Map maker....

I'd expect a map maker in the new year. SE:IV didn't get it's map maker until v1.35...

-----

Space Empires Depot | SE:V Balance Mod

You mean a map generator like this one?

http://www.spaceempires5.com/en-US/project/rmg

--
You have reached an imaginary number. Please rotate your phone 90 degrees and try again.

I thought that program generated SystemType entries but it does real .maps - so I guess that means .map files are not encrypted like the game files are - which makes sense though.

-----

Space Empires Depot | SE:V Balance Mod

so does that mean if the map files aren't encrypted then someone could bend their programing skill towards making a map editor (a real editor, not just another map generator).

Yup, making a map editor would be fun. I doubt I'll have time for a while to do this, though. I suspect by then someone else will beat me to it

--
You have reached an imaginary number. Please rotate your phone 90 degrees and try again.

Any programers out there see the start flag wave?

Please...

I had expected that .map files would be some sort of text file, so that they could be opened with a text editor and edited, but it appeared to be jibberish when I tried it.

Editing with a text editor would indeed be a cumbersome method of editing maps, but hey, its better than no means at all to manipulate maps! Gal Civ allows me to do this IIRC.

At this point, can .map files be opened somehow and edited?

I don't think this would work, That gobelty gook of wierd numbers isn't text. Even if modifing some text in a file like that changed anything in a positive way, it really would be a shot in the dark. I've done some editing like that in games before, but usually there is text near the location your editing that gives you some clue as to what your editing.

SEV, more than a feeling.

What you're seeing is assembled machine code. This can not be edited by a standard editor like notepad. Ever open an .exe file?
You'll see the same stuff except the file is in exe format. If you change 1 random character the whole instruction is lost since notepad doesnt save properly or any other editor. Meaning if you type a few characters and save it in notepad it will be meaningless for the computer to read it. However if you get an assembler to write an instruction that happens to have the same characters, it is written correctly and the computer can read it.
Furthermore simply opening up a file with machine code and simply saving it in a standard editor can ruin the entire file.

I used the map editor on SE:IV, and was not pleased. I found it very hard to do, IMO, the simplest things. The editor should be graphical. Pull downs are nice, drag & drop is nicer. What I'd like to see is the following:
1) Generate a random Map (user to select from the same map types available in game)
a) Save Map
b) Load a saved map
c) Edit Map
2) Edit Map
a) Add/remove Star Systems, Planets, Stars, Astoriods, Storms, Black holes, Warp points
i) Add warp points from system A to System B. No other thinking involved, have the program do all the code.
b) MOVE Star Systems, Planets, Stars, Astoriods, Storms, Black holes, Warp points. Don't change anything except location. Do all the code to keep WPs connected without me haveing to worry about which sector the end points are in.
i) inclide addition of constructed rings and spheres.
c) Edit attributes of Planets, Stars, Astoriods, Storms, Black holes, Warp points.
i) allow one-way, hidden, non-stable, and tonnage limited WPs. ( the current game generator doesn't add any of these except non-stable, and it only puts those in with Black holes)

To give us some hope, Is anyone making a map editor? Or thinking of making one?

SEV, more than a feeling.