Popular Post mimesot Posted February 8, 2018 Popular Post Report Share Posted February 8, 2018 (edited) Update of map post alpha 23 (version 1.0.7 in the download section) --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Hi everyone! I wanted to share my first 0 A.D. map - well, rather a preliminary version - with you. I was inspired by the map of Assassins Creed Origins which just crammed everything Egypt into a single place, often disregarding realism in favor of aesthetics and gameplay, which I did as well. I did for example borrow the idea of moving Cyrene, which is around 700km to the west into Alexandrias vicinity in order to add some Mediterranean environment. A further reason for me to pick that setting was that it allows me to have a lot of different cultures on the map. The upper Nile area is dominated by ptolemaic retro-egypt buildings, whereas the city of Alexandria is dominated by hellenic influences. Cyrene gave me an excuse for adding the Romans with some greek buildings, while I put the Persians, who were admittedly not really present at that same time, in the east. For purely aesthetic reasons I let Carthage occupy the Siwa oasis, and the Red Sea became a tourist destination for Mauryan coral reef divers. Map variants First of all, please take note, that this is not a final product, not even close. The map already includes most of the geological features and special locations I intended to add, but there are many areas that severely lack in detail, which is quite ok for sand deserts, but looks odd in places like coasts, riverbanks and rocky deserts. Blocking the map is also an issue, mainly because it feels strange, when the AI builds farms in the middle of the desert. The greatest thing that needs to be taken care of is balancing. Basic properties Type: skirmish Map size: giant Players: 6 Game version: alpha 23 (re-release) Right now (8.2.2018) I will only publish a 1 vs. 1 map. This has the benefit of being at least a little easier to balance out. I will provide A regular day version And a full-moon night version, because it looks just darn beautiful. I really love what you can do with the lighting and ambient conditions ... Spoiler like sunset or rainy days or a desert storm or pharaoes on ... Update march 2018: A 3 vs. 3 map variant is now available and several small fixes regarding terrain, blockings and balancing have been made. On the long term I will try to release two varieties of the map regarding gameplay An all-in map: This one is outfitted with full grown cities and you will start with huge amounts of resources and a sizable army. Don’t try to play this with 7 AI players, as it will probably lag horribly. A stripped down version: Everything, except for the most prominent points of interest (e.g. the library) will be deleted. The difficult thing about this is that I will need to create a mod in order to achieve what I desire: See, if I make these buildings actors, all units will just pass through it, and if I leave them as entities, they will be taken over by the players within a few seconds and this would severely unbalance the game. Thus, I need to create a mod, which has all these buildings in a special version. I will increase those buildings capture points by a huge amount and also make them invulnerable, such that capturing them remains the only option. In some cases I might also try to reduce their functionality.Thanks to all the guys who helped me with useful tips and insights regarding modding. Gameplay In this map I tried to elongate the distance between neighboring players and create straight routes between the distant ones. In order to achieve the first requirement, the rare shallow banks of river Nile, meandering mountain tracks and marauding packs of soldiers prohibit straightforward shifts of large armies. On the other hand far away players can often be reached via wide patches of desert, which act like highways on this map. One major problem was the city of Memphis, which is located almost in the center of the map. I order to provide this city with a slight chance for survival I shaped the eastern and western desert like a bypass circumventing Memphis and relocated the city to the eastern shore of the river Nile, which I made impassable from north to south, while only the western riverbanks remained open. The Mediterranean Sea and the river Nile are navigable, which serves as much better means of transportation than the walk along the river by foot. Every player has wood in close vicinity to the starting point. No player will run out of wood easily. The banks of river Nile are especially rich in palms for obvious reasons. Stone is predominantly located in mountainous regions. Limestone can be found close to the pyramids and there is a rather large granite quarry in the very south. As I wanted the player to travel through the sandy dunes a lot metal can be found on the borders of sandy deserts. If you play the map, please let me know where you found too much resources and where they are missing. Players & Matches(and faction recommendations, mostly for esthetic reasons) Currently (9.3.2018) only the six players are available. Player #1: Alexandria (with greek and ptolemeaic entities) in the center north as Seleucids Player #2: Thebes in the very south as Kush Player #3: Siwa/Charga Oasis in the west as Carthage Player #4: Sinai in the north east as Persia Player #5: Memphis in the center as Ptolemeis Player #6: Cyrene in the north west as Romans Player #7: Red Sea in the east as Mauryan (buildings might be reverted to random later) Player #8: Desert nomads from the south west (random) Note: The AI does not get along with that map too well. It will soon be very crowded and very laggy if you choose a game with too many players. Proper matches would be: 2 players: Lower Egypt (#1 Alexandria) vs. upper Egypt (#2 Thebes)Lower Egypt currently has the edge, due to access to the Nile delta. 3 players: Lower Egypt (#1 Alexandria) vs. upper Egypt (#2 Thebes) vs. Siwa (#3) 4 players: Egypt (#1 and #2) vs invaders (#3 Siwa and #4 Sinai) Slowly approaches being balanced (version 0.19.10) 6 players: Egypt (#1, #2, #5) vs invaders (#3, #4, #6)Slowly approaches being balanced (version 0.20.7) Points of interest (selection) Alexandria: library, harbor, lighthouse Memphis: necropolis, pyramids, Apis sanctuary Fayyum: Crocodile sanctuary, Bahr Yussef channel & dam Thebes: Temple district, valley of kings Western desert: Siwa oasis with fortress, Great sand sea, Quattara depression, guelta Eastern desert: Red Sea coral reefs, mount Sinai, "Suez channel", deep wadi I collapsed some more screenies for you here ... Spoiler ToDo and ChangelogMy ToDo-List is growing and shrinking all the time. If you have suggestions, please let me know. Unfortunately I cannot promise you, when or if I will implement them. You know, real life can be unpredictable ;-) Spoiler Current version: 0.19.6 Last editing date: 2018-02-08, Tasks... Balancing with: starting resources, environmental resources, starting buildings, starting units, Gaia units obstructing paths, … Block terrain. In the meantime – as I do not want to start writing the mod yet – I will create a lot of small dunes, bulges and cliffs in order to prohibit the players, especially the AI to build civil centers and farms in absolutely inappropriate places. Embellish the rocky desert and the Nile delta with decorative actors. Especially the great Wadi needs some care. The Mediterranean coast as well. Add more fish! Create a lion cave. Create a qanat spring in the southernmost oasis. Add two small rivers and a shallow pond to the Nile delta Wadi is blocked close to the pond Distance southernmost shallow river passage has its closest route towards player #8 via the great sand sea and not through the valley of kings Put the Fayyun stairs back or the mountains more to the front. The stairs are too dominant. Let some more eagles (kawks) fly. They appear to have a fixed flight hight regarding the ground which is irritating when they fly over rugged landscape. Make all limestone mountains look more like mesas. My Limestone ridges are much too round in most locations. Create square areas where the building of civil centers is intended. This is especially missing in close vicinity to the pyramids, where randomly built civil centers disrupt the view. Block critical areas using tiny ripples on the ground. Mountains can be passed near Thebes (between wasi and thebes) Metal blocks valley of kings base Clear Area around persian suez dock. Blocking Cut off the tropical island like eastern gulf of suez shore, should I? Change fertile green areas such that civil centers can be built immediately. Trees are blocking the way Intertwine the red and grey stones areas. I would love to have a slightly more yellowish and brighter and a slightly more reddish version of the Persian cliffs. Perhaps I can mod this as well. Populate the seabed, shores, riverbed and riverbanks with reeds and stones and additional textures. Create a mod with invincible buildings that have hugely high capture points and recreate points of interest with that. This will add balance and a resemblance to a domination game mode. Create objects that are blockers for building structures, but not prohibiting movement. Invisible (visible in atlas only) and invulnerable. Is it possible to create buildings that regularly spawn troops and sends them somewhere? Lateste editing date: 15.2.2018, minor updates, cersion 0.19.9 Remove the prolemaic statue ruin entities and replace them with actors. They are less colorful but do not serve as stone mines. Alexandria others Create blockers (ripples in the sand) in in deserts outside Alexandria and Siwa to prevent farms from bein built there Alexandria: North territory is not used any more Siwa: Less usage. TODO: Not completely done yet. Deep wadi in the eastern desert. Correct location of the midgol strongholds. They are too aggressive in some locations. The AI always bumps into them and loses tons of females. Set them back regarding main routes Create cliffs to divert traffic Gaia Units: Moved the starting Units of memphis slightly away from river nile. Too aggressive. Use blockers (stone