One map I'd really like to fit in is Xonic's Mega Mall. It's a tough call since Chinatown is a really good map as well (without crazy lag), but if I can find a good place for it (maybe on the way down to New Denver?) I'll give it a shot.

The only useful information I've found so far on making relocating happen is from a Reddit question, which happens to also provide some answers:
Question: Repositioning maps (mods) after new PZ features? (41.6+)

Originally posted by Agherian:

Hi, got back into PZ recently, I used to relocate/reposition some maps to my liking, but considering there are a few new tools for PZ mapmods (new foraging, map/minimap, _?), I wanted to ask: has the process changed? Are there more steps? What I used to do:

Rename the X and Y on map files to the desired cell ('X_Y.lotheader' and 'chunkdata_X_Y.bin' and 'world_X_Y.lotpack');

on spawnpoints.lua: Replace All entries 'worldX = ##' to 'worldX = +n+##' (or -n), n being the cell offset and ## the original cell numbers (repeat with 'worldY = '), so the spawn points move with the map;

and on objects.lua: Replace All entries 'x = ######' to 'x = +N+######', N here being the cell offset times 300, so a cell moved 3 steps back on X would be 'x = -900+######', do the same for 'y=..', so objects are moved too. (notepad++ advised)

Anything else I forgot, or more importanly, any new steps? Especially regarding the map/minimap implementations?

I highly suggest:

Coryerdon: I may have butchered this one, it adds a decent segment to the left of the external town on Over The River, including a mili facility that connects back around to Riverside across the River.

North Peaks: For me, it is either one or the other when it comes to NP or Coryerdon, since they both take up the same spot; I think North Peaks can be relocated either by New Denver or maybe a spot directly north of Lewisville. Just an idea.

Also was the Northwest Checkpoint added over by Riverside? if not, also suggest that one since its fits cozy between Riverside Exp and Brandenburg if included.

Here's my only concern with map merging that I've gathered from others who have done this; everything works swimmingly outside of excess zed spawns in random locations, even when pops are set to urban I can still come across hordes in the forests (Again, not a big deal; just an odd bug).

I ran this all on low pops with rare loot; all seems good so far outside of those weird zed spawns.

Oh yeah, one other bit; is there a reason why there are cosmic horrors in the waters as benchmarks? Are they actual entities / locations?

Love what you did here dude, thanks again for the hard work.

Cthulhu and Godzilla are there purely for aesthetic reasons, unfortunately. A Mythos inspired mod for PZ would be very cool though.

St. Bernarnd's Hill is a beautiful piece of work; myself and friends have put a lot of time in on it and haven't found much in the way of broken with it - our own private server runs it minus Bedford and Eerie County because of said compatibility issues. It's a shame it's a hard one to work around because of the existing maps.

Agree. I wish we had the tools to easily & visually move cells around, even if it only let us line up stuff it would be a huge boon for getting roads to line up. I’m actually considering my first foray into actual map making being just putting together connecting road cells to fit together some of the existing maps better. Anyway, future project.

+1 for St. Bernards hill

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2779961581

North Peak looks great-- but the author for whatever reason placed its cells overlapping quite a bit of the main map. Could be a fun addition edited and moved to the north side of the river which would make it compatible with near anything and everything. :)

hi try talking to the creator of this mod, he moves cells of most maps in one form or another. might be able to tell you how or point you in the right direction
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2728359552

AIZ/2/3 are my inspiration for this script. AIZ3's status as violating licenses by redistributing other's mods was also a motivation to come up with a different solution to a "mega map".

AIZ3 uses AIZ2 as a base, and then swaps in and out a few maps where the previous cells interfered with the proper layout of the map. It doesn't relocate anything new since AIZ2.

AIZ2 was the first to add the custom version of the Cheat Menu mod to allow adding roads. None of the roads included are applicable to what is in the output Apex Map Mod. It also include some fixes for maps, though none of those maps are included in the pool APEXMAKER draws from.

As you point out, there are also the instructions for manually moving a map in an included text document (doesn't use Cheat Menu), however they don't work for current 41.71 era maps because they lack the mechanism for relocating the .xml files necessary for the in-game maps (roads, buildings, etc.).

After all my digging I'm still not confident whether or not the .xml.bin file is required, or extraneous. But, from what I can see, editing the .xml file contents is quite doable. Just need to work up the process for getting the end result we're searching for. If we don't need the .xml.bin then we're golden.

Adding vehicle spawn zones using the Cheat Menu is handy because I can just stick the output into an objects.lua provided with this mod, I just haven't gotten around to determining where vehicle spawns need to be added yet. (Suggestions of areas which could use some vehicle spawn location love are welcome).

Using the vehicle spawn zone creator functionality, you can also take the output and do some search/replacing it to other types than ParkingStall (DeepForest, TownZone, Forest, Farm, Vegitation, etc.). Very finger-saving handy.

So I think there is absolutely a way we can make this happen.

hi is there any tutorial how to edit and add this map on your scrip?
Monmouth County
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2804453891&searchtext=

also it needs bigzombiemonkeys_tile_pack
https://steamcommunity.com/workshop/filedetails/?id=2804428637
should this be also be added on the script? call echo COPYING TILE PACKS?

i was also thinking to add this one, barricaded strip mall safe house
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2678285725&searchtext=

should i just put it on rem SET UP INCLUDED MAP MOD VARIABLES
rem?

and just set up like this ?
set mapmod[82].WorkshopID=2804453891
set mapmod[82].ModID=MonmouthBroadcasting
set mapmod[82].MapFolder=MonmouthCounty

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2806456685

I’m looking at Monmouth County (huge Kevin Smith fan) to see if I can get it in the next release.

I believe the barricaded strip mall had a conflict so it got left out, will double check as it used to be on the short list.

Fort Rock Ridge is already included in 0.9.7

Originally posted by AlexSledge:

One map I'd really like to fit in is Xonic's Mega Mall. It's a tough call since Chinatown is a really good map as well (without crazy lag), but if I can find a good place for it (maybe on the way down to New Denver?) I'll give it a shot.

I came here purely to suggest Xonic's Mega Mall. It's a real gem. Sneaking it into New Denver or up near Riverside or, for mall-on-mall action, even up NE of Louisville make sense. There's also quite a large blank space between Bedford & Fort Knox.

Hey AlexSledge,

Any chance of seeing this one added?

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2807152393&searchtext=research