emp_ ... i don't know, ambush or something?

Discussion in 'Mapping' started by Silk, Apr 14, 2008.

  1. DrummerX

    DrummerX Empires Tyrant

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    BIG SECRET!!!!

    lol, also refs are pretty random.

    Suggestions....

    1. Middle ref, remove the smoke and rock texture after ref is placed and put it back when there isn't a ref
    2. ramps up tot he higher plateau's, check the displacements for holes, saw a couple , catch me tomorrow to point them out
    3.MORE TREES AND THROW MORE CRAP IN THERE!!!! mwhahahahaha

    Lookin' great man, o and i've always had problems with overlays flashign in game. but yeah they look better than intersecting displacements
     
  2. Lala

    Lala Member

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    added this map to my server-mapcycle and added this version to the new mirror! :)

    Thx & Greetz
     
  3. Omneh

    Omneh Member

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    Just been playing this map on the MAD server recently, and I have to say I'm impressed... needs more eye candy though, more trees, more undergrowth and more water for what would be a unique "Jungle" theme... plenty of places to hide for everything, including vehicles, to keep up with the ambush theme, and keep the enemy (and yourself) on its toes.

    Anyway, I guess its still in Alpha, so looking forward to whats up for this promising map next. :D
     
  4. Silk

    Silk Mapper

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    Well thank you.

    And yes, it's alpha so visuals should improve over time.
    ... as mentioned a few posts earlier :)
    http://www.forums.empiresmod.com/showpost.php?p=147248&postcount=55

    So far it hasn't crashed yet, if it stays this way for a few more days i'll start improving the map. This should give me the time to quickly compile and upload arid_rc4
     
  5. Silk

    Silk Mapper

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    Sorry, i forget to answer this post.

    In short:

    - Put buildings and res points where you want them
    - Use point_templates for each building/res point
    - Use logic_case entities to group these templates together. For example:
    case1: activate template BE Barracks north
    case2: activate template BE Barracks middle
    case3: activate template BE barracks south
    - Use a logic_auto entity to randomy pick one case for each logic_case entity

    Note: always one CV and barracks (per team) must be present or the game ends/crashes/hangs, so:
    - Place a decoy cv and barracks for each team which is present at map start
    - Have the cv templates kill the decoy cv on EntitySpawned using outputs
    - Have the cv templates also spawn the corresponding barracks template (so that cv's and barracks stay together)
    - Have the barracks template kill the decoy barracks on EntitySpawned using outputs


    MUCH longer version:

    How i've done it exactly in my map:

    1) Goal was:
    - 9 areas (3x3 grid), out of which 8 areas will have semi random resource spots
    - The 3 left areas and 3 right areas will have 2 resource spots, the middle north and south area will have 3 resource spots
    - In all 8 areas only 1 resource spot will be working, with the exception of the areas where a team's starting base is located. In these 2 areas both resource spots will be working
    - The middle area has only one resource spot which always works and gives double res. This doesn't need an explanation
    - The BE starting base should be in 1 of the 3 left areas, the NF starting base in one of the 3 right areas

    2) First i placed:

    - 4 emp_building_imp_barracks named:
    BE_Rax_1 (to 3)
    BE_Rax_Decoy

    - 4 emp_building_nf_barracks named:
    NF_Rax_1 (to 3)
    NF_Rax_Decoy

    - 4 emp_imp_commander entities named:
    BE_CV_1 (to 3)
    BE_CV_decoy

    - 4 emp_nf_commander entities named:
    NF_CV_1 (to 3)
    NF_CV_decoy

    - 18 emp_resource point entities named:
    BE_Res_1
    BE_Res_11 (2 res spots north west area)
    BE_Res_2
    BE_Res_22 (2 res spots middle west area)
    BE_Res_3
    BE_Res_33 (2 res spots south west area)

    N_Res_1 (to 3) (3 res spots middle north area)
    N_Res_5 (to 7) (3 res spots middle south area)

    NF_Res_1
    NF_Res_11 (2 res spots north east area)
    NF_Res_2
    NF_Res_22 (2 res spots middle east area)
    NF_Res_3
    NF_Res_33 (2 res spots south east area)

    The entities named xxx_decoy can be put anywhere i guess, cause they'll be removed on map start. I've put them high in the sky to be sure. The other entities should be placed where you want them in your map. Only 1 of the 3 starting bases, and only 1 of the 2 (or 3) resource spots in an area should be activated on mapstart.

