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Here are some of the new HCE maps being proposed for the four slots that will be available for "official" Battlesets.

We'd like to elicit some input on which ones you like, what you like about them, what changes to the map(s) you'd like, or if there are other areas of the world which might make better maps for scenario fodder.

Caribbean Basin

This map covers much of the Southeastern USA, Central America (including Panama), the West Indies (including Cuba), and the northern part of South America (including Venezuela).



If you want to take this map for a spin yourself, download the BattleSet Caribbean Basin.

* Unzip the files into your HCE directory, then start up the game.
* At the "Select Battleset" screen, choose "Caribbean Basin" and click "OK"
* Choose your side and click "OK"
* At the "Select Scenario" screen, click "User Scenario"
* Locate "BBCARIB.SCz" and open the scenario
* Choose your side and click "OK"
* If you want to see the textured map but do not see it, go to the "Settings" menu, then "Game Options" and select "Textured" for both "Land Color" and "Water Color", then click "OK"

Middle East

This maps covers the eastern Mediterranean (including Cyprus and the Suez), the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden, the Arabian Peninsula, the Persian Gulf, and most of the Middle Eastern states, including Israel, Syria, Iraq, Iran and western Pakistan.



If you want to take this map for a spin yourself, download the BattleSet Middle East.

* Unzip the files into your HCE directory, then start up the game.
* At the "Select Battleset" screen, choose "The Middle East" and click "OK"
* Choose your side and click "OK"
* At the "Select Scenario" screen, click "User Scenario"
* Locate "BBMIDEAS.SCz" and open the scenario
* Choose your side and click "OK"
* If you want to see the textured map but do not see it, go to the "Settings" menu, then "Game Options" and select "Textured" for both "Land Color" and "Water Color", then click "OK"

South Africa

This map covers all of Africa south of the Equator, including the Gulf of Guinea, the eastern portion of the South Atlantic, the Cape of Good Hope, the Mozambique Channel and the Seychelles.



If you want to take this map for a spin yourself, download the BattleSet South Africa.

* Unzip the files into your HCE directory, then start up the game.
* At the "Select Battleset" screen, choose "South Africa" and click "OK"
* Choose your side and click "OK"
* At the "Select Scenario" screen, click "User Scenario"
* Locate "BBSOUAFR.SCz" and open the scenario
* Choose your side and click "OK"
* If you want to see the textured map but do not see it, go to the "Settings" menu, then "Game Options" and select "Textured" for both "Land Color" and "Water Color", then click "OK"

South Atlantic

This map covers much of the southern portion of the South American continent, including Argentina, Cape Horn, and the Falkland Islands and South Georgia.



If you want to take this map for a spin yourself, download the BattleSet South Atlantic.

* Unzip the files into your HCE directory, then start up the game.
* At the "Select Battleset" screen, choose "South Atlantic" and click "OK"
* Choose your side and click "OK"
* At the "Select Scenario" screen, click "User Scenario"
* Locate "BBSOUATL.SCz" and open the scenario
* Choose your side and click "OK"
* If you want to see the textured map but do not see it, go to the "Settings" menu, then "Game Options" and select "Textured" for both "Land Color" and "Water Color", then click "OK"

Bering Strait

This map covers the Bering Strait, Alaska, part of the Russian Far East and much of the Aleutians.



If you want to take this map for a spin yourself, download the BattleSet Bering Strait.

* Unzip the files into your HCE directory, then start up the game.
* At the "Select Battleset" screen, choose "Bering Strait" and click "OK"
* Choose your side and click "OK"
* At the "Select Scenario" screen, click "User Scenario"
* Locate "BBBERSTR.SCz" and open the scenario
* Choose your side and click "OK"
* If you want to see the textured map but do not see it, go to the "Settings" menu, then "Game Options" and select "Textured" for both "Land Color" and "Water Color", then click "OK"

Images and Files from this message will be available at least until May 1, 2008.

Oooh, the Caribbean... Been looking for that one...[;)]

Texturing is a bit on the bright side, though. Other than that, my vote goes to South Africa, Berings Strait and South Atlantic.

