WIP: S44 map * Insert name here *

[SirArtturi]

Hello,

Here my current project under development. I thought that it would be nice to have some feedback beforehand because 1. I have no idea of the gameplay of S44 and 2. I'm not sure when im able to continue work so it is still possible to go different way and make huge changes.

Anyway lets start from screens:







Few points of mine:
-Name of the map missing...
-Concept is simple. start positions are located NE and SW corners. How about the mountains. They are passable by infantry... I could add area block lua but what you think?
-Metal layout is still quite unclear. However im planning to indicate the spots visually with some features. For example bunker somewhere, crashed airplane site, small town, farmhouse etc...
-Farms: Bad or good?
-Trees: You want them in massess or in small bunches?
-Colour palette of texture. Is it too "yellowish"?

[manolo_]

name: manolos funhouse

it isnt too yellowish, also the farm is good, but add some stuff (i dont have to be trees)

[Beherith]

Hmm, the yellowness would be ok if the mountainside had a bit more contrast, imo.
I like the village, are you using featureplacer? Talk to smoth, I think he has feature rotation set up in his latest snv version of gundam.
The riverbed and the fields are extremely neat :)

Just do me one huge favour please, especially if its 16*16 :(1 peice in wiced) save the following files after your render: (they are next to shadedmap.tga)

Detailmap_highend*.tga
DetailTexture*.dds

If you specify detail textures in WICED, these will be generated, and this combined with specular means your map will actually look like it does in WICed.

These will mean that your more than halfway done with splatting :)

Also, saving groundspecweight.dds will help with setting up map specular.

[Godde]

It is looking good.

About the river. What units can cross it and at what places?
Trucks, towed guns and infantry support cannons have a max deepth of 5, heavy tanks 15 and pretty much everything else 10(infantry, halftracks, tanks).

The mountains seems to offer abilities to sneak partisans or commandos to the enemy base or to protect your infantry somewhat from vehicles or tanks. Although, unless you reached the enemies side of the map, you can't really push from the mountains. I think that the mountains should be accessible for infantry.

[Nemo]

This looks stellar, I can't wait to start playtesting it. When you do release, could you prefix the name with 1944_? it helps to identify which maps are set up for s44 specifically.

As for questions: layout, generally fewer metal patches than in a BA map - probably 10 or so is a good number. Also, you don't need any visual indication of them on the map, as our flags spawn automatically on them to show where the valuable territory is.

Farms are certainly good.
Color of the texture looks amazing.
In terms of trees, I like what I see in the screenshots - areas with medium density trees which infantry can move through easily, but which prevents other things largely. I'm working on a gadget that identifies areas of 'cover' on the map and hides infantry inside those areas, so making forests passable for inf is a good thing.


This looks really excellent, can't wait to check it out!

[KaiserJ]

if that map isnt the Carcassone of southern france, then maybe its the belgian Ardennes.

also... are you going to do any england maps? i know they never fought on land there, but hell, its only a game... bring on tipperary!

anyways it looks gorgeous, thanks for the eye massage

edit : generally grass is yellowed like that from a lack of available iron in the soil. maybe you can work that into it somehow... too many phosphates = less chlorophyl = less greenies!

[1v0ry_k1ng]

OMG I WANT YOUR MOUNTAIN TEXTURES

[SirArtturi]

-Thanks for the tips beherith. I was actually thinking about how I could implement the upcoming detailtexture splatting to the map and this will help...

-Features are still placed randomly with not much consideration. Just smashed them in to see how they fit...
They will be placed much more delicately and carefully when i get to that part.
As also, Im planning to make map options lua that allows player to choose whether use high poly or low poly trees...

-Yes Godde, i noticed that units are quite picky about depth of the water. This will be problematic because Its hard to make "convincing" river if it can be deep enough. Thats why I think I'll go with few bottlenecks/shallow areas where all units can pass... (not sure about this issue yet, have to investigate it further)

-Name will be prefixed as you wish Nemo. There will be about 8 resource spots. I really liked to indicate them somehow visually, beside the flag thing. With some theme like one resource spot in city. One in farmhouse. One in bunker site. One in crashed airplane site etc... (These are yet just visions :)
How much metal / sec you would wish them to make considering there would be about 8 spots?

-Thanks KaiserJ for the name suggestions. Maybe the name will be 1944_Ardennes

-Ivoryking they are default wiced diffusetextures

[SpikedHelmet]

With the mountainous terrain, valleys and river, it looks more like Italian landscape than anything else. The Ardennes area would be far, far more forested.

How about "Moro River". Was site of a particular battle over the Moro River between Germans and Brits (primarily Commonwealth, Canada/New Zealand etc).

Awesome fucking map though. Really makes me ashamed of every map I've ever done. Hopefully also we might have lots of better building features to be used...

[BaNa]

:) Looks like fuken sex, nice to see you making moar maps.

[Jazcash]

Maybe chuck a few of Beherith's new houses in there? I think they'd be a nice addition to any S44 map.

http://springrts.com/phpbb/viewtopic.php?f=13&t=22678

[SpikedHelmet]

Chuck in his/get mine the fuck out so nobody can directly compare and see how shitty mine are.

[SirArtturi]

Some more teaser of current progress.
I implemented the new specular map feature for next spring version (no detailsplatting though because it didnt fit well for this map)

Im at featureplacing phase. If everything goes well, I may be able to push out betatest version next week.









If you still have wild ideas for features shoot out and I may add them in. (some of the beheriths new houses will be included whatsoever)

[Das Bruce]

Looks fucking good.

[Neddie]

I look forward to it. I don't know if you follow the 1944 forum, but of late I've been asking around about the kinds of maps that the players desire, and I think you hit the leading element of the poll on the head!

http://spring1944.net/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=947

French/Belgian and all.