Incog map pack

[iNcog]

OK guys so here's what's up. The map editor in 0 A.D. is really nice and it's very easy to use. Making maps is a breeze. So I made a few of my own.

I have made two maps for this first "map-pack". I am looking for players to play actual games on them, if possible, since I haven't played against human opponents yet. These maps are for 1v1 only, they are not random maps but static maps (everything is placed a specific location). This allowed me to make very even maps, both sides have pretty much the same resource set. Perfect symmetry in this game is not needed, unlike Starcraft for example. My goal when making these maps was to provide some interesting terrain features; nothing ground-breaking, but it's still there. Resources are distributed evenly and they are in relatively abundance. I tried to make the maps as fair as possible; not using random maps has allowed me to do this. Furthermore, building the map myself instead of using a random script has allows for interesting terrain features, without needing to know how to code well. I made the maps so that you have to play to the map as well as the player. Knowing where the sweet spots of the map are for instance is important. This adds diversity to the game, imo. Most AOE games for example will play more or less the same, regardless of the map. The maps you see here are poor in terms of graphics, I'm not much of a skinner. All the maps here are "open-source" so to speak, if anyone wants to use or modify them then they can.

To install the maps, download the .zip file I have uploaded here (ty nietkb) and put the files contained in the .zip in the following location:

C:\Users\[username]\Documents\My Games\0ad\mods\user\maps\skirmishes

incogmaps.zip

You should get the maps under "Skirmish" section when you start your game. My maps have "CM" in front of them for "competitive maps" but they're not really competitive yet until people play on them and validate them as fair maps which are fun to play on. Enough chit-chat, here are the maps themselves.

Mediterranean Delta:

It's hard to see much in that screen shot, oh well. So this is a pretty basic map, it's quite wide-open. The river running through the middle of the map is shallow enough for units to cross. Players start in the 10:00 and 2:00 position. There are two small hills with cliffs which are abundant in resources at 7:00 and 5:00. There's a quarry at 6:00. There's nothing in the ocean to the north, no fish or anything. I'm not sure what to add besides that.

Savoy River Crossing:

This map is somewhere in Savoy, which has mountains and stuff. There is a river running through the middle of the map with three possible crossing locations. There are mountains and hills which serve as natural barriers as well. Resources are relatively abundant however I think that on this map, there will be some key areas to control. This map is also symmetric however unlike the previous one it's not a mirror symmetry, if that makes sense.

Edited June 13, 2014 by iNcog

[niektb]

[...]

Here is the download link, since I can't upload a .rar directly here: http://www.speedyshare.com/V9m9W/incogmaps.rar

[...]

You can upload zips. I will post some feedback later.

Edit: I'll wait for the zip, I don't want to install bloatware to download it.

Edited June 11, 2014 by niektb

[iNcog]

It says:

incogmaps.rar

You aren't permitted to upload this kind of file

You can download the file by just clicking incogmaps.rar at the top of the page btw. I made sure to find an upload site that wasn't silly in this regard: http://i.imgur.com/9umyuSt.png

[niektb]

Zip =/= rar: (.zip is allowed, .rar not)

incogmaps.zip

But the explaination with the image works also

Edited June 11, 2014 by niektb

[niektb]

You said the maps are poor in graphics, here are some suggestions to improve it:

1. Make tiling less obvious by carefully selecting your textures and apply them with a small brush.

Normally I would use the temperate biome but this applies to alpine as well. You should select your textures on whether they tile with eachother and whether the color doesn't stand out to much. Also use a small brush to make the terrain more 'patched'. Also use much small patches on static object. Paint a city radius, give forests and bushes a slightly different color.

I did a very quick job on the area around the city so it isn't perfect but shows the idea:

2. Play around with the environment&post processing settings to create a special look to make a certain atmosphere in your map.

Again a quick sample to show the idea, (it is pretty bad right now):

This was with with the post processing 'hdr' and high contrast + bloom, a different skybox and some different sun settings (elevation, rotation and color)

3. Multiple eyecandy objects

Atlas has a lot of eyecandy objects to use. You can utilize it to make the terrain's look not fully dependent on textures + adds some additional detail. NOTE: You can move/ select these using the alt button.

A bit overkill sample but again: it shows the idea:

Or with changed Post Processing / Environment:

I haven't playtested it yet, but I'll do that in the future.

Edited June 11, 2014 by niektb

[iNcog]

Thanks for the tips! I've been looking for the eyecandy things as well by the way. Are they under entities like units?

[niektb]

Thanks for the tips! I've been looking for the eyecandy things as well by the way. Are they under entities like units?

Not exactly, in the object(?) menu, click at the dropdown and select actors. You'll have to explore those a bit bit somewhere there you will find them.

[sanderd17]

Not exactly, in the object(?) menu, click at the dropdown and select actors. You'll have to explore those a bit bit somewhere there you will find them.

Or just type "eyecandy" in the search box to find most of them.

A note though, you'll find all models under the actors selection too, but none of the models there will change gameplay (and they can even be disabled with a setting). So if you're placing forests, always take your trees from the entities list.

[iNcog]

Yes, I do that sanderd. I've played a few games on both maps to check if everything is in order. Had to fix some small issues like deer belonging to player 2!

Thanks for the tips, I'll be working on updated versions of these two maps.

[auron2401]

Tch, he found out about the deer.

Try to make the trees more spaced out. small rocks inside your forests (harvestable ones ) might be nice too.

[iNcog]

Yeah I'm going to be moving trees around more, putting in smaller resources like small rocks, hopefully more eye-candy and that sort of thing.

What about the deer though?

E: Updated OP with a .zip file (finally understood what you meant nietkb).

Edited June 13, 2014 by iNcog

[iNcog]

Guys, how do you delete props lol?

[Yves]

If you mean objects in general, there's the move-icon (2nd on the top left corner). Just click on it, then select an object and hit "Delete" on the keyboard.

[sanderd17]

And hold the ALT key to select actors (move or delete them).

[iNcog]

darn sanderd, you're an expert at answering questions

thanks

was messing around with the map editor earlier today, gonna fiddle with both of these maps and upload the reworked versions; thanks everyone.

[sanderd17]

Btw, we got copy-paste in SVN

[auron2401]

And the crowd roars!

any ETA on forest painting?

[sanderd17]

No ETA yet, it's not the easiest thing (collision detection, being able to control the density in some way, ...). But you can copy-paste forests from other maps now

[iNcog]

copy/paste is huge.

gonna play around with that right now