Aces High Bulletin Board

General Forums => Terrain Editor => Topic started by: Greebo on October 29, 2009, 03:44:12 AM

Title: CraterMA revisited
Post by: Greebo on October 29, 2009, 03:44:12 AM
Figured I should start a new thread for my CraterMA terrain project rather than resurrect the old one. I've been working on and off on this MA terrain for about two and a half years now and have just finished redoing all the terrain textures to the latest style.

While I'm bug testing prior to submitting it I thought it would be a good idea to ask this forum for feedback. To that end I have drawn the field numbers, initial country borders and spawn points on the current in-game map shown below. Also if anyone wants to try the terrain offline you can download the files from this link:-  CraterMA.zip (4,679kb). (http://www.gfg06.dial.pipex.com/screenshots3/craterma.zip) Just extract the files to your ahiiterr folder. Note it needs to run for about 45 minutes for all the cloud systems to fully deploy.

To avoid balance issues I've gone for a symmetrical field layout, although each country's clockwise half is not a mirror image of its anti-clockwise half. The bases are at around 2K high near the crater rim dropping to near sea level at the coast. The island airfields are at 1k. There is a high number of bases for a small MA terrain, 33 per side.

The central crater rim is about 15K high. It splits the countries at the centre of the map and acts as a deterrent to planes griefing tank town in the middle of the crater. Three mountain range “spokes” radiate out from the crater and form the initial country borders. These mountains are about 9K high but are split by numerous valleys. You can cross the range between any two adjacent fields without making a major detour and never need to climb to more than 3-4K. A cross-range NOE goon run typically takes less than 10 minutes.

The rivers and lakes are currently just there to add some visual interest. However, if and when HTC clear the bridge objects for MA use I may later incorporate some river crossing GV spawn routes. All the strat objects are within a 20 miles of an uncapturable base, which should make it harder for players to milk run them.

The ground war is centered around V base hubs which in turn spawn to most of the airfields. There are also coastal spawn paths that end at the city, HQ and mainland port. The defending side has spawns from its three uncapturable fields to the V base hubs, so these strategic bases are likely to see a lot of action.

Tank town has four of the tank town industrial zones clustered together and is bordered by lakes to compress the action to a small zone. Each tank town base has several closely spaced spawns which will make camping difficult. All the tank town bases are covered by a permanent low smog which combined with the high crater rim will make it difficult to take out the hangars by air.

Each country has two large islands near the borders with an airbase, a V base and a port on each. With shore batteries on all the island bases and PT spawns in the narrow channels either side these are going to be tough to take by CV and are fairly isolated from mainland airbases. The third central CV can be used to retake an island if necessary.


(http://www.gfg06.dial.pipex.com/screenshots3/displaymap.jpg)

        Some screenshots of the terrain, click to enlarge:-

        Tank town, with a TE screenshot showing the spawns:-

        (http://www.gfg06.dial.pipex.com/screenshots3/ThumbnailTEtanktownscreenshot.jpg) (http://www.gfg06.dial.pipex.com/screenshots3/TEtanktownscreenshot.jpg)    (http://www.gfg06.dial.pipex.com/screenshots3/ThumbnailTanktownclouds.jpg) (http://www.gfg06.dial.pipex.com/screenshots3/Tanktownclouds.jpg)    (http://www.gfg06.dial.pipex.com/screenshots3/ThumbnailTanktownclouds2.jpg) (http://www.gfg06.dial.pipex.com/screenshots3/Tanktownclouds2.jpg)

        Border mountains:-

        (http://www.gfg06.dial.pipex.com/screenshots3/ThumbnailBordermountains2.jpg) (http://www.gfg06.dial.pipex.com/screenshots3/Bordermountains2.jpg)    (http://www.gfg06.dial.pipex.com/screenshots3/ThumbnailCentremountainsfromoutsidecrater.jpg) (http://www.gfg06.dial.pipex.com/screenshots3/Centremountainsfromoutsidecrater.jpg)    (http://www.gfg06.dial.pipex.com/screenshots3/ThumbnailBordercrater2.jpg) (http://www.gfg06.dial.pipex.com/screenshots3/Bordercrater2.jpg)

