HUGE Maps

[Qazerowl]

Not sure if this goes here, but, my Question is: Would anyone be interested in playing on a HUGE map, like 500x500.
I ask this because I recently figured out how to make as big a map as I want, (I could make a 1000000x1000000 if I wanted to...). If you would be interested in such a map, what size would you like it to be? Oh, also, the map wouldn't suck; it would be good quality.
(Yes, I am aware that making a map that big would take a long time.)

[meowreka]

Only in a campaign. As a multiplayer map, no. Even in a campaign, that's a bit of a stretch.

[Qazerowl]

It wouldn't have to be 500x500, It could be 300x300. How would you feel about that?

[Kalajel]

Last time I checked, the map aditor went all the way to 200x200 and even that's pretty big. Heck, the biggest MP maps I've seen don't go over 100 and it takes a considerable time to play on those… That's the main problem with big maps, it takes a lot of time to play on them; often much more time than the average Wesnoth player has available…

[MrEPIC]

A map that large will be hard to play on older systems.

[Velensk]

A map that large would be hard to play period. Quite boring too I imagine.

[Aethaeryn]

A map that large would be hard to play period. Quite boring too I imagine.

Anything larger than 100x100 would probably take more than two days for a skilled mapmaker to do it right and make it look good. Maintaining and balancing the map would be next-to-impossible, so it'd have to be limited to something like an RPG or some other WML-heavy scenario. Altogether, it would take months to finish. And this is not reaching the theoretical size limit yet.

Perhaps an extremely large map would look good for minimum effort if you first made a better random-generation algorithm.

[Dave]

Not sure if this goes here, but, my Question is: Would anyone be interested in playing on a HUGE map, like 500x500.

Do keep in mind that this is 250,000 hexes. Playing such a game will take forever.

I ask this because I recently figured out how to make as big a map as I want, (I could make a 1000000x1000000 if I wanted to...).

Actually I don't think you could; not unless you worked out how to distribute Wesnoth across MapReduce. No available hardware could possibly handle a map this large.

David

[Thrawn]

Using maps that size would make a conquest of the new world type mod possible, if someone wanted to try stuff like that XD

[Aethaeryn]

Using maps that size would make a conquest of the new world type mod possible, if someone wanted to try stuff like that XD

But it would be better to break it up into smaller maps with a small "world" map that allows you to travel between battlefields if you want a massive campaign.

[Sangel]

Using maps that size would make a conquest of the new world type mod possible, if someone wanted to try stuff like that XD

Just because the Wesnoth engine can be used for something doesn't mean that it should...

[silene]

For the record, the engine will behave strangely for maps bigger than 200x200. For instance, the pathfinder may no longer return the shortest path between two hexes.

[Ken_Oh]

I've wanted to make a huge map myself. There are a few issues though that I'm not sure you're on board with. First, a multiplayer map is just about out for anything that large, unless you want to spend the rest of eternity playing it. Second, all of the AI on the map can take forever to do its stuff. I wish it didn't, because I would love for the AI to do everything quicker in the background to have the eventual results be actual rather than fudging things. You can, however, stone/petrify units to make the AI skip over considering them.

And, lastly, you can make your map as big as you want as long as you make the interesting parts dense enough. I don't, however, believe in size for size's sake. First have something to put there, then expand the map to fit it, not the other way around.

[Rya]

I already think 40x40 is pretty big and boring in multiplayer. If you need more than 3 turns from your castle to the enemy castle it starts getting boring and the game can drag on forever.

However for RPG mods and the like a huge map could be quite interesting.

[Mabuse]

for "normal wesnoth" this is no good idea -
since the gameplay wont support maps this big -
(doesn make sense to move units around for 10 turns (and a spearman will move 50 hexes in 10 turns - go figure) or more to get them into battle, and this only if you use the units with the highest movement)


... and even for RPG maps and stuff 200x200 should be more than enough.
...and working on such a huge map with details and special things and making areas interesting will take a lot of time.

furthermore, it is not said that a smaller map would not provide the same overall fun -


i once made a 160x125 map for an SX and this was already over the top (and honestly i didnt even use the map space i had at maximum, lots of areas were not significant, and its very diffcult not to repeat the same over and over again on such a big map, so you also need a lot of inspiration)


overall there are a lot of cons for big maps (and i mean big maps that go beyond 100x100 (well, 100x100 is already big :p))

- it takes a lot of time to make
- it takes a lot of time to play
- if a smaller map offers same fun, players will prefer the smaller map instead, so your effort is wasted

im not a fan of mini maps (for sx ---- if i MAKE a map, since i always lack space then ), but a medium sized map with good detail level and a well thought gameplay has a much higher chance of being a success, overall the people want to play maps that can be finished within a day or an evening (a resonable amount of time)

so you can better make 2 maps instead of one big map.


that was only for SX-RPG maps, for normal wesnoth gameplay big maps are anyway unplayable and dont make a lot of fun

EDIT:
-------
for other types of gameplay (if you would be able to recruit units in villages for example), bigger maps could be playable (but 200x200 is still more than enough, and the chance that it wil look s.hitty grows with larger map size)