    I use point_templates to make all these entities spawnable, so i had to add one for each entity mentioned above except for the decoys. So i placed 30 point_templates entities named:

    template1
    template1_1
    template2
    template2_1
    template3
    template3_1
    template4
    template4_1
    template5
    template5_1
    template6
    template6_1
    (1 to 6 are for the cv's, 1_1 to 6_1 are for the barracks)

    template_res_BE1
    template_res_BE2
    template_res_BE3
    template_res_BE11
    template_res_BE22
    template_res_BE33
    (for the west side resource spots)

    template_res_N1
    template_res_N2
    template_res_N3
    template_res_N5
    template_res_N6
    template_res_N7
    (for the middle resource spots)

    template_res_NF1
    template_res_NF2
    template_res_NF3
    template_res_NF11
    template_res_NF22
    template_res_NF33
    (for the east side resource spots)

    Now i used logic_case entities to group the templates that belong together. For example template1, template2 and template3 belong together cause there can only be one BE starting base.

    So i placed 10 logic_case entities named:
    logic_spawner (BE CV's) (NOT the barracks! This will be done at the end)
    logic_spawner_NF (NF CV's) (NOT the barracks! This will be done at the end)
    res_spawner_BE1 (to 3) (3 west areas)
    res_spawner_N1 (middle north area)
    res_spawner_N3 (middle south area)
    res_spawner_NF1 (to 3) (3 east areas)

    I'll give one example:
    To set the logic_case entity named logic_spawner you have to use 3 cases (there are 3 possible starting points). You activate these cases by numbering them, so i put '1' for case01 up to '3' for case03. In outputs you have to make an output for each case.
    My output: OnCase01
    Target Entity: template1
    Target Input: ForceSpawn (activate BE base in north west)

    The same needs to be done for the other cases.

    Now we only need an entity to pick only one of the cases randomly, so i placed a logic_auto entity. This logic_auto entity has 10 outputs, one for each logic_case entity. For example:
    My output: OnMapSpawn
    Target Entity: logic_spawner
    Target Input: PickRandomShuffle (picks 1 of the cases randomly and only once)


    Important!
    Only use these 10 logic_case entities to spawn resource spots and cv's, NOT barracks! We will use outputs from the CV templates to activate the corresponding barracks template, so cv and barracks spawn in the same area.
    Also to make the map work like this in empires, at least one Barracks and one CV should be in the game at all times (or the game ends/crashes/hangs). So at map start there should already be 2 cv's and 2 barracks in the game (before templates are actived). This is where the decoys come in.
    The decoys will be present at map start. 2 logic_spawners (logic_spawner and logic_spawner_NF) are used to active another cv for a team (a second one, in one of the 3 possible start points). For example force_spawner will activate template1, template2 or template 3 (one of the 3 BE CV's). These 6 templates (that active CV's) have each 2 outputs. For example for template1:
    OnEntitySpawned template1_1 ForceSpawn (to activate a second barracks for each team)
    OnEntitySpawned BE_CV_Decoy Kill

    This way the decoy CV gets killed after the template has actived the real cv, and there will always be one in the map.

    2 of the 6 templates activing a barracks have been actived when the CV templates were activated, which means there are now 2 barracks for each team present in the map. So all 6 barracks templates (template1_1 to template6_1) have an output in which the decoy barracks gets killed. This works the same as with the cv decoy.

    And finally, because i want both resource points activated in the starting base area, these 6 barracks templates each have a second output which orders the logic_case entity of that area to 'PickRandomShuffle'. Since there are only 2 cases for the east and west resource logic_case entities and one has already been chosen at mapstart, this always activates the second resource spot in the starting base.