I like the bright texturing.  Otherwise, it's difficult to see Blue side bases.  I hope all the textured maps are replaced with such pretty ones. [8D]

ORIGINAL: Terminus

Oooh, the Caribbean... Been looking for that one...[;)]

Texturing is a bit on the bright side, though. Other than that, my vote goes to South Africa, Berings Strait and South Atlantic.

Here you have a darker texture...





Both avaible atHG if you want to test them

ORIGINAL: NefariousKoel

I like the bright texturing. Otherwise, it's difficult to see Blue side bases. I hope all the textured maps are replaced with such pretty ones. [8D]

That's a point, I suppose. Blue bases can disappear very easily... If my eyes start to water, I can always turn the texturing off...

ORIGINAL: Terminus

ORIGINAL: NefariousKoel

I like the bright texturing. Otherwise, it's difficult to see Blue side bases. I hope all the textured maps are replaced with such pretty ones. [8D]

That's a point, I suppose. Blue bases can disappear very easily... If my eyes start to water, I can always turn the texturing off...

There are some folks out there that don't see colors so well (me for instance), and it makes having the colors being several shades different a must. IE I can see the blue icons on the lt blue water, but I can't see the blue icons very well on the textured or dark blue water. And the red/pink icons tend to blend into the sandy textures for me. The bright map textures alleviate this quite a bit for me, so I can have the textured maps and not have to go with simply black/grey and lt blue.

Knowing how hard it is for me to see them at times, I can imagine how frustrating it would be for some one with even poorer eyesight that I have.

Well, my eyesight is just fine and I still have troubles finding blue bases on darker areas of land at times.

I also think the brighter texture maps just plain look better than the stock ones too - including the water.

IMO,if you must leave one out, make it South Africa.
Wouldn't mind seeing one looking directly down, more or less, from the North Pole. But then that would require the inclusion of ice, at least for the next couple of years.

That would be fun planetbrains but we do only have the single map projection to work with in this UI so a polar projection won't happen for HC in the near future (H3 ANW does that though).

Something less massively gigantically huge for Asia? An Australian/NZ/Pacific/Indonesia based one?

Hmm, no reason we can't make them available for download as custom battlesets, I'll see about doing that next week.

It was suggested we vote on Map choices for the Battlesets.
Caribbean definitely - lots of possibilites for smaller conflict scenarios - and maybe a few bigger ones
South Atlantic - if only for the Falkland Island scenarios. Have not played any of those since H2
Bering Sea/Aleutians might be interesting
Middle East - I'm so sick of the Middle East I'd say no. Maybe the Indian Ocean map could be just extended a little more to the West?

The Arctic Ocean/Polar seas like planetbrain suggested. Would be interesting. Understand the mapping system could be a problem. The map image could be put under a rectangular grid, but might be awkward.

Fantasy maps? A planetary ocean with 2 o3 island continents or groups of islands? Thinking like Civilization IV here ...

It would be nice to expand the Med battle set to include the middle east. Might bring some interesting Scenarios of Israel kick'n some butt! Just my 2 cents!

ORIGINAL: SteveF2006
It would be nice to expand the Med battle set to include the middle east. Might bring some interesting Scenarios of Israel kick'n some butt! Just my 2 cents!

Yes, the biggest advantage of an expanded or improved Middle East map would be to include Israel in the same map as Iran, as well as the Red Sea. The existing Middle East map excludes both for the most part.

The proposed BattleSets can now be downloaded, tweaked, played with.  You must have HCE 2008.024 to use them.
 
http://harpgamer.com/harpforum/index.php?autocom=downloads&showcat=15
 
 

And the winners are...

Caribbean Basin
South Atlantic
South Africa
Middle East


The loser is Bering Strait


We very nearly enlarged MEDC 2003 to allow us to use both Africa and Bering Strait (make a neat BattleSet by the way) but some installation positioning problems (Haifa in the water as an example) got in the way. Zooming didn't seem to be much of a problem which is surprising given the large area covered.

So will these new battleset contain in the next patch release?

ORIGINAL: ruixilyy

So will these new battleset contain in the next patch release?

Yes, I added them to the game last night (build 2008.041) and will probably release that build to the beta testers today, so they will be in the next patch release.