Spring RTS Engine

Well, after spoken to Noize (again):P he asked me to re-make the allknown desert triad. I am busy with the map, but it is near completion. All the original metalspots and outputs, geo's and offcourse the heightmap, are ready. Let me know what you think about it, its a 8x8 map, so a bit larger than the original (which was 6x6).

A trial version can be downloaded here, but expect a official release, which also has features in it.
http://icexuick.dagdief.nl/taspring/DesertTriadV10.sd7










Texture is also a bit brightned in newest compile.

looks great :)

It has that cool "paper machet" feel of your other maps. They look like a childrens pop up book. very bright, very colourfull and VERY VERY cool!

Keep up the good work.


And remake Meatal Heck.

if IceXuick is going to keep making bright-happy maps like this and all his others (not to be taken negatively or insultingly), we are going to need cell-shaded rendering to make battling armies fit in!

Now cell shaded TA units, with a deliberatly cartoony air would be a priceless change of pace.

Now if only we could have explosions that go "KLAFLOOY!" In big words on the map!

The sediment deposits look a little odd, but other than that, it looks really good. Can't wait to try it. :) Thanks for giving us so many awesome-looking, reasonably-sized maps!

Black lines are WAY overdone.

Das Bruce wrote:Black lines are WAY overdone.

Exactly! And that is why its great!

No, thats why its ugly. And can't you be more orriginal than rush for the center metal placement.

in all honesty icexiuck this map seems rushed.

It looks neat however, it is quite surrealistic the way the lines are very bold. This gives it a cartoon appearance.

Das Bruce wrote:And can't you be more orriginal than rush for the center metal placement.

Dude, he's just remaking it with original metal placement.

Comp1337 wrote:

Das Bruce wrote:And can't you be more orriginal than rush for the center metal placement.

Dude, he's just remaking it with original metal placement.

That doesn't mean the original metal placement was good.

Anyway, whats wrong with improving it?

Looks great so far

I like this one- it has a nice, painted feel to it, great variety of color, with obvious balance and harmony. I have to agree with the comment about the black lines, though- they feel overdone and too thick. A little play with Curves or Threshold might very well fix this. It's minor, and really only a problem when viewed from the sides- when viewed from OTA view, it's not terribly offensive.

Also, I'd like to see rocky mesas that have more of the geometric cleanliness of the real things sometime, but that's really just a side jaunt. Very nice overall.

a little side note

A 6x6 map in ta is a 12 x 12 in spring.

Nice map .. btw. it really seems like metal is not spread perfectly balanced.

Forboding Angel wrote: A 6x6 map in ta is a 12 x 12 in spring.

NO that's not true:

teh kewl!

Mmm, I think your other maps aesthetically were a bit better than this one.

I am really pleased that you are remaking this map, as it is one of my favourites from OTA, and I think Spring is definitely lacking some small, tight 3FFA maps (which, in my opinion, make for the best games).

I think in this design, the 'desert feel' has somewhat been lost. The hills appear to me to be a little artificial, and contrast quite heavily with the realistic texture of the flattened areas.

Some of those shots look more like the Road Runner will come hurtling down the road then a bunch of PeeWees.

With regards to the heightmap, I think that you haven't visually explained why there are these strange shapes coming out of the flat solid ground. Geologically, shapes like these form because the soft sand is eroded around these hard, rocky escarpments and mesas. Your hills tend to look less like plateaus rising from the harsh desert sand (which should be a little less flat, I think), and more like green hills that are wearing a desert coat of paint.

Finally, while I have commented on the stark contrast between the hills and the desert floor, I think the way you have merged the two hasn't been very succesful (smudge tool?), so that the two don't really look to be part of the same landscape at all, but one superimposed on the other.

I don't at all mean to sound overly critical. I'm a big fan of your maps thus far, Ice, and I'm glad that of all the mappers, it's you that has picked this one to re-do. I just wanted to share my opinion on one of my favourite maps

In terms of gameplay, it is essential that only the commanders can get up and down the three major mesas. If you are feeling very true to OTA, fleas and thuds could get up there too.
Guardians (or whatever long range cannons a mod has) should be vital, but shouldn't be able to reach one mesa from atop another mesa.

Building on the mesas should be a very tight squeeze, and you definitely shouldn't be able to get much up there. Your mesas look a bit more roomy, but this is a design decision which you'll have to make.