fence entity) around or beneath actors, such that units won't pass through them or build farms there. Old merchant, palace and government in Siwa Tent in the southern Fayyum mountains In front of the Alexandria egyptian temple Giza Necropolis Units traversing mountains in undesired locations Suez west at canyon Cyrene plateau south Ridge behind hiza pyramids Goats appeared in the mountains around the valley of kings Units (elephants) get stuck in small passages Deep wadi Persian base and middle sinai path Thebes to eastern desert Eyecandy Grass between olives in cyrene plateau Tent in the southern Fayyum mountains with a small treasure Riverbank eastern nile arm Apis shrine improved usind the iberian monument TODO Create a multi-level farm in the delta e.g. date palm farm with lower trees in the shadow beneath and goats or crops on the ground. Delta looks so unpopulated. Road through the delta? Create a miniature botanical desert plant garden? Terrain Lowered ridge between cyrene plateau and town for a better view Made Mount Sinai the highert location on the map Replace some tree entities in the cities with actors in case they should not be chopped down Alexandria alleys and cypresses Guide the AI to develope in specific directions Alexandia and Siwa: Added a metal mine in a non-lethal location. Addred a storehouse near Siwas most relevant wood. Unknown behavious: TODO: Why are the ships of the AI playing Alexandria always trying reach to the upper harbor tower. They can fit through the entrance of the harbour. Balancing: Relocated many metal and stonemines: Needs TESTING Buffed Sinais and Siwas starting units. Create wider shallow river banks to reduce the amount of collisions with ships. Lateste editing date: 18.2.2018, minor updates, version 0.19.10 Unit paths: Closed a path, where you can enter Cyreneover the southern montain ridge Closed a path north of Thebes, where you could run parallel to the desert in the mountains AI trouble: Moved the Migdol castle east of Siwa, as Siwa always wanted to build a farm in range of the castles arrows. More blockings in Giza to prevent fields and barracks to be built over anubis statues. Gameplay Moved one Migdol castle in the north of giza desert to the south border of the desert in order to prevent early trade routes Created one castle in the desert corridor between Cyrene and Alexandria. There are now 7 gaia castles. Eyecandy Altered all 7 gaia castles in order to make each one unique. Other small flaws There were some roman statues around which are mined for stone Lateste editing date: 26.2.2018, update to match alpha 23, version 0.20.2 Replaced all alpha 22 entities with alpha 23 pendants Relocated the Thebes temple and yard to Memphis and created a Kush settlement in Thebes. Recreated Memphis from scratch. Built a small stairway bordered with desert plants (execandy) TODO: Check for troubles with the Kush harbor (very small) Siwa, closest castle in the east: Gaia soldiers are still too close and to much in the north regarding the castle. Thebes: Some fields were Gaia General problem: The preset colors (set in the map editor) are neither shown in the menu nor used ingame. Is this only functional for scenarions, but not for skirmishes? Siwa: the temple like building (Tophet) between the government center and small temple has been lost. Siwa: AI builds a farm on the center place. Flaced a fence. One can walk over the grey Mountain west of the suez channel. Steepened land One can get stuck with an elephant in Memphis in between market and barracks in the south. TEST Increase elevation of the Thebes land. Especially the quai. Looks silly. PARTIALLY DONE You can pass over the mountain ridge north of the cyrene olive plateau. Steepened land. Goats are invading mountains near valley of kings. Same. Antilopae on the small mountain south of Memphis. Same. The small place behind the Alexandria civil center needs some beautiful details. Currently it looks boring. Done. Siwa: There is a problem with elephants leaving the castle through the gates. Moved the castle. TEST Alexandria: Women are locked in behind the military colony. Done Edited: 9.3.2018, update to match alpha 23, version 0.20.7 Place for storehouse at primary metal mine in south of alexandria too narrow. Done Cyrene builds farm on the central mountain top. Made cliffs Charga civil center automatically took over fortress. Moved it to the south. Persian houses on the west side of the city build females to the back side, where they are stuck. TEST Persian has a muich too weak economy at start. Added females to match other cities Memphis is attacked like hell. Added a small army better suited for defense Added a route through the red sea via a shallow sea bed, so Persia can exmand more easily. Added some eyecandy to the nile delta. Latest edit date: 30.12.2018, update 1.0.7 coral reefs in the red sea, created a "sunken ship" secret garden at the side of the river nile "miles" of riverbanks are now covered in vegetation forests became a lot denser in some specific spots (esp. covering the view from the nile delta onto the main river