To MAPs modders:Test your MAPS are skirmish compatible

[DylanDog]

I am not sure this is the right place to put this, possibly in the showcase I would have reached the right "audience" but this post does not belong to a showcase.

To all MAPs developers: When you develop a new map test that it is skirmish compatible (or AI-friendly) too. what I mean? many maps are really nice for multiplayers game but few are really 100% skirmish compatible. In almost all maps I know there is a point in the map where:

- Droids try to reach a location which is not reachable, with this I mean that an human player is able to send a droid to that location by "correcting" the droids path but an AI not and the droids get stuck. This is actually the biggest issue.

Some advice on how to make a MAP AI-friendly:
- Place to build a base should be big enough
- Game should not start with structures placed too far away from each other.
- Ideally HQ should be placed in the middle of the base.
- Paths to move between bases should not be too complicated (avoid bottle necks...).
- Put Oil Resources is places where defenses can be built around them.
- OilResources concentrated in a point away from the base is not OK!!!!...this is a big disadvantage for an AI unless the AI script is changed to deal with this (a quite complicated thing!). This because the human player knows he has to give priority to such oilRes. With priority i mean priority on building derricks there, defend well, put some droids to defend too and so on.

Actually you can test the map in two ways:
1) using the cheats and "watching" how the AI behaves, searching for droids which are stuck!
2) activating AI specific "autogame" and again watch the AI playing.

-DD

[themac]

This problems maybe the result of a very different priority related to the map design. Most custom maps are flat including tons of oil in the bases for a quick war. Maybe these maps have never been designed for use with the skirmish play!