Hello all. I'm currently working on my very first map and have finished it to the point where I think it could be published. But before I do that, I would like to read the opinions of you experienced players concerning the following points. I also have some general questions regarding map creation which I will list below. The map itself is based on the canton of Zurich in Switzerland. Since my English is not perfect, I translate my German text by means of DeepL. But I publish both languages. I hope it is all sufficiently understandable. Furthermore, I will probably only be able to respond to your answers towards the end of the week, as I will be out of the house for the next few days. Thanks already for your help.

About the map:
1. are the connections correct?
2. are the bonus incomes correctly / fairly allocated (especially the big ones)?
3. can you read all the numbers well?
4. layout ok?

Questions about Inkscape:
I work with the program Inkscape. Since I have to work professionally with ArchiCAD and occasionally had to use Photoshop, I am missing some familiar things in this program (or rather I have not found them).
a. How can I cut surfaces or lines without losing a part of it?
b. How can I "snap" angles. So for example move a surface exactly 30 degrees.
c. How can I copy areas, lines, etc. and then paste them in exactly the same place? For me, the paste always appears at the cursor.
d. Is it possible to enlarge or reduce an area according to exact specifications (for example by 150%)?

Questions about map creation:
1. I have set the pixel size of the map to 2500x2500. However, except for the main map (entire canton), all elements are outside the set frame. Nevertheless, the whole map is displayed in warzone. But if I set the map larger than the allowed maximum (which is still smaller than my map) I can't upload it anymore. Why this contradiction?

2. my map is big but not the biggest in Warzone. How can I create bigger maps if the pixel size is already exhausted and I can't scale the map smaller for readability of the numbers?

3. is it possible and allowed to copy a SVG from existing warzone maps and use it as a template for my own modified version or do I have to contact the creator of the map?

4. at a certain point I got problems with the file size. Although my map has less content than some maps already published on Warzone, I kept reaching the maximum towards the end of the creation, so I wanted to delete wanted layouts. Also, because of this, I could not complete my wish to turn the territories of the adjacent city extensions into paths as well. How can I optimize the file size?

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Hallo zusammen. Ich arbeite gerade an meiner allerersten Karte und habe diese soweit fertig gestellt, dass man sie meiner Meinung nach veröffentlichen könnte. Bevor ich dies aber mache, möchte ich gerne die Meinungen von euch erfahrenen Spielern betreffend nachfolgenden Punkten lesen. Auch habe ich noch generelle Fragen betreffend Kartenerstellung die ich noch weiter unten aufführen werde. Die Karte selbst basiert auf dem Kanton Zürich in der Schweiz. Da mein Englisch nicht einwandfrei ist, übersetze ich meinen deutschen Text mittels DeepL. Ich veröffentliche aber beide Sprachen. Ich hoffe es ist alles genügend verständlich. Des weiteren werde ich vermutlich erst gegen Ende Woche auf eure Antworten reagieren können, da ich mich in den kommenden Tagen ausser Haus befinde. Danke schonmal für eure Hilfen.

Zur Karte:
1. Sind die Verbindungen korrekt?
2. Sind die Boni-Einkommen richtig / fair zugeteilt (insbesondere die Grossen)
3. Kann man alle Zahlen gut lesen?
4. Layout in Ordnung?

Fragen zu Inkscape:
Ich arbeite mit dem Programm Inkscape. Da ich beruflich mit ArchiCAD arbeiten muss und gelegentlich Photoshop nutzen musste fehlen mir einige gewohnte Dinge in diesem Programm (beziehungsweise ich habe sie nicht gefunden).
a. Wie kann ich Flächen oder Linien schneiden ohne einen Teil davon zu verlieren?
b. Wie kann ich Winkel "einrasten". Also beispielsweise eine Fläche exakt 30 Grad verschieben.
c. Wie kann ich Flächen, Linien etc. kopieren und dann genau an der selben Stelle einfügen? Bei mir erscheint das einfügen immer beim Cursor.
d. Ist es möglich eine Fläche nach exakten Angaben zu vergrössern oder verkleinern (beispielsweise um 150%)?

Fragen zur Kartenerstellung:
1. Ich habe die Pixelgrösse der Karte auf 2500x2500 eingestellt. Abgesehen von der Hauptkarte (gesamter Kanton) befinden sich aber alle Elemente ausserhalb des eingestellten Rahmens. Trotzdem wird die gesamte Karte in Warzone dargestellt. Stelle ich aber die Karte grösser als das erlaubte Maximum (was immer noch kleiner ist als meine Karte) kann ich diese nicht mehr hochladen. Weshalb dieser Widerspruch?

2. Meine Karte ist gross aber längst nicht die Grösste in Warzone. Wie kann ich grössere Karten erstellen wenn doch die Pixelmenge bereits ausgeschöpft ist und ich die Karte zwecks Lesbarkeit der Zahlen nicht kleiner skalieren kann?

3. Ist es möglich und erlaubt ein SVG von bestehenden Warzonekarten zu kopieren um diese dann als Vorlage für eine eigene abgeänderte Version zu benutzen oder muss ich dafür Kontakt mit dem Ersteller der Karte aufnehmen?

