For future expansions of the game, a new set of maps would be the obvious answer. The game engine/coding will soon be done and so more maps would be an easy way for players to get more from the game and for the developers to earn some more revenue.

However, I just had another expansion idea: the Random Mapulator.

This would have a blank map with a grid of tiles. These tiles would then be filled randomly each game by pre-prepared tiles containing buildings, groups of buildings, everything in the game really. All these things - the 3D model graphics - could be recycled from the maps in the game.

Here's a couple of basic visual representations:

http://s90.photobucket.com/user/Iron-So ... 2.jpg.html
http://www.miniatures.de/scenery/terrain-modules.jpg

Wouldn't that be awesome to have a random generator where every map, every game you played would be unique? The replayability would be eternal! This is absolutely possible! 98% of the work is already done. The biggest task would be to create the tiles, but since all the 3D models exist, that task is in itself already mostly done. I would imagine it would be quite fun from a developer's point of view too to make the tiles.

No idea what this picture relates to, but it's good inspiration for tile combination thinking:

http://ybseeds.friesens.com/non_photo/c ... _tiles.jpg

I like this idea.

Initially when I started with RWR I had a vision that maps would be eventually primarily made by generating them. Stuff like this http://www.scriptspot.com/files/u857/gteurotown.jpg was what I was after.

That was one of the reasons the AI was made as adaptive to maps as possible to avoid overburdening map generation with AI related issues. Also RWR map file format is SVG (Inkscape variant) so that one would "only" need to come up with a script that creates an SVG file and add a few additional fields in object descriptions to make use of RWR specific features. I was also hoping back then that real world maps stored as SVG could be possibly used, and maybe they can, but I'm sure there's lots to convert there anyhow.

Too bad there never seemed to be a good slot to experiment with any of this stuff, I find the topic itself very interesting personally.

The tiled approach would be a good middle road with having tiles created by a human to ensure their design make sense and then coming up with procedural ways to combine them. I had an idea of a simplified map editor at some point which would've been operating on the same principles largely, but yah, it would've needed an effort from content creator too to get a decent tile library up.

Another obstacle, online only tho, is that the game doesn't handle sending entire maps and related resource files to joining clients. With some tinkering, a mod downloader-installer could be made that would be started by the game if a server informs from where to download the needed resources. I guess it has quite a bit of overlap with Steamworks, so maybe better to handle it through that.

More points:

- the current game maps can be divided into categories:

Temperate: Moorland Trenches, Keepsake Bay, Old Fort Creek, Power Junction, Copehill Down

Arid: Rattlesnake Crescent, Black Gold Estuary, lots of Bootleg Islands

Wintry: Fridge Valley

Tropical: Vigil Island

There's lots of stuff for a temperate zone map tile set, and probably an arid one too if one wished. Probably not enough readymade stuff for wintry and tropical tile sets.

- It would be a mainly flat world. All the tile edges would have to be the same height level (unless there would be a way of applying a slight height undulation to each map at creation, but that might be a bit complicated). There could be changes of height within each tile, and there could be small hills used as features within a 2x2, 2x3, 3x3 tile etc. Could be L-shaped/irregular shaped tiles, potentially.

- There could be map templates/archetypes:

i) The town.

Urban area in centre of map surrounded by countryside. Maybe a river going through it. A bit like Old Fort Creek Map.

ii) Villages

A bit like Moorland Trenches map, with villages, farms hotels etc dotted around a rural map.

iii) The island.

A bit like a bigger Power Junction map.

iv) A coastal map.

Urban area on a seafront. A bit like Keepsake Bay.

Here's a company that make an extensive selection of tiles for wargames:

http://totalsystemscenic.com/

Just browsing Youtube. Here are some videos illustrating the use of a tile system to create random maps:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k6CLwCB3a6k
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hbwIBr5kf-E
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hk1F86T1R_o