I'm seeing only one troll in this thread...
Has it occured to you that you're simply off-topic in this thread? It's about creating a map, using the tools provided by, shockingly, the developers themselves.
I agree Pndrev, from my experience with Star Dock games the devs made them easy to mod because they
wantyou to mod the game to how you (and your friend or what not)like it, as well as share those mods with the community. Given the devs most certainly enjoy playing the game I'm pretty sure they enjoy trying out everyones mods for a change of pace since they know the vanilla version inside and out.
Mods are what keep a game alive 6-12 months after inital release, and are the life blood of some games, and what keep them installed on your hard drive years after initial release (homeworld 2 still has a active modding community and it's getting on towards 5+ years since it's release.)
Further more Kruelgor, a
map is
very different than a
mod and I'm pretty sure the devs especially ,not to mention the beta testers) want to see more maps available for this game given they've most likely played the ones that came with it to death by now.
As far as it somehow insulting the devs by making mods, I think it's almost exactly the opposite. The fact so many people would rather spend their time, effort and expertise making total converison mods for Sins rather than some other game speaks extremely highly of how well put togther the core design of the game is. After all if the game core play mechanics, controls, graphics, sound effect etc.. sucked, no one would bother modding it and would put their energies into modding for some other title. (Especially to see so many total converion mod projects underway so quickly means people must have tried this game and immediately felt it was "perfect" for the mod they had in mind and couldn;t wait to get to work on it.)
Besdies Kruelgor do have any concept how long it takes to make a full conversion mod? Easily months, if not a year or more; during which time these people will be playing the vanilla version the entire time. If they waited until they were tired of the vanilla version before getting started on their mod projects they wouldn;t have as much ambition or interest in seeing them through to completion.
But anyhow back OT:
That map idea sounds like fun but is insanely huge. I think it'll probably take a few weeks or more (depending on how much time they have to spend on it) to finish it for anyone that undertakes the project single handedly.
Playing it however would be a real treat, although I think the game would last for a few hundred hours easily. (not necessarily a bad thing, but unless you're doing it over LAN or single player getting the same group back togther ont he weekends for a few months straight could be a problem)