branches repaired street textures fences are now surrounding the persian cliff base theres an additional shalow crossing of the red sea now decorated the mauryan temple minor aesthetical details ToDo: Creat some white desert elements. There is a skirmish/units/default_infantry_melee_b in Alexandria central between wonder and port that causes trouble when set to gaia Download Download the files and put them into the specific folders for maps and preview images. The paths I will state below are default paths for typical Windows 10 installation but may vary depending on your system and installation path. In case subfolders do not exist yet on your system, simply create them. Map files: Download: Version 0.19.6 (1 vs. 1) Spoiler day egypt_condensed_mimesot_v0_19_6a_upper_vs_lower_day.xml egypt_condensed_mimesot_v0_19_6a_upper_vs_lower_day.pmp night egypt_condensed_mimesot_v0_19_6b_upper_vs_lower_night.pmp egypt_condensed_mimesot_v0_19_6b_upper_vs_lower_night.xml Version 0.19.10 (currrent) Spoiler master file (8 players, day, not recommended for playing) egypt_condensed_mimesot_v0_19_10_small_fixes_gameplay.xml egypt_condensed_mimesot_v0_19_10_small_fixes_gameplay.pmp day (4 players) egypt_condensed_mimesot_v0_19_10a_2vs2_day.xml egypt_condensed_mimesot_v0_19_10a_2vs2_day.pmp night egypt_condensed_mimesot_v0_19_10a_2vs2_night.xml take the *_day.pmp file and exchange day for night. sunset egypt_condensed_mimesot_v0_19_10a_2vs2_sunset.xml take the *_day.pmp file and exchange day for sunset. duststorm egypt_condensed_mimesot_v0_19_10a_2vs2_duststorm.xml take the *_day.pmp file and exchange day for duststorm. rainy egypt_condensed_mimesot_v0_19_10a_2vs2_rainy.xml take the *_day.pmp file and exchange day for rainy. morning egypt_condensed_mimesot_v0_19_10a_2vs2_morning.xml take the *_day.pmp file and exchange day for morning. 7zip packages with all files (kompressed to 650kB) egypt_condensed_mimesot_v0_19_10a.7z Version 0.20.7 (for upcoming release alpha23, new route through the red sea for balancing) Spoiler master file (8 players, day, not recommended for playing) egypt_condensed_mimesot_v0_20_7_alpha23.xml egypt_condensed_mimesot_v0_20_7_alpha23.pmp 3vs3, day egypt_condensed_mimesot_v0_20_7a_3vs3_day.xml take the *_alpha23.pmp file and exchange "_alpha23" "a_3vs3_day" 3vs3, night egypt_condensed_mimesot_v0_20_7a_3vs3_night.xml take the *_alpha23.pmp file and exchange "_alpha23" "a_3vs3_night" other environment settings will follow in the next few days Version 1.0.7 (30.12.2018, based on published version of 0 A.D. version alpha 23, design enhancments: red sea riffs, more nile river bank vegetation, parapets for persian base, fire places for town centers, small secret garden, other small fixes like missing ground textures, etc.) Spoiler 3vs3, day: Egypt_1_0_7.zip Path: “C:\users\yourname\documents\my games\0ad\mods\user\maps\skirmishes” When is the good time for deleting older versions from a post? Can I make the XML files all use the same PMP file? I noticed a zipped xml is about 10 times smaller. is the community OK with zip files? Map preview images: Download: Spoiler Path: “C:\users\yourname\appdata\local\0 A.D. alpha\binaries\data\mods\public\art\textures\ui\session\icons\mappreview” In case you are playing this map, please let me know about anything that can be optimized. Thanks a lot in advance. Greetings mimesot Edited January 7, 2019 by mimesot Map update 1.0.7 18 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bb_ Posted February 8, 2018 Report Share Posted February 8, 2018 Based on the screenshots, the map looks pretty good already (however I am not a good judge in these matters), but I think you forgot to attach the map files, so none can download the map . Regarding the capture issue in the current svn (development version) there is an "uncapturable" flag, which might solve what you are after. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Loki1950 Posted February 8, 2018 Report Share Posted February 8, 2018 Nice but you did not actually attach the files for download at all it takes awhile to get use to the forum software Enjoy the Choice Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mimesot Posted February 8, 2018 Author Report Share Posted February 8, 2018 (edited) 10 minutes ago, bb_ said: Based on the screenshots, the map looks pretty good already (however I am not a good judge in these matters), but I think you forgot to attach the map files, so none can download the map . Regarding the capture issue in the current svn (development version) there is an "uncapturable" flag, which might solve what you are after. Thanks for the hint. I would really love to be able to insert specific tags into the map-xml file, in order to affect just the specific item I want to manipulate. This would be much easier than to create a separate entity file for each modified enity class. Currenlty thhe xml can only store xy coordinates and orientation, right? 