Can you mod the map itself?

[phoenix]

Quick question, to which (since I haven't seen any modded maps) I guess the answer is no - but just to check. In PB Kursk, can I change the map itself, to improve it? For example, to double the distance between Gertsovka and the rail station (which is roughly half the distance it should be) by ironing out that odd kink in the line which shouldn't be there (indeed, generally, I wonder whether it would be possible to straighten out many sections of rail line which - as most railways do - simply ran straight in real life - the section from Komsomolets SF  to Oktiabrski SF springs to mind as a section that ran dead straight but which, for some reason, jags all over in the game map). So, I would like to go into a map editor, go over the entire map and straighten out bits of rail line, put in balkas that have been missed etc. Is that possible?

Cheers,

Peter

Sorry. I can't work out how to get the images to show up in the posts, instead of you having to click on them.

Hi Peter,

We don't officially make available the map editor. That has been the policy across all Tiller's games.

That said, I'd be happy to consider fixing any glaring issues.

Where are you sourcing your information? Period maps or contemporary data?

The map was a conversion of the Panzer Campaigns map that was built off WW2 maps. That said, the game map was auto generated and we didn't check validity of train lines etc as they approximated the Panzer Campaigns map. There will be some distortion when auto generated.

David

Thanks David.  What a very kind offer.  The PC map of Kursk is actually more accurate than the PB map, I think. So the rail line into Prokhorovka in the PC game doesn't do an angular detour towards Oktiabrski, it runs much straighter. The oldest maps I have been able to find are soviet era and they place the rail lines in the places you can quite clearly see they ran (or still run along) in google earth, for example. I have not been able to find any detailed, accurate WW2 era maps, and would certainly love to see some that weren't ad hoc combat maps belonging to the various forces and drawn by the recon or survey units of either side.  In any case, all the little kinks that appeared in the rail lines for the PB title won't come from real maps, because that's not really the point of long distance rails - the idea is they run straight, and when the soviets were building them and massacring their own people in the millions to accommodate progress I very much doubt they got into planning disputes with farmers and private landowners than meant they had to build kinks in the lines. In PB even the roads run straighter, generally.

This kind of thing occurs all over the Kursk map:



And it's hard to work out why rails would do this kind of thing (at Gertsovka) given the landscape we're dealing with. This is not steep switchback country:



When I put together a Prokhorovka map in another game, using many different map sources (though, as I said, the only available period map sources were combat maps), the relevant bit it looked like this:



I think that is more accurate, and looks, indeed, more like the oldest maps I've seen. Again, it's hard to work out why a rail line wouldn't be straight, or as straight as possible. I had thought there must be a reason for the kinks, to do with the hexes. I realise it's not going to look as natural in a hex format, but still this piece of battlefield is so famous that I myself would really like to see it without the rails meandering needlessly.

If I had the map editor and I could learn to use it easily I would happily go over such prominent parts of the battlefield and suggest corrections for you to approve, time allowing.

Peter

There are two prongs of Balka that jut out into the Prokhorovka area there (in image 3), extending from the north west and the Psel towards the railway, and they are both deep enough to feature and, indeed, there is enough room on your map for them to feature, but instead there is only one large, flattish balka there. When you look at ariel images of this part of the world the balkas really stand out, cutting into the farmland with different profiles in vegetation and they feature (as you will know) many, many times in accounts of the combat here.

For example. This is how the Streletskoye area appears in game:


  32a.gif (Size: 475.5 KB / Downloads: 19)

And a roughly similar patch in google earth:


  32b.gif (Size: 244.23 KB / Downloads: 13)

They are a bit similar, but I would like to see with all these balkas the map looking more like the land looks, which would mean making two thinner pronged balkas, with differing vegetation, rather than just a large basin-like projection.

What do you think?

Peter