Spring RTS Engine

Title says it all. The plains have some light fog on them, but don't let that deter you, it isn't much of a liability.

Click the images to download.

OLD STUFF:
And this map is phail so far!

Posting so that I can get some advice on improving the heightmap before I texture/finalize.



Concept: two areas separated by a mountain range. green represents areas where both vehicles and kbots can move, red is kbot only, and gray is neither. the map should force veh users to have to use the paths. The mountaintop should be a prime strategic target, with height, resources, and many paths that wind around it, allowing very easy picking off of troops below. The mountaintop should be kbot only.

Heightmap, done in Photoshop.

SME render.


The final texture will probably be done in WICed. Please give feedback!

My skill is improving!

try to shy away from noisy ground on your heightmap, or at least use it very sparingly

where will u place metal spots?

Looks like a "king of the hill" concept - interesting, keep going

MidKnight wrote:[..]The mountaintop should be a prime strategic target, with height, resources[..]

Since I would do so, I guess, there will be plenty of Metal and maybe some geovents on top of the big mountain and few spread over the starting areas..

Thanks to Beherith, KaiserJ, SirArtturi, Smoth, Lurker, and Forboding Angel for holding my hand throughout this process!

My map is almost complete! I have decided to call it...

Ice Mountain!
err, anyone have a better name?

here it is:

(click it!)

Just one problem, though:

(click it!)

Vehicles can't use the paths! I tried fixing this, but got nowhere. Here's the heightmap, If anyone wants to try fixing it (please do!):

(click it! save it! fix it!)

...and here's the map. Note, THIS IS INCOMPLETE! I'd advise against putting it into circulation (a la SpringDownloader) until it's done! Thanks!

Aside from that, comments?

i really like the texture

a good first map!

for fixing it for vehicles, try making the map less tall (ie, change the SMF min and max heights)

oooo an air map, nice work :)

this is looking VERY nice!!

Just make the ramps less steep on the edge of the mountain. It looks like the ramps are furrowed.

2 other things:
* Fog is annoying ingame. Remove it.
* DON"T USE TYPEMAPS!

Fog doesnt really serve a purpose on this map, so I would suggest removing it.
I must agree with google frog, typemaps are also something that should be used as little as possible.
Please paint some metal patches on it.
Lookin good though!

Google_Frog wrote:Just make the ramps less steep on the edge of the mountain. It looks like the ramps are furrowed.

2 other things:
* Fog is annoying ingame. Remove it.
* DON"T USE TYPEMAPS!

Beherith wrote:Fog doesnt really serve a purpose on this map, so I would suggest removing it.
I must agree with google frog, typemaps are also something that should be used as little as possible.
Please paint some metal patches on it.
Lookin good though!

Fog is there to hide the unsightly moire patterns on the plains, and typemaps are there to help the pathing choose nice paths through the mountain rather than just trying to climb over it.

All the same, expect both gone in the next revision.

Also, this map does have metal patches. Do you mean to refine the big blobby ones in the plains? or make the existing ones on the peaks more visible?

Some parts of it look ok, the middle looks messey, texture looks yummy, screenshots look yummy. I'll download it if people start playing it

I like the fog.

Oh, wait, the flat part is ground? Now I'm disappointed. I thought the flat part was impassable void, what with the fog and all.

yeah, so did I; but either way I like the fog. I'd probably prefer it to be impassable void though.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/mroyal/762832753/

how would that even be playable.

Vehicles can't use the paths! I tried fixing this, but got nowhere. Here's the heightmap, If anyone wants to try fixing it

try adjusting the maxheight in SME with the slope view enabled... IIRC, a green hill in that mode indicates that it is passable by vechs, blue by kbots, red means nothing but all terrain units can pass.

also you might want to hit the "s" key before rendering (smooth) in case the impassibility is caused by bumpy ground.

nice looking map though, could be quite fun if you get the slopes working for vechs :)

@kaiserj:
I pretty much fixed the slopes, my only problem now is some "leakage" around the paths (in certain sections vehs can just stomp straight through the middle) .

At the moment, My Todo List for Revision Two is:

• Fix heightmap leakage
• remove typemap (?)
• Make roads more visible (?) (HOW?????? NEED SUGGESTIONS PLOX)
• Make mountain mex spots more visible
• Replace base mex blobs with bona fide mex spots (?)

(?) means "should I do this?"

Anything I forgot/missed?


PS: I added a poll, please vote.

MidKnight wrote: PS: I added a poll, please vote.

I chose "fog" and "no fog". I hope it is informative enough for yoo!