You guys want something new do you? :D (New skirmish map)[Updated to V2.1]

[Grapjas]

- Post is updated to V2.1 (latest)

Hi all,

This is my first post ever here aswell as my first attempt on making a map. I wanna start off saying that i love the work everyone has done in this game so far. Ya'll are some smart folk

Alright ill get to it. Rapa Nui (Easter Island) is the name of the map i created. Rapa Nui is the name of the people that live on this island called- yes you guessed it- Rapa Nui . Though its better known for it's nickname; Easter Island.

Map discription;

Quote

 

This is a 1v1 map with a neutral enemy on the mountain. Watch out when you send your citizens to gather in the wild because nature awaits you. On top of that there are treasures all around. Some are obvious, and some are hidden well. 

Capture the neutral fort for a strong advantage point, or dominate the waters to flank your opponents and have an upper hand in resources. The choice is  yours, what will it be? King of the sea, or king of the hill? Perhaps both.

Updated to V2.1;

This is a 1v1 map with a enemy fort on the largest mountain. Each player starts with a friendly trader nearby, make sure you defend it because it will be usefull to you throughout the game. 

This map is designed for setting up strategic points and uses the height advantage the game provides highly.

Capture the fort for a strong advantage point, or dominate the waters to flank your opponents and have an upper hand in resources. The choice is  yours, what will it be? King of the sea, or king of the hill? Perhaps both.

Traders can be changed to Petra AI for extra resource assistance. Default this is set to none, thus only giving you the option to barter.

 

Map overview

Rapa Nui topography

 

Starting positions (Default)

Spoiler

Starting point 1 (player)

Starting point 2 (Bot)

Fort on Terevaka (controlled by bot "fort". Garrisoned with 10 Ranged units)

 

Area Preview

Spoiler

Trading Island with allied dock (Player)

Trading Island with allied dock (Petra)

Closer view starting point 1 (Player)

Center of the map

Shore

Another view of the center with Rano Raraku visible

Rano Raraku

Another shore

 

 

 

 

I've captured the topography of the island best i could (also balance wise). I also wanted to match textures (Shape and textures should be more on par with the actual island as it is today) place Moai statues like it really is, but i do not have the resources or skill to obtain/make them. and i wasnt satisfied with the grass texture available. If someone could help me out on that, that would be awesome and I'll place the Moai's on the map. Though i understand alot of people are busy with higher priorities. 

For the people that are interested to help though, here is a to-do list (Updated list, V2.1);

- Convert it to a skirmish map so you can choose Civilization/colours - Done

- Grass textures that fit the Easter island style Not neccesary, but still welcome if you feel like you got better fitting textures

- Moai statue models (Image in the spoiler below) - Critical for the atmosphere and uniqueness of the island

Spoiler

- Explanation on how to make player 5 (Bot) garrison units in the ford - Fort is now garrisoned with 10 ranged units.

- Explanation on how to create a foamy coast e.g. below

Spoiler

 

For balancing, Not all hills/mountains (actually most of them should be Volcano's, same resource problem) are capped. Though the biggest ones are definetely there. I gave my own twist on Volcano Terevaka (It's still the biggest one ingame aswell as you can see), but the differences between all Volcanos/Hills/Mountains in height, are there (Ratio wise). 

To draw this island historically correct is hard, actually rather impossible. Because most of its history is actually speculation. Not to mention 3 vulcanos have been busy on that island for a while so no one really knows how it looked like when we talk about ancient times. Besides that, when i look at wiki, the dutch and english pages have rather opposite points of view. e.g. The english page says that there was pretty heavy cannabalism going on, the dutch page however completely throws that away. Saying that they were skilled farmers and knew how to survive well. Also anything related to nature that gets burned returns as even more furtile ground. Therefore the terrain is not accurately drawn but the shape is I'ts accurate (not perfectly) to how the island is today, but not historically (Impossible).

At least i did my best and still gave it some of my own twists. I will still gradually update the map based on suggestions and/or ideas. Aslong there is a to-do list, this map is not 100% finished but it is playable.

If you guys and gals like it i will expand it for more players. At least this makes a solid map for a good round of; THIS IS MY F***ing ISLAND! (I will delete this if it's not allowed to swear. At least i censored it :P).

 

Extra information about the map:

Spoiler

 

Both players start with an ally controlled by a bot that does nothing and only has a dock. He can be very useful for trading. I tested the docking area's at both starting points. Also checked if the position of the CC on starting position 1 would give issues, it should work perfectly on all civilizations. I also took the largest ship i could find (the one that supports 10 catapults?), and checked if he could leave the bay area on starting position 1 without getting stuck. Which works perfectly. Position 2 has obviously more space so that's no issue. 