        Rivers, lakes and coastline:-

        (http://www.gfg06.dial.pipex.com/screenshots3/ThumbnailRiverandlake.jpg) (http://www.gfg06.dial.pipex.com/screenshots3/Riverandlake.jpg)    (http://www.gfg06.dial.pipex.com/screenshots3/ThumbnailRiver,lakeandfog.jpg) (http://www.gfg06.dial.pipex.com/screenshots3/River,lakeandfog.jpg)    (http://www.gfg06.dial.pipex.com/screenshots3/ThumbnailPortandcoastline.jpg) (http://www.gfg06.dial.pipex.com/screenshots3/Portandcoastline.jpg)

Title: Re: CraterMA revisited
Post by: danny37 on October 29, 2009, 04:49:48 AM
awesome Greebo :aok
Title: Re: CraterMA revisited
Post by: bravoa8 on October 29, 2009, 12:01:46 PM
Thats sweeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee eeeeeeeeet! Is that going to be for the MA? :banana:
Title: Re: CraterMA revisited
Post by: Killer91 on October 29, 2009, 01:45:34 PM
This looks like it would be very close to if not the most fun map on the game!  :aok
Title: Re: CraterMA revisited
Post by: StokesAk on October 29, 2009, 02:10:05 PM
I really like the job done with the Rivers, Lake and Coastlines.

I agree that this will be the funnest map to fly on so far.
Title: Re: CraterMA revisited
Post by: Plazus on October 29, 2009, 03:52:39 PM
Neato! Always good to have mountains to fly by!  :aok
Title: Re: CraterMA revisited
Post by: The Fugitive on October 29, 2009, 04:55:48 PM
I loved it the last time you dragged it out !!! Will you finish it already ! :neener:
Title: Re: CraterMA revisited
Post by: USRanger on October 29, 2009, 06:51:36 PM
Most excellent Greebs. :aok
Title: Re: CraterMA revisited
Post by: USRanger on October 29, 2009, 09:53:09 PM
Hey Greebo, if you put your .awa(weather) file in your CraterMA folder, then build the terrain, the weather system will be built into the terrain(.res).  I didn't know if you knew that or not so I thought I would say something.  You will have to do this if/when you submit your final .res.
Title: Re: CraterMA revisited
Post by: Greebo on October 30, 2009, 04:57:33 AM
Thanks guys, glad you like it.

I'll probably delay submitting it until we get the new city strat in the next version, otherwise I'd only have to resubmit it again. As I understand the new strat I'll have to remove all the current strat factories as they are part of the new megacity. I'll probably put the new cities in the centre of the uncapturable field triangles. That will mean clearing hills, redirecting local rivers to link up to the new city rivers, rethinking the spawns to the city, redoing the arena map and so on.

Another thing that I noticed looking at the screenshots of the new city is the new bridges there. As there will have to be a new version of the TE to handle the new city, maybe we will get these bridges as a stand alone item as well. If so I have some ideas for spawn routes with river crossings.

For some reason I thought the awa file was a stand alone item like the plane/vehicle allocation files. Thanks for telling me Ranger, I'll sort that out.
Title: Re: CraterMA revisited
Post by: OOZ662 on November 01, 2009, 06:15:41 PM
There better be some easter eggs hidden on those unused corner lands... :noid

Otherwise, I certainly like the looks of it. :p
Title: Re: CraterMA revisited
Post by: Kazaa on November 02, 2009, 05:38:25 PM
Awesome! Love the presentation btw!!!
Title: Re: CraterMA revisited
Post by: Denholm on November 02, 2009, 10:57:19 PM
Wow, that's astonishing. Looks very good.
Title: Re: CraterMA revisited
Post by: StokesAk on November 03, 2009, 05:29:30 PM
It looks like it would be a fun map to do some high alt bombing on, thanks Greebo!
Title: Re: CraterMA revisited
Post by: ebfd11 on November 04, 2009, 11:13:25 PM
Awesome  :banana:  :aok :aok :aok :aok


Title: Re: CraterMA revisited
Post by: Kazaa on November 08, 2009, 08:15:28 AM
HiTech, can we please get this map in game!!!! :aok

Greebo is one talented bloke!
Title: Re: CraterMA revisited
Post by: ebfd11 on November 09, 2009, 11:22:13 AM
+1 what Kazza said
Title: Re: CraterMA revisited
Post by: Kazaa on November 29, 2009, 01:50:35 AM
I've been looking around the map, it's fantastic and very realistic!
Title: Re: CraterMA revisited
Post by: JonDoe999 on December 01, 2009, 08:25:02 AM
IT IS AWESOME!!! :aok :aok :aok :aok :aok :aok :aok :aok :aok :aok :aok :aok :aok :aok :aok :aok :aok :salute
Title: Re: CraterMA revisited
Post by: ink on December 01, 2009, 09:05:03 AM
yup awesome Map, they should hire your butt!!!!!  :aok :rock :rock :rock :salute
Title: Re: CraterMA revisited
Post by: Kazaa on December 01, 2009, 10:10:42 AM
yup awesome Map, they should hire your butt!!!!!  :aok :rock :rock :rock :salute

