Nope, it's not an Enzyte ad. It is however an extremely large request (pun intended). Reduce the scale by 1/2. I know, I know. It's an outrageous amount of work to ask of the dev team. However, I know the benefits will be worth the effort. What will this entail? Reducing the scale of all models by 1/2. Reducing all of the ranges and speeds by 1/2. Reducing SOME of the maps by 1/2 (emp_crossroads, all of the assault maps) Re-working the other maps (reducing the scale of certain areas and buildables). What will be the gain? Double the ground space for all future maps. Double the airspace for air craft. Imagine an Emp_Canyon that is twice as big. Or emp_cyclopean with a city area that has double the number of buildings. The basic idea is to open up more opportunities for Empires mapping. We'd still have the ability to make small tight infantry maps like Crossroads, but then we could go as large as double the size of Monument Valley. I know that this principal does work. It was successfully achieved by HL Rally Mod. That mod was able to make areas as big as the current Empire classic maps in HL1 by scaling to 1/6. I'm not proposing anything as drastic. 1/2 scale should be enough to really give teams some real "elbow room", and set the mod up for the future plans (Aircraft and 64 player) while maintaining the same level of detail in the models. I know this is a lot to ask, but I would ask the devs to carefully consider this. Take a look at HL Rally, and maybe work up an in-house proof of concept. I am also willing to chip in on the grunt work. I'm not a coder, but I can re-scale models and maps and I would be willing the do the work. Thank you for your consideration, all of your hard work, and this incredible game. D-Gen
Half size is hardly big enough for aircraft, that's why aircraft maps will be 16x bigger. I'm sure you're welcome to help out, you could help with the community mapping project. Anyway, here's a sneak peak
Impressive! Most impressive. Indeed you ARE powerful as the Emporer has forseen. 1/16 is WAY better than I coulda hoped for, and that model is TIGHT. I'm amazed at the level of detail. I'd have thought you'd lost a lot of fidelity. So...I guess I'll get the brush work laid down on the project that prompted the post and then I'll fill my time with making a "normal sized map". Or, should I bother? Will the 1:1 maps be phased out for 1:16 or will Empires feature them both? Thanks for the insight. D-Gen
1/16 scaling is already coded, it's just the (aircraft) models that are not ready. The command is even there, believe me, i've tried. Also, 1:1 will still exist for normal gameplay, without aircraft. Although aircraft can still be used on those maps, but you'd hit level edges in seconds.
WOW, Battlefield sized maps in source! (How does it work, do you rescale all the models, or is it something even more hacky way that I'm not aware of? )
Well, the space will actually be 256X the area, so more like Tribes 2 sized areas that go on for miles.
Well, I have basic modeling skills. I'll see if I can make a good looking boat. Edit: hmm... I thought I stuck this in the boats thread.
Right now the models are going to be scaled down, although the Orange box SDK may change that. I say *may*, it is not a promise. An entity in the Orange Box version of HL2 is scalable, but it doesn't seems to have collison model scaling.