You start with a wall defense tower on the island where your allies dock is located, so you can keep an eye and have a decent early game defense, which you can garrison ofcourse for more firepower Garrisoned from the start with 5 ranged units according to your chosen Civ (do NOT ungarrison or you will lose it to gaia, who will then shoot at your allies dock).

There should be enough, but not too much resources on the map for each player. To have the upper hand you will have to checkmate your opponent, may it be player or bot. Though i haven't had time to test this all the way through just yet. It should be fine though. To either dominate the sea or the hill should give you alot of advantages.

e.g.

King of the sea

More than enough flanking options are available from the sea, not to mention that resources and treasures are in the water. Besides that, you can capture your enemies dock to disable his trading advantage and expand yours.

 

King of the hill

This is a immensely strong defense position with ofcourse the ability to expand. Besides that, you have additional resources available of each type close to the fort.

 

Ultimately, dominating both should lead you to a easy win and humiliate your opponent.

The game is set-up properly upon choosing the map. This is also defined ingame at the lobby screen in each player's name. 

 

 

 

 

 

Well that's the story for this noob

 

P.S. IM DYING FOR FEEDBACK- GUD OR BAT!

P.S.S. English is not my native language, so excuse my england. Oops.

Peace!

- Grapjas

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Rapa Nui (Easter Island)[V2.1].zip

Edited April 12, 2016 by Grapjas

[Dade]

Very nice! With the Moai's would be incredibly original map to play.

[Grapjas]

8 hours ago, Dade said:

Very nice! With the Moai's would be incredibly original map to play.

Thanks! That's good to hear. I will put them on the map for sure if anybody can find the time and will to help out. But like i said, i understand there are higher priorities.

[niektb]

Hello!

I think there are two major points of improvement:

1. Texture painting (I read that you already thought that it could be improved, so that's good): When I look at your map I think that you've used 5~6 different terrain textures, that's really not enough. Pick a few more terrain textures that go well together and paint around with a wavy hand (and keep the brush fairly small), that would improve the looks a lot.

There are quite a few examples on how it could look like afterwards:

Spoiler

https://wildfiregames.com/forum/uploads/monthly_2016_03/screenshot0128.png.03097ea26b009ba4bcd2a045549b4171.png 

https://wildfiregames.com/forum/index.php?/topic/20602-skirmish-map-4pl-kefalonia-ithaka/

This one has really detailed and lively texture painting, that would be the ultimate goal  

 

https://wildfiregames.com/forum/uploads/monthly_07_2015/post-15513-0-61471700-1436985566.png

https://wildfiregames.com/forum/uploads/monthly_07_2015/post-15513-0-79020700-1436703936.png

https://wildfiregames.com/forum/index.php?/topic/19860-crowd-sourced-trade-route-map/&do=findComment&comment=308415

This is a map by myself, and it doesn't really use a lot of different textures, but they're carefully chosen and blend very well together.

 

There are plenty of similar examples that you can find in the game already (the ones listed above aren't)

2. I think I would change a few things on the gameplay-part.

For me the gaia player isn't really necessary, instead I think I would create a cool vulcano from it (but others might think differently)

You've only put some cliff mountains on the points where a mountain is located in RL. The rest is just straight flat. I think I would do some small hills here and there.

The small forests are placed really thick, I think I would make them a little more spacious (yes, I know that Rapa Nui suffered from deforestation but I don't know if that was already the case 2000 years ago?)

 

Nice map idea though!  

Edited April 8, 2016 by niektb

[Grapjas]

2 hours ago, niektb said:

Hello!

I think there are two major points of improvement:

1. Texture painting (I read that you already thought that it could be improved, so that's good): When I look at your map I think that you've used 5~6 different terrain textures, that's really not enough. Pick a few more terrain textures that go well together and paint around with a wavy hand (and keep the brush fairly small), that would improve the looks a lot.

There are quite a few examples on how it could look like afterwards:

  Reveal hidden contents

https://wildfiregames.com/forum/uploads/monthly_2016_03/screenshot0128.png.03097ea26b009ba4bcd2a045549b4171.png 

https://wildfiregames.com/forum/index.php?/topic/20602-skirmish-map-4pl-kefalonia-ithaka/

This one has really detailed and lively texture painting, that would be the ultimate goal  

 

https://wildfiregames.com/forum/uploads/monthly_07_2015/post-15513-0-61471700-1436985566.png

https://wildfiregames.com/forum/uploads/monthly_07_2015/post-15513-0-79020700-1436703936.png

https://wildfiregames.com/forum/index.php?/topic/19860-crowd-sourced-trade-route-map/&do=findComment&comment=308415

This is a map by myself, and it doesn't really use a lot of different textures, but they're carefully chosen and blend very well together.

