Placing zones on the map

Placing the map is the one bit of setup unique to a real-world game engine. A game’s zones are authored abstractly; you anchor them to an actual place.

Local meters vs. the real world

Game authors describe zones in a local meters frame — x is east, y is north, both in meters from the layout’s origin. A play area might be authored as a 300 m × 200 m rectangle centered on (0, 0). That’s deliberately location-independent: the same game works in any park.

When you place a placeable zone, the engine projects that meters geometry onto real latitude/longitude at the spot you choose. Resizing scales it; the game’s relative layout (a hill in the middle, two bases at the ends) is preserved.

Placeable and required

• Placeable zones are the ones you position. They get a Place / Re-place control in the console. Most games have exactly one placeable parent.
• Required zones (and points) gate the start: the game refuses to begin until they’re placed and actually have geometry. The pre-flight checklist names any that are missing.

Nested layouts move together

Zones nest. A child zone is positioned relative to its parent, so when you place the parent, the children drop in with it and move/scale rigidly as one unit. This is how most multi-zone games work:

• Capture the Flag — one Play Area; Blue Base, Red Base, and both flag points auto-place inside it. You drop one zone.
• Pirate’s Booty — one Treasure Island; the two ships straddle opposite corners and ride along when you move or stretch the island.

So even a rich layout is usually a single drag.

Exclusions (cutouts)

Some zones include exclusion shapes — cutouts that subtract from the zone. Players standing in a cutout count as outside the zone, and item spawns avoid it. Pirate’s Booty, for example, punches the ship footprints out of Treasure Island so loot never spawns on top of a ship. You don’t place exclusions separately; they’re part of the layout.

Points and annotations

• Points are single named spots (a flag spawn, a goal). Many auto-place with their parent zone; a few games may ask you to drop one.
• Annotations are decorations — lines, arrows, labels — you can draw to brief your players (“start here”, “no-go area”). They have no gameplay effect.

Sizing it right

The size of the play space changes how a game feels:

• Bigger areas favor runners and hiders, make tagging harder, and reward stamina. Good for Zombie, Sardines, Assassin.
• Smaller areas create fast, frantic, high-contact games. Good for a quick round of Tag or a frantic Bomb Tag.
• Some games declare a minimum area and won’t start if you place them too small — the console will say so.

A reasonable default for most games is a soccer-field-ish area; scale up for bigger groups.

Keyboard & mouse controls

Once you’ve selected a zone, shape, point, or annotation, you can fine-tune it without dragging. These apply to whatever is selected:

Control	What it does
Arrow keys	Nudge the selection one step (default 1 m).
Shift + arrow keys	Super-nudge a larger step (default 5 m).
, and .	Rotate 15° (counter-clockwise / clockwise).
< and > (Shift + , / .)	Rotate 90°.
Shift + mouse wheel	Rotate (5° per notch).
Ctrl + mouse wheel (⌘ on Mac)	Scale the selection up or down.

Nudge steps move a fixed real-world distance no matter how far you’re zoomed, and you can change the nudge and super-nudge distances in Settings.

A plain (unmodified) mouse wheel still zooms the map as usual — only Shift or Ctrl/⌘ wheel acts on the selection. Placed items scale along with the map when you zoom, so they stay sized to the play area instead of ballooning when you zoom out.

Editing rules vs. live play

You can freely reshape and reposition zones before you start (and while paused). Once a game is started, the layout is generally locked so the field doesn’t shift under players’ feet — pause first if you need to adjust.

Common mistakes

• Forgot a required zone. Start is blocked; check the checklist.
• Placed it over a road or a pond. The engine doesn’t know what’s safe — pick sensible ground. (See safety.)
• Too small. Either the game blocks you (min area) or it just plays badly.
• Reshaping after start. Pause first.