+1. We could sure use a few more maps in AH2.
Title: Re: CraterMA revisited
Post by: Greebo on December 05, 2009, 01:49:23 AM
Thanks guys, glad you like it so much. Hopefully the new version of AH means we will soon have a new TE that will let me add the new cities to this map so I can then submit it.
Title: Re: CraterMA revisited
Post by: Kazaa on December 05, 2009, 09:50:59 AM
Thanks guys, glad you like it so much. Hopefully the new version of AH means we will soon have a new TE that will let me add the new cities to this map so I can then submit it.

Drewl, I will love you long time if you could do that!
Title: Re: CraterMA revisited
Post by: Spikes on December 07, 2009, 02:50:32 PM
Greebo NEVER ceases to amaze!
Title: Re: CraterMA revisited
Post by: Kazaa on December 10, 2009, 08:55:25 AM
I can't wait to see what you come up with Greebo.

I think a city around the ports would be a good idea.
Title: Re: CraterMA revisited
Post by: Greebo on December 10, 2009, 10:24:33 AM
I've put the cities near the centre of each country's triangle of uncapturable fields so they should always have plenty of protection. There is only one capturable field near to each city (A18/A28/A38), so these should see a lot more action in this setup. HT said he doesn't want spawns into the new city so I'll spawn to the HQ from each of the nearest coastal V bases.

Once I have altered the arena map I'll repost the terrain here.
Title: Re: CraterMA revisited
Post by: OOZ662 on December 10, 2009, 11:55:41 AM
HT said he doesn't want spawns into the new city

:cry
Title: Re: CraterMA revisited
Post by: Kazaa on December 10, 2009, 12:41:01 PM
Greebo,

Will you be putting no strat cities into your map, just for eye candy purposes? HiTech said this would be possible! :x :x
Title: Re: CraterMA revisited
Post by: Greebo on December 10, 2009, 01:00:10 PM
I am going to look at replacing the current tank town setup but I want to get all the strat stuff done first. Using small blocks of the big city may be possible assuming they don't all have flak towers. I'd particularly like to use the sections that have bridges across a river. These could also be used to seperate a spawn point from its target field, you'd have to cross the bridges to get to the field.
Title: Re: CraterMA revisited
Post by: mechanic on December 10, 2009, 01:23:32 PM
excelent work sir!
Title: Re: CraterMA revisited
Post by: JonDoe999 on December 11, 2009, 04:03:03 PM
This is the best terrain I have ever flown on. :airplane:

Keep up the good work, sir.
Title: Re: CraterMA revisited
Post by: Greebo on December 12, 2009, 03:57:24 AM
I've updated the terrain with the new cities and a revised tank town. You can download the current terrain files here:- craterma.zip (http://www.gfg06.dial.pipex.com/screenshots3/craterma.zip)

The terrain is not finished, this is just a temporary update so players can try out the tank town setup and give me feedback. The arena map has not been updated to reflect the new coastlines and hills around the cities and tanktown. Also I'll need to move the cloud cover over the tank town bases.

The game will not let you spawn into the built up areas, it just moves you to the nearest edge of the area if you try. So the central spawn on each base will always spawn you into the small green area. Will probably end up being a campers paradise, but the other spawns aren't too far away.

None of the tiles in tank town have any flak towers. However I am thinking of adding three more towns with loads of flak just the other side of the V bases. These would serve as a buff griefer deterrent.

Does anyone know what hardness setting I would need to make the tank town city tiles indestructible?

I'd like to know from anyone who GVs a lot if they think this setup would work. Also if HTC would have any objections to me using the city tiles in this way.

(http://www.gfg06.dial.pipex.com/screenshots3/New_tanktown_SC1.jpg)
Title: Re: CraterMA revisited
Post by: mechanic on December 12, 2009, 07:44:09 AM
Outstanding, going to be a whole new level of GV fighting.  :O

Title: Re: CraterMA revisited
Post by: Easyscor on December 12, 2009, 08:55:42 AM
Quote
Does anyone know what hardness setting I would need to make the tank town city tiles indestructible?

