Aces High Bulletin Board

General Forums => Terrain Editor => Topic started by: mna78 on October 05, 2007, 06:54:12 AM

Title: Creating new maps
Post by: mna78 on October 05, 2007, 06:54:12 AM

From all the posts about new maps, I am interested how long does it take on average to create a map (for MA use) in Terrain Editor?

I have had a look at the Terrain Editor tool and am will to spend some time learning the software to start map bulding, but would like to know approx. how much time is involved...

Title: Creating new maps
Post by: NHawk on October 05, 2007, 08:58:32 AM

The amount of time it takes to build a usable MA terrain is directly related to how proficient you are with all of the tools available, whether you've done one in the past or not and how long you work on it per day.

The time it takes me to do an MA terrain is probably longer than someone at HTC, but much shorter than someone like say Ghastly (no offense meant).

In other words...nobody can say how long it takes.

Title: Creating new maps
Post by: Ghastly on October 05, 2007, 09:10:23 AM

None taken!

In addition to learning all the tools at the same time (including graphical tools like GIMP) I'm also trying to do a few things that I haven't seen done in the current maps, which has added considerable time to the process.  Laying out rivers has been especially time consuming, especially since each and every grid cell junction about has to be massaged by hand.

Not to mention, I've done a lot of it on the train on my laptop, which means that for every hour I work, I get 20 minutes of "real" work done (were I doing it on the desktop with a real mouse and something larger than a 8 inch screen).  So with all that in mind, I've spent what would take me about 40 or so hours to redo now that I know how to use the tools

And I still have a couple of things left to do before I submit.  

Guy

Title: Creating new maps
Post by: NHawk on October 05, 2007, 09:14:24 AM

I don't want to hijack this thread to much so let's not discuss it in length...

I've avoided using rivers because the deltas don't work properly. Until there's an approved fix for that I'd still avoid them. Plus a river needs to be at 0 alt. No river runs it's entire length at sea level.

Title: Creating new maps
Post by: mna78 on October 05, 2007, 09:55:48 AM

Thanks for the responses guys.

I understand that like anything the more you do the quicker you'll become at making maps.  Just wanted a general indication for someone creating a new map with no previous experiance (although quick @ learning software), from Ghastly's response I guess its c.50-60hrs

As I say just wanted a rough estimate, couple of days work, 2 weeks worth  ;)  or 1,000 man hours...