Valiant Saltscape

[KaiserJ]

I just got a new computer this week, and i have a ton of heightmaps that i never made into anything due to a lack of cpu power / ram.

now that working with larger sized files is actually feasable, i'll probably be getting back into the swing of mapping.

for this map concept, i was thinking "what if i sliced charlie in half and put comet in the middle." i figure that maps like charlie and tab and DsD are popular because your base is relatively safe geographically while the area with the metal is more dangerous... hopefully this map continues with that theme. i realize there's a lot more LOS blockage than comet, but i hope that the metal and resource layout mirrors that style of non-linear layout, and that the LOS blockage works to facilitate porcbreak.

hopefully both bots and vechs are viable, the brown hills are kbot-only so vehicles will have a tougher time navigating near the edges of the map.

tons of geos, tons of m, strong wind... the four central mexes are lolhunter style.

start positions for 16 players

even by my lackluster standards, the texture on this map is pretty terrible.... its passable in overhead view, but at a kbots-eye-view it fails hard. it was a springmapedit script texture that i added a shadowmap to. i think i've done an okay job with relating the "burned" shadows with the ones generated by the engine, but i'd love to hear some feedback as to how well i handled the shadows (hopefully some pros can advise me how to refine the technique.) next map will probably have all the random concrete patches and strange random crap in it that the rest of my maps have, so if you LIKE that stuff, dont worry because it'll be making a comeback in a big way... i'd just sort of like to know that i'm doinitrite before i commit too much time to a texture.

anyways cheers and enjoy! and thx to smoth for the skybox.

Download from jobjol => http://spring.jobjol.nl/show_file.php?id=2056





any feedback or critique or rage is welcomed.

*edit* its 22x12

[Jazcash]

Mex overload.

[KaiserJ]

Mex overload.

i prefer to think of it as a "fiesta"

[kburts]

kida cool... i dont have any critique for it, but is there something like this but suitable for 1v1?

[knorke]

just by the minimap i already hope it will replace cometcatcher.

[Pressure Line]

Mex overload.

i prefer to think of it as a "fiesta"

I agree with JAZ, halve the number of mex spots. or even better, drastically reduce [2/3] the number at each end of the map and reduce the amount in the centre of the map [1/3]. That should make the centre of the map important.

[Saktoth]

Yeah, if those are 2.0+ each, it will be unplayable.

[imbaczek]

mods could fix that if they normalized metal output to a constant value (ie. mex output = normalized_metal/num_spots). s44 does this iirc.

[SirArtturi]

I like this. Shows that photoshop (I assume?) is capable of doing good maps too...

However I agree with others that this map is too crowded with patches as your earlier map was too.

This kind of metal overlay really confuses the expansion especially with this kind of terrain, where you get lost pretty easy.

I suggest you to position your patches with careful consideration and reduce the amount according following formula:

12-20 metal patches /*per each opposing players.

So that would mean something like 7-10 mexes per player where couple mexes in middle are the "contested" ones and positioned according that.

[CarRepairer]

This is the kind of map you wouldn't want to sit on.

[kburts]

This is the kind of map you wouldn't want to sit on.

haha lol

[KaiserJ]

12-20 metal patches /*per each opposing players.

thanks... im desperately in need of some sort of balancing for my metal layouts.

now... in my defense (because i'm going to use a proper formula for the next one) i wanted to make it as comety as possible... i've often seen 2v2 or 3v3 games on that map where each team ends up with enough metal to choke a horse within the first few minutes, and i assume that's why the map is so popular in the first place... expansion is key, and unit swarms are king (towers being the court jester and teching being the village idiot). I sort of envisioned a map that played like comet but for a larger group, and maintaining the "safe base" aspect that you see in maps like tab or dsd or charlie...

that been said, i havent tested this, i hope i can get an 8v8 going at some point and see how it goes.

certainly regardless of the testing outcome i will use artturis formula or something similar for my next one.

hmap was all vector shaps with styles applied; tmap was made w/ a custom SME script, with a shadowmap i made in max burned into it... mexes added after the fact with fireworks.

i gotta say, i think burning in the shadows was a good call and it was pretty easy to do with max, i'll be doing it again for sure. not as nice as some of the results i've seen others have, but then again, i R nab.

[123vtemp]

map looked sweet

but metal spots and narrowness scared the people I talked to away

[smokingwreckage]

It's a brilliant map for CA chickens or NOTA Spacebugs.

[Tobi]

mods could fix that if they normalized metal output to a constant value (ie. mex output = normalized_metal/num_spots). s44 does this iirc.

It's a modoption, not enabled by default tho. With that option you can just set how many metal there is in total on the map.

Another modoption allows to make metal output lower/higher then on map in some fixed steps.

I've not yet seen the first one used in practice, second one is used quite a bit in particular on maps which have way too much metal.