 

There are plenty of similar examples that you can find in the game already (the ones listed above aren't)

2. I think I would change a few things on the gameplay-part.

For me the gaia player isn't really necessary, instead I think I would create a cool vulcano from it (but others might think differently)

You've only put some cliff mountains on the points where a mountain is located in RL. The rest is just straight flat. I think I would do some small hills here and there.

The small forests are placed really thick, I think I would make them a little more spacious (yes, I know that Rapa Nui suffered from deforestation but I don't know if that was already the case 2000 years ago?)

 

Nice map idea though!  

Hello to you too! 

 

Thank you for your input and feedback!

 

I'm working on the map as we speak. It's going to be improved quite a bit, and won't even be recognizable from what it is now (except for the island's shape). It's far more accurate and im working on making textures flow with one another and to make it more fitting with the actual island. I guess i was too eager to share it

 

A little more info about this island though.

The island does still have quite some tree's left (even some over 50ft tall), so i guess earlier it was pretty dense. Though that is just my speculation. But you're right, it might be too dense right now and ill work with it to get a better outcome. 

As for the volcano's, they aren't the shiny exploding ones from the movies. They look more like mountains or huge hills and one is even a crater, and there is a small one which they claim that is dead for while. At least that is what they assume, Because the Moai's are made from that (dead) volcano by the natives at that time (who knows excactly when ). However, i did want to make the biggest mountain a shiny (movie'ish) volcano, but couldnt get good results. For balancing sake, i blocked the path with tree's and put a gaia army up there so people (or Petra AI) can't just rush up there the second the game started and therefore the thrill would be kinda gone. However, this will completely change in V2. 

 

I definitely appreciate your feedback on this map and will work with the points you mentioned. 

If you want some sneak peaks on how it looks now click the spoiler's below and let me know if im on the right path. Keep in mind that im still currently working on it though. Don't mind the density of the tree's just yet, i will fix this later on with your advise.

Volcano Rano Kau

Spoiler

 

Closer view;

 

 

 

Volcano Puakatike

Spoiler

 

Closer view; 

 

 

 

 

Volcano Rano Raraku

Spoiler

 

Closer view;

 

 

 

 

Overview of the map;

Spoiler

Alot of work has been done but still alot of work needs to happen. Polishing will probably the most difficult task. As you can see im working with textures and try to see which matches best not only for the map itself, but also with the textures around. But i will add more variety. The things i have changed so far are mainly the 3 Volcanos mentioned above, but i have also optimized the envoiremental settings to my likings and added more decals like stones and grass etc etc.

I do have a few questions though. Are there ways to delete decals? There seems to be no way to select them. Also as seen on the pictures above, the shores are foamy, is there a way i can achieve that?

 

EDIT; Forgot to say, those maps look amazing. 

Edited April 8, 2016 by Grapjas

[feneur]

"Are there ways to delete decals? There seems to be no way to select them." To select decals, and other actors (I.e. objects which only are visual and don't affect the game play. ), you need to use the  Alt key and press or drag to select as usual.

[Grapjas]

1 hour ago, feneur said:

"Are there ways to delete decals? There seems to be no way to select them." To select decals, and other actors (I.e. objects which only are visual and don't affect the game play. ), you need to use the  Alt key and press or drag to select as usual.

Thank you, i'm new at using Atlas. Did try Ctrl and shift and ofcourse i forgot to try alt

 

Great help.

[Grapjas]

Hi all,

 

This is my new downloadable and playable update for the map. I completely threw everything around and aimed for more realism in structure and texture. The big question mark happened when i flattened the old version of the mountain/volcano. It litterally transformed into a question mark because of the cliff texture that was still there, it was just connected all the way through. I kinda liked it because the island is a mystery itself so i kept it in and made a dot for the question mark . Based on niektb suggestions i changed it the way it was (cheers for the feedback once again!). 

On 8-4-2016 at 9:02 AM, niektb said:

 

2. I think I would change a few things on the gameplay-part.

For me the gaia player isn't really necessary, instead I think I would create a cool vulcano from it (but others might think differently)

You've only put some cliff mountains on the points where a mountain is located in RL. The rest is just straight flat. I think I would do some small hills here and there.

The small forests are placed really thick, I think I would make them a little more spacious (yes, I know that Rapa Nui suffered from deforestation but I don't know if that was already the case 2000 years ago?)

