.:MAP:. Vista Canyon

[Neddie]

Size: 10 x 10
Metal: High
Style: Hand & L3DT
File Size: ~7 MB





E&E: 2-4 Players
AA/BA/CA/XTA/BOTA: 2-6 Players
Evolution: 2 Players
War Evolution: Any Size
Commander Shooter: Any Size
1944: 2-4 Players
Star Wars Spring: 2-4 Players
PURE: 2-4 Players







SPC Download: http://www.springplayersclub.com/maps/VistaCanyon.sd7
SpF Download: JobJol-VistaCanyon

[Argh]

Mmm, chokepoints

What does it look like, with shadows on? With them off, it seems like it'd feel very flat, from above, based on the shots. The sky is odd- very dark, for such a bright day. But meh, it could just be an alien planet. Just feels odd, having a dark gray sky and a noonday sun, with hardly any clouds.

Might need a darker texture down in the low areas, or some greeble textures (random gravel, dirts in other colors, some suggestions where water has been flowing, etc.) to both give players visual hints about relative altitude and to add visual interest. The brightest sand seems to show up at odd angles and elevations, though, which also creates illusions of depth. Could be rather confusing to play, without shadows on. Also, if you're going to have plants, I'd have some patches of browned-out grass or at least some paint suggesting that, you just don't see trees sitting by themselves in a desert environment. Even cacti tend to have neighbors and groundcover around them.

Here's a good source for visual references, btw. Gonna see if I can make some nice desert random stuff for World Builder, based on these shots... right now, that's one environment I don't support at all, and I'd forgotten how many desert maps there are, tbh.

[RogerN]

Similar to Argh's observation about the "noonday sun", I'm wondering if the map would look better with a low sun angle? You'd get higher contrast to bring out the shape of the terrain, and it also might match the sky a little better.

[Gota]

Looks like a URC map..

[Gota]

Argh if ur gonna do desert features i suggest you dont make the plants in a flourished state with flowers and fruits but pale and desertly..

[Argh]

I'll make them dry and spiky-looking, I promise. No point in doing a "desert set" otherwise, tbh.

[hunterw]

i like the layout!

kbots only?

not sure i like the black squares for the metal spots, but hey gotta try new things now and then

[Forboding Angel]

If you call EvolutionRTS, War Evolution one more time I think I'mma have to come and just start randomly killing people...

War Evolution was made by Optimus Prime and was a very niche type of thing.

Evolution RTS, is by me.

[HeavyLancer]

If you call EvolutionRTS, War Evolution one more time I think I'mma have to come and just start randomly killing people...

War Evolution was made by Optimus Prime and was a very niche type of thing.

Evolution RTS, is by me.

Calm down forb, put the knife away... He did actually mean War Evolution. War Evolution is similar to Commander Shooter, no?

E&E: 2-4 Players
AA/BA/CA/XTA/BOTA: 2-6 Players
War Evolution: Any Size
Commander Shooter: Any Size
1944: 2-4 Players
Star Wars Spring: 2-4 Players
PURE: 2-4 Players

[Neddie]

I, uh, forgot to add an Evo RTS entry. Let me fix that.

[Forboding Angel]

I checked the pathfinding for Evo rts and it is absolutely fine. Nice map btw.

I could really go for a larger version *hint hint* :)

Sorry about the acronym thing. PPL make the mistake all the time and it annoys me :)

[Neddie]

How much larger, and would you play it?

[Forboding Angel]

20x20 (preferably 24x24) and yes. I would play it.

[SwiftSpear]

I said the same thing when I played it. A virtually identical height map in 20x20 would make it an incredibly fun map full of choke points and stuff. It's sort of more like a bumpy flat plane as it is.

[MightySheep]

It's a nice map. It looks like the map 'Barren'. You got a nice porc line in the middle so porcy noobs that don't expand will loose.

[kiki]

2 things:

What is war evo and wher 2 dl?

Why did you ruin a perfectly good map by putting the V-word in the title?

[Neddie]

War Evo is Opty's mini-game that rocked hard, and I have no idea where you'll be able to find it.

It was a convenient word.

I'm revising this map currently.

http://peet.zjt3.com/ma/kareha.pl/1204357658/

[Argh]

Looked at the full-size. I saw some weird things where the texture looked really pixelated and squared-off in a few spots, I assume that's a L3DT bork, and it needs to be cleaned up by hand.

Main thing I see is what I saw before, it needs items of specific interest, feels like a watercolor, and one that distinctly lacks depth, at that. This is by far your best map texture yet, Neddie, don't get me wrong, but it needs more attention to detail, imo.

I see no areas of drainage, no obvious differences in the rock formations, no clutter in the canyons.

That's pattern-stamp and mask stuff that adds a lot to the feel, easy work, just find a random tiling texture nature / rock / whatever texture of the appropriate resolution, lock in on a given area of heightmap, which is pretty easy when using platform levels like that... pattern-stamp a bit, come back with another one, keep it very subtle each pass, maybe opacity of 10-20% and flow of 50% or less- not a giant, all-out assault of texture. Just hints and bits, adding layers of subtlety. In short, add areas that are different from others visually simply to break things up, create landmarks and areas of real interest. Make it feel like a real place, not just an abstract of a landscape.

Here, try looking at this stuff.

Anyhow, many apologies if this seemed like more critique than you wanted, I think you're really getting close though, and I'm excited for you

[Atorpy]

Hello,

Looked at the full-size. I saw some weird things where the texture looked really pixelated and squared-off in a few spots, I assume that's a L3DT bork, and it needs to be cleaned up by hand.

Hmmm...shouldn't be, unless the attributes map or the light map were really coarse. For Spring maps I recommend a high-res attributes map with 4x resolution, an 8x light map, and an 8x texture map with anti-aliasing enabled. These settings should not show any pixellation, and manual touch ups should not be required.

Cheerio,
Aaron.

[Argh]

Could have just been an artifact of compression, or a browser issue. Wasn't implying your product doesn't work, sorry if it seemed that way, it's a great program.