Alright, I definitely can't wait for the new terrain update and I'm even more excited to see a Pacific terrain... I think my all-time favorite tile set was that old map in the CT in Aces High 1 where the American carriers had to invade the Japanese-held Pacific island (can't remember which... Saipan?) with that pretty custom-skinned city.
When Aces High 2 came out, we lost a lot of variety in our tile-sets (like the sweet desert terrain from Pizza or the winter Finnish map) but we ended up with better fights from the new object density. Since then, though, we've been stuck in Europe with hedge-rows, dark seas, and wooly barnyard animals and I've missed the bright sun and blue waters of the Pacific...
Now, we're finally heading west, and, after trying out the gtester, I really hope that we don't just end up with the atmosphere of the European terrain again but with more palm trees.
So.... hopefully I can give you guys a tour of how the theater should look (the old brown and white war photos don't quite capture the vibe).
One of my granddads was a merchant marine in the Pacific and the other was a marine in the island-hopping campaign, so I'll post the route that he fought through:
Tarawa:
Saipan:
Tinian:
Okinawa:
Now, here's a screenshot I just took from the gtester:
It's a great terrain, but I'm afraid that it's just not capturing the feel of the Pacific...
So, just playing around with the colors of the sky and water in the screenshot (and not touching the land), I've come up with this:
It's not perfect, but I think it gets a lot closer to the real thing (and even seems to give more color to the jungle/grass)... it'd really be great if the brilliant blue of the shallow water got incorporated into the beach tiles, too. I dunno... anyone else agree?
Sorry for the gigantic post, but the terrain's almost live and I'd really like to see the it get knocked out of the park the first go-round... I know how long it sometimes takes for a second go-round
