Curious.....2 questions. The Neroxis Map Editor is a quick and convient way to make fun random maps with key criteria without having to build from scratch.,....However, what if:
I liked a random map and wanted to play it again at another date, is there a way to save that generated map to play another time?
Also what if I like a generated map but wanted to make a few small modifications/tweaks to the map to play later if I opened it in the Map Creator, is that possible/ALLOWED?
THANKS
About saving maps: yes you can.
The map name is what you need to regenerate it. Put a saved map name into the map generator input field at the top and you can make it again.
Conveniently, you can right click > copy the map name pretty much everwhere it shows up in the faf client.
If you're trying to remake a map from a replay, you might have to start watching the replay but once you do you should be able to copy the map name from the replay tab in faf, and the map in question should be available to you in the host game dialog until you close faf.
As to the 2nd question about making tweaks to a generated map, yes, you can make any tweaks you want; however, this new version is going to be for your personal use or for those that you share it with as NO generated maps (even with tweaks) are to be uploaded to the Maps vault.
that is a bit of a shame as I find the Neroxis Generator could have been a good foundational Map Editor tool to get you started in the right creative direction......ah well
I think taking inspiration from a random map is still OK, as long as you remake it by hand. Maybe as you do you find more opportunities to improve upon it than your initial ideas, so that process might be more rewarding for everyone involved.
I think the rule is in place to prevent a flood of low-effort submissions which would be very hard to curate, so hopefully you understand why this compromise has to exist. Mapgen can still serve as a creative head-start, just not in the more material sense.
You are allowed to use Mapgen to generate maps that you can then edit in a map editor. You're allowed to host games on that map.
The only thing you're not allowed to do is upload the map to the vault.
If you're hosting games on it and people enjoy it, they can also host games on it. If it's a popular design, eventually you or someone else can remake a map based on it from scratch.
Tangentially related to "saving Neroxis maps": Is there a way to prevent the Mapgen maps from being "purged" from the local map folder? They seem to stick around for a while and then vanish.
They're removed when you close the client, I don't think there's a toggle to disable that
A work of art is never finished, merely abandoned
I'm guessing you could rename the map before it gets deleted (before you close the client) and then the client would never delete it
Or maybe make a copy of the map (which would have a new name). Then when you close the client, the original is deleted but the copy would remain.
But I don't know how many files you would have to rename or edit in order to successfully rename a map.
Ah, okay - thanks guys. I tried renaming the files (first just the folder name, then all files in the folder) but the client cannot correctly load the map after renaming things. But, I think I have a few permutations of renaming that I could try. Worse case, I could copy the files to some place safe and then move them back when wanting to play them in sandbox mode. I could write a quick bat file to handle it.
Try renaming it, closing the client, and then putting it back to its original name
I'm curious if the client will delete it the next time you close the client
The client did zap it the next time it was closed after it was renamed back. At least now I know it is the client that is removing the folders, so I can work around it. Thanks everyone!
@jip I've noticed that if I watch a replay on a mapgen map, my next custom game automatically re-creates that map if I don't specify a different map.
That might be helpful to people wanting to re-create a map.
I found a method that works
step 1 generate map (repeat as needed until you get one that you want to save)
step 2 open the maps folder (you can use the "hamburger button" at top left of client to do this)
step 3 find the generated map in your maps folder, the map itself is a FOLDER (not a file) and it should be the most recently-created folder in the maps folder
step 4 rename the folder by changing the first letter to an a. It starts with "aeroxis_map...." instead of "neroxis_map_...."
step 5 close the client
step 6 open the map folder, for each file that the file name starts with "neroxis_map..." replace the n with "a"
Step 7 open the scenario.lua file and change "neroxis_map" to "aeroxis_map" everywhere you find it
Step 8 open save.lua file and change "neroxis_map" to "aeroxis_map" in the one place you find it
Step 9 use a hex editor (such as Notepad++ with the hex plugin) to open the .scmap file. search the ANSI text for the word "neroxis" and change that to "aeroxis" everywhere you find it.
Step 10 re-open the client
You will find this map, it will work, and the client won't delete it
someone more sophisticated than me might come up with a way to give your map a completely arbitrary (custom) name and know how to edit the scmap file to work with that. I'm not really a hex editor guru so I don't know if there are tricks to use to add dead space so you can have a shorter file path than what was originally started with. Or maybe you could use a different program to edit the .scmap file to give it your custom name.
@sheikah In my use case, I don't want to keep a document of map names and have to launch the faf client to re-generate a map simply to play solo in sandbox mode. It is way easier to keep the local files and bypass the faf client completely, launching the game executable and loading a map in skirmish.
@arma473 Ah, thanks! I was missing step 9 since I was too lazy to open the file in a hex editor.
I don't want anyone to go out of their way to really do anything about this. I think I am a pretty fringe case in my desire to play sandbox on generated maps. Thanks for all the info though as it is pretty interesting to know how the map files, lua files, and .scmap files all work together.