I've noticed that many maps don't respect this...

[draeton]

(Before you read: this is my first post, and as of posting this I am just a few minutes into using this forum as a 'registered user'. If you think this is off topic for the forum section, I'd love to be told where to go instead (in such a given circumstance) with the general complaint/question composing this thread.)

I've noticed, while browsing the addons section of the site (http://addons.wz2100.net/), that many of the maps listed at the front do not locate the '0th' and '1st' players' bases farthest by land vehicle from one another. Instead, in most of the three player or more maps I sampled the bases for those two players were next to one another. I don't know if you can swap bases without becoming an entirely another player, and in two player matches this can prove really annoying, so I am creating my own iteration of a complaint like this. But now that I am keying this, sampling more maps, and thinking about all the players, I am reaching the rewrite of my complaint that the perceived problem isn't limited to just players '0' and '1'. In most of the maps I am sampling, every player's starting base or place is located directly next to the player one up and one down the ladder from themselves. When playing a map using less players than the max alotted, we wind up next to one another with a huge lack of players in specific corners and along specific edges or hemispheres. As an individual I want players to come to me, not for them to already be at my doorstep.

As I wrap up this original post, I want to ask if others disagree with that I am claiming to be observing and believe I just haven't searched the first presented listings (a couple of pages of listings) thoroughly; I'd also like to say that it is their (artists') work and they have creative freedom over their maps, but I as an individual find that this element of their works could itself use attention towards altering.

[The Overlord]

Have you ever considered moving your players to different positions on the map? You can do this by clicking on the player's name as the host and then click the position you want to move that player to. Most maps for more then three players are set up to be played in teams (6 player maps are 3v3, 4 player - 2v2, ect.).

Best of luck to you!

[aubergine]

Info on player positions on maps: Player starting positions

How to change player position when setting up a game: Players panel

[NoQ]

It is true that original maps do follow this scheme where choosing first two players on any map makes a reasonable two-player setup and choosing first 4 players on any 8-player map makes a reasonable 4-player ffa setup, while most user-made maps don't follow it.

The reason for this is the huge focus on team games in current multiplayer. The original tradition might make arranging underpacked ffas easier, but setting up a 4x4 becomes confusing.

So I believe that setting player order continuously so that a 4x4 was always 0123 vs 4567 is preferable and outweights the (much smaller and more rare) confusion of setting up underpacked ffas.

Also, this tradition is impossible to follow on maps with an odd number of players. Also, underpacked ffas on ffa maps go much farther from the original map design than fully-packed team games on ffa maps.

[aubergine]

IIRC, Per added something to map.ini where different default group set-ups could be defined? I think it's in the 3.2 branch.