Cartography 2.0: The Universal Thread.

Hello there, my name is baal Gardevoir, and this is my challenge and this is a thread dedicated to listing every good idea for Custom Maps/Scenarios, and cataloguing support for them all. If you support any/all of the ideas listed below, comment ":thumbup:", and any comments you may have. If you do not support any/all of the ideas, comment ":thumbdown:" and explain why you do not. Let me take this time to say that Custom maps are what set AtWar apart from every other strategy game known to man. The better we make them, the more original we become. Without further adieu, here it is:

1. Simple Scripting/Coding

Supporters: 8

Summary: With simple scripting/coding for scenarios, Cartographers will be able to produce impressive feats of gameplay innovation that were once thought unthinkable. It would use a very dumbed-down pseudo-code- so simple, in fact, that anyone could understand and comprehend it within minutes. There would be a series of Namespaces (EX: "Infantry"), and commands (EX: .Move) that can be edited to do various things. For example, by writing "City(London).Move == 1", you are stating the the City of London now has the ability to move, just like a unit. After that, you could say "City(London).Range == 5" to give it a specified range. You could also say something like "Player(X).Capital = City(Moscow).After(Turn3)" To change player X's (would be a specified player in the list/scenario) capital to Moscow after turn three. You could also change "Turn3" to "Minute47", "Second12", and so on.


2. Custom Streamed Music

Supporters: 8

Summary: Ever play an amazing scenario set at a specific time period, and wish the default OST's music sounded more like that era? Well, with the ability to add your own custom tracks, streamed right off of YouTube, you'd have that ability. Basically, there would be a box that has up to a max of X slots for custom tracks (I'd say 10), and you could name each track (So it displays during a match for a brief moment), and provide a link from Youtube for the audio.


3. Faster Enabling/Disabling of units

Supporters: 9

Summary: So, say you're creating a unit, such as the Tesla Soldier, and you wish to limit it only to countries in Russia and Bulgaria. You would now have to manually go to each city/country, and enable it, no? Well- Why not just have a grouping function, where when you are prompted to enable/disable the unit in places, you simply click the countries/cities you wish to enable it in? When you would do this, every city/country would also be listed in a separate box for organization.


4. Faction and Country-specific units

Supporters: 9

Summary: Now, this one's a tad confusing! Basically, sometimes we want sides of a scenario, or map, to start with their own units. For an example, Australia has Kangaroo Commandos, and New Guinea has Angry Cannibals. When New Guinea conquers Australia, they cannot use Kangaroo Commandos, because they are specific to only the player starting in Australia. BUT, Australia also has a Space-Elevator in the middle of the Outback, which has Orbital Drop Shock Koalas as a unit specific to that LOCATION. When New Guinea conquers this Space-Elevator, it can use the Orbital Drop Shock Koalas.


5. Tick-Box Option: Universal Peace until war is declared manually

Supporters: 8

Summary: Basically, from turn 1 on, everyone shares peace, until someone manually declares war on someone else. This would be an option for Custom maps/scenarios.


6. Better Events

Supporters: 8

Summary: Well, in Meester's thread, he only goes over giving cash during Scenario events. I'd like to add to that: During an event, music clips could play, stop, graphics could pop up, videos could play...etc. I would focus it down to Cash and Videos/Gifs (If streaming videos cannot be done this fast, it could just be a Gif/Image/Presentation of images accompanied by audio), which could provide story narrative, to say the least. Players could also have a tick-box for an "Event round", where a time limit is put on this round, to evaluate the event, your standings, and battles.

7. Better Unit Infoboxes

Supporters: 6

Summary: So, you want to upload a larger image of a unit, or a vector, or hell- maybe even a 3D file. Well, with Better Unit Infoboxes, you can set a thumbnail in the normal image box, and when the infobox is expanded or hovered over, the larger image appears to the left of it. Infotext would be much longer as well, and any other useful information/graphics/audio would be present. I would also like to add better organization to this summary- having the ability to make new unit "classes' (Land/Aero/Marine) and color-coordinate them, or use patterns, etc. Also, let's pin the idea of custom unit icons to this as well.

8. Dynamic Time

Supporters: 7

Summary: Well, so we started this game with 4 minutes- then some clueless n00bie decided to make in 1-2 minutes, and now our expansions are fucked! Well, no worries, with Dynamic Time, a cartographer can set the default times in turns, so that progressively, everyone has more time to do whatever they need to do. If someone finishes early, they could view their Events early (The ones that do not involve Battles) as well.

I support every single one listed.

Support all

SUPPORT AAAAAAALLLLL

Bamping for great justice.

Support all and bump

Would support all except the streaming of own music, better infoboxes, better events (at least in the way gard proposed it) and dynamic time. Those sound not reasonable or would use way to much traffic.

Leave out the graphic one. I don't feel like seeing Jeff's horrid face, thanks.

I like and support them all.

I support all

Support 1 3 4 and 6.

It's hard to believe I wrote this in 2013, it's far more depressing to realize this game hasn't changed since then.

Support

I support 3, 4 and 5.
2 would be awesome as well, but legal issues are probably a problem here. 1 is also great for those into it, but imagine the coding the admins would have to put into it...