Why complicate maps?

[captivatedlady 7]

A while back I downloaded a region extracted it in region folder and am presently playing that region. no multi-steps as needed with present day maps. It was called maxisland. Has realistic mountains and so-on, didn't require any other program besides the extractor to install in regions and works awesomely. Why did it suddenly get more complicated? (Well not suddenly really but in past couple years or so). I prefer the simplicity of plug and play maps much more than having to do steps. Is it harder to do a drop-in regions map than to use programs like those that are presently used? I am just curious.

[CaptCity 4,877]

If by "plug and play" and "drop-in regions" you mean maps that have already been rendered into cities, then the main reason is that most exchanges haven't permitted already-rendered maps being uploaded because of the size of the resulting files. Rendered maps include the individual city files which make up the completed regions, and this would result in an upload that would be much larger than the config and greyscale images (or the Terraformer file) used by the game to create those regions. Therefore, in order to conserve sites' resources, non-rendered maps are all that are permitted. Plus, there might be the issue with regions containing developed cities that would require the downloader to have the same plugins as the uploader, which may not always be the case. Maxisland was a special case that used only Maxis material.

[mrbisonm 1,622]

People nourish themselves with more stress these days, they love it. Everything that is "extreme" suits them. You probably seen, heard or even experienced it, extreme this, extreme that..... So this is why they made it more difficult, everything is more difficult nowadays anyways, didn't you realize that yet? Simlicity is soon a word found in historybooks only.

silliness aside, I don't know why, but I just know what you feel and think about this, same for me.

mrb

[Wiecher 192]

How do you mean, difficult?

It's easier than getting maxisland working.

Just load the .scm files of a downloaded map in sc4terraformer or mapper, and with a single mouseclick, your region is created!

Works the same for grayscale images.

[mrbisonm 1,622]

and with a single mouseclick,

single?....single = one. But I think that there is more than one click involved to render a region in SC4T. I can't even make that program work on my computer.........I have to ask someone to render it for me everytime I want a new region. That is probably why I decided to make my own now.

But let's not forget, what is easy for one, may be very difficult for the other, agreed?

mrb

[elavery 1,013]

If you want help with maps you can always come into help desk in the Live Chat and we can guide you through the process of using Terraformer. It really is very simple once you have done it once or twice.

[captivatedlady 7]

Ok cool, like I mentioned I was mostly curious as to the reasons. I personally never had no trouble with 'maxisland' i clicked download and it went to extractor on its own i just told it where to extract to and poof there it was. lol I can use the terraformer dont like it but can use it . Anyway thanks for your replies even the humorous one Mrb.