9 minutes ago, Loki1950 said: Nice but you did not actually attach the files for download at all it takes awhile to get use to the forum software Enjoy the Choice You were just faster reading than me inserting all that stuff ;-) Edited February 8, 2018 by mimesot 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sundiata Posted February 9, 2018 Report Share Posted February 9, 2018 Impressive... 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LordGood Posted February 10, 2018 Report Share Posted February 10, 2018 The detail in this map is gorgeous Just a word of warning, the Ptolemies and Athenians may see a change in art direction in the future. Native structures should still be available in the scenario editor, but it'll take a little bit of rebuilding if you continue developing this map 2 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nescio Posted February 10, 2018 Report Share Posted February 10, 2018 Is the Nile shallow enough for units to cross it on foot at any spot, without needing any transport ships? If not, the map will effectively consist of a few unequal islands. Also, if you're interested in a bit more historical accuracy (feel free to ignore): The Southern Levant (e.g. Palestine) was also controlled by Egypt in 0 A.D.'s timeframe The Nile delta historically had seven major arms: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4e/Nile_Delta_Surrounding.jpg The North-South Suez canal did not exist, but a West-East pharaonic canal (dug by Necho II, Darius, Ptolemy II, Trajan, or someone else, depending on which source you prefer) connected the Nile with the Red Sea. The Nile valley is great for agriculture, but lacking in other natural resources. Mineral mines and stone quarries were located in the mountains beyond the eastern desert (e.g. towards the Red Sea coast). Wood was imported from the Lebanon. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mimesot Posted February 10, 2018 Author Report Share Posted February 10, 2018 Hi! 26 minutes ago, Nescio said: Is the Nile shallow enough for units to cross it on foot at any spot, without needing any transport ships? If not, the map will effectively consist of a few unequal islands. Yes, the Nile has 6 shallow areas where you can cross it. As you said, if the parts of the map would be islands, this would be very difficult to balance. Their main purpose of the positioning of the shallow spots is to direct the flow of units across the map. The placement was particularly intended to provide three things: 1) To elongate the distance between Alexandria, Siani and Memphis as their starting positions are so close. This is of course irrelevant for the 1 vs. 1 version of the map, but it could potentially become even an 8 player map. 2) To reduce the advantage of the north-south riverbank route regarding long distance travel time in comparison to the routes via eastern and western desert. 3) To make the the route from river Nile to the southernmost oasis via the valley of kings equally convenient compared to the route via the great sand sea. 27 minutes ago, Nescio said: Also, if you're interested in a bit more historical accuracy (feel free to ignore): The Southern Levant (e.g. Palestine) was also controlled by Egypt in 0 A.D.'s timeframe The Nile delta historically had seven major arms: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4e/Nile_Delta_Surrounding.jpg The North-South Suez canal did not exist, but a West-East pharaonic canal (dug by Necho II, Darius, Ptolemy II, Trajan, or someone else, depending on which source you prefer) connected the Nile with the Red Sea. The Nile valley is great for agriculture, but lacking in other natural resources. Mineral mines and stone quarries were located in the mountains beyond the eastern desert (e.g. towards the Red Sea coast). Wood was imported from the Lebanon. I honestly wouldn't feel comfortable ignoring your remarks. In contrast, as I totally agree with you. The question is, what can we possibly implement within the boundaries of the game mechanics and map size. E.g. the Persian base on Sinai is just there to provide diversity. If we had the possibility to create a map twice as big, it could be extended to include the Zagros mountains. Then the Persians could be used to represent the Parthians and the Seleucids could cover the area of Syria. I think there are two main problems with even bigger maps. The game, I believe it is the pathfinder, has troubles handling such large maps. It already struggles with the map size "giant" when you add more than four players. The second problem is that you would need to limit building to fertile areas or areas that are otherwise suitable: Otherwise you wold see huge deserts covered in civil centers and farms. I think a solution to this problem is currently out of reach. It it was possible it would shift the gameplay a little from tactical to strategic, as the time spent traveling on long distance routes and reconnaissance becomes crucial. The reason I reduced the Nile delta to two navigable arms only is again map size. The arms are thinner than the main river. The width of the main river was chosen as small as possible, but it had to big enough to allow two ships of the biggest ship class pass by each other. The arms therefore