I am making a map about the French Revolutionary Wars (1792-1802) heavily inspired by the Thirty Years War map by Zxctycxz. I asked his approval before starting the project and now I am halfway through making all the territories. The map is damn big and detailed, yes, but the whole community is full of big and detailed maps (PLEASE SHARE YOUR FILE SIZE SECRETS TO ME ;-;). I don't know yet why it is so damn heavy, but here is the current situation:

The map has 5,04mb. I am trying to reduce it to less than 2mb. I know I can try to simplify the SVG using the Simplify tool in Inkscape but it is kinda crappy because Inkscape is slow in selecting all the nodes and things so you can simplify and the more objects you simplify the more simplified it will become.

I tried to use optimizers online and they made the file smaller, but for some reason Warlight won't accept those files when I try to upload them. I guess they change something in the SVG code that is not compatible with the Warlight tool.

Here it is a preview of the current state of the map: http://i.imgur.com/USerumn.png

Give me tips on how the hell can I make the SVG smaller without using Inkscape's Simplify tool

before uploading it to wl delete the background map
the background map is very big

Edited 4/14/2016 19:59:05

I already did it, the file size is 5mb without them

nvm i suggested something u tried

Edited 4/15/2016 04:33:44

https://petercollingridge.appspot.com/svg-editor/

Conservative
Remove all namespaces
Remove empty elements and unecessary groups
Change both decimal places to 1
Remove all default styles

Edited 4/15/2016 05:02:25

^^That optimizer can normally remove about 100 KB's off of my maps at least, it may do more for yours

Also, If you haven't already, try exporting it as a plain SVG rather than an inkscape SVG and then running it through the Optimizer.

I'm curious as to why your file is so huge; Normally even when I'm working on projects with more than 2000 territories my files are just over 2mb (say, 2.1 mb) and they get optimized just fine using the two optimizations I've mentioned. You may want to consider going into inkscape with the node tool and manually removing unnecessary nodes from territories.

Edited 4/15/2016 06:37:51

I think maybe the map it way too detailed. I discovered that almost all of the file size is in the Europe part, so I will try making the place with less nodes. *sigh* The way is going to be selecting the territories and simpliflying them one by one (god give me patience ;-;).

I mean, it is too detailed compared to other maps, it even has the entire Åland Archipelago and almost every island in the Aegean Sea :I

Also, I've figured out the SVG might have been corrupted so I copied and pasted all the territories and background into a new SVG. The result is that the file got almost 1mb smaller (don't ask me, don't know how).

I've tried excluding all of Europe (the file size got down to around 900kb, spectacular) and uploading the map to the Warlight Editor, wich worked (so I guess the old file WAS corrupted after all).

And Imperator, plain SVG's are not really too much of a difference (it is worth it if you are just above the limit, like 200kb or something). But I thank you for your help. I will try also to use Alexander's optimiser, will post the result ^^

Edited 4/15/2016 23:49:46

Ok, update: Since selecting multiple objects and then simplifiyng them loses way too much detail, I decided I would select every single territory and simplify them individually.

As you all can guess, this took a hell lot of time, but after I removed all "eye-candy" islands and simplified every single territory in Europe, the SVG size dropped to astonishing 2,38mb (HELL YEAH!) and the about 2,1mb with the Plain SVG option enabled.

Then I used Alexander's tip of using that optimiser. The file size went down to 1,09mb (OMG WHAT KIND OF DARK MAGIC IS THAT?) and then I tried to upload the thing on Warlight AND IT GODDAMN WORKED (OMG YOU DON'T KNOW HOW HAPPY I WAS AT THAT MOMENT).

Anyway, I think that I won't need more help on the issue of the SVG size

The problem: The SVG was too heavy
How to solve: Simplify everything, save as plain SVG and use optimisers ^^

Glad to hear that you got it figured out :) This looks like a really cool map.