Never used the mapbuilder, so can't comment about that.
Cold War Colorado appears fine on my machine.
On the topic of degradation, there doesn't seem to be a clear consensus on the definition of what is being described. I have seen some older maps which have completely warped paint jobs (all the ones in the archives have now been fixed). The most definite evidence could be what Hawk (couldn't find it quickly) documented: a loss in file size after each load-save cycle even when no physical changes were made to the map.
On my old machine (Win 7, 32-bit) in which the game runs straight from the box (Hardware T&L disable doesn't need to be checked), when I load the map British Isles in the editor and then save it without making any changes I get this:
![Degradation size loss.jpg](./download/file.php?style=47&id=5064&sid=501ab44fd5f40042da34c8b35e239622)
- Degradation size loss.jpg (3.71 KiB) Viewed 7781 times
For me, repetition doesn't make a difference, the 2nd, 3rd... all are the same reduced size. It's clear that something is being lost here, but the resolut. I haven't researched it extensively for example looking at the files in the hex editor, but I'm pretty confident it's "bmp" (painting) data getting lost from the end of the gmp file.
On my new machine (Win 8.1, 64-bit, running with dgVoodoo 2) when I repeat the test I have an identical file size for the re-save. Both are "9,244KB".
The type of "degradation" I happen to see on the old machine is seen on the coast-lines (bear in mind, no one else has reported seeing the same thing). The Good copy from the new machine on the left with the Bad one from the old machine on the right.
I did a direct view, but when shadows are highlighted with the lighting it's more obvious/annoying.
Your maps looked ok so your machine is probably safe. However, to be really safe you could always keep a backup of the map from step #7 (final paint). If you get problems later, just peruse these
instructions to figure out how to find the start of the "bmp" section of the backup gmp file, then use that data to overwrite the "bmp" section in your final gmp file (obviously there's no problem if file length is extended).
![thumbs_up !*th_up*!](./images/smilies/ok.gif)