New Map - Green Isles

[nitrus]

.. so go easy on me!

http://www.fileuniverse.com/?page=showitem&ID=777 (10MB)




As the blurb says, Island map. Start on one of the 4 corner islands and fight over the middle ones which have more resources.

The metal patches on the texture are graphics from OTA, and each patch gives about 3. The mountains and ridges are nice natural defenses.

i think its a pretty good tile set, thinking about doing a crater islands type map next..



Err.. Storm can you get all this into FileUniverse? I keep getting "Document contains no data" when I try to upload it.
I can then remove it from my mates website!! Thanks.

[NOiZE]

looks nice !!

[zwzsg]

Very cute map.

But:
- Some mountain tops are flat and untextured. Well, it's good that they are flat so they are buildable, but could you try to make the flat on top it more natural looking? (And textured?)
- The dark outline arond metal spot shows a lot. Try to brighten the metal patches so the dark outline match the surrounding, or whatever else.

Otherwise good job! I especially like how the mountains coming out of the green look.

[Torrasque]

It is really fantastic!!!

The untextured top of mountain is snow I think.

I really like the way you made the height map : it has some good relief and, at the same time, is flat, wich is good for the gameplay.

You said you have made it with photoshop, can you said a litte more on the process (i'm a paint user :))

[nitrus]

Thanks for the feedback.

Yeah the tops of the mountains are supposed to be snow.. - i think the texture looks great close up - almost like deep untouched snow - if only the units could leave footprints and tracks behind..

The original snow texture gets washed out when I up the brightness and contrast, as its very bright to begin with it ends up solid white. I might preprocess the textures for my next map so the snow has some definition.

[nitrus]

@ zwzsg:
I agree about the metal patches - I ripped the patches direct from OTA - If I spent some time I could probably knock up something much nicer (and shinier). These are the bitmaps I used..


probably should have got rid of the green..

@ Torresque:

I used Paint Shop Pro 7 to create the height map - which is an 8 bit greyscale image. Filled it all with 64 - which is my default ground height. Got a big black (0) brush with a bit of feather at the edges and painted in the water channels.
Then did some plateaus of my choice like 27 (shallow water), 80, 120,180,255(mountain tops). PSP has a "lighten to target" retouch brush which helps blends the plateaus and makes nice slopes. Added some sharper detail with smaller brushes, but probably not enough cos it still looks a little rounded.

Did a lot of blur operations!!

then passed it through terrtexgen.

If you're interested I'll post the original bitmaps so you can have a look.

--nitrus--

[zwzsg]

Try these:

[Storm]

All [ uploaded ]. Just tell me when you release v2.

[PauloMorfeo]

I really like that the metal patches show up on the texture, so we won't build stuff on where metal extractors should be and so we can easilly see where metal is.

And i also like how the hills change in textures, instead of some green that doesn't distinguish from the rest of the ground.

...
Yeah the tops of the mountains are supposed to be snow.. ...

I thought they were rock, .

[LordMatt]

Great map nitrus, I'm looking forward to your next one.

LordMatt.

[nitrus]

@Storm: Thanks for that.

Its great that someone's uploaded some "action" screenshots - they really bring the map to life.

I've spotted a mistake - there's a metal patch on one of the bottom islands that has no metal under it. Decoy maybe?

Anyone else find any mistakes?

[Torrasque]

Spring 41b1 include :

-New .smd value, MAP/AutoShowMetal. Set it to 0 if you dont want players to switch to metalmap view when selecting an extractor. (because you have created visible metal deposits on the map)

I think your next version should include this tag.

[zwzsg]

I personnaly like having the F4 view even on maps with visible patches, it makes it easier to immediatly spot metal patches on the minimap when enqueuing mexx on a cons. But maybe it's just me.

[PauloMorfeo]

I personnaly like having the F4 view even on maps with visible patches, it makes it easier to immediatly spot metal patches on the minimap when enqueuing mexx on a cons. But maybe it's just me.

No, it's not just you. Having to scan the entire map with the camera (since in most maps, the metal is scatered) to check if all metal is beeing mined, sucks big time. A simple F4 and then quickly looking on the minimap is nice.

[ILMTitan]

It sounds to me like the feature does not disable F4, but stops the toggle that normally occurs when you select building a mine on a c-unit's build menu.

[NOiZE]

However it's a nice map, it isn't balanced..

bottom has more metal than top..

[nitrus]

Yeah - you're right. This map was really a proof of concept and getting the toolset together.. I you like playing it then great - if not, play another map.

I've got a load of ideas for future maps .. they'll be more balanced. I promise!
Making natural looking maps that are balanced is difficult cos you tend to end up with geometric designs - like a big island in each corner, 4 small islands in the centre... Hmm that might make a good Green Isles 2. What do you think?

[zwzsg]

Since transports don't work well yet, island maps strats are reduced. I had to move my comm around, and to build factories on all islands.

[LordMatt]

Hovers are pretty good on that map too, at least in XTA.

LordMatt.

[Mars Keeper]

Love this map!

It´s fun to play on^^