it is amateur >_> and when the map is compiled new, it will get a new minimap cause the textures have had some changes. Also, added a lot more foliage in areas where infantry run around.
metal, adding a water line to your map is not hard at all, if you've made the whole terrain out of one displacement thou it does become more difficult.. msg on irc or something and i can go over it. keef is on the right track, but you shouldn't need to recreate all yer disp's.
the water on the minimap would look much better if I did it in sections and photoshopped it together. That current minimap water is actually just the greenish blue background that appears when the map gets too far away and stops rendering in the overview mode. I'll end up redoing the water areas the same way that the official maps did the pot holes though.
http://raegquit.com/MetalSmith/empiresmaps/Emp_delta_rc3_screenshots/ some screen shots of the current work in progress. Focus is on areas I thought especially looked like shit in hammer. Also showing the new cover outside the NF fort. Though that with so much land outside of it, attackers needed more cover, as defenders can ride up the side ramps and out if they wall it off completely. This was just a test fast compile to check on how things were coming along. Issues that need my immediate attention, IMO would be the scaling on nf fort (forgot :/ ) and the water texture is horrible. some changes shown: the increase in foliage and rocks in areas that are common for infantry. General smoothing out of pointy spots. Some focus on the BE fort texture scaling. All pics on high detail.
Thats what im going for, i don't understand people talking all about compile time when they don't optimize, or when they have a map that cant possibly take long to compile on a pc that can run hl2... and yea, i knida noticed that the buildings where placeholders since the windows end at the base halfway and its just a box :p
Alright, I could use 1 more bit of help. this minimap image I plan on using, the water color sucks. Unfortunately, the paint.net selects half the cliff when replacing that large one color river area and it just isn't going to work The first image is the one I plan on using for now. The second one is the one that i would love to use but don't have the skill with an image editing program to put water in to.
I'll potatochop it, one second. Why isn't it 1024x1024? Actually why don't you just compile it with a solid colour there? It's much easier and it'll get you exactly where the water should go.
Found a texture that will work for it. thanks, I hadn't thought about the minimap in a while. It wasn't 1024x1024 cause those two were more or less raw images. I stick it into an editor and stretch it to that size after I edit it usually. It's a square map, so there isn't any distortion. >.< I should have artificially increased the brightness for this compile before I started >.< I work on this in spurts, so sometimes I forget what I was going to do, did, wanted to do, etc.
the color was actually the color of the fog in the background. Howerver, there was a texture called dev_materialmodify that worked quite nicely. Have a look: The yellow are refs. Blue are flags that are generally BE, Red ones are flags that are generally NF. Purple is neutral. Basically, capping the opposing teams flag gives more rewards to your team than if the opposing team has their own flag. Green dots mark where there are ammo and health crates placed on the map. will resize this and use it for minimap.
I found a solution to my 3d skybox problem. I'm making the 3d skybox first in 1/2 scale, then scaling it down to 1/16th scale.
If I put a transparent texture on it that looks like water, then I don't have to modify the image in photoshop at all, other than resizing and marking the refs.
*note: this is a copy of the new first post just to update the thread. Delta, as in the land area at the end of a major river. It spiders out and webs across the land, when it swells it floods above the area, but usually it doesn't. New Release: Emp_delta_rc3a: http://raegquit.com/MetalSmith/empiresmaps/emp_delta_rc3a.zip People who have contributed to the map: Metal smith - Most of the map. Concept, originals and tweaks. Cyber-kun - half of one side of that large block thingy in north on NF side. [lodw]Keef - Fixed a few dozen things I fucked up. Created 3d skybox Special Thanks: Flasche and Aranjedeath - Supported, playtested, Critiqued. Cyber-kun - Encouraged. Jipple - Probably wouldn't have even tried mapping if I hadn't been invited and encouraged. MAD - Prompt hosting on their server on the latest release Nachos Servers for hosting the original release. [lodw]Keef - Reduced my compile time by infinite amounts. Update includes: Another New Minimap. 3d skybox Smoother terrain Shorter cap times Preplaced MG turrets (lvl 2) to slow down infantry rushes that reach the enemy base Redone lighting New water texture (same as mvalley now) Compiled in FULL HDR! I've uploaded around 20 screen shots for you guys. they can all be found here. Here are a couple of thumbnails for ya though. ************************************************************************************** -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ************************************************************************************** This bottom section is more of a thinking out loud part. Will be my checklist of things I have done or intend to do. Feel free to comment on it. Alright. This version is going to be the last one I do for a while. Until I get some things in, I won't be able to make some of the planned changes. Also, in the end, any new release will be completely remade from scratch. why? Don't ask. At any rate, don't expect an update unless there is a glitch somewhere.
-_-'' nothing wrong with the blend. but I'll look into it. was busy doing a lot of stuff with this release, whether you thought the blend looked fugly or not was last thing on my mind.
Just played a first game. BE took the infantry advantage AND refinery advantage early game. NF took back refineries when they got the MKII's, but neglected the infantry side of things, and lost their main base. NF lagged behind in research thinking MKII = win, and only had mediums by the time the BE team had heavies, Heavy MG APC's, 2 armors, and HE. BE ended up mopping up NF with the heavy tanks and taking back the res advantage. Some issues: There isn't a very defined place for NF to cross the water into their fort. Also, there are a couple spots that the NF tanks seem to drop barely below the water line, but all other tanks are fine in it. BE bridges are death traps for tanks if they hit the rail. Raise need a vehicle clip to make the rails larger for vehicles, but still keep the look. The south end of the map seemed to work out very well indeed. Everyone has had nothing but good comments on it. North side could use some balancing. Only complaint was that the map got too bright, but that was because HDR lights fog up to brighter than hell. overall, MK II's aren't much of a case and point on this map, mainly because the shifting terrain allows for tanks to avoid lock on's, as well as moving onto a hill allows for BE tanks to hit at lower angles. Also, the hilly terrain makes for some interesting infantry combat, as infantry now have cover that you can't shoot through. instead of just 1 rolling hill, there are several, which allows you to move unseen through the area. Without com targets, it's damn near impossible to win a fight in the infantry part. overall, the playtest was great. Tickets were a little high, but the NF failed misserably trying to win the map with MKII's. This is a good thing. Means that tanks with double the armor compared to MKII's and equal or greater firepower can still keep up with MKII's no problem. the height factor was actually eliminated by the rolling hills. anyhow, it's uploaded to Nachos atm. People did complain a tad bit, but it was mostly cause they were NF and not raping with shit MKII's or light tanks. It seemed like their com wasn't doing much as well, which might have hurt their mood a tad.
