-= Gametoast.com =-

GO HERE FOR THE FINAL VERSION: viewtopic.php?f=35&t=30158

Hello Gametoast! First time mapper here with something hopefully others will enjoy.

I started with a simple idea of wanting to create a valley located in an Endor-like environment. The map's name is actually a friend of mine's online screename and I thought it had a nice planet sound to it. My intention is for the Rebels/CIS to have been on this planet for some time, and will in turn have a significant defense with plenty of turrets at their disposal and a 150 increase to reinforcements. Playing as the Empire/Clones will require moving in fast in order to gain ground. This is also why the Empire/Clones begin with only 1 CP. I should also point out that this map has no custom sides, weapons, or sounds. I decided being the first time to just keep it simple and use what's readily available. Boring? I guess, but that's my reasoning anyway.

Right now I'd say I'm exactly 75% of the way there.

Screenshots: (UPDATED) Notes for v0.6: What's next?
- Refine planning and barriers
- Add more hint nodes
- Add in sound effects for rain and lightning
- Add more detail to the background
- Finishing 2 Flag CTF and Hero Assualt
- Add a loading screen
- Create a mini map

Current Issues:
- 2CTF and Hero Assualt haven't been touched yet. My focus has been entirely on Conquest so be warned if you load up 2CTF or Hero Assualt.
- At the moment CP1 and CP6 are switched on the mini map. (Tried to fix this in v0.6 but they're still switched)
- Rain and lightning are silent

It looks quite good. A suggestion of mine would be adding foliage, if you will, to the entire map. I think it multiplies the forest feeling and it would greatly benefit the environment. Also, make sure you have a nice lighting setup and don't forget to value detail. Your map has a lot of potential and small things like these are one way of making it fully live up to it.

Looks pretty good for a first map!

GAB wrote:It looks quite good. A suggestion of mine would be adding foliage, if you will, to the entire map. I think it multiplies the forest feeling and it would greatly benefit the environment. Also, make sure you have a nice lighting setup and don't forget to value detail. Your map has a lot of potential and small things like these are one way of making it fully live up to it.

Thanks GAB! Yeah, I've slowly added more foliage here and there, but starting with this next version I'm gonna do a serious overhaul with it, following your advice. I want to improve the trees as well.

JimmyAngler wrote:Looks pretty good for a first map!

Thank you Jimmy, and I owe you another thanks for solving my sound lvl issues!

Hey, it's fine starting small. You can always add things later on if you feel like it, better to start small than start big and get overwhelmed.

ARCTroopaNate wrote:Hey, it's fine starting small. You can always add things later on if you feel like it, better to start small than start big and get overwhelmed.

Working with sounds has been overwhelming enough so I agree.

Decided to change up the mood for the next version. I've changed the sky to Kashyyyk and added in rain as well.
Haven't started on the foliage yet, but will do tomorrow. v0.6 is coming along nicely!

I'm really liking the new atmosphere with the rain. Not sure if it is intended, but maybe you could reskin those Mygeeto props to better fit the environment?

Jigen wrote:The most glaring issue at this stage is that I don't have any planning, barriers and hint nodes in place.

Those two should be at the top of your list of priorities!

It looks like you're off to a great start, but I recommend skinning the yavin props just a tiny bit, maybe make them just a tiny bit darker. It'll help the map have its own unique feel.

I have zero experience with skinning, but sure I can look into that. I chose Yavin's props because I wanted to use something natural that would fit with the theme, but I agree they would look much better if they were darkened a bit. When I was using the Mygeeto props, I was thinking of Endor and how in the midst of this forested region there are these man-made structures. Two different themes, but the reasoning being that the Empire has come in and setup a base makes it fit. My map's theme is close to that only being the CIS/Rebels in this case. I can definitely give it a shot though, just wanted to explain why I picked them out.

AQT wrote:Those two should be at the top of your list of priorities!

I promise it'll be there soon! I didn't mean to put it off so long and it made me hesitate posting a thread yet, but since I planned on getting it in with the next version I thought it'd be ok to just point that out for now. I have another idea for a map I want to do eventually and in that one those will be in much, much sooner.

EDIT
Progress!
I'm almost through my list of things to do. Just a few more visual changes, then I can get started on the AI.

Double posting is against the RULES; please EDIT your post instead -Staff

The ground would look way better if you made the texture tile more. Make the tilerange number smaller in the texture tab. The current large dark spots look unnatural.

PS: barriers and planning are the easiest parts of mapping! the ai follow the planning like connect the dots. You might not even need barriers.

The ferns really do make the terrain look much better!

MileHighGuy wrote:PS: barriers and planning are the easiest parts of mapping! the ai follow the planning like connect the dots. You might not even need barriers.

I take it you don't utilize barriers often? Sure, the concept might be an easy one (i.e. an invisible box that the AI will avoid), but precisely implementing barriers can be a very tedious and boring process. Of course, it all depends on the number of and the complexity of objects in your map that the AI interacts with, but it should always be a good idea to utilize both barriers and planning to better refine the AI's movements.

