If by 'normal' game you mean a normal MP game, then true! It certainly would. Would allow a little more diversity to the online play for the standard TBS games as well.

In terms of there being a single map file with and overland/underland type setup ala Age of Wonders; correct. It doesn't appear to be a feature of the game as it stands.

However!

As per an earlier Dev Article (April 20th or there abouts, the Modding Preview one) Brad stated that there ARE triggers which will let you load into a different map entirely while maintaining the state of the prior map and of course your character. You can then use another trigger in the map you entered to either revert to the prior map, or assumably into yet another different map (no idea what happens to state of the first map in such an instance, but hopefully and assumably it is still retained).

So! What I'm asking here is for the Dedicated Server software to support this as well, and support it to the point where if one player activates a map change trigger, it moves THEM over, and not EVERYONE in the game.. It MIGHT already do so, in which care merely seeking confirmation. But I believe the likeliest scenario with the dedicated server software at the moment to be that if a map transition takes place, EVERYONE in the game gets shifted over as well. Which would be just fine for a co-op type adventure (although still nonoptimal) but if you wished to setup a persistant online play where some players might be playing together but most probably wouldn't?

Yeah, you really need to have the server be capable of having multiple maps loaded at once to make this work.

Sounds good.

Oh I completely agree. MP of any nature is a far, far better scenario from what we had previously. I already suspected that if it wasn't like this already that it probably wouldn't make it by launch -- unless of course; the network engineers are all sitting on their toes wondering what they can do next, given their work is 'done'.

Even if the dedicated server does run how I suspect at the moment -- one map for all players, anyone triggering a change causes everyone to switch maps -- there is still a lot we can do with the game and modding online play around this area, thanks mostly to the vast size of the maps permissable.

...Actually; that leads me into another question. I know that the 64 bit client software is almost a certainty at this point -- albeit a post release client -- and that it will likely allow for bigger maps still... But.. Will there also be a 64 bit dedicated server available? If so, and it supports the huger map sizes, would 32 bit clients be able to connect with the server doing most of the heavy lifting? Or would it still require the 64bit client regardless?

Anywho, aye. My main hope really is that we could get this at some point. So I just hope that the server software, as you say, isn't written in such a way to preclude it being added in relatively easily.

Hah, like a clean version of tourettes.