I couldn't run this map without runtime crashes or freezes. Using tested and stable trucks. I noticed the repeated crashes any time I hit "ESC" or tried to take a screenshot.

Originally posted by Heli-AV8R:

I couldn't run this map without runtime crashes or freezes. Using tested and stable trucks. I noticed the repeated crashes any time I hit "ESC" or tried to take a screenshot.

Thanks for letting me know. How many mod trucks/maps are you subscribed to even if you’re not using in the map? There’s a bug with the whole game that causes some systems to crash if there’s too many mods installed, even if they’re not in use.

So far I’ve tested the map with lots of combinations of mods, on different systems and with different people without any crashes, so I’d try to rule out the problem being on your end first.

Make sure you’re game is fully updated, verify the integrity of your steam cache, unsubscribe from any unused mods and try again. Get back to me if it’s still crashing.

Thanks

The map is very well built, very good job!

You mentioned in your discription that the standard tools and objects may look a bit repetitive, that was my impression on this map too. The landscape does not vary very much, the roads, trees, vegetation, geometry and the difficulties/ obstacles (if that's the right word) are very identical all over the map.
Maybe a asphalt road there, a little village here and some dense forest to cross would have broken the monotone landscape.
Custom objects make it easier to get this little "extra" but even without them it's possible to get a bit more variation.

The logging station is one-way without the space to turn around. If you use trailers, this is a nightmare. Maybe you can add a loop or some space to turn around so you don't have to drive backwards over this rather long distance, with some trailers that's nearly impossible.

I liked that there is just one fuel station and the allocation of the garages. It's great to have so many different ways and shortcuts.
Some trucks are hard to recover, but not too unfair.
Using roads and ways as a third material is clever- it just looks a bit wired on the map.

I hope I found the right words, this map is 9/10, there are only a few others that can compete. The sheer handicraft on this map is 10/10, I just released my second map last week and I can imagine how much efford you put in all those little details, very nice!!

Speaking of, I would appreciate if you would like to take a look and give some feedback on my map "RoadTrip".

Have a nice day... or night or what ever ^^

Originally posted by DerEggen:

The map is very well built, very good job!

Thanks bud and I always appreciate feedback so thank you for taking the time. It's also good hearing from a fellow map maker.

Originally posted by DerEggen:

You mentioned in your discription that the standard tools and objects may look a bit repetitive, that was my impression on this map too. The landscape does not vary very much, the roads, trees, vegetation, geometry and the difficulties/ obstacles (if that's the right word) are very identical all over the map.
Maybe a asphalt road there, a little village here and some dense forest to cross would have broken the monotone landscape.
Custom objects make it easier to get this little "extra" but even without them it's possible to get a bit more variation.

I absolutley agree with you, in fact the first version of the map I made was more like this. There's a good reason I had to change it all and that was for performance and stability. The higher the number of distributions and the density of them, the more demand on memory. It's not such a big problem on smaller maps, or big maps that have lots of blank or lightly forested areas around the edges, but this map has roads and drivable areas from corner to corner. Consistency is a huge priority for me too, if I apply a certain level of detail to one area, I expect to see that across the whole map, so leaving bland areas wasn't an option for me.

The first version suffered big FPS hits and out-of-memory crashes with the more detailed mod trucks, even with the 4GB patch. I had to make a compromise and for me that meant reducing the number of distribution files. The whole map uses only 12 distributions, which meant that creating scenic variety took a lot of work and was always going to be limited, but the payoff was a stable map that people can actually enjoy playing. I hated having to undo hard work to make optimisations, especially because I know how much better the map looked before I did, but I think it was the right call.

Originally posted by DerEggen:

The logging station is one-way without the space to turn around. If you use trailers, this is a nightmare. Maybe you can add a loop or some space to turn around so you don't have to drive backwards over this rather long distance, with some trailers that's nearly impossible.

I liked that there is just one fuel station and the allocation of the garages. It's great to have so many different ways and shortcuts.
Some trucks are hard to recover, but not too unfair.
Using roads and ways as a third material is clever- it just looks a bit wired on the map.

The log station is intentional. I wanted to make loading logs a bit more interactive, so I decided to force you to reverse which is tricky with trailers but quite satisfying, or at least in my opinion. As for fuel stations I find maps with more than one discourages you from using refuelling trucks, which I think takes away a big part of the game, so I'm glad you agree. The same goes for the hidden vehicles, I like having to take risks to recover them. Those map marked roads you seen on the map are the cliff overlays, they show on the map and look annoyingly like roads but I couldn't do anything about that.

