I thought I had this figured out by creating an info_player_start, which allowed me to spawn in as a player on emp_coast to run around on my own map (after using 'map emp_coast' in console), but apparently that wasn't it. Now after I wait the 60 seconds for the round to start, I click after seeing "Click to respawn...", and the map just reloads and starts over again. How does one load and join a map after compiling it in hammer to test it?
you need at least one of each of the following entities inside the map bounds emp_info_params (contains settings such as start-resources and tickets) emp_info_mapoverview (where the initial camera position is, you can have multiple of those) and either barracks (emp_nf_barracks/emp_imp_barracks) or spawnpoint (emp_player_nf/emp_player_imp - also make sure they are enabled) for each team command vehicle(s) are no requirement, neither is having two of them. also you will need a <mapname>.txt file in your <empiresdir>\resource\maps folder. it describes the minimap. you can just copy one and rename it (also edit the contents to fit the filename; duststorm is almost full grid size, so i suggest take duststorm). edit: its out of my head, the entity names might not be a 100% accurate, but you should be able to find them just fine.
Weird. After a bit more troubleshooting (with none of your suggestions working), I found that I simply had to restart Empires to get me to be able to spawn into the map. The map already has everything you listed but it still restarted when I tried to join. It was in some sort of strange mode that I haven't seen before - it asked me if I wanted to Save the map before quitting. I dunno. Thank you for the help, though. I'm sure your post will help someone in the future.