can't handle that sort of ship traffic. As a consequence I created two major arms. If I dug an East-West canal this means there were three navigable rivers in the delta. I am thinking about a way to place them without creating too much additional water surface. It would look odd if there was more water than land in the delta. Any suggestions? Indeed the wood of date palms is not comparable in quality to that of the cypresses of Lebanon. Sure, you could create palms with less value in wood, but than you would has to introduce some kind of trade function for wood from external places or something like that. Do you have any idea on how to implement such a feature? Greetings mimesot Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mimesot Posted February 10, 2018 Author Report Share Posted February 10, 2018 2 hours ago, LordGood said: The detail in this map is gorgeous Just a word of warning, the Ptolemies and Athenians may see a change in art direction in the future. Native structures should still be available in the scenario editor, but it'll take a little bit of rebuilding if you continue developing this map Thanks a lot! I'm always glad to see that 0 a.d. evolves, and so will my map. Of course this rises a few questions: What happens if an entity is no longer available in the map editor? Is the map going to load or crash? Will there be some kind of dummy-entity, which replaces all obsolete entities of will it leave void spots? Will all current entities still be present after these changes, with just their visual representation altered? Greeting mimesot Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LordGood Posted February 10, 2018 Report Share Posted February 10, 2018 1 minute ago, mimesot said: all current entities still be present after these changes, with just their visual representation altered? this one, it has been decided the old actors will have their own new atlas entities for eyecandy purposes, the old entities will be visually changed. We're not planning on removing entities to my knowledge, but if that happens i think your map would simply throw a few errors into the console. I could be mistaken on that last point though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mimesot Posted February 11, 2018 Author Report Share Posted February 11, 2018 (edited) 1 hour ago, LordGood said: We're not planning on removing entities to my knowledge, but if that happens i think your map would simply throw a few errors into the console. I could be mistaken on that last point though. In case that happens ... just a console error but no visual representation any more ... Assume you removed the Ptolemaic wonder. Could I simply search my maps XML for the phrase "structures/ptol_wonder" and delete that entity section and it will be fine? Is a missing entity uid of any concern? One further question. If I have an actor that has multiple visual representations that occur with specific frequencies when you place them (like it is the case with various stones and grass patches), how does the map file "remember", which one was chosen. I can't see my map pick a random kind of e.g. short cretan date palm each time I load it, fortunately. Sorry, but I have a third question. It is an issue with my map, which you can see in some of my screenshots, but I think this can lead to a feature request if feasible. You surely noticed the black horizon on most flat angle screenshots, which is not very pleasing. I guess this this originates from some kind of compromise. The skybox is needed to create, well, a sky and the beautiful reflections on the water. On the other hand there is the equally beautiful circular map shape with its smooth transition into blackness, which you usually look upon from above. What if the transition wasn't into blackness but into transparency and the skybox had a much lower lower boundary. As the botton of the skybox is black, you wouldn't see any difference at the transition zone when looking down at a steep angle. At a flat angle the transition zone would look much slimmer (except the terrain was inclined steep upwards) and transition from terrain texture to sky texture. If the terrain at the map boundary was sloped downwards you would even get a hard horizon line. Is this possible? Does the engine support alpha values for terrain surfaces? Edited February 11, 2018 by mimesot 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wowgetoffyourcellphone Posted February 11, 2018 Report Share Posted February 11, 2018 5 hours ago, LordGood said: Athenians may see a change in art direction in the future wuuuuh? