File from https://community.simtropolis.com/ aren't downloading correctly

[Leader of the Zakonistians]

It seems there is an issue with downloading like 80% of the mods/maps on this site https://community.simtropolis.com/. When I click on download, it instead seems to download images of the map but not the map itself. And I can't find it in-game. I got Coast Map to work I believe but the rest don't download the same way. I'd give a screenshot but I think a video would do better except I have no idea how to do that.
I should mention that I don't actually have the game yet. I haven't bought it yet but I plan to. This was one of my childhood games that I'm returning to after failing at Cities: Skylines

[Ilja]

You are downloading grey scale images. They do not come with ready maps. Instead they are generated with the game.

Here are instructions:
https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/index.php?topic=4178.0

[Leader of the Zakonistians]

Originally posted by Ilja:

You are downloading grey scale images. They do not come with ready maps. Instead they are generated with the game.

Here are instructions:
https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/index.php?topic=4178.0

Im not looking to do that. I just want to download the map itself. I don't care about anything else. I'm just wanting to download the map as is

[Ilja]

I fully understood that from your OP.

What I was wondering if you were actually downloading regions, or accidentally grey scale versions of them. The article explained what that was about.

[Leader of the Zakonistians]

Originally posted by Ilja:

I fully understood that from your OP.

What I was wondering if you were actually downloading regions, or accidentally grey scale versions of them. The article explained what that was about.

How do I know? Can you tell me what i should download? I believe I clicked on the image last time instead of the file name. Maybe that's the difference.

[MGB]

Generally speaking when you download a Map, further work must be done before you can use it in game. For a long time, the file sizes of a ready to use region were simply too large to consider hosting them on community sites, due to bandwidth/hosting costs. Ergo, all SC4 maps come in one of two formats:

- Greyscale images you can import into the game. SC4 reads the image and generates the region.
- SC4M files, which require a 3rd Party Tool, either SC4 Mapper or SC4 Terraformer to convert/render into a complete region.

Let me state again, you will not find ready to use Maps for SC4, it's never been a thing.