Set them for Barrier instead.
Title: Re: CraterMA revisited
Post by: Strip on December 12, 2009, 10:42:31 AM
What happens when you spawn inside a building?

That would be the only thing I think might be an issue....

Strip
Title: Re: CraterMA revisited
Post by: JonDoe999 on December 12, 2009, 10:47:38 AM
Blow it up. :noid :airplane: :lol
Title: Re: CraterMA revisited
Post by: USRanger on December 12, 2009, 10:51:22 AM
What happens when you spawn inside a building?

That would be the only thing I think might be an issue....

Strip

Not sure about nowadays, but this is what used to happen if you had a spawn into a built-up area.

(http://img705.imageshack.us/img705/5559/79493706.jpg) (http://img705.imageshack.us/i/79493706.jpg/)
Title: Re: CraterMA revisited
Post by: JonDoe999 on December 12, 2009, 11:02:55 AM
I'll tell you guys what happens after a little while. :aok
Title: Re: CraterMA revisited
Post by: JonDoe999 on December 12, 2009, 01:38:53 PM
I can't get the pictures on here. He did cut it close on some spawns but nothing to worry about.
Title: Re: CraterMA revisited
Post by: Greebo on December 12, 2009, 01:42:22 PM
Don't worry, there's no danger of ending up inside a building. The game will not allow a spawn into the area where the buildings are. If the terrain has a spawn point on a city area, you will actually spawn at the nearest edge of that city area instead. Thanks for the barrier tip.
Title: Re: CraterMA revisited
Post by: Strip on December 12, 2009, 01:49:47 PM
Thats good to know, thanks Greebo, nice work as usual and look forward to flying her in the MA hopefully sometime soon.

Strip
Title: Re: CraterMA revisited
Post by: JonDoe999 on December 12, 2009, 01:57:18 PM
I agree! Good work,sir!!! :salute :cheers:
Title: Re: CraterMA revisited
Post by: mensa180 on December 17, 2009, 08:00:13 PM
Looks great Greebo.
Title: Re: CraterMA revisited
Post by: Raptor on December 17, 2009, 10:41:23 PM
I miss donut  :(
Title: Re: CraterMA revisited
Post by: Greebo on December 22, 2009, 07:51:12 AM
I've updated the terrain with new strat and I've added a load of "villages" between the spawn points and the fields/towns for GVs to fight in. These are made of tiles selected from those that make up the new city. Three of the airfields (A18, 28 and 38) have spawns across a river from the airfield and a village with bridges to cross, similar to the tank town shown below.

I've altered the tank town to have an open area in the centre. This let me move one of the spawns from each base nearer the centre and gives a bit more variety of terrain. The yellow dotted area on the centre spawn shows the area you can actually spawn to, the game won't allow spawning into the built up part of the spawn.

The terrain is essentially done apart from bugfixing. I've got a checklist of stuff to run through before submitting it in after the holidays. The terrain files can be downloaded from here: Craterma.zip file (http://www.gfg06.dial.pipex.com/screenshots3/Craterma.zip)

(http://www.gfg06.dial.pipex.com/screenshots3/CraterMAdisplaymap.jpg)

(http://www.gfg06.dial.pipex.com/screenshots3/New_tanktown_SC2.jpg)
Title: Re: CraterMA revisited
Post by: JonDoe999 on December 22, 2009, 02:43:46 PM
Good job, sir! You never stop amazing me, sir! I can't wait until you get another good idea, sir!!! :salute
Title: Re: CraterMA revisited
Post by: Greebo on December 23, 2009, 04:30:56 PM
New terrain link, weather wasn't working in the last one. craterma1.zip (http://www.gfg06.dial.pipex.com/screenshots3/craterma1.zip)
Title: Re: CraterMA revisited
Post by: haggerty on December 23, 2009, 09:39:17 PM
I think that limiting air access will actually hurt the activity in tank town.  Alot of people like to fly close air support, and there are the groups that like to fly air cover for GV's as well.
As far as the normal bases, it looks like you have alot of one way GV spawns from air bases that favor one front on each side.
Title: Re: CraterMA revisited
Post by: Greebo on December 24, 2009, 04:48:28 AM
I welcome your feedback haggerty as I don't GV myself. From my POV its difficult to know what the balance of GVer opinion is though. I was basing my perceptions of what GVers wanted on the constant complaining about "bomb****s in tank town" I read on ch200 and on the BBS.

I deliberately limited the number of spawn points as I wanted to make the V bases important strategically. Once you own one you get access to most of the nearby airfields. When you can get everywhere from everywhere then no field is more important than another. Also I feel too many options with spawn points just dilutes the action and encourages milk running.

