Sometimes a mapper makes a map where bits of the level are very distant from each other. Typically, this might be the main play area being consolidated in one place, but a bunch of distant rooms acting as teleporting monster cupboards placed quite far away from the play area. Or maybe there will be special effects sectors, or something for cutscenes or whatever.
Typically, these remote sectors are not meant to be seen. They may even have their lines hidden and more modern maps might have the "not shown on textured automap" flag set for the sectors too.
The thing is, the first time a player presses [tab] (or whatever they have bound to automap) a map set up like this will be zoomed out to accommodate at least some of these far-flung sectors. So, the actual play area may look quite small and the player gets a big clue that there is "something else out there", even if the distant bits have been hidden.
The engine has no way to know for sure what should be considered the play area and what should not, but the mapper should know. Therefore, i wondered if there might be some way for a mapper to set the zoom level.
So, is there any way to force an automap zoom level when starting a map?
(Obviously the player should be able to zoom in and out normally afterwards.)
I thought that the most likely place something like this might be was the MAPINFO Automap options, some sort of "set initial Zoom level/radius" option but that page only seems to have entries relating to colour.
Like I said, I expect that the answer will be "no" but no harm in asking.
