Well as it is an empires map, I did leave it more open quite deliberately. If you want cover, you'll have to build walls I'm afraid. There's plenty of places to hide within the village, and the surrounding area is supposed to give vehicles a place to fight without worrying about driving into crates. Thanks for the suggestions, but personally I like it the way it is. EDIT: Changed my mind. I will include a few more lumps and bumps in the next version, but no more objects.
It would be nice if you were able to get back up... Rather than making the slope less steep, I think a lift would be really cool: The snowhill would have a cave inside it, which would end to an open, block-like area which would have an open top (so it'd be a 'pit' if you were looking at it from the top of the snowhill). This area would contain a lift, and at the bottom and at the top there would be buttons that operate the lift. This way you could get vehicles back on the snowhill in an easy and cool way. I'm talking about the BE starting area.
Sounded kinda fruity to begin with, but when I saw the diagram I get what you mean. Yeah, I like this idea. What do other people think? I already have a lift prefab I made for another map (in the BE style too). Should it be operable by anyone, or should only BE be able to use it? I'm guessing ladders running up the inside too? There are some really nice ice-cave textures, although I'm not sure if they have specular on them. That would be a must for something like this, would look awesome.
Broccoli, I also think you should make the metal railings used on the tracks func_illusionary(s) because it is very easy to get the NF commander vehicle stuck in between the railings. Or are those props? If so, you could fill the tracks in with clip so that it doesn't get stuck. Also maybe make the mountains a bit more detailed... not texture-wise just add more detail to the displacements.
They are props, and I've turned collisions off for the next version (just to point out, there are crossing points at either end). I'm working on redoing the mountains now, I never was very happy with them.
About that cover... How about adding some snowy rock models here and there to give the infantry at least some cover on the flat ground?
New version out now. Changes: More lumpy and bumpy More detailed skybox Added elevator in BE hillside Track collisions disabled There are still some minor graphical glitches in the tunnel leading to the elevator, but nothing which affects gameplay. See below for newer version Extract to your empires directory, it will overwrite the old files (note, you will not be able to join a server running the older version after the update.)
I really like the elevator and all but you should of changed the version number and the changes you made but you really need to make a version number in the name of your map or it just kicks everyone off the server with the old version.... I'd like to try this map with other people and most people don't seem to want to bother deleting the old versions Oh btw I like how now using the correct methods both coms can now have an underground base to be shielded from mortars lol I'd say this map is crrently the best looking but it seems a little small. I can't imagine what it would be like with 32 players Would be interesting to see though
You'd be surprised, it almost fills the grid in its length. The width is much narrower, as I favour direct collision in the centre of the map rather than spreading around the edges. I think it feels more war-like It'd be pretty difficult to fit a VF in the tunnel lol.
Argh! Please remove the low friction thing, its driving me mad as it effects everything from inside buildings to ontop of the comm... anyways it also makes the NF comm spin out like mad... -Sheepe
There is one definte gameplay problem on this map, and that is the fact that if you don't get the centre at the beginning you have effectively lost It has the equivalent of 3 res nodes and a spawn point, so if you get a barracks up there and a few turrets it pretty much makes it an impenitrable fortress, especially with all those buildings for cover It also pretty much cuts the enemy affectively to the 2 nodes on their side of the map making it pretty much impossible to get back into it with a serious shortage of reinforcements I'm not sure how you should fix this, maybe add a few additional res nodes so that all is not lost as soon as the middle is gone I've won this like 4 times, and usually just end up penning the enemy in their base with lvl 3 mg turrets
My apologies for the long hiatus, my ISP (e7even) was bought out by some other company who decided they didn't want to provide anyone with internet any more. Sheepe, the low friction thing is beyond my control. I originally thought it would be specified within the vmt file, but after checking once I could not find it. I will double-check this and attempt to correct this once I have access to my main PC. You also sent me an e-mail about a displacement exploit. Could you please PM me on the forums with the details, along with a screenshot of the location of the hole. Monkey, I know the central point is very strong at the moment. This was a conscious design decision from the beginning, but perhaps was over-done a little. More res nodes would probably be excessive for a map of this size, but one more per side wouldn't hurt. I could always adjust the centre to give less res, or maybe remove the spawn points? Thanks very much for the feedback, I'll use a version number for the next version (probably in the next week).
I don't think capturing the middle should give res, theres already 2 extra res nodes there as a reward I like the additional spawn point though. Also I believe the map is biased towards brendori, the steep hill and elevator make it impossible for nf to do a tank attack successfully on the main base. It seems that the only real way to defeat them is using artillery or infantry alone
New version out now! Changes: rc3 suffix added to map name Resources given by holding village changed to 0 Capture zone for village greatly expanded Friction restored to normal value No-build areas added on all roof-tops and the elevator Major displacement exploit sealed Hope these fix some of the issues with the previous version. Download here. Extract to your empires directory to play (some files will ask to overwrite, but they are the same as the old version).
