Better Map Tools and Safer Maps

Observe · build 25022616 · published

On SteamNotes only · this build shipped before we watched the app

Hello all!

This is a smaller update focused on making the new Map Editor easier to use and much safer for large projects.

More ways to draw

The Map Editor now includes straight boundaries with a live preview and a one-pixel pen for detailed work. You can fill land, outline a landmass and paint regions without drawing every boundary first. Region outlines also use the boundary size you selected.

New maps can use an 8192-pixel canvas for very detailed worlds. Large maps keep more of their painted detail when they are built, although this option requires a powerful computer and much more memory.

Edit Earth or create a different world

The built-in Earth map can now be imported into the Map Editor and changed like any other custom map.

A map can also decide whether its left and right edges connect. Maps without connected edges now stop at a clear world boundary instead of repeating forever.

Safer saving and map repair

A bug in the internal region colours could make two distant regions become the same region on very large maps. This was not caused by the Merge tool. The colour system has been replaced and now supports millions of unique region IDs.

Maps that were already damaged can use the new Repair button. Repair is only intended for maps where selecting or painting one region also affects a distant, unrelated place. It shows how many region IDs are affected, explains when not to use it and creates a complete backup before changing anything. If the backup fails, the repair does not run.

Very small regions no longer prevent a map from saving. The editor warns you and highlights them instead. The top bar also shows whether the current map is saved or has unsaved changes.

Editor fixes

  • Reference images can be replaced or removed without breaking paint and erase tools.

  • Region and adjacency lists load reliably.

  • Movement keys no longer jump into text fields while moving around the map.

Thank you to everyone who sent me their maps and helped identify these problems. A few of the reports would have been almost impossible to reproduce without the original map folders.