Nuclear Winter v3

[Silentwings]

20x12 for 6-16 players. Remake of Beherith's classic map (by request).




Kbots can walk up all ramps. Vehs cannot go up the smallest/steepest ramps.

Made with World Machine.

Updated to v3 (3/4/2018).
Link to Springfiles download: https://springfiles.com/spring/spring-m ... ear-winter

[dansan]

Played it a few days ago (http://replays.springrts.com/replay/c9a ... cf7e16e5e/) and liked it a lot.
Gameplay was for me better that in v1, as the ramps are less steep, so gameplay is faster and less porcy, especially in south.
The optics is to bland for my taste. It is basically all white. I miss cliffs, rocks, anything that makes a landscape interesting.
If it's the winter theme: snow may settle only on the wind side in a landscape, so rock could be seen on the other... like hachures/shading.
Thank you for making the map :)

[Silentwings]

It's easy to control the distribution of the snow, but it doesn't work well to have it heavy on some cliffs and light on others. The reason is that BAs kbots can climb *very* steep ground, and snowing on cliffs makes the slope less steep; it becomes a nightmare trying to control passability, and its hard enough already with such shallow, irregularly textured cliffs.

I also would like to make the texture less uniform, particularly within the flat central area, but I'm not sure how to do it. I choose not to modify the heightmap much there (with extra rocks, crevasses, etc), because I was worried about moving too far from the original map, but maybe I was too cautious. Ideas?

There will be a v3, anyway, because I plan to fix a visual defect on some of the steeper slopes.

[Kloot]

I think more specular lighting variation (via detail normals and a lower sun angle, a la Red Comet V1.3) would also help to break up the monotonicity.

[PtaQ]

After few games on this map, here are some remarks/suggestions, if I may:
- ppl complain about no visible mex spots, make them more noticeable?
- the texture is pretty but as stated above, quite monotonic, Im missing the roads (or were these rivers) in the middle
- the additional geo makes up for ultra fast teching at the top corners, ie. 10 minute Liche, or 12 min nuke which is kinda meh, not to say gamebreaking

Anyway, it looks very nice, thanks for the map!

[Silentwings]

ppl complain about no visible mex spots, make them more noticeable?

Some games don't use metal spots, so I prefer them to be either (i) lua mexes -> removable or (ii) faint. Also, f4 mode.

missing the roads (or were these rivers)

They were very shallow rivers. I took them out because the middle is no longer perfectly flat. You can still see their outline in the snow, but it is less distinct, at least in v2.

10 minute Liche, or 12 min nuke which is kinda

Kinda appropriate for a map named Nuclear Winter?

[Silentwings]

Updated to v3, new images etc in the OP.

- A frozen lake (no water).
- More obvious mex spots.
- No geos within back bases.
- More variety in the snow texture.
- Better lighting: high res normal map + specular on the ice.

Thanks for suggestions, all.

[Anarchid]

I'm really missing the rivers.

[Silentwings]

At best you are getting bigger/longer frozen lakes, I think they fit more naturally than rivers. I'll probably hold off on maps until I've (moved house and) bought a 5x more powerful computer, but I might change the frozen lakes then, if enough people wanted it.

[Anarchid]

Ah. I was imprecise. Previously, the rivers had diffuse under them that was different. The difference doesnt need to be that big, but it feels wrong to have a snow texture under liquid water.