 

Nice map idea though!  

 

Now lets have a look at some screenshots and afterwards ill explain some things;

 

Spoiler

 

Overview of the map

Starting point 1 (player)

Starting point 2 (either another player or bot. Standard on bot)

Fort on the hill (controlled by player 5 "fort". Has no units, just the fort, for now.)

Area screenshots

 

 

 

 

 

Both players start with an ally controlled by a bot that does nothing and only has a dock. He can be very useful for trading. I tested the docking area's at both starting points. Also checked if the position of the CC on starting position 1 would give issues, it should work perfectly on all civilizations. I also took the largest ship i could find (the one that supports 10 catapults?), and checked if he could leave the bay area on starting position 1 without getting stuck. Which works perfectly. Position 2 has obviously more space so that's no issue. 

You start with a wall tower on the island where your allies dock is located, so you can keep an eye and have a small early game defense, which you can garrison ofcourse for more firepower.

There should be enough, but not too much resources on the map for each player. To have the upper hand you will have to checkmate your opponent, may it be player or bot. Though i haven't had time to test this all the way through just yet. It should be fine though. To either dominate the sea or the hill should give you alot of advantages.

e.g.

King of the sea

More than enough flanking options are available from the sea, not to mention that resources are in the water. Besides that, you can capture your enemies dock to disable his trading advantage and expand yours.

 

King of the hill

This is a immensely strong defense position with ofcourse the ability to expand. Besides that, you have additional resources available close to the fort.

 

Ultimately, dominating both should lead you to a win easily and humiliate your opponent.

Below is the updated and for now official map discription;

Quote

 

This is a 1v1 map with a enemy fort on the largest mountain. Each player starts with a friendly trader nearby, make sure you defend it because it will be usefull to you throughout the game. 

This map is designed for setting up strategic points and uses the height advantage the game provides highly.

Capture the fort for a strong advantage point, or dominate the waters to flank your opponents and have an upper hand in resources. The choice is  yours, what will it be? King of the sea, or king of the hill? Perhaps both.

 

 The game is set-up properly upon choosing the scenario. This is also defined ingame at the lobby screen. Since i don't know how to make it a skirmish map, I've created the scenario for each civilization which is defined in the file name, but also ingame in the mapnames. Choose your favourite civilization and play it like a skirmish map. However if you want to battle a friend, you need to do a slight modification in atlas to give him the wanted Civ. 

The starting position is always 1 when playing solo, unless edited else in atlas.

 

That's it! (finally)

 

I hope to hear some feedback and i will continue to improve this map where needed.

Peace!

 

- Grapjas 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited April 10, 2016 by Grapjas

[Lion.Kanzen]

Beatiful artwork. Looks like a paradise Island.

[Grapjas]

6 hours ago, Lion.Kanzen said:

Beatiful artwork. Looks like a paradise Island.

Thanks i appreciate it. Could you enlighten me with the aristeia link?

Edited April 9, 2016 by Grapjas

[bb_]

Perhaps see that link in his signature

[Grapjas]

53 minutes ago, bb said:

Perhaps see that link in his signature

I did, i know it's a mod, i was just interested on what kind of mod it is. So that's why i asked. 

 

Edit - Never mind, overlooked the link to Moddb which explained everything.

Edited April 9, 2016 by Grapjas

[Lion.Kanzen]

if Millennium covers 1000 years after 500 A.D Aristeia covers the same approximately BC.

its about the late Bronze Age, is part council of modder pack( mods) is about New Kingdom Egypt, Neo Babylonian Empire, Neo Assirian, Minoans, Nubians, Sea People, Phoenicia, Kingdom of Israel, Etruscan culture, Mycenean Greece, Hittite Empire, and may be Quin culture.

[Grapjas]

Looks quite amazing. Must've been alot of work. 

[Lion.Kanzen]

7 minutes ago, Grapjas said:

Looks quite amazing. Must've been alot of work. 

Yes, may be we need finish mod by mod to finish the three mods, totally, Aristeia, Millenium and Rise of east, there the 3 original projects, now I will try to focus in help Millenium, we need all class of volunteers, but the main project is important.

[Grapjas]

2 hours ago, Lion.Kanzen said:

Yes, may be we need finish mod by mod to finish the three mods, totally, Aristeia, Millenium and Rise of east, there the 3 original projects, now I will try to focus in help Millenium, we need all class of volunteers, but the main project is important.

I love how it looks already. I would love to help out but im probably just a noob in the way

I do learn fast though, and do not mind learning new things. But like i said, it will probably slow down the complete process for the mod to also tutor a noob.

