Looks like a map idea. Before we make an island-hopper, we need either dropships or boats. Hmm. Any chance we can get a simple hovercraft at the VF? Perhaps an APC that hovers a foot instead of drives? That'd make water maps REAL feasible, REAL fast. You might have to make it map-specific somehow to make things fair, though.
Not currently, it was 6 months ago... It won't be easy, but an adequate level of detail can be obtained using the appropriate tools. I'd suggest you work over two resolutions of detail. The base layer won't need too much detail, it's like you were doing a 3dskybox inside the main map. If it's going to be an islands map then is quite easy, first layer is the water. If it's a landscape then you should use some kind of landscape editor (terragen, bryce, etc) and then import the map as grayscale image to make that first layer, will be easier and much more comfortable Then, there will be a second layer on those areas meant for infantry and vehicles combat. There you could spend much more detail, making buildings, displacement based terrain inside Hammer, etc. The idea is: all the map doesn't need to be accessible to players when they are on foot or vehicles. So spend detail only on those zones meant for ground combat and the rest would be okay just for aircrafts. There should be a brush entity that lets mapper decide what parts of the map are meant for dropping troops, at least that's what I'd do.
Don, thats supposed to be a far off volcano island at night :p R_yell, yes that was my idea behind making an island hopping map, as the open waters could be more for air combat with only a few dots of land here and there with fine detail. Niarbeht, I think a vehicle factory hovercraft is the easiest solution to this. I also agree it needs to be map specific. What does everyone think of this huge island hopping map taking place at night?
can i just say it again, because no-one seemed to notice... http://www.putfile.com/pic.php?img=4773668
actually, halibador's idea for a map which has moderate sized islands REALLY spread out would be very fun!
I started an island-hopping map awhile ago designed for aircraft, but have so-far given up because I can't do much until Krenzo decides to release 1.08 and the entities needed to make a 16x map.
I have been making a displacement for a large map for quite some time. I had a working version in normal scale to see how the general idea worked. Now I am working on a scaled version. It is designed for infantry, tanks, and aircraft. Detailed 16x maps will take a while to finish. Community or group map projects are going to be needed to complete maps quickly and with any sanity left.
I think an automatic terrain generator is definitely the way to go, with manual tweaking done afterwards. Why make a human do the arduous task of manipulating terrain when a computer can do it much better and much faster?
Overlord? They more like calculators to me, because you have give it data aka the hightmap, you then tell it what you want done with it, it dose it's calculations and give you the answer, then you do what you will with the answer. Without the user, they useless. But without then, our workload will increase by a hell of a lot, especial when it's a 8x or a 16x map