4. Ab einem gewissen Punkt habe ich Probleme mit der Dateigrösse bekommen. Obwohl meine Karte weniger Inhalt aufweist als so manche bereits auf Warzone veröffentlichte Karten gelangte ich gegen Ende der Erstellung immer wieder an das Maximum, so dass ich gewollte Layouts herauslöschen wollte. Auch konnte ich deswegen meinen Wunsch nicht vollenden, die Territorien der angrenzenden Stadtvergrösserungen ebenfalls in Pfade zu verwandeln. Wie kann ich die Dateigrösse optimieren?

https://www.warzone.com/SinglePlayer?PreviewMap=96029

There is a discord server with very friendly map makers.... They helped me make my first map. Discord is easier as you can transfer files and images more easily, so i suggest you join that. https://discord.gg/RUQWx4S

Hi illik,

Welcome to the mapmaking community! I'm not the most experienced mapmaker on WZ, but I've given it a shot anyway. As Arrow already hinted, you should join the map making discord to get into contact with the good map makers.

Also, there are some YT vids from good makers you should probably watch:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AkQn1pIZdY4&t
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLSmZ4VbaICL_Y2e6xgXkyU7jabJsh6HLs
https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1NTfstv7aP0zAOMnjkY0AR8BNM-v3pYbxbjvckyxgwII/edit#slide=id.p

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About the map:
1. are the connections correct?
2. are the bonus incomes correctly / fairly allocated (especially the big ones)?
3. can you read all the numbers well?
4. layout ok?

1. Haven't check all the connections, but the few i check were correct. The airport appears to be 3 different territories, but its actually just one.

2. I cant tell, you would have to playtest your map for that

3. No, you have a few territories that are too small to fit the number properly. You should make sure that each territory fits at least an 20x20 pixel shape for the army number.


4. There appears to be something wrong with the scale or viewbox of your Inkscape file. The map loads very zoom out:

You can fix that by going into the document properties (CTRL + SHIFT + D), and changing the viewbox to be centered around 0,0 and have either the scale or the viewbox size adjusted to just fit around the map.

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Questions about Inkscape:
I work with the program Inkscape. Since I have to work professionally with ArchiCAD and occasionally had to use Photoshop, I am missing some familiar things in this program (or rather I have not found them).
a. How can I cut surfaces or lines without losing a part of it?
b. How can I "snap" angles. So for example move a surface exactly 30 degrees.
c. How can I copy areas, lines, etc. and then paste them in exactly the same place? For me, the paste always appears at the cursor.
d. Is it possible to enlarge or reduce an area according to exact specifications (for example by 150%)?

A: You can split an object along any line that is intersecting it with Path > Cut Path (CTRL + ALT + /)
B: When rotating or drawing objects/lines, you can hold CTRL to make it snap to increments of 15 degrees
C: Use CTRL + D to duplicate an object in the same place
D: When you have an object, you can use Object > Transform > Scale (CTRL + SHIFT + M), to resize an object by any of the common units (including px, inch, %, mm)

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Questions about map creation:
1. I have set the pixel size of the map to 2500x2500. However, except for the main map (entire canton), all elements are outside the set frame. Nevertheless, the whole map is displayed in warzone. But if I set the map larger than the allowed maximum (which is still smaller than my map) I can't upload it anymore. Why this contradiction?

2. my map is big but not the biggest in Warzone. How can I create bigger maps if the pixel size is already exhausted and I can't scale the map smaller for readability of the numbers?

3. is it possible and allowed to copy a SVG from existing warzone maps and use it as a template for my own modified version or do I have to contact the creator of the map?

4. at a certain point I got problems with the file size. Although my map has less content than some maps already published on Warzone, I kept reaching the maximum towards the end of the creation, so I wanted to delete wanted layouts. Also, because of this, I could not complete my wish to turn the territories of the adjacent city extensions into paths as well. How can I optimize the file size?

1. You should shrink your map so it fits in the viewbox. Having some parts of the map outside of the viewbox will cause issues later on. As for why that is still allowed, in some cases its useful to place something like a bonus link outside of the view.

2. The max dimensions of a WZ map are 3500×2500 pixels. You could move the city maps a bit closer to your main map. Your map has territories of varying sizes, so you could try to shrink some of the bigger territories, to allow some of the small territories to be bigger, allowing you to play with scale a bit more. This would sacrifice a bit of the accuracy of the map, in exchange for a lot more playability. Keep in mind that each territory needs to have a 20x20 pixel space for the army number! Also, I dont know how much the broken viewbox effects the map size, I suggest you fix that viewbox problem first and then check again how your map size is doing.

3. You cannot copy the SVG of another map (unless its your own map). So yes, you will have to contact the mapmaker if you want the SVG. Be advised most people will not give you their SVGs, since they put a lot of hard work and effort into those maps, and dont want someone to steal or abuse them in any way.

4. Select all paths/object and simplify them with CTRL + L (or Path > Simplify). You can also try removing unnecessary objects (like the little lakes that are too small to see). Saving your map as a Plain SVG instead of an Inkscape SVG will also reduce the size of the file, but be warned that the Plain SVG cannot be opened by Inkscape anymore!

Thank you very much for your time you invest in the answers. i will try your advices in a few days when i have enough time to work on it.
when i have more questions i will look at the discord channel.