Question for map modders: What is this and how can I do it?

[Slaughter]

Hi, fellows. I've been interested in doing some map modding lately.

So, one thing that took my attention some time ago, when I was playing vanilla, was this little weird special province, Guantanamo Bay:

Notice the little map zoom thing. We have a micro-province rendered in a way that makes it look bigger. Fascinating. I notice we can even click on the land surrounding it.

I have several questions:

1. What is this?

2. How I do this?

3. Can I use this to have an area of multiple micro-provinces "zoomed out"? Say, what if I do this to NYC and create like ten or twenty micro-provinces which I zoom out together? Can I do this?

4. Is there a way to make this work out with in-land provinces? Seems like it only works with coastal ones for obvious reasons.

Thank you for your help!

 

[John Doe]

1. What is this?

Seems like a creative way the DH team found for highlighting tiny but relevant provinces that would otherwise be too small to be seen from that distance. Some other examples on that map are Gibraltar, Malta, and Iwo Jima.

2. How I do this?

What you see in your picture is actually how it looks on the lightmap, which is to say there is a permanent square of land drawn in the ocean south of Cuba made to look like a magnification. I imagine all you would have to do is draw a tiny province, then draw a larger version of that province with a similar "zoom" effect around it. As long as they have the same province ID it should work.

3. Can I use this to have an area of multiple micro-provinces "zoomed out"? Say, what if I do this to NYC and create like ten or twenty micro-provinces which I zoom out together? Can I do this?

You mean like drawing a magnifying effect over manhattan and then having the magnification broken into multiple provinces? Yes, I think that would work. Iwo Jima in the base game does something similar even though it is only three provinces.

4. Is there a way to make this work out with in-land provinces? Seems like it only works with coastal ones for obvious reasons.

Only if you are willing to obstruct parts of the other surrounding land provinces with these new enlargements.

 

[Slaughter]

Seems like a creative way the DH team found for highlighting tiny but relevant provinces that would otherwise be too small to be seen from that distance. Some other examples on that map are Gibraltar, Malta, and Iwo Jima.

Interesting, I must look at those two.

What you see in your picture is actually how it looks on the lightmap, which is to say there is a permanent square of land drawn in the ocean south of Cuba made to look like a magnification. I imagine all you would have to do is draw a tiny province, then draw a larger version of that province with a similar "zoom" effect around it. As long as they have the same province ID it should work.

So I draw two provinces, one being the tiny part and the other one being the magnified province, and then I assign them the same province ID?

You mean like drawing a magnifying effect over manhattan and then having the magnification broken into multiple provinces? Yes, I think that would work. Iwo Jima in the base game does something similar even though it is only three provinces.

Its possible, then? Fantastic news!

What about province distance calculations? Say, how does the game know that those provinces aren't as big as they are being displayed, and that the little version is the 'real' one?

Only if you are willing to obstruct parts of the other surrounding land provinces with these new enlargements.

Well, I was thinking something more akin to "drawn the zoom effect to a near-ish ocean province a few land provinces across".

 

[John Doe]

So I draw two provinces, one being the tiny part and the other one being the magnified province, and then I assign them the same province ID?

Yes.

Its possible, then? Fantastic news!

What about province distance calculations? Say, how does the game know that those provinces aren't as big as they are being displayed, and that the little version is the 'real' one?

Province distances should be set in distances.csv in the map folder. There's also province.csv in the db folder which determines the positioning of where troops and other things will appear on the province (soldiers appear to stand on the enlarged province in the base game, I believe) so you should be able to play around with them to get the look that you want. It's a bit hard to explain but as long as both pieces have the same ID on the lightmap, they should both be counted as one province. You can test this on Malta and see that the smaller part of the island gets highlighted when you click the larger part and vice versa.

 

[Slaughter]

Yes.

What a fascinating loophole to make such a mechanic work.

Province distances should be set in distances.csv in the map folder. There's also province.csv in the db folder which determines the positioning of where troops and other things will appear on the province (soldiers appear to stand on the enlarged province in the base game, I believe) so you should be able to play around with them to get the look that you want. It's a bit hard to explain but as long as both pieces have the same ID on the lightmap, they should both be counted as one province. You can test this on Malta and see that the smaller part of the island gets highlighted when you click the larger part and vice versa.

Doesn't DH have a different way of calculating province distance compared to HOI2? Does it affect anything here?

Interesting... that's veery interesting.

I noticed the highlightening, actually.

Thank you for your help, John Doe! You were very informative!

 

[John Doe]

Glad I could help.

Doesn't DH have a different way of calculating province distance compared to HOI2? Does it affect anything here?

Hmm. It very well may. It's been a while since I've messed around with hoi2 stuff so I'm not too sure.

 

[Eginhard 38]

DH uses geographic coordinates (rather than pixel coordinates as in HoI2), which means you only have to put in the correct coordinates in the relevant file (I don't remember which one for the moment) to allow distances to be calculated correctly.

It seems all you want to do can be done safely, in the end.

 

[VTs]

DH uses geographic coordinates (rather than pixel coordinates as in HoI2), which means you only have to put in the correct coordinates in the relevant file (I don't remember which one for the moment) to allow distances to be calculated correctly.

It seems all you want to do can be done safely, in the end.

/mapX/distances.csv