EMP_DELTA http://www.sendspace.com/file/tekr77 Alright, RC4 is now working properly, there is no longer any issue with it. I have made several small changes, and played with the brushwork. Some of you will be dissapointed with the lack of effort into the brush work, but for now, It's not something I want to mess with until I've had more practice, or I'm able to get a very good brush worker to help me out. Also, some of the NF base floor displacements were messed up again. I was probably going to fix them, but it's been several months and I forgot about them. I don't want to recompile tonight. Ignore it, you'll live. I'm still looking for some good textures that I can use here. Most textures are too small, and just stretch or tile to hell when used. The current gameplay aspects are as follows: Starting res is 375. Tickets were put up to 500. There are now 3 spawns on start. Main base, Bridge Bunker, Top fortress. When you spawn in main base, it now has a cap zone that has a reference to other cap zones and what the numbers mean. The name of the cap zone says: Location [ResNF][ResBE] or something to the affect. All cap zones in the southern hills area will now have a [ ]'s to show how much resources a flag gives to each team. This is to alleviate any confusion that may have come up with them. The flags are currently set up to be as such: First flag 1 res, Second flag 2 res, last flag 4 res. This is relative to which side you are on. Other than that,
metal, this map has become actually pretty awesome. remember how I hated the south part? well I dont now. but... having played the map a few times, the same thing tends to happen, both the NW and NE bases have to be built the same way (like vf, rax, radar etc, can only be dropped in one place) this is a problem because people cant decide on their own base layouts, they have to place it where the map dictates. I suggest making the walled off base areas in the corners totally flat. completely and utterly flat, inside the walls. so that comms can place stuff where it actually takes advantage of the walls you've given them. otherwise, it's a really fun map!
Quick Question, would Z clipping help with the following problem of being able to see the distant hills?
Why is being able to see the distant hills a problem? Z clipping tends to look like wank in any situation.
Set the fog color to the general light blue of the skybox. That's the most important part. Then set the far z to be at or slightly greater than the fog maximum/end distance. That should make the hills appear to fade in from the distance. Though, some skyboxes just are too varied in color for this to work. You can also set the fog end distance really far and have no z, which simulates a clear day with a very natural and realistic haze; however it also means you don't get to cull things in the distance for optimization.
lolwut? If you do Z clipping, you have the issues that hills disappear on you. A better fog blend as Demented said would be better. Even then, you should still see some hills in the distance.
Stopping by, thanks for the comments, Will be unable to work on delta until i finish with a couple things IRL. Hopefully i'll be back to it in a couple weeks at the latest. The map will probably end up being remade from scratch, with proper displacements and such. maybe even more detail. Seems the map is being played more often, and wish i could be around to see it, but my computer shit out on me, and can't run empires anymore. I'm piecing together a new one. I won't be using it until i finish a construction project though. anyhow.
An update! i finally figured out why my MOBO was giving me trouble. One of the screws was shorting it >.< anyhow, Computer is now going. Stuck a 2.5 ghz Phenom9250? in there with an ATI EAH 4850 top HDMI Vid card in it with 4 gigs of RAM. Add to that a 1 terrabyte hard drive with a 100 gig partition for system files and a 900 gig partition for random shit, and we're all set. Almost forgot the new 21.5 inch HDMI widescreen monitor, which is an upgrade from my 17"? ^_^. so yeah, i'll be remaking this real soon. Without the 5 minute wait for displacements to be selected or move or the lag when moving around the hammer interface and then being able to have a large window to actually see a good portion of what I'm doing. It shouldn't take more than 3 hours to get the backbone (terrain) of the map back in. Will make sure the terrain will support separate texture blends for river beds, mountains, and rocky areas on the map. I"m working on some concept art on new bunkers off of the bridges. The original idea was to make them like the bunkers in the DAM level of Golden Eye. I'll stick with that and add some more detail to it. Thinking of making a type of framed look around the outside of the bunkers, Putting some details like an ammo box with a different texture possible, like a desk. Right now I'm leaning towards a ladder that goes from the top area that is currently a cap zone to the very top of the bunker. then the very top will be the cap zone. Also, possible some glass on that lower area. Breakable or not is still to be determined. Corner bases will be completely FLAT. Instead of having long flat walls, i'm thinking of making a premade "section" of wall, and using that over and over to make the wall look like it was constructed. The infantry are will likely shrinky a bit, making it more of an island. Then the upstream won't come together anymore. Instead of it being the large A frame shape, I'm going to go with more of a V. Water flow will be changed to a southernly direction. The north middle area that is currently for vehicles, it will be expanded, making both norther bases and the land they are on roughly the same size. The level will likely be down sloping slightly, I might actually take the entire level and slope it downwards towards the south ever so slightly (16 units max). This would be done before the displacements were made. Will need to test building placement in such conditions, as it won't be horrizontally flat, but will be flat. The 3d skybox will have the entire terrain left in it, so that I can have the fog beyond the maximum view distance, that will fix the most prominant problem people have with the level, which is the pure white fog being so close. Also, the fog start distance will probably be increased to much further away (8000~ units I"m thinking), and then adding a particle fog effect, similar to whats in dust storm, cept white puffs, and slower moving. we'll see how it turns out. Well, those are my plans so far. I've liked most of the suggestions, and have taken them to heart. I think most of these changes reflect what people have mentioned, and some are my own. If I didn't mention a change based on your suggestion, then it sucks. just kidding. But yeah, I'm open to your opinions as to how these things will affect gameplay, positively and negatively. Also, anything further to add would really help.
dont slope the terrain disps. it will be a nightmare to line shit up to it in hammer and brush's dont like to be rotated (learned that the hard way on my first still unfinished map) lol trust me, it's a nightmare to work around...
brushes would all be the same as they were. Only main terrain displacements would be sloped. you don't build a house at a 20 degree angle cause you are on a 20 degree slope. the idea would be a very slight (16 unit difference between north and south) slope. buildings would be unaffected.
http://img25.imageshack.us/gal.php?g=empdeltarc40003.jpg Just a couple of ideas I was playing with. Pics are from a fast compile that I was using to test for errors.
Question about the flags and capturable buildings. Are they only spawn points or do they give ressources?
no body reads readme's do they? map comes with a read me that explains the flags. but, FYI, flags give spawn points AND res. For capping the flag with 1 man to cap, it gives 1 res. For capping the enemies 1 man cap flag, you get 4 res. the 3 man cap flag for both teams is 3 res. Also, 1 res for capping enemies bridge bunker. This is why the map runs so long. If you lose the refineries, turtle the one side of your base and push infantry. Only map I've seen last more than 20 minutes without any particular spot on the map where there is a stalemate.
How can a player notice that there is a readme? You join a server, automatically download the map and play it. A map should be self explaining. Maybe we need some standard icons for the different flags.
By the way the download link in your signatur for the current release is broken: ... <a href="http://"http://raegquit.com/MetalSmith/empiresmaps/emp_delta_rc3a.zip" ...
looks great so far Metal. every time I play this map it lasts over 30 minutes, you almost always see heavies, which is fucking radtastic. looking forward to the new one
Fixed signature. Will add the read me to the res file for downloads in the next version. Also, from now on, the name of the cap zone will include the res amount for each team.
