I got one map idea for a few days ago, maybe on this week's monday or so. I drew few pages of concept art and I found out that hammer is way too small for my idea and map. It is meant to have very big space where you would have to drive on vehicles for some time. I decided not to mess with "scaling tool" because I can't even find any other scaling tool in hammer than that vertex tool's scaling thing. So that's why I decided to place my map in three different levels on top of each other and they would be connected with massive teleports. Then I ran to this question. Is it even possible to have multiple layered levels in Empires? Because I think that would cause really big issues with the minimap because it is designed to handle only maps which are in on layer. This could be solved so that minimap would change when you change the layer by teleport but I really think the minimap hasn't designed to be used like that and that kind of code is missing and Krenzo won't add it because of only one map. So only solution would be, if the Empires won't support multilayer maps, to use some scaling in my map and that's why I really want to know WHERE ON EARTH I CAN FIND THAT KIND OF MIRACLE TOOL? http://developer.valvesoftware.com/wiki/Mapping site doesn't know anything about it, google doesn't know anything about it and even I haven't ever heard of it earlier until now when I saw that 1:16th map. Or I just used wrong search words in google while finding that tool.
The 1:16th map is created using an experimental server.dll file, which is only available to developers. It makes all players, vehicles, physics calculations, etc. 16x smaller. The illusion if, of course, that the map is 16x larger. It is created in exactly the same way as a normal map, but everything is made 16x smaller than usual. The scaling tool which you refer to is only useful for resizing displacements which have already been created at a 1:1 scale. Theoretically, you could create 16^2 tiles, and test them individually at a normal scale. Then you would use the scaling tool in hammer to make each one smaller, then stitch them together. You'd be much better off waiting for the in-game scaling to be made publicly available. In short, ask yourself this: does my map have to be this big? A common mistake for new designers is to think that bigger = better. If you could create a map that was thousands of miles wide, would you? To be honest, there are more important factors involved. If this is your first map, forget it. Or at least, put it on a shelf somewhere. Once you've had some experience with less ambitious projects, then you can broaden your horizons. If you try to do this as a first step, I can guarantee you that you are going to get lost and fed up with it.
This is my third. :p You have to start from somewhere and yes I know that I probably get fed up with it but at least I tried to do something and got some practice in the Hammer once again. And yes I have asked myself does this map really need to be this big and I could small it up a bit but really not much because the action is meant to take place in big city. As big as current city maps are and those use up almost all the 32000*32000 size of the hammer's grid. (Yes I have taken a look into them for a bit so I could get the scale right. I was amazed how huge those maps must be.) And in order to get into that city you must drive into it across a field which is protected by "phantom turrets" as I call them. The lenght of the trip shouldn't be so small because there wouldn't be any use for the field then. Just blast few shells to the turrets and walk into the city. I want people to drive in it and then start fighting. Edit: And thank you for clearing this thing up even I found that information myself finally.
Well, it seems your idea has a clear boundary between two areas: the field, and the city. Why not make two totally separate maps? You could have the first change to the second under a certain condition, which could be triggered by the victory of the attackers in the previous round. You could have the attackers start in what looks like the same area that they fought towards in the previous round, only more nf'ed up (banners everywhere, NF-style crates scattered, new cover erected). You could then even give it a time-offset from the first round, so they could fight across the field at dawn, then break into the city at dusk. Nobody has created a map like this (to my knowledge), so you could be doing a good thing for the community by working out the details and seeing if it really works in practice. I can't see why it wouldn't. Maybe you could even write us all a tutorial on it once you're done :D
XD Even I'm working on a gigantic project that doesn't mean I'm DA Prroozz 1337 mapper. Even I could do that by help of people and wikis that would be bit too much for my third map. I think I'll just wait for the 1/16th dll to be released because I think this map will take at least that long to get finished. If I finish it earlier I'll think about fixing my map to two separate maps.
