Map planner

Every multiplayer map on this site opens as a planner: a board where you switch map layers, place markers and units, see what a unit can spot, measure distances and share the plan as a link. Worked out by this site

Opening a map

Maps lists every multiplayer map, and each opens on its own page with its size and objectives above the board. Worked out by this site On a screen 1,024 pixels wide or more the controls sit in a column beside the map; on a phone they form a bar under it that scrolls sideways. Worked out by this site

Drag to pan, and use the mouse wheel or a pinch to zoom; Zoom in, Zoom out and Fit do the same from the rail. Worked out by this site You can zoom to 8 times. Past 1.5 times, where the browser allows, the page draws the map itself at screen sharpness rather than enlarging the picture. Worked out by this site

Layers

The Layers section has four switches. Capture zones and Spawns are on when a board opens; Elevation and Terrain start off. Worked out by this site

• Elevation shades hills as if lit from the north-west and adds contour lines. Under a building it shows the ground, so a town does not look like a range of hills. Worked out by this site
• Terrain tints each kind of ground, such as forest, buildings, water and roads, and draws bridges over what lies beneath. Worked out by this site

The terrain layers load the first time you switch one on. If they cannot, the rail says "Terrain for this map could not be loaded." Worked out by this site

Placing markers

A map opened without a plan in its link is a blank board, ready to edit. Worked out by this site The Markers section holds:

• Select, to pick up and move what you placed. A drag on empty map pans, and a selected arrow's ends can be dragged on their own. Worked out by this site
• Seven unit symbols: INF (Infantry), ARM (Armour), ART (Artillery), AIR (Air), REC (Recon), AA (Anti-air) and LOG (Logistics). Worked out by this site
• Four objectives: Attack, Defend, Rally point and Danger. Worked out by this site
• Arrow: drag from the start to the end. Worked out by this site
• Text: tap where the label goes, type and press Enter, or Esc to cancel. A label holds up to 40 characters. Worked out by this site

Tap the map to place a symbol or an objective. Friendly and Enemy set the colour of what you place next, and with an item selected they switch that item's side. Worked out by this site

Delete removes the selection, Undo and Redo step through your edits, and Clear empties the plan after asking "Remove everything from this plan?". Worked out by this site On a keyboard, Esc returns to Select, Delete or Backspace removes the selection, the arrow keys nudge it (with Shift for smaller steps), Ctrl+Z or ⌘Z undoes and Ctrl+Shift+Z or ⌘⇧Z redoes. Worked out by this site

A plan holds at most 100 items and 8 vision units, and it must fit in a link. An edit that would break a limit is refused, and the rail says why. Worked out by this site

Vision units

Place a Unit asks the map what a unit can see. Tap where it stands and search for it by name: the list shows each unit's ground optics as the game shows them, and Enter takes the first match. Worked out by this site It is placed with its default loadout. Worked out by this site

Select a vision unit to open its panel. It shows the unit's optics against ground units, helicopters and aircraft, as the game shows them, its stealth as the game shows it, the terrain under it and the altitude it flies at. Worked out by this site

• Mode. Spot shades where this unit would see an enemy of the stealth you set, from 0.5 to 3, with presets at 1, 1.25, 1.75, 2.5 and 3. Under Spotting, choose Ground units, Helicopters or Aircraft; a choice it has no optics for is greyed out. Worked out by this site Be spotted shades where an enemy with the optics you set, from 100 m to 12,000 m as the game shows it, would see this unit. Its presets are the optics units have in the game data at this unit's altitude. Worked out by this site
• Terrain. Auto reads the ground under the unit from the map; Open, Forest and Building override it. In Be spotted, that ground is the cover that counts. In Spot, cover counts where each enemy might stand, and it is always read from the map. Worked out by this site
• Loadout. Options that change the unit's optics or stealth can be ticked, up to four. Worked out by this site

On the map, the area it sees, or is seen from, is shaded in its side's colour inside a dashed ring at its full range. Worked out by this site While you drag a unit, only the ring follows until you let go. Worked out by this site Infantry inside a building see from the whole building: the map outlines it, draws the range around its footprint, and the panel reads "Inside a building, roof" and the roof's height. Worked out by this site

The planner follows the rules in spotting: optics divided by the target's stealth as the game shows it, halved in forest and buildings, with hills blocking the line. Worked out by this site Hills do not block when the unit spots aircraft or flies at aircraft altitude itself. Worked out by this site The panel ends "Estimated from the game's values. Forest and eye heights are our model." Worked out by this site It may add that vision was computed on a coarser grid to stay responsive; if terrain is missing, only the rings are drawn. Worked out by this site

On a phone, tapping a vision unit opens its panel as a sheet over the map, with a close button. Worked out by this site

The ruler and the scale bar

Ruler, under Tools, measures a line you drag across the map. A tap clears it. It is never saved in a plan, and it works on a shared, read-only plan too. Worked out by this site

The game's own map readout shows twice the distance on the map, rounded down to 5 m. From the game's code The ruler reads the same way and the scale bar uses the same doubled metres, so both match the ranges and optics this site and the game show. Worked out by this site See distances.

Sharing a plan

A plan lives in the page's address, after the # sign. That part of an address is never sent to a server, so this site never receives your plan. Worked out by this site While you edit, every change updates the address, so reloading the page keeps your work. Worked out by this site

Share copies a read-only link and confirms: "Link copied. Anyone who opens it sees this plan, read-only." Worked out by this site If the browser refuses the clipboard, the rail shows the link in a field to copy by hand. Worked out by this site

On a read-only plan the only editing control is Edit a copy, which turns the page into an editable copy; the link you were given still shows the original. Worked out by this site Switching layers on a read-only plan changes only your own view. Worked out by this site A link that cannot be read opens an empty board and says "This link's plan could not be read." Worked out by this site