Setup
This is an extension for Visual Studio Code (VS Code). If you do not have it already, visit their official download page and install it.
Also, the game itself is needed, especially for the included editor.
Create a map in the included editor as normal.
Though, the location where we save the map will be different.
Find the folder of the game itself, where the Game.exe and Editor.exe reside.
If you previously have installed custom maps, e.g. from CulturesNation or Cultures - Die Legende lebt weiter (i.e. the map database), there is a good chance that the following folder structure already exists: data\maps.
If you do not have the data-folder in the game folder, just create it and then the maps-folder inside it too.
Proceed by creating a folder for your map inside the maps-folder.
Save a map from the included editor into your map folder. Make sure that you name the map file map.c2e.
We start by downloading the extension for cultures.
The download link is located on the main page in the right hand side menu under "Releases".
All releases are listed here in chronological order, from newest on the top to oldest on the bottom.
For the most recent one, find the drop-down menu "Assets" and select the .vsix file.
Save it you can find it later, e.g. in the downloads folder.
Now open your map folder in VS Code. VS Code might show a big button "Open Folder" on the left. Alternatively, you can find it in the top menu bar under "File" -> "Open Folder...".
Start by opening the extension pane by clicking the symbol with the blocks in the left menu.
You can now either drag the extension you downloaded previously from the Windows Explorer onto the extension pane and dropping it there.
Alternatively, find the "..."-menu in the top right of the extensions pane. Select "Install from VSIX..." and select the downloaded extension file.
Wait a little bit and then go back to the explorer pane by selecting the symbol with the paper in the left menu.
The last step is extracting the generated mapfile of the included editor to a readable (and modifiable) format.
Go to "View" -> "Command Palette..." and search for "Extract c2m" and execute it. A couple of files should appear.
One is the map.dat which holds all the terrain and landscape info.
Sadly, it is not directly editable.
The other one is the extracted.ini Which holds all defined players, houses, humans, animals, ... Rename it to map.ini so the game can find it.
This is the minimal setup to start developing your map.
You can now edit the map.ini with a ton of error checking, documentation, completion and more!
If you later change anything in the included editor, you need to execute the extraction again.
Both files (map.dat and extracted.ini) will be overwritten.
If you only changed the terrain or landscapes, you do not have to do anything more. In case you modified anything else, like players, animals, humans, houses, and more, you have to manually merge the extracted.ini into the map.ini.