Star Wars Kid

I was reading the Wiki and I noticed that it mentions ai_chokepoint_marker's. Are these only needed for singleplayer maps or are they supposed to be used for multiplayer maps too?

I was wondering because I was testing out my map earlier and some of the enemy units seemed to be pacing in a certain location and wouldn't attack me. It wasn't a pathfinding issue so I thought this might be the culprit.

Hanna

If you open some of Relic's multiplayer maps, you can see how these are used. They basically are hints to the AI that a certain spot is a good defensive position. For instance, the bunkers near the river on Dead Man's Crossing are marked with ai_chokepoint_markers (at least the original ones are, I haven't checked the 1.1 versions) because that is a good defensive spot. The AI will actually start building buildings near there as well, once they have a good defensive setup.

The AI also sometimes paces just because the AI isn't entirely smart at times, even on the most Insane difficulty. So, it might not be an issue with your map, but an issue with the AI. Try setting up a chokepoint_marker at a place where you feel is a good defensive position for the AI and see how it reacts. It won't always go for them. I've tried to get the AI to use certain parts of my maps and they just won't go there, even if I have an ai_chokepoint_marker set up there.

It's more of a hint than a command, it seems.

I don't know about naming other than in the maps I've seen the marker has been named "marker1" for team one and "marker2" for team two. I don't know if there is any correlation or if this is just coincidence.

Good luck with your map(s)!

Love,

Hanna

Star Wars Kid

Thanks!

[edit]

How do you open the standard maps? (where are they located?)

TheStressPuppy

I stumbled onto something. If you use more markers than there are players markers on a map. the AI will come at you in WAVES. Alot more than in the standard relic maps (this is a good thing IMO) It was my 1st map, and I didnt know the markers were player specific so i placed 4 chokepoint markers on a 2 player map (the map has 4 choke points). Thinking that the AI would camp at the choke points. when in reality it was probobly trying to camp the choke points on MY side of the map

Hanna

The standard maps are in a .cab file on CD 2. Inside the .cab file is a file called DOWData.sga1 (I think that's the name, not 100% sure, but you'll notice right away which file it is), this file is where the maps and the minimaps and the icons and the background paint files are. (Now that I think about it, they're also in your DoW directory somewhere, you don't need to get out the CDs, but I don't know where in the DoW directory they are and the ones on the CD are the 1.0 maps, not the 1.1 maps; which really only effects the two maps that were changed in 1.1.)

To extract them, you'll need either Spooky's or Corsix's SGA Extractor.

I used Corsix's, haven't tried Spooky's so I can't say which is easier.

You'll find the multiplayer maps shockingly familiar to your own multiplayer maps, except they use variable or tokens or something for the Map Name and Description. It's nothing important, but it's something I noticed because I wanted to save the original Dead Man's Crossing and Valley of Khorne which were the only ones I've looked at so far.

There may actually be another, much easier way of doing this, that I am forgetting, but I'm not at the PC now and so I can't check on it. Like, for instance, you might not need to get out the CD at all, because the maps are there locally you just have to know where they are and extract them with the SGA reader. Or, maybe even that is one of the options you are given when you create a new map, I can't even remember right now. I'm sorry. I should have maybe researched this answer before I started writing it.

But that is *one* way of doing it that I know works because I wanted to save the old 1.01 maps that were replaced with the 1.1 patch.

I hope this information is handy and not completely useless to you because I am in an incoherent place right now.

Love,

Hanna

P.S. Stress Puppy... that is *so* cool. Think of all the devious uses for that....

Star Wars Kid

Thanks again!

I looked at most of the multiplayer maps and a few single player maps and I noticed a few things

1) Most multiplayer maps use no markers at all. Maps that I found that use markers are Deadman's Crossing and Fallen City.

Deadman's Crossing only has 2 markers and they are the ai_chokepoint_marker type. They are positioned at the water's edge on either side of the river.

Fallen City also has ai_chokepoint_marker's as well as standard markers named 'cover_#' positioned in the main craters. These seem extraneous considering that other maps seem to do just fine without them.

2) singleplayer maps use a crapload of markers (not exactly suprising)

I conclude from all of this that markers are generally unnecessary in multiplayer maps. You might want to put some in to make yourself feel better but the game seems to function fine without them.