@8up-local said in Map Makers:
something i had forgotten until i was checking out a map last night. balance points. i am not sure how these are set, but make sure to give plenty. there has been a few maps i have checked out that i could not load out the trucks i wanted because of this. example, a map has 4 slots, but only 5-6 balance points . so if i use a vehicle set at 3 points then i am limited to the rest being 1 point vehicles or short myself by removing one. now this is more aimed at trail maps really, since logging maps do need to keep some sort of balance imo.
I agree. And it's also something I've planned on addressing in my trail map from the get go. Balance points for a map are set by a total sum of "unlocked" trucks balance points +1(quoted from the editor guide). Which means the balance points of all the pre-selected vehicles added together +1 more. If the vehicle selection slots are open/empty they only get 1 balance point each.
And that's where the problem arises. For some reason a lot of trail maps, in particular, have all open/empty slots. Which severely limits the available balance points. This is only less of a problem because vehicle modders are typically setting the number of balance points for trail vehicles to 1. But suppose they don't, or that you want to use vehicles with more balance points. Which isn't unreasonable. Then what?
Well, there's a couple solutions really. The first, and most obvious, being for map makers to not leave the vehicle selection slots open/empty. And to fill them with vehicles with higher balance points. Thereby giving the player more balance points to work with. And there's really no good reason a map maker wouldn't do this for trail maps. Where, like you said, balance points are basically meaningless. As in having too many isn't really a thing. And having more of them is only helpful to the player, by giving him a wider vehicle selection to choose from. This is the solution I've chosen for my trail map. I have the slots filled with five E-7310. Each having 5 balance points, for a total of 26 available balance points. Balance points problem solved. Of course you don't really want to use those vehicles for a trail map. But you're not forced to either. You simply need to select other vehicles instead.
The second, and much less obvious, solution is for the player to lower the balance points of the vehicle(s) they want to use for a particular map. Which is totally doable. And not really very difficult to do. You just find the right xml file, open it with a text editor, and set the balance points to whatever you want. But that's a messy solution to the problem for various reasons. It's time consuming, requires special "know how", is technically cheating, etc. Even I, knowing full well how to do it, and in a timely manner, would prefer not to have to.