Comet Catcher Redux V2

[luckywaldo7]

Also things shooting into the atmosphere tend to burn up, which is great as long as it isn't astronauts.

I mean, I guess there has to be some percentage of stuff that hits the moon that would have otherwise hit the earth, but

[Google_Frog]

It's a bit too shiny for me and the fake heightmap texture is disconcerting.

[Forboding Angel]

Waldo, the moons gravitational pull (even though it's small) is enough so that we don't get hit with as much or as often, but yes, the atmosphere shields us from all the small junk.

[Jools]

Got to goth it down man: This is not just any moon. This is europe. Everything here is brown, dark, grrrrrrrey... oh, yes they forbidden the rolling rrrrrrs quite some time ago.

If you talk about the moon with that name then it's called Europa.

Quite nice topic. I also agree that it may be a bit too shiny, but otherwise it's a huge improbvement.

[gajop]

Waldo, the moons gravitational pull (even though it's small) is enough so that we don't get hit with as much or as often, but yes, the atmosphere shields us from all the small junk.

No, you're missing the point. The reason moon has those craters visible is because it has no atmosphere and is geologically dead. The lack of atmosphere causes even small/light objects to hit the moon without burning up. The lack of geological events causes craters that are millions of years old to still remain visible to this day.

The only thing moon is good for is creating a tide, which may have contributed to creating life on Earth among other things.

[Forboding Angel]

I know this. in fact, I just said that indirectly (wrt earth's atmosphere = shield vs small stuff).

The moon is good for a lot more than just the "tide".

But this is way off topic. Comet Catchers are moons. The term is never meant literally (afaik). Is this an american thing, calling them that? Anytime I've ever heard the term comet catcher (yes, before ta came out ), it's always been in reference to our moon.

Obviously the real "Comet/meteoroid/asteroid" catchers are the gas giants (Jupiter, saturn, neptune, uranus (mainly jupiter)), but playing BA on a non-solid gaseous surface wouldn't be near as much fun would it?

Wrt shinyness, from various angles the surface of a moon (using our moon as a basis for this statement) would appear very shiny, much due to the fact that the moon has no atmosphere.

Sidenote: Solar winds smell like burnt gunpowder.

[gajop]

but playing BA on a non-solid gaseous surface wouldn't be near as much fun would it?

if we could have flying airfields, it may prove interesting to play on gas maps with no ground (not even water), with just air units and levitating structures

[marciolino]

I love the ramake, thanks!

Posted on BA homepage and general screenshots.
www.balancedannihilation.org

[PicassoCT]

but playing BA on a non-solid gaseous surface wouldn't be near as much fun would it?

if we could have flying airfields, it may prove interesting to play on gas maps with no ground (not even water), with just air units and levitating structures

only if we can have the lightning storms and gasexplosions that would ravage on such a map ..

[1v0ry_k1ng]

nice work!
Personally though, I think the shininess could do with a reduction

[Forboding Angel]

but playing BA on a non-solid gaseous surface wouldn't be near as much fun would it?

if we could have flying airfields, it may prove interesting to play on gas maps with no ground (not even water), with just air units and levitating structures

only if we can have the lightning storms and gasexplosions that would ravage on such a map ..

I am so tempted to make a new game... It's 100% doable with ceg, nice skyboxes, and voidwater.

[albator]

The textures are really nice to watch when you are spec. When you play with fog war however that is not so nice: that is actually a concern for other map as well.
If could be nice if both the visible part of the map and the hidden part of the map could be brighten up when using the fog war, so the texture look brighter like when not using the fog war. But that is an engine issue I guess right ?

[jK]

How about a bit stronger specular lighting?

[Beherith]

What do you mean jK, should I tone down the regular, and add more specular to compensate?

[jK]

yup

[SirArtturi]

The problem is that the flatlands look mute, while cliffsides glow. 2 ways to fix it: Tone down cliffsides and brighten up flatlands on specular map or brigthen up texturemap.

Looks great otherwise!

[Google_Frog]

It's a bit too shiny for me and the fake heightmap texture is disconcerting.

We're talking about using prettier maps over at ZK and I remembered this map. It still annoys me for the same reasons. The texture lies about the heightmap lies which makes trying to play on the map very jarring because unit movement fails to meet my expectations. I don't even care which of the heightmap or texture is fixed to look like the other.

[Jools]

You're all right:

A lot of comets have hit the moon over the course of time. It has no atmosphere so tracks are retained. Yes, the moon is small in comparison to the earth. Those comets may not have hit earth, but something else, but don't be so locked in on the fact that us = earth.