Unknown special values (~740 and higher) found in official maps (research needed)

[Klofkac]

Hi. While I was developing some new features into D2kEditor, I randomly discovered, that in most of official maps, there are unknown special values used in them. (Each map tile consists of two values - tile and special, the special is used for buildings, units, spice blooms etc - look at the wiki: http://d2kplus.com/wiki/index.php?title=Map_Files).

Most of them were numbers about 740 - 765, and they were used almost always in enemy bases.

I also found value 47 often in maps with BLOXBAT tileset (like A3V1, A8V1).

Even in several maps, big areas of map are covered by rather random special values (most notably A6V2 where all upper half of map is covered by them).

 

Look at the above image, this is screenshot from O7V1.

What is the meaning of these special values? Are they somehow related to AI, like determining some significant places or points in a map?

There is a new potential in utilizing these specials in custom maps if we know what they do (if they do anything, but they seem to be placed on purpose rather than randomly).

 

I made a new option to map editor, called "Show unknown specials". You can find it in Settings menu.

You can easily place any special value with editor: just type value you want in "Special Value" edit box.

Here is map editor with this feature for download:

D2kEditor.zip

[Feda]

Yeah they look like having a certain function, but i can't really think what it could be. Maybe some are waypoints?

[athanasios]

Guarding the area?