epic pen, draw and write what you want and then save the image and load it up when you want to reference to it.

[LMychajluk]

Maybe take a screen shot, then paste that into an image editor to mark up as needed?

[SeaQueen]

As far as custom layers go, when a scenario involves ground forces, I draw things like phase lines, unit boundaries and other operational graphics on top of the overlay image. I just use GIMP.