Originally posted by DerEggen:

I hope I found the right words, this map is 9/10, there are only a few others that can compete. The sheer handicraft on this map is 10/10, I just released my second map last week and I can imagine how much efford you put in all those little details, very nice!!

Speaking of, I would appreciate if you would like to take a look and give some feedback on my map "RoadTrip".

Have a nice day... or night or what ever ^^

Don't worry, as I said before I appreciate feedback and critisim only makes me try harder. If you've made maps before you know how harsh the editor can be so I know you appreciate how much work went into this map.

I'd love to try you map out so when I find time, I will let you know what I think.

Thanks bud!

FPS problems and out of memory crashes are a pain in the ass.
I've used 23 distributions, custom distributions/ brushes with higher density, ~100 models (most of them fences and big_rock_a), ~ ten different custom objects, 16 rivers, ~40 overlays, max size, max hight and so on... stability was not my biggest concern ^^
I have the strong feeling that those crashes depend on many different aspects and sometimes it seems to be random if the game crashes or not.
And it's not possible for me/ us to tell if the problem is caused by the map or by the player/ players computer/ players mods.
Restarting the game every now and then was the best way for me to prevent crashes so far.

I have an eye on the fps on my map and as long as it is stable (without any 4GB patch of course), I don't reduce plants or models.

In the editor I use a 4GB patch all the time, it reduced the crashes dramatically for me- shame on the devs!

Do you use custom brushes for the distributions?

@DerEggen - I had very little trouble with Highwater, I had to reduce the density of some distribution slightly but I think that was the massive amount of canes used for the swamp. That map had around 25 distributions and a lot of them overlapped too. Longridge has over 100 road overlays and I think around 200 other overlays and that could be a reason for it too.

You’re right though it’s hard to pin down the exact problem, so I prefer to be cautious and optimise whatever I can get away with and that approach stopped any crashes in Longridge.

I haven’t tried custom brushes, I have tried to keep everything stock, again so I’ve got less variables to blame potential problems on. Do you use them and have you experienced any issues?

I think custom brushes are very safe to use as long as you don't get to crazy with the density and diversity.
You just add some more brushes to the distribution menu. I use custom brushes for very common distributions that I use on every map. It's very handy as you can name the brush so you have single names like "dense_forest", "shrubbery", "birch_forest" and so on in the distribution list- you can see and select the right distribution on the first look + you can reuse the same distrubutions on other maps.

I’ll look into it then when I start rebuilding Highwater. Thanks for the tip!

only just downloaded the map. but its superb,brutal and expansive. i shall give further feedback once i played some more.

After the ridge update, the utility attachement of the B-66 changed. The B-66 has now 2 garage points, one from the utility attachment and one from the garage cart. This makes a total of 5 garage points now on Longfall.

Probably not that big of a deal, except if you decide to deliver the garage points of the B-66 before rescuing the broken truck, because that will remove the repair points as well.

@Brainy - Thanks for mentioning it, I didn’t realise they’d made that change. It’s something I’ve wanted for a while actually, I always thought it was strange the B66 didn’t have a garage point but the B130 did. I think I’ll leave it as it is and give people a slightly easier time unlocking the garages.

I enjoyed your map, thanks. I got ambitious and connected two trucks in a convoy to save time and ended up tipping over the chase truck a few times on the "easier" half of the map. So I stopped doing that, but then I got to the narrower, curvier, bumpier part of the map and still tipped over a bunch of trucks. It was a fun challenge to get them back upright and get all the logs picked up, ha ha. I was surprised that the game said I finished in 12 hours. I felt like I must have spent 12 hours just picking up trucks, but it always felt fair.

Originally posted by Torridon88:

Those map marked roads you seen on the map are the cliff overlays, they show on the map and look annoyingly like roads but I couldn't do anything about that.

You can change this if you edit the cliff overlay class in "Spintires Mudrunner - Editor\Media\classes\overlays\cliff_{name}.xml". You can remove the LandmarkPart property or change the value of LandmarkColor. After changing the XML, re-open your map in the editor and Rebuild Terrain. Since these properties are only used when generating the navigation map in the editor, you don't need to publish the modified class file.

(I kind of liked having the cliffs on the map as a "don't go this way" guide, so a different color may be the best option.)