You are right, I was talking about the concept. I meant that simpler maps, like it seems Jigen is aiming for, might not require barriers because the planning can be done so it doesn't take the ai through objects.

I'm really liking the environment here! The somewhat desaturated-looking environment really feels like it should be a warzone. I'm annoyed with the ground texture, though - it's not exactly matching the ferns in places - I'd personally use either a new texture or change the size of it in the editor. It's mainly the dark patches. The fog is wonderful, the rain is wonderful, and if I were you I'd probably slightly reskin some of the buildings but yeah (Mygeeto buildings almost always look like Mygeeto buildings, unfortunately).

MileHighGuy wrote:The ground would look way better if you made the texture tile more. Make the tilerange number smaller in the texture tab. The current large dark spots look unnatural.

PS: barriers and planning are the easiest parts of mapping! the ai follow the planning like connect the dots. You might not even need barriers.

Yeah, as much as I like this grass texture more I didn't like the dark spots so thanks for the advice I'll definitely do that. I'm still going to put in barriers as well since it can only help direct the AI more as AQT said, and even though the map is mostly open, there are definitely spots that they could get stuck on.

Eaol wrote:I'm really liking the environment here! The somewhat desaturated-looking environment really feels like it should be a warzone. I'm annoyed with the ground texture, though - it's not exactly matching the ferns in places - I'd personally use either a new texture or change the size of it in the editor. It's mainly the dark patches. The fog is wonderful, the rain is wonderful, and if I were you I'd probably slightly reskin some of the buildings but yeah (Mygeeto buildings almost always look like Mygeeto buildings, unfortunately).

Thanks Eaol. I agree with the grass texture like I said above, but I'm gonna see if lowering the tile range will improve it before I use a different one. I prefer this one just because it's grassier, but I'll do some comparisons. I am definitely going to reskin the mygeeto props along with the yavin props, and probably the kashyyyk ones, too. This is probably a dumb question, but I would just be editing the texture files that are in my world file right? They don't need to go anywhere else after I edit them?

EDIT
Also, I'm trying to allow Grievous to enter vehicles and turrets after I found out that he can. I edited his .odf, but nothing changed. Was there something else I needed to do after?

did you make a custom/edited side and loaded grievous from there?

DarthD.U.C.K. wrote:did you make a custom/edited side and loaded grievous from there?

Nope, wasn't sure if it was necessary, but I will go do that now. Thank you

There is no need to make a custom General Grievous unit for such a minimal change. Simply use the stock unit as you were with SetClassProperty in your lua.

Jigen wrote:This is probably a dumb question, but I would just be editing the texture files that are in my world file right?

Yep, that is correct.

AQT wrote:There is no need to make a custom General Grievous unit for such a minimal change. Simply use the stock unit as you were with SetClassProperty in your lua.

Well, at least I gained some experience in setting up a side. I'll edit my lua tomorrow using that method, thanks for the link.

Alright I've finally gotten around to reskinning the props suggested, and I'd like to see what you all think.

Yavin props Simply made them a bit darker.

Kashyyyk barriers and Mygeeto props Since it's hard not to recognize where they're from, I figured the best way to go was give them a more silvery appearance matching the laser turrets. They're still Kashyyyk and Mygeeto props, but I think they blend in much better now. Unfortunately I'm having problems with two specific textures. Both "yav2_bldg_details" and "pol1_prop_barrel_crate10" seem to have multiple layers, but according to gimp there's only one. So I'm only able to edit part of the texture. Not sure why that is. The Yavin columns and Polis Massa crates uses these textures so they're still a little out of place at the moment.

Also sidenote, I just went with Eaol's suggestion and used a different grass texture. This is the one I used before but with a smaller titlerange (8) and it definitely blends with the foliage more than the last one.

Anyway, I've finally gotten through everything else so planning, barriers and hint nodes are up next then release!

Nice work! The map is looking a lot better than it was before, and a lot more original, which is great.

Jigen wrote:Unfortunately I'm having problems with two specific textures. Both "yav2_bldg_details" and "pol1_prop_barrel_crate10" seem to have multiple layers, but according to gimp there's only one. So I'm only able to edit part of the texture. Not sure why that is. The Yavin columns and Polis Massa crates uses these textures so they're still a little out of place at the moment.

Ok. These might be some props with alpha channels used to give the prop specular. What I do is open the texture in GIMP, go to Colors>Components>Decompose>RGBA. I usually redo specular in the way DarthD.U.C.K. (however you spell it) mentioned in one of his tutorials. When you decompose it to layers, you get a red, green, and blue layer. Now you hit Colors>Components>Compose>RGB and you get the texture in RGB format. Edit it to your liking. When done, you can either use the alpha channel in the RGBA or you can create a new alpha channel to make it shinier (I'll usually duplicate the layer in the RGB-compose (whatever the name) and then I'll desaturate the new layer and increase brightness and contrast if it's metal, then I'll copy this; then I'll add a layer mask to the original layer and then paste the modified layer in, and apply the layer mask; this results in an image very similar to how it looked when you first opened the file, the more opaque parts being shinier in-game than the less opaque).

Yeeah.

Also, try getting the lights on your map to give off specular, it's a neat effect.