Spring RTS Engine

Ok I did not announce v1 here, but anyways, v2 is out !



Its a team map, looks like DSD but "has it own feeling" like a tester said :D
So far players who tested liked it, so im pretty happy :D
First map published on spring by the way.





oh, and the links :
JJ's http://spring.jobjol.nl/show_file.php?id=1366
UF http://www.unknown-files.net/spring/fil ... ta_v2-sd7/

**[EDIT]**

Version 3 is out, its RustyDelta_Final :D
Availabe here http://spring.jobjol.nl/show_file.php?id=1380
and here http://www.unknown-files.net/spring/fil ... Final-sd7/



here's the changelog :
v3 aka FINAL
- Improved Heightmap, the cliff texture fits the real cliffs better, and the mountains are less "shamalow" now. The map looks somewhat nicer now.
- Removed north starting geo vents. North is easy to defend enough already, so those extra ressources were abusive.
- Removed one metal spot on norths sides. North is easy to defend enough already, so those extra ressources were abusive.
- North slopes are less steep now. North is easy to defend enough already, so this slope ground avantage was abusive.
- That should help make north harder to defend :D
- Removed central north & south vent, replaced with big metal spots
- Metal spots modifications to make the middle more interesting, and encourage the fight for this zone
- Vehicle handicap on the middle is greatly reduced, they should be able to move more efficiently, still the terrain is rough for them :D

Thanks to the first wave of reckless testers : Janken, [suicidal], ImperialAdmiral[N], [LAP]L0v3, SirMaverick[CA], flamez, [ANL]FractalDragon, [UFO]tix. Additional thanks to : Nisses & Suicidal for hosting test games with the map, JJ & Iamacup for their files hosting sites, and all the others v1 testers and messageboarder's comments.
Special thanks to Mephistos for his enthusiasm, support & autohost of the map. Version 3 aka 'final' might have never existed without him ! o/

did you register it on SpringDownloader ?

Dont know how to do this

It's an interesting texture - but in 3D it doesn't look that great; I think the heightmap needs work, and you need to consider the heightmap deformation when doing your texture, so you don't have weird things happening on cliffs.

How big is it?

20x8

Actually someone told me I should have disabled the terrain LOD before taking screens ... thats why terrains looks strange
(well the heightmap isnt a masterpiece either)

texture looks nice, needs something less DSD though

dsd needed to get squarer, not rectangler

neat texture on the bumps tho

I think it's hella stylish, esp. for a first map. I love the metal spots and the textures used. GJ! As for how it plays, well, uh, it is maybe a bit porkah.

i played this last night and my fears were true, its far porcier than DSD for a number of reasons:

-more narrow than DSD
-typemap slows down vehicles to 77% in middle
-bumps in middle slow down units even more
-ramps for north are much steeper, therefore more porc on north side of map as well

trying to promote kbot use is a good thing, but the way you did it severely nerfs vehicles. your intent then is for kbots to march up to the main front lines of defense, and kbots vs dfens = dfens wins = even more porc

furthermore the game i played no one built any DT...i cant even imagine the amount of porc if someone started spamming DT walls.


i really like the texture though, looks like some high resolution satellite photography of mars or somethin. what programs did you use to texture it?

Thanks for the review Hunterw ! You really tought about that, even checked the smd file I see !

I must confess it ended up being somewhat more porc-prone that I wanted.

My main intent was to make the center hard to conquer while worth of it (big metal spot on the middle, 1 geo north and 1 geo south). On the first version vehicles could not climb the riverbeds in the middle so I had to smooth those a bit, then I tought that maybe leaving vehicles able to move 'freely' would weaken the kbot spirit of the middle, and I decided to reduce veh speed there, but maybe I might have lowered it too much

Tbh, I understimated the difficulty of the steep slopes of the north, and this zone is clearly more porc than I wanted ... in the end geo vents arent attractive enough for the players to want to go down the slope and fight for the middle.

However, most players who tested it seemed to like that map so Im pretty satisfied with the result. And I think altough its easier to porc here, its not extreme either and its always up to the players. At least its different from DSD !

About the textures, I did everything with The Gimp (free photoshop-like) and Google Images for the images ressources (yes, satelittes pictures of moons and planetes, and one picture of a rusty piece of metal as base for the metal spots, hence the name RustyDelta).

Do you think I should go for a v3, with more attractive spot on the north middle (so players will want to go down the slope and not porc in the heights), reduce vehs handicap in the middle south and maybe try to improve other things ?

Sigh...

Typemaps make baby jesus cry.

if anything, make units in the middle go _faster_, but don't push it. 10%-20% max. also, what FA said.

Yatta wrote:
Do you think I should go for a v3, with more attractive spot on the north middle (so players will want to go down the slope and not porc in the heights), reduce vehs handicap in the middle south and maybe try to improve other things ?

i would tell you to do a lot of things to it, but porcy maps have their place. it's up to personal preference - a lot of people prefer porcier maps, and this map has a following. i would say to ask the people who play it a lot what they think you should do - i'll basically just tell you to make it less porc heh.

but if u take one piece of advice...pls no typemap v3

Yatta wrote:Thanks for the review Hunterw ! You really tought about that, even checked the smd file I see !

nah, just deselect all units and hover your mouse over terrain

gui tells you all the typemaps down in the bottom left corner


was wonderin wtf was goin on when my flashes started drivin like they were in glue

I think speed typemaps are fine if they are subtle (5-20%) and CLEARLY MARKED.

This is important. If you have some kind of flat sandy area that you want kbots to sink into, or some rocky uneven terrain vehicles have trouble on, you want to mark it CLEARLY in the texture, so you can see its borders and ensure that these areas are strategically placed rather than just huge swathes of the map.

I think typemaps can be done well. I just havent seen a map that has done it properly yet.

Typemaps should be used to simulate the grounds consistency, softness or firmness, roughness, vegetation, or such.

Truth is though you can simulate a swamp with -actual- water (still slows stuff down) and a rocky kbot-area with -actual- hills, so... generally its better to just rely on these.

Kernel Panic maps have good typemaps IMHO.

imbaczek wrote:Kernel Panic maps have good typemaps IMHO.

Don't be so reserved, you're correct. It's a big component of gameplay as well.

Version 3 is out, its RustyDelta_Final :D
Availabe here http://spring.jobjol.nl/show_file.php?id=1380
and here http://www.unknown-files.net/spring/fil ... Final-sd7/

here's the changelog :
v3 aka FINAL
- Improved Heightmap, the cliff texture fits the real cliffs better, and the mountains are less "shamalow" now. The map looks somewhat nicer now.
- Removed north starting geo vents. North is easy to defend enough already, so those extra ressources were abusive.
- Removed one metal spot on norths sides. North is easy to defend enough already, so those extra ressources were abusive.
- North slopes are less steep now. North is easy to defend enough already, so this slope ground avantage was abusive.
- That should help make north harder to defend :D
- Removed central north & south vent, replaced with big metal spots
- Metal spots modifications to make the middle more interesting, and encourage the fight for this zone
- Vehicle handicap on the middle is greatly reduced, they should be able to move more efficiently, still the terrain is rough for them :D