Modify Official Map

[ColdSnap]

Hey All,

I was recently attempting to modify the DEFCON map and was running into a few problems.

Note: I am using a mac, so file locations will be slightly different than those on a PC.

Basically, I wanted to remove the "territory" lines that appear around the islands in the pacific as I think they look really odd. (There is also one near Alaska.) However, I could not for the life of me figure out how to change the map.

I extracted the data file to my desktop and was planning on making a mod (with the slightly modified map), but I cannot figure out how to edit the in game map. I did see the tiny thumbnail sized images (map.bmp) which show up when you are selecting territories, but wasn't sure how to modify the actual in game map.

I assume the file I need to edit is the coatlines.dat file, but I can't seem to open it. When someone makes their own map, how do they do it? Perhaps it's far more difficult than it looks, as I assume you need to edit some of the in game vectors to change the way the map looks?

Any help or clarification would be great.

[xander]

You need to edit "international.dat," which can be found in "data/earth/" from the main.dat archive. This file is basically a plain text file which contains coordinate data for international borders. "coastlines.dat" is a similarly formatted file. Either can be opened with a text editor.

xander

[ColdSnap]

Thanks,

I suppose there is no good way to tell which lines you are editing however. Would one need to use trial and error until you found the correct coordinates? That could take a while.

[trickser]

Take a look at my travelgrid_coordinates mod. Multiply the numbers with 6 and you have the coordinates of the crosses. That should help you finding the right lines. Or i could also make it with actual coordinates, if you wish. Or with higher density of nodes.
Ok, i took a look. The pacific borders a pretty lonely. Everything is between 138 24 and 180 -24 in the postivies, -120 6 and -180 -30 in the negatives.

[xander]

Thanks,

I suppose there is no good way to tell which lines you are editing however. Would one need to use trial and error until you found the correct coordinates? That could take a while.

In addition to the method trickser offers, you could also fiddle with it in a spreadsheet, which would rapidly reduce the search time, I would think.

xander

[ColdSnap]

Thank you both for your help.

I spent a while yesterday attempting to find and remove the various vectors in the pacific. I started with the line that divides Russia and Alaska. While I did manage to find the starting point and remove it, I realized just how lengthy a process it would be to check each point as I removed it. (Especially once I started on the large cluster of lines in the south pacific.)

I may give it another go at somepoint, but without any graphical assistance, it was quite a bit of guesswork.