new map: Al Anhi ... and questions

[qray]

Remake of a map I once made for TA, though that looked quite different back then:
Link to Springfiles
For 4v4 or 3v3. Just tested in a 2v2 and it's not fully working out then.

For a change not a big overview screenshot but two pictures from the first test game:




Texture is not 100% perfect at some edges, but as good as I could get it with Gimp & co (in SpringMapEdit unfortunately the GUI is not fully working on my system ATM).

Credits:
Skyboxes and some splat texes from smoth and Beherith. Scripts based on the map blueprint container. Feature models by smoth, ad0, noize and lathan from Spring Features 1.0 pack. I included the models in the map, to avoid problems with auto-downloading depedencies.


Two questions:

I wanted to make some features (the palm trees) unreclaimable. I have set reclaimable and autoreclaimable in the lua file to false and indestructable to true. This works if I try to reclaim a feature (or a zone with just unreclaimable features), but fails if I do an area reclaim where a reclaimbale feature is included. Also if the trees are hit by a vehicle they instantly are destroyed.
Am I missing something or could this be a BA problem?

Pathing for ships is horrible close to the beaches. The get stuck and have to be wiggled free again. Has somebody a good trick how to avoid this (except making only steep shorelines)? Or do I have to wait for an improved pathing in the engine ?

[enetheru]

I wanted to make some features (the palm trees) unreclaimable. I have set reclaimable and autoreclaimable in the lua file to false and indestructable to true. This works if I try to reclaim a feature (or a zone with just unreclaimable features), but fails if I do an area reclaim where a reclaimbale feature is included. Also if the trees are hit by a vehicle they instantly are destroyed.
Am I missing something or could this be a BA problem?

The features have no crushResistance.

[FLOZi]

I wanted to make some features (the palm trees) unreclaimable. I have set reclaimable and autoreclaimable in the lua file to false and indestructable to true. This works if I try to reclaim a feature (or a zone with just unreclaimable features), but fails if I do an area reclaim where a reclaimbale feature is included. Also if the trees are hit by a vehicle they instantly are destroyed.
Am I missing something or could this be a BA problem?

Sounds like either a BA or engine issue.

[Beherith]

If features are destroyed too easy by stuff, change their damage to be higher:
damage=10000

[qray]

Thanks for your answers!

If features are destroyed too easy by stuff, change their damage to be higher:
damage=10000

Good point. I just saw that I accidently forgot to set the damage values for the unreclaimable features at all. But maybe a good thing for now until the area reclaim prob is resolved.

The features have no crushResistance.

If I would set this to a value "insanely" high (like 10000), would it keep the from being destroyed by passing units independent of the damage value?

[qray]

Update: the prob with area reclaim command relaiming unreclaimable features is a BA problem. Tested with ZK and it didn't happen there.

Edit: tested it again with BA to see if a widget was involved and now the problem is gone. Strange, I tried it several times before where it didn't work.
Anyway, problem solved. Seems to be more sth. on my system than the game... a bit embarrassing

[knorke]

Nice map. Simple but effective texturing I think. This style (ancient ruins or something) has not been done so often.
The middle looks a bit empty though, could liven it up a bit. Maybe small pyramids via heightmap, textured with stone texture like the ramps?
Like this: http://springfiles.com/sites/default/fi ... 070304.jpg from
http://springfiles.com/spring/spring-ma ... -ravine-v2

[qray]

The middle looks a bit empty though, could liven it up a bit.

I have to admit that I had this impression, too, while working on it. And the palm trees don't really save it , though without them it looked even more empty.

I was a bit torn between the look and the basic map idea: having a "small" more or less well defendable base area -also in the water- and a wide open area in the middle which you have to fight for without much help from terrain. So I wanted to avoid rocks or hills there.

But today -after reading your post- I had an idea what could work. Since there will be a v1.1 anyway to get the feature settings right (and to add an smd file), I'll play with it and see if I manage to get it working out...

[qray]

I played around to find something to visually fill the middle part... and failed
The first idea was a kind of collapsed stone bridge (collapsed so that the river could flow over it). But that either looked bad or the steps (where it's broken) were too big for vehicles. Couldn't find a good trade-off. Hmmm...
Obelisks made with with heightmap&texture just look ugly (not sharp enough edges, stretched textures). Unfortunately, features "disappear" from a certain viewing distance. Pyramids would work visually, but if they help against the emptiness, they are too big (=too much cover) for my taste.

So for now, I postponed this and released a v1.1 with fixed values for the features (thanks for the tips!). Link stays the same, since it's a bug fix, I replaced the old file.
Maybe, I'll manage to do some ruins stuff to fill the middle later on.

Changelog:

• Fixed palm tree features (now crushable only by 3rd level bots + Fatboy/Sumo)
• reduced resources (metal -10%, wind av. 19->15, lower feature reclaim values)
• added 2 more start positions for 5v5
• added (empty) smd file for better map server handling
• added some grass in the water

[qray]

Always some bugs waiting to be found
Unfortunately took a bit longer to notice, since real life work didn't leave me much spare time lately.

V1.2:
-removed unecessary depedency on spring features v01 from mapinfo.lua
-fixed sea grass bushes to be reclaimable as intended (wrongly set in v1.1)

Updated on springfiles.com