    This is how i did it in my map.
     
    Last edited: Jul 24, 2008
  6. ScardyBob

    ScardyBob Member

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    Let it be known that I am now copyrighting/trademarking/patenting Silk's 1337ness. Amazing work. :)

    Also, if you find some free time I'd say make a tutorial of this concept in the Empires wiki. I think random starts/refs/etc would be a great addition to Empires map that would greatly increase their replayability.
     
  7. BumGravy

    BumGravy Member

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    Outstanding work! Great entity bitching there silk.

    I played it a bit tonight (just a quick 3 vs 3 on a noobpub) and it looks really good, nice and simple but nice smooth displacements and interesting terrain layout. Will be great when you get it pimped. Cant wait to have a proper game on it.

    Hopefully we will see more maps like this with the random starts and refs.
     
  8. bitchslap

    bitchslap Member

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    only problem is

    this doesnt occur. the two ref's per base thing works, but then the refinery locations appear random (except the middle of course)

    we played it and had a hard-ass time trying to find refineries we could build on, and some 'quadrants' had no placeable ref's (or perhaps only one team could build on them, unsure)
     
  9. arklansman

    arklansman Member

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  10. Silk

    Silk Mapper

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    I'm sure some, if not most, credit must go to broccoli and solokiller, or other people from this forum. There's no way i thought about all that myself. It's been a while, i can't remember.

    Both teams can place refs on an activated res point.
    i just retested the map for both BE and NF, by restarting the map and driving through all 9 area's placing refs untill all spots had been activated at least once, for each team. For Brenodi ALL ref spots work as they should, but for NF 2 ref spots in the middle south area can't be placed (only the uttermost bottom one works). Even here the spots do get activated, but i need to flatten the area more or move the entity upwards a little to fix this.
    You sure there wasn't some hidden scout or small camera near that prevented you from building a ref there?

    btw, someone said his minimap didn't have question marks on it, that they were only present in the map itself. Anyone else has this?

    I never worked with wiki's (editing that is) but i'll try to put it up there. I'll have to generalize more though, cause i assume this works as well for small turrets going all the way up to huge massive bases. As long as there's an entity for it it can probably be randomly spawned ... and destroyed.

    Edit: since i have no account i can't edit it, maybe not even a bad thing
     
    Last edited: Jul 25, 2008
  11. bitchslap

    bitchslap Member

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    yes we had just started a match and the refineries were not placeable (no scouts, nothing)

    as for the minimap the ? marks are small but visible when you hit 'enter' to select spawn.
     
  12. Silk

    Silk Mapper

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    With some tweaking i think i should be able to make the middle look quite good. Not sure about the rest of the map yet though.


    [​IMG]

    [​IMG]

    [​IMG]

    [​IMG]
     
  13. BumGravy

    BumGravy Member

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    Thats the shit right there.
     
  14. LordDz

    LordDz Capitan Rainbow Flowers

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    Is that even ingame? LIAR! :o
     
  15. Cyber-Kun

    Cyber-Kun Member

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    Looks like you just spammed props.

    Lag spike?
     
  16. DrummerX

    DrummerX Empires Tyrant

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    not if they're deatil, you won't render them till you're pretty close
    if you're gunna lag, you have a pretty bad computer
     
  17. Lala

    Lala Member

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    wohooo, looks realy great! :) Nice Work!
     
  18. Silk

    Silk Mapper

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    I'll have to find out if and when it becomes problematic.

    But apart from the few trees and rocks nothing is solid. This area is also the lowest (hence the water) so it's well under the hint brushes and like 60% of the map can't see it (and the other way around).

    So it's basicly only a small area covered by hills and therefore i was hoping i could put more props in this area then you normally would. So far i still don't get below 70 fps, but i'll compile it again without the trees to see how much i have then.
     
  19. arklansman

    arklansman Member

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    Most of those are static and detail props. So no lag.
     
  20. Omneh

    Omneh Member

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    That looks damn awesome. Some serious... ambush available there... :D

    Is this what the rest of the map is gonna be like? If so... I am seriously looking forward to this.
     

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