I've done some work on CalderaMA, the intention being for it to replace CraterMA in the rotation if Hitech agrees. The new name is required as CraterMA is the default map that comes with the game download so any changes to it would normally require the base game to be downloaded again by all players.
The new map's terrain is essentially the same but there are major changes to the number and layout of the bases, strats and land spawn points. The idea is to concentrate the rduced number of players in the game we have now into a few small areas in order to kick start fights, rather than having them spread all over the map. There are now 111 bases, down from 150, which should help the map reset quicker. All the FPS-hog super large bases have been deleted or replaced with smaller bases.
There are now far fewer land spawn points between the bases but at any position of front line each country's players will still have at least three available spawn points to an enemy base with at least one to each other country. On most current maps players have a much bigger choice and I feel this spreads out the few players we have to the point where fights just don't begin. The same thing applies to nearby airbases, other than CV fights there are generally only three nearby enemy airbases a player can fly to, with at least one to each country. Currently at off peak times a player logs in, sees half a dozen tiny dar bars spread across the front line and logs out again, the chances of getting a decent fight are too low to make it worth upping. With the new layout my hope is all those tiny darbars will be concentrated into one or two bigger darbars so players logging on will see this and be more likely to join the fight. More players means even bigger darbars means even more players and so on.
To make milk running them harder strats have been moved into the triangles formed by each country's three uncapturable bases (A1, 4 and 7 on the screenshot), given flak bases for protection and nearby V bases for radar coverage. The land spawn routes end at these V base/strat groups so it is possible for GVs to attack the strats although adjacent to these incoming spawns are spawns from the uncapturable bases.
One big change is to the central crater area, the outer crater now has three airbases surrounding the three V bases. Having a fighter town and tank town helps to get the fight started when the map first comes up or with very low player numbers. The main problem with this arrangement of course being the GVs and V bases being constantly bombed from the nearby airbases. To alleviate this the central TT spawn area is surrounded by mountains with three narrow gaps and I hope to have low clouds (at around 3K) capping these and the surrounding V bases. The idea is to make it harder for jabos to line up on the GVs or V bases through the low cloud from above and at TT also give them the mountains to worry about as they break through. Coming in below the cloud makes them vulnerable to light flak. Between TT and the V bases are three rivers each crossed by three bridges which should create choke points for defending players to cover making it harder to take the bases from TT. The SPs from the airbases to the V bases have no such restrictions making it easier to retake or supply the V bases for the defending country.
All the above took me about a month to do and is what I would call the "fun" part of map building, i.e. the creative stuff. What remains is the tedious grind of error checking everything; going to each base and checking for terrain elevation errors, spawn orientation errors, clearances for runways and fleets, shore battery fields of fire and so on. Also I need to create the weather file with the low cloud cover for TT and the central V bases and this is where I have run into a problem. The AH Cloud Editor has two modes; the first lets you place pre-made cloud formations (called fronts) on your map at different positions and heights etc. and the second mode allows you to create your own fronts. The problem is the second mode is broken; any new type of front I create in the editor does not appear in the game when I place it in on the map. The editor's default fronts work fine but these are no good for the TT area weather system my map needs.
I have sent a PM to Hitech outlining the proposed changes to CraterMA and have also posted a bug report about the Cloud Editor issue but so far I have received no feedback about either. Sadly there's no point me taking the map any further until I know whether Hitech will accept it and until I know the Cloud Editor bug will get fixed.