The clockwise and anti-clockwise borders are different to each other but are the same layout for each country. So any disadvantage you have on one border is an advantage on the other.
Title: Re: CraterMA revisited
Post by: DrBone1 on December 24, 2009, 06:59:21 AM
I welcome your feedback haggerty as I don't GV myself. From my POV its difficult to know what the balance of GVer opinion is though. I was basing my perceptions of what GVers wanted on the constant complaining about "bomb****s in tank town" I read on ch200 and on the BBS.

I deliberately limited the number of spawn points as I wanted to make the V bases important strategically. Once you own one you get access to most of the nearby airfields. When you can get everywhere from everywhere then no field is more important than another. Also I feel too many options with spawn points just dilutes the action and encourages milk running.

The clockwise and anti-clockwise borders are different to each other but are the same layout for each country. So any disadvantage you have on one border is an advantage on the other.
:aok
Title: Re: CraterMA revisited
Post by: The Fugitive on December 24, 2009, 09:21:06 PM
I think TT should be just that, tanks only. The problem I see however is will HTC approve a strictly tank only TT? By making it so planes can't be used your cutting out part of the player base, allowing the GVers to isolate themselves from the rest of the players.

I like the idea, but I just don'r know if it will..... errr fly  :P
Title: Re: CraterMA revisited
Post by: Greebo on December 25, 2009, 03:32:45 AM
This tank town is not invulnerable to air attack, it just means a long climb, coping with heavy AA over the crater and bombing through cloud if you want to hit the V bases. The tank town itself has no cloud cover. Three jabos could still close a V base if they really wanted to. Its not exactly uncommon to find jabos hitting fields from 15K approaches in the MA now.

If HTC do object to this setup it is no big deal,  I can remove the flak towns or cloud cover in just a few minutes. I could also put three gaps in the crater rim, which would then be obvious ambush places for any fighters capping the tank town crater.



Title: Re: CraterMA revisited
Post by: Greebo on December 25, 2009, 06:07:16 AM
I flew a jabo mission to tank town in a loaded P-51D with 50% fuel to see how long it would take. From take off to bomb release was 13 minutes, which doesn't seem unreasonable to me. The time needed is more about rate of climb with ord than speed, so I imagine an F6F would do it faster than say a P-47. Getting an Il-2 to tank town will require a lot of patience.

The low clouds over the V bases were definitely a hinderance to accurate bombing, but I still managed to kill a VH in two passes.

Here's some more screenshots of the new tank town, click to expand:-

(http://www.gfg06.dial.pipex.com/screenshots3/New_tanktown_SC3.jpg) (http://www.gfg06.dial.pipex.com/screenshots3/New_tanktown_SC3.jpg)  (http://www.gfg06.dial.pipex.com/screenshots3/New_tanktown_SC4.jpg) (http://www.gfg06.dial.pipex.com/screenshots3/New_tanktown_SC4.jpg)  (http://www.gfg06.dial.pipex.com/screenshots3/New_tanktown_SC5.jpg) (http://www.gfg06.dial.pipex.com/screenshots3/New_tanktown_SC5.jpg)



Title: Re: CraterMA revisited
Post by: Spikes on December 25, 2009, 11:12:21 AM
Greebo, still takes about 45 mins to load the weather?  I think Ranger said something about building the weather into the terrain to make it load faster...
Title: Re: CraterMA revisited
Post by: Greebo on December 25, 2009, 02:49:23 PM
I tried putting the weather file in the main download but it didn't take for some reason, so I went back to the old system with a seperate file. The clouds taking 45 minutes to fully deploy are not affected by where I put the weather file anyway, that is just down to the way weather works in AH.

Each weather front on an MA terrain has rows and columns of clouds which start at one point on the map, move to another point and then disappear. You are only allowed to have 900 clouds active over the whole map at any time to prevent overloading players' PCs. All of the 120 weather fronts in this terrain are set up to run over precisely 45 or 90 minutes so I can prevent surges in the cloud numbers where one front starts before another one has finished.

In the case of tank town when you start the terrain offline the first row of clouds generates immediately at one side of a V base and begins to move to the end point of its travel on the other side. Then another row of clouds generates, and then another until the V base is covered 45 minutes later. At that point the first row disappears. However I have a second identical front set up to run exactly 45 minutes after the terrain starts. These two fronts run at 45 minute intervals to keep the V base permanently covered in cloud. