Off the map start - MP consequences?

[Brad_Edmondson]

I've got a number of ideas for MP head to head games and am thinking outside of the box.

One of those ideas is literally starting 'outside of the box' by having units start far off the map.* In some tests I found that you can push deployment zones out to 4km from the top/bottom and 5km to the sides of the map.* Of course in many maps this makes for some sterile terrain getting to the shown part of the map, but it opens some scenario options I have in mind.

My chief concern is whether or not using the extended map boundaries will cause headaches in MP by slowing things down or cause crashes.* I ask long time scenario designers and the original beta testers to comment o*n this, and of course Ssnake and Al o*n the technical side of things.* In SP games I recall some scenarios had units come from far off of the map without problems, but that may not be the case with a dozen guys playing all at o*nce.

Experiences?

[9erRed]

Greetings,

And what the heck is this new " visual mode "? (seems to have all the same stuff as "Word") --- BUT DOESN"T WORK ---

Just some notes o*n "off board deployment"... As with any units outside the visiable terrain there is the problem of "setting" them down in a densely populated wooded area. And requires the designer to "view" the area before setting the units there. It also raises the problems of plotting routes for them and not being able to "see" the terrain their going to move thru. As*I have seen thus far in SB1 the terrain engine mirrors any off board landscape from what is visiable o*n the "normal" map. Or simply lays out the unseen terrain as "it" (terrain engine) sees the surrounding ground.

Now there is the "other option" of setting the units in a "hidden" location and addressing them to commence moving at a set time in the mission, or o*n a "trigger/condition". (simulating a longer road march) The o*nly problem is keeping them "hidden" and spreading them out so as to not cause a "traffic jam" and delay o*n their initial start move. (as I have seen many times before)

As I first said ....just some notes* .....* 9erRed* .....* out

Sorry had to edit out all the additional text characters that DIDN'T work.

[Ssnake]

From the technical side - no problem.

Creating routes (if necessary at all for MP scenarios) no problem either. Click the spot where you want to start in the LOS map. Switch to F1, orient yourself, adapt the position if necessary. Go back to F5, right-click, "Create checkpoint". Back to F1, move in a straight line to the next corner. Stop there, F5, right-click, "Create checkpoint" etc etc until you reached the final destination. Now connect the line of Checkpoints in their sequential order, choose column formation for all of them, and bingo. :P