Linne Foirthe, Need Help Improving.

[AgamemnonPhlemnon]

This map is my first serious attempt at making a map for 0 A.D. and after spending some time on it I still feel like it is missing something.  So I am here looking for some criticism, tips or whatever to try and make it a better looking map/improve gameplay.

The map is loosely based of a height map made from the Firth of Fourth (Linne Foirthe in Gaelic) in Scotland:

Spoiler

The map is not accurate in any way though and neither is the scenario in which the north of the firth is inhabited by 4 celtic players (2 gaullic 2 briton) and the south is occupied by 3 Romans and one Iberian (will probably change this...).

Screen Shots (the AI has already began placing some buildings in some of these shots):

Spoiler

Actual map files: FirthandFourthMap.zip

Slightly updated version: FirthandFourth2.zip

Edited July 30, 2017 by AgamemnonPhlemnon

[balduin]

The map looks nice :-)

[Sundiata]

Lovely map indeed... Maybe some more variation in ground textures, slightly thicker and diverse forests, and a little more naturalism in that round sea side mountain/plateau (more irregular, jagged edges, and rising less abruptly from the surrounding flats). I'm assuming that's castle rock? 

Spoiler

 

 

You've done well to capture the landscape:

 

 

 

[QOBlueAppleOQ]

nice map, will try it out tomorrow

+rep

Edited July 30, 2017 by QOBlueAppleOQ

[YEEZY]

+rep this man, +1 this map

[IThinkSomethingIsMissing]

Nice map mah dude, superb. I will think long and hard about whats missing but apart from this 'missing' thing. Well played.

[YEEZY]

0 ad gud gaem

 

 

 

Edited July 30, 2017 by YEEZY

[YEEZY]

but fo real dawg, nice map, this gonna cause som heds to turn at that local 0ad lan

Edited July 30, 2017 by YEEZY

[AgamemnonPhlemnon]

Thanks for the advice @Sundiata, I'll try to make the shore a little more realistic.

Any tips for making textures more realistic?

[MishFTW]

I look forward to playing this map! Nice work!

[AgamemnonPhlemnon]

Thank you @MishFTW, but I have some changes I want to make which I should get to in the next day or two which will make playing the map a little better.

I've also noticed it seems to lag more severely than usual but I'm not sure whether that's just that when I was testing it with 7 AIs or the map is too complex.  Going to find out soon as I've got some people who are up for testing it multiplayer without AI.

[Sundiata]

@AgamemnonPhlemnon, I am by no means an expert (I've only once attempted making a map in 0AD, years ago...)

What I mean is that, many areas of the open grasslands only seem to use 1 terrain texture, which, when zoomed out cause these ugly, unnatural looking, recurring patterns. I assume this is the standard ground texture when opening Atlas? Overpainting them with a large variety of different, yet similar textures, randomly overlapping each other, makes it look a lot more natural. The finer you work, the better the result (I know, it's a painstaking job, but I think it pays off in the end)

Spoiler

The standard terrain texture (ugly recurring patterns):

 

I made a very quick example of what I mean. I exaggerated, and used more than 10 different textures from the various biomes, to illustrate my point, no recurring patterns:

 

 

When zoomed out, the difference between the two becomes very clear. 

I hope this helps.

[AgamemnonPhlemnon]

@Sundiata, helpful screenshots thanks.

Although I think it was my laziness that's got in the way of using a more diverse terrain texture palette, I probably should have started with a smaller map to get better at this.  It will probably take another few hours to get the all terrain up to the standard in your screenshots but I'll give it a go.

 

[niektb]

That's not a bad map at all! (Especially since it's your first attempt)

I agree with the comments Sundiata made. I noticed similar tiling in the underwater textures. It's definitely by far the most time-consuming part of map designing to fix texture tiling...

You can get away with less textures than Sundiata used in his example though it's all a matter of smart texture selection

Why don't you try and practice your texture skills by painting a section of the community map?

 

[wowgetoffyourcellphone]

Maybe try an autumn theme to mix up the colors? 

[AgamemnonPhlemnon]

Thanks for the advice @niektb

2 hours ago, niektb said:

 

Why don't you try and practice your texture skills by painting a section of the community map?

 

I might give that a go soon, although I am hoping to get this map completed before starting anything else as most of my attempts at things like this end up never being completed because I start something else and forget about it...

 

@wowgetoffyourcellphone Do you mean change the entire map to look autumnal?  Is there a faster way of replacing large quantities of entities that I am unaware of?

[niektb]

Meh, I wouldn't change the complete style at this stage. Better do that in the conceptual stage

Hehe, it was just a weird idea that came to my mind

[wowgetoffyourcellphone]

10 hours ago, AgamemnonPhlemnon said:

 

@wowgetoffyourcellphone Do you mean change the entire map to look autumnal?  Is there a faster way of replacing large quantities of entities that I am unaware of?

Yeah you can edit the maps xml file. Can use the Find/Replace feature in any text editor. I use Notepad++.

[AgamemnonPhlemnon]

@wowgetoffyourcellphoneThanks, I'll see if I can figure that out.

[MOUP9Kcz]

Really nice map, better than any of my pleb maps.

Looking foward how it will shape out.