Edited April 9, 2016 by Grapjas

[Grapjas]

Hi all, 

 

I've made new changes/upgrades to V2. 

Changelog:

- Changed the trading islands. They look visually better now and have a proper defense tower instead of a wall tower. 
Both defense towers have 5 ranged units garrisoned inside at the start of the game. 
I should note that when you Ungarrison the tower it will go back to neutral (Gaia) because it's not within your borders. 
keeping it garrisoned fixes this and serves for a stronger defense point.

Spoiler

 

Defense tower 1 (Player). Visuals match your Civ except for your traders dock (Random Civ)

Defense tower 2 (Petra)

 

 

 

 

- Changed the ridges at starting position one. When i played against petra there appeared to be a small path available through the ridge that wasn't suppose to be there, making it too easy to just walk into the base. Also repositioned the CC at starting point 1 (player) so it looks better and make it less "floating".
Visually it looks better and less flat. 

Spoiler

- There was 1 bugged palm tree on Rano Raraku that could not be chopped down. Fixed.

- Changed the water to match it more with the real island. The color is now Aqua and darker like in the picture below (still missing the foamy shores though :S).

Spoiler

 

 

 

 

 

- Added more fish, decals and wildlife (Tall grass has some surprises now :D).

Spoiler

 

 

 

 

 

- Replaced decal shipwrecks on the sea for actual treasures shipwrecks.

- Matched map overview angle to the topography image (for a better comparison).

Spoiler

 

 

 

 

 

I also wanted to garrison the fort with units to make it harder to capture, but i wanted to consult with you guys first about that. I need opinions!

Updated the orginal post's download and info for the latest version (V2.1). 

I hope ya'll like it. 

Peace!

 

- Grapjas

 

Edited April 10, 2016 by Grapjas

[Lion.Kanzen]

You are very skilled even for a noob.

[Grapjas]

7 minutes ago, Lion.Kanzen said:

You are very skilled even for a noob.

I thank you kindly.

Edited April 10, 2016 by Grapjas

[niektb]

11 hours ago, Grapjas said:

[...]

But like i said, it will probably slow down the complete process for the mod to also tutor a noob.

That depends mostly on you. If you're eager and motivated to learn new things then I see no real objections (being a bit of a team player helps too) (you do need to able to figure some stuff out yourselves though, we're not a primary school...)

[Grapjas]

7 hours ago, niektb said:

That depends mostly on you. If you're eager and motivated to learn new things then I see no real objections (being a bit of a team player helps too) (you do need to able to figure some stuff out yourselves though, we're not a primary school...)

As you can see i did this map in 3 days, without ANY knowledge of the game or atlas. The only real help i got was feneur's tip on how to delete decals. So i do figure out almost everything myself. You also gave some input, but at that time i was already changing it. 

I also did some Photoshop and Autodesk Maya work (mainly Fx) but thats more than 5 years back. I can mix & master audio. I create music and i have sold some of my beats. though i saw in a post somewhere that you guys want to use 'real instruments', which i do not have. So i could only mix and master where needed. 

I did run my own private WoW server when i was 15 (7 years ago) for about a year but this was more a fun server. Required alot of script reading and tweaking though. 

At that time i also was busy with designing and creating websites, but that what i know is oldschool (Html), though i can still understand codes. e.g. The XML for this map wasn't excactly hard for me to understand.  

So i lied a bit when i said i was a complete noob, but my knowledge is definitely dusty.  

However i do see this as a community, so i find it logical to ask things here. 

I am a teamplayer and motivated, but a certain level of respect for eachother is the most important part for me to be able to work in a team. 

Edited April 10, 2016 by Grapjas

[niektb]

Maybe we should continue this talk somewhere else (other topic / PM, the latter if you want to talk Dutch), since we're going a bit off-topic

Edited April 10, 2016 by niektb

[Grapjas]

9 minutes ago, niektb said:

Maybe we should continue this talk somewhere else (other topic / PM, the latter if you want to talk Dutch), since we're going a bit off-topic

Alright then

[Grapjas]

- Converted to skirmish map, which gave errors before. Also should note, if you change your ally (trader) to petra, he will send you resources from time to time to help out. Standard it's still off because i like the challenge. Up to you to change that in the menu. This is now also explained in the map discription.

 

- Optimized building terrain for starting position 1 slightly. 

 

- Fort now has 10 garrisoned units. This is to counter Gaia taking over the fort, aswell to make it more difficult to capture.

 

Updated original post's download.

Edited April 12, 2016 by Grapjas