A field manual for FrontWars

The map editor

The editor is a separate application at /editor/. It opens with "everything runs locally in your browser" on the page, which is worth knowing before you trust it with a heightmap.

TESTEDthe editor itself, opened and read, 2026-11-03
IN-GAMEits own menu labels and hotkey list, quoted
OFFICIAL ONLYSteam's bullet list mentions a built-in map editor
NEEDS CHECKwhether a published map is moderated before it appears in the picker

The map editor at /editor/ on 2026-11-03: Terrain, Relief, Select, Objects, Nations, Resize, Validate and Export panels down the left, with File in the top bar. — **What this shows** that a community map is a local file you build, validate and export, not an upload form.Captured 2026-11-03Client v42.5Plate 1

The File menu is the whole workflow

New map, Open map (official or your own), Open archive (a .zip), Import heightmap (PNG). Import is the one that makes the editor usable: you bring terrain in rather than painting a continent pixel by pixel, then correct it with the relief tools.

The panels

Terrain, Relief, Select, Objects, Nations, Resize, Validate, Test in game, Export, Filters. The Names panel is the interesting one for the kind of site this is: it counts nations, offers a Random fill, and one option reads Random real-world flags on random land, spaced apart — which is why community maps have countries that look historical in places history never put them.

Editor hotkeys, as printed

Editor keys (the map view, not the match)
Key	Tool
B	brush
G	paint bucket
Shift + E	erase to water
I	eyedropper
E	elevation
S	smooth / sharpen
L	flatten
R	ramp
O	erosion
M	marquee select
W	magic wand
N	place nation
Space	pan

Note that these collide with the match's own keys — B is boat attack in a game and brush in the editor, G is ground attack and paint bucket, E is zoom and elevation. They are different applications, and muscle memory will betray you once.

From editor to picker

Validate, then Test in game, then Export. Published maps land in the community tab of the picker, which sorts them by Top rated / Most played / Newest / Oldest and shows two counters per entry whose meaning we have not confirmed. Community maps also appear in the public rotation: we saw a CHAOS lobby running a map that is not in the single-player list.

What we have not confirmed

Whether a submission is reviewed before it can be played by others, what the two counters per community entry are, and whether an exported map can be re-imported for editing. Three small questions, one session each.

Last checked against the client: 2026-11-03 · client v42.5