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LordGood Posted February 11, 2018 Report Share Posted February 11, 2018 1 minute ago, wowgetoffyourcellphone said: wuuuuh? briefly mentioned in the spartan structure thread, regarding a full art split for the Greeks 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stan` Posted February 11, 2018 Report Share Posted February 11, 2018 For your first question yes cyou can delete manually by editing the XML file. I think the variant is stored in the file. For your third question see -> 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fcxSanya Posted February 11, 2018 Report Share Posted February 11, 2018 7 hours ago, mimesot said: One further question. If I have an actor that has multiple visual representations that occur with specific frequencies when you place them (like it is the case with various stones and grass patches), how does the map file "remember", which one was chosen. I can't see my map pick a random kind of e.g. short cretan date palm each time I load it, fortunately. I didn't check the code, but looking at the map xml I'm almost sure that the 'Actor' element with the 'seed' attribute are storing the selected variation, example: <Entity uid="4347"> <Template>actor|props/flora/grass_field_parched_short.xml</Template> <Position x="1199.14869" z="103.9384"/> <Orientation y="2.35621"/> <Actor seed="62142"/> </Entity> <Entity uid="4348"> <Template>actor|props/flora/grass_field_parched_short.xml</Template> <Position x="1198.7306" z="61.08883"/> <Orientation y="2.35621"/> <Actor seed="14988"/> </Entity> 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wowgetoffyourcellphone Posted February 11, 2018 Report Share Posted February 11, 2018 10 hours ago, LordGood said: briefly mentioned in the spartan structure thread, regarding a full art split for the Greeks Yes but who gets the current set? It's perfect... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WhiteTreePaladin Posted February 11, 2018 Report Share Posted February 11, 2018 4 hours ago, wowgetoffyourcellphone said: Yes but who gets the current set? It's perfect... Either the Athenians or Macedonians would get it most likely. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wowgetoffyourcellphone Posted February 11, 2018 Report Share Posted February 11, 2018 1 minute ago, WhiteTreePaladin said: Either the Athenians or Macedonians would get it most likely. That's what I mean. The current Athenians set seems pretty good for the Athenians, with some minor additions, maybe make the Prytaneion more special looking. The Macedonians could possibly use an updated look. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AgamemnonPhlemnon Posted February 11, 2018 Report Share Posted February 11, 2018 This map is amazing, thank you for sharing! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
elexis Posted February 11, 2018 Report Share Posted February 11, 2018 I didn't manage to read the thread or test the map yet, but the screenshot looks amazing. Please tell us your realname if you want that mentioned in the credits, otherwise we will only add your nickname. Scheduled at #5032 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
elexis Posted February 11, 2018 Report Share Posted February 11, 2018 There is the problem that the night version is a duplicate of the daytime version. This means if there is one thing to fix in one map, the other one has to be kept in sync. So if the terrain is off and that requires manual brushing, that will be hard to keep in sync. The PMP file can be the same for both maps. But the XML file containing all entities would have to remain. I'm not sure what we can do there. Changing the environment settings from a JS trigger script would be great, but we don't have that code (yet). I guess we can just use both maps and if there is something to fix, trash the XML file, copy the original one and copy over the night-environment settings. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
niektb Posted February 12, 2018 Report Share Posted February 12, 2018 Now this is some map design! Most maps that are posted in these forums generally don't surpass a mediocre level of aesthetics but this is some darn nice painting! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mimesot Posted February 12, 2018 Author Report Share Posted February 12, 2018 Hi! I am maintaining just one Version of the map (full grown cities, 8 players, day, currently 0.19.6 with no letter suffix) and derive all other from that. Its just lighting, remocing dust storms and thats it. No problem there. Greetings mimesot Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
elexis Posted February 12, 2018 Report Share Posted February 12, 2018 8 hours ago, niektb said: Now this is some map design! Most maps that are posted in these forums generally don't surpass a mediocre level of aesthetics but this is some darn nice painting! I fully agree (that's also true for the random maps, most of them are mediocre too). @niektb do you want to do the review of this map and commit sometime it in the next 3 weeks? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
niektb Posted February 13, 2018 Report Share Posted February 13, 2018 I can review the map design but I can't really comment on playability as I don't really have the time to playtest it extensively. I never committed anything since we switched to Phabricator, I think it's better if someone else does the actual commit (my SVN is also around Alpha 21 I think) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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