New Map: Desert Mountain - help/feedback needed

[BaNa]

Hi guys,
I made a map for spring and would appreciate some feedback on it.


I've updated the map, check my last post!




http ://www.unknown-files.net/spring/3725/Desert_Mountain/

It's my first map, made with l3dt and photoshop. It is a 16*16 map for 2-8 players, northwest vs southeast. Desert climate.

you can see the minimap here:
http ://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y121/nagyhajubanya/minimap.jpg

Unfortunately, there is a technical problem with the map: during play, while zooming out, the level of detail changes over very big tiles, which looks bad. To be more precise: you can only see high detail in a small rectangular area near the center of the screen.
I have a screenshot of this:

http ://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y121/nagyhajubanya/screen108.jpg

(haven't posted much here, and i think i can't link stuff directly for a while)

Can anybody tell me what this may be from?

I used the following parameters in mapconv:

mapconv.exe -i -l -x 1200 -n 200 -m metal.bmp -a height.bmp -t terraini.bmp -f feature.bmp -c .5 -o Desertmountain.smf

Also, any suggestions about the map are welcome.
What i know i will be changing in near future:
I will be upping the metal to about 2X as much, spacing the metal spots a bit farther, and upping mex radius so you can build a moho mex next to normal one. I may also be applying a blur to the texture to lower grain, as it may be a bit too harsh.

-BaNa

edit: a million - zillion thanks to Forboding Angel for the tutorial, I would not have thought of making a map without the supar help.

I also shamelessly stole the skybox from a map called BrownShoreWithPebbles, because I happened to click on it when looking for a skybox.[/url]

[AF]

[Forboding Angel]

The lod isn't your fault. Also, it isn't in my tutorial, but when you compile the map, you should set the c parameter in the compile like to c 0.0

The reason for this is the graphics quality lost is not worth the filespace gained because 7zip will compress it to the same size anyway.

Looks neat!

[BaNa]

Thanks for the linking and the reply.

I've been working on rendering the map in carrara, here is a preliminary version:

[Otherside]

hey looking nice but imo make it more of a sandy lighter color if u wanna make it look like a desert

also would love a 12*12 version :p but yeh tis nice

[Forboding Angel]

the reason the one in l3dt looks pretty much like fail is because you use what looks lik all of 2 land types and put strata on both of them, when means the land type on the ground gets those super funky liquid looks.

You can use strata on a flatish plane, but iy needs to be a very simple strata texture.

[BaNa]

the reason the one in l3dt looks pretty much like fail is because you use what looks lik all of 2 land types and put strata on both of them, when means the land type on the ground gets those super funky liquid looks.

You can use strata on a flatish plane, but iy needs to be a very simple strata texture.

I used a built-in climate, either desert or spring-desert...

hey looking nice but imo make it more of a sandy lighter color if u wanna make it look like a desert

also would love a 12*12 version :p but yeh tis nice

I'm working on both, gonna render a 12*12 one with the desert theme.

[Forboding Angel]

That must be the l3dt default desert climate... Use spring desert, that's the one I made. Looks waaaaay better.

[BaNa]

Woohoo! new version is out.

link: http://www.unknown-files.net/spring/374 ... ntain_v17/

I made it 12*12, with three starting positions per side. Metal is 2.1 per patch in CA. Wind is 1-30, and in CA it scales with height, so its totally worth it to build up on the mountain. I took the pointless hole outta the mountain, now its a bigger plateau.

Minimap:



And a screenshot:



I played with the lighting a bit, and the lower left side actually has less light (only the render, not ingame). I like it this way, feel free to say if you don't.

During the rendering some kinda strange things came up: like that rainbow-ish thing on lower right. I may re-render in time.

EDIT: heh, i forgot to upload to UF. In Progress...

[Otherside]

map looks awesome if the metal spaces r good would be a good left vs right map just have to see how it plays in terms of balance

overall an awesome job :D

[BaNa]

map looks awesome if the metal spaces r good would be a good left vs right map just have to see how it plays in terms of balance

overall an awesome job :D

Thanks! I upped the metal map on UF, you can check it there. Please give feedback if you play on it, I'd like to know how the balance works.

[LordMatt]

Looks vaguely reminiscent of the king of the hill map in OTA.

[[XIII]Roxas]

Exactly what I was thinking. Good times, good times.

[Otherside]

ok had a game on this 1v1 with quant playing CA

corner vs corner

the map is great (could have been better 2v2)

the metal spots r well laid out altho maybe a little less spots at the start pos 2-3 and put more along the edges leading to other corners to make expanding more worthwhile altho theres aroudn 4 spots in those corners which is good

the center gives a good metal and height advantage to

in the 1v1 both me and quant went arm and kbots i got hammered down but won by launching 2 nukes at once (no the game wasnt porcy) all i did was defend as much as i could and wen i got pushed bak till the end i launched both nukes and won game XD

anywayz the map is awesome as is very good map

awesome 2v2,3v3 map well needed great map

[NOiZE]

Looks really nice.

One thing though, some of the different colours don't really blend that nice into each other. If you can "fix" that, then u should remake Painted Desert

[knorke]

iam downloading at the moment, but from the screenshots i think maybe a second texture on the cliffs could make it look more interessting?

http://www.generals.at/img/newspix/Moun ... th_big.gif
something like this, look at the sides of the hills.
http://spring.clan-sy.com/screenshots/screen111.jpg

[BaNa]

iam downloading at the moment, but from the screenshots i think maybe a second texture on the cliffs could make it look more interessting?

http://www.generals.at/img/newspix/Moun ... th_big.gif
something like this, look at the sides of the hills.
http://spring.clan-sy.com/screenshots/screen111.jpg

I like the current painted desert theme, the color changes with height, and that does make a difference for the cliffs.

edit:

Played a few games on it, and i totally enjoyed the way it worked out. Spamming flash is still a viable tactic, but the middle is about kbot war. We also had a lot of flanking in our games, because the flat areas are big enough to allow for it. Owning the hill is very good, because you can spam kbots in every direction from it, and while they are fast going down, enemy attackers are slow climbing. In a 3v3 game, expansion is very important, because the difference between a 3 mex econ and a 6/7 mex econ is huge. The only thing that seems porcable is the middle, but air owns most any porc there / the 3 mexes up there mean u starve slowly / there are many ways up for a cloaked kbot army / its in emp missile range = gg.