Knights and Merchants.net Forum

Background:

What is the correct name for missions/maps? For the longest time, I didn't see this as a problem, and I have a theory behind that: Before all these handy tools came about to allows us to make our own missions/maps, we could only play the original missions. Back then, we all called them "missions" because that's what the game called them. However, after freesms and The Barbarian decoded some of the games data, we eventually were able to make our own missions/maps. It was now more recognizable that the game dealt with map and mission files separately. It still wasn't a problem because we had separate tools for each file (map editor and mission editor). When the Remake came along, we got ourselves a editor that combined the mission and map editors, and along came some problems (Like Krom said, it'd be a Swiss Army Knife!). Now, it is a bit trickier to distinguish the two, so it's a little awkward to call it a mission or a map independently. Still, since multiplayer maps are predominate, (and maps are much more focused on than missions in multiplayer maps/missions) we just called them "maps," mostly. But now we have this Dynamic scripting! So with all the coding that we are doing, calling them "maps" is totally ambiguous in my opinion.

So what do we call them now? Personally, I like "scenario" the best since it can apply to both the map and the mission. Also, it is a pretty standard RTS term.

Ever since release fans have been making "Addon scenarios" for Warcraft, C&C, and Heroes of Might and Magic .. wait, there's something wrong in this ... I think they called "addon maps". Shorter, easier to spell and commonly used

I think it is Skirmish.

Skirmish is more of a term for describing the activity, not the scenery IMHO

Ah ok

In common English RTS lingo, Skirmish is often used for "random maps" or "user set maps" (i.e., maps where you set the rules up yourself).

Thanks for making the topic, this is something that's bothered me for a while
I voted "map" because "mission" doesn't suit multiplayer really, but I don't really like any of the options

I have always seen it like this:
But yeah, a lot has changed and I might need to change my opinion on this matter. Since a regular multiplayer map hardly has a script, I call them 'maps'. The word 'scenario' makes me think of good old Age of Empires: some sort of special single player mission. A 'mission' is a mission in a campaign; if a mission is not in a campaign it might be better to call it a scenario.
So, all in all, my opinion:

Map: any multiplayer map
Scenario: special single player map
Mission: map that's part of a campaign

in my opinion:
multiplayer = maps
singleplayer= missions

I vote Scenario

I agree