docs: research on Argentum Online map editor ecosystem (fixes #14)

[ghzhost]

Summary

Research document comparing how existing Argentum Online projects handle map editing, as requested in #14.

What's included

• Comparative format table: ao-org (VB6 binary .inf), lambdaclass (JSON), ao-libre (C# binary .csmap) vs OpenAO terrain.json
• Architecture analysis: each project's editor approach, real-time/collaborative capabilities (or lack thereof)
• Known bugs & lessons learned: corruption on unclean shutdown, missing reference validation, editor-client coupling, no undo/redo
• Import recommendation: JSON import from lambdaclass (MIT) is viable; official VB6 binary (AGPL) not worth the cost in phase 1
• Hypothesis confirmation: no project in the AO ecosystem has in-browser editing or live map reload — OpenAO's approach is genuinely novel

Key findings

1. All three projects edit maps offline and restart the server to apply changes — confirming OpenAO's live-reload as a unique feature
2. lambdaclass format (JSON/MIT) is the most compatible with OpenAO's terrain.json — a converter would be < 50 lines
3. ao-org editor (AGPL-3.0) has lessons on tile validation and corruption prevention that directly apply to issues Etapa 1: registrar PNG subidos como graficos del motor y extender la paleta #6 and related
4. No project attempted collaborative or in-browser editing

File

docs/investigacion-editores-mapas-argentum.md

Closes #14

[gitar-bot]

CI failed: Integration tests failed due to a missing `npcs.json` game data file needed by NPC loading routines.

Overview

1 test failure pattern found across 1 analyzed log, caused by a missing required JSON file during test execution.

Failures

Missing npcs.json Data File (confidence: high)

• Type: test
• Affected jobs: 96642864481
• Related to change: unclear
• Root cause: The test suite attempted to read api/src/jsons/npcs.json via loadNpcsJsonFromFile, resulting in an ENOENT error and triggering cascading test failures (500 errors on health/runtime-config endpoints and market test failures).
• Suggested fix: Ensure npcs.json is present in api/src/jsons/ or generated/copied properly during the test setup phase.

Summary

• Change-related failures: 0
• Infrastructure/flaky failures: 0
• Recommended action: Verify if the PR or recent changes omitted required game data files like npcs.json or if a generation step needs to be added before running integration tests.

Code Review ✅ Approved

Adds comprehensive research documenting the Argentum Online map editor ecosystem, format comparisons, and architectural analysis to address issue #14. No issues found.

Tip

Comment Gitar fix CI or enable auto-apply: gitar auto-apply:on

Options

Auto-apply is off → Gitar will not commit updates to this branch.
Display: compact → Showing less information.

Comment with these commands to change the behavior for this request:

Auto-apply	Compact
gitar auto-apply:on	gitar display:verbose

_{Was this helpful? React with 👍 / 👎 | Gitar}