FLAT MAPS HOWTO

[MarkG]

sorry for shouting and starting a new thread about it, but the lack of flat maps has been everyone's favorite "excuse" for the lack of scenarios, so... http://apolyton.net/forums/smile.gif

As Blackwisardy, pointed out, it's all in the userprofile.txt under ..\ctp_program\ctp
these two lines are everything
XWrap=No
YWrap=No

Having these two to "No" allows you to play ANY new random map game, saved game or pre-made map game, with a flat map.
two notes
1) if you go to the World Shape dialog and choose one of the two choices, the userprofile.txt will be re-writen and you will have to make the edits again
2) if you make a map with this "flat map hack" it will be saved as with and Earth World Shape. This doesnt matter at all, as long as you have the two variables to No

bottom line: flat maps ARE here, you can say that it's not the best implementation, but they are here. scenario makers only have to add a two line instruction to the players of their scenarios in order to use it. Harlan, can you read this??? http://apolyton.net/forums/smile.gif

the amazing for me is that the use of these variables were described in David Williams's userprofile.txt faq which can be found in our Modification page http://apolyton.net/forums/smile.gif http://apolyton.net/ctp/modification/profile_faq.shtml#AO

[LittleWing]

Hehe Mark, Harlan told me this in a previous thread. He asked Activision if he could do this but they answered no, because of compatibility problems with the next patch(which is supposed to give flat map support)

But well, this next patch won't come until a while, so I think we can use this method for now.

[MarkG]

I dont understand where the compatibility problems would be. quoting myslef "if you make a map with this "flat map hack" it will be saved as with an Earth World Shape"

from what I've seen this "hack" does nothing to the format of the saved game(it actually afects existing saved games!)

[MarkG]

"It seems to me that it would be saved as a flat map. After all, unless the game saves the flat/earth/dougnut options with each map then you could load doughnut worlds and they would come out as earth worlds and vice versa."
I think that there are only two "flags" in the map format and these are earth and dougnut. However, it seems that the userprofile.txt can override this flag

[Kaos]

It seems to me that it would be saved as a flat map. After all, unless the game saves the flat/earth/dougnut options with each map then you could load doughnut worlds and they would come out as earth worlds and vice versa.

Now I still have no idea how this could cause problems since the flat map patch will most likely just give you a flat map option which does the exact same thing as the hack only simpler. Maybe it's just a case of the company not liking people who are smart enough to edit the game in ways they didn't think of.