Cities XXL Map Editor ...Q/A

So far I've been lucky just fumbling my way thru materials application, but now that I really need specific results I find myself beating my head against a wall.
I have materials exactly the way I want them in ...bake diffuse/material edition mode...
I can't get the same result to carry over to ...bake normal map/normal mode...
What's up with that?

 

1.In "material edition" mode I choose textures, I adjust this & that and other stuff till I get the results I want.
2. I click "bake diffuse map", rendering the diffuse material, while still in "material edition" mode. Good results.
3. I switch to "normal" mode to save the material file.
At this point the results change to whatever and are different from the 'bake diffuse' results as illustrated in the images above. Clicking "bake normal map" does not make a difference. Saving while in "material edition" mode saves the "normal" mode results.

Am I missng any steps or doing them in the wrong order?
note:The same thing happens when I load any other material file including the existng/preset material files.
Just in case, I verified integrity of the tool cache. It replaced a couple of files but had no effect on these results.

 

Apparently the original .land file must be replaced in order to modify not only the "landscape" but the "materials" as well.
So that will be step 1 from now on.

 

Thanks Monty, for some reason that bar is blank when my editor is maximized.

 

Max elevation height:
relative to the scale of the editor's water height adjustments (0-2000m)
790m (255 RGB grey scale) is the max terrain height possible.
I'm guessing Mt Everest is out of the question?

 

Trees:
Russian Olive.... It renders bare w/no leaves.
Perhaps corrupt or missing files?

 

file size verses number of trees
When it comes to new maps, tons of trees always makes them look better, which I assume has significant impact on "loading" times.
Question is, which is more preferable, a maximum tree count with a larger .path file size or fewer trees with a smaller file size?

 

In creating an island map:
In the .lua file, I presume, what must be changed in order for the initial game prompt to show as "place a first harbor" instead of "make a road connection" ?

 

Can anyone tell me what is the function of the number (206) at the ends of these .lua file command lines?
example:
-- City Links: Sea / Rail / Road / HighWay
["Sim_CityLinkInterCity_sea"] = { "Data/Gfx/Landscape/Layers/zdeli_Sim_CityLinkInterCity_sea.png", 206 },

 

Anybody? please..
To be more specific, I'm trying to find out how to edit the game resource 'overlay' colors, for example, the white over "coastline" or the green over "fertile areas", the purple edges over "city link railways", etc, etc.

 

desperately seeking the function of these numbers (underlined in red) that are in a map lua file.

 

C'mon guys....even just a guess will be appreciated.
Seeking any facts/information concerning:

The numbers at the ends of these type of lines found in a maps .lua file.
-- City Links: Sea / Rail / Road / HighWay
["Sim_CityLinkInterCity_sea"] = { "Data/Gfx/Landscape/Layers/zname_Sim_CityLinkInterCity_sea.png", 206 },
["Sim_CityLinkInterCity_rail"] = { "Data/Gfx/Landscape/Layers/zname_Sim_CityLinkInterCity_rail.png", 210 },


Also, the source/location of files that govern the "Resources" overlay colors,
i.e.
Oil-producing areas - white
Ground waters - green
Fertile area - green
Port area - white
Holidays - green
Coastal area - white

 

Thanks, take your time
here: this mornings lo 74 degrees, afternoon hi 86 degrees

 

Google Map Overlays for Cities XXL(2015).
Well almost...
After months of trial and error, I have figured out the proper image & tiling configuration to get a single image material file, in the Cities XXL map editor, to use for game maps. (see the image below)

Now...How to get a clear image?
Maybe some of you Photo Shop gurus can give me some ideas.
The map editor uses a 512 x 512 .png for textures.
The "map size" in the editor is 4096 x 4096, same as the in-game maps.
My Google Map screen grabs are around 1024 x 1024 (72 pixels per inch).
I get too much blur when I resize to 512 x 512.
Then, the map editor seems to stretch the image, causing even more blur.
The map editor will accept a 1024 x 1024 .png, but the results are near identical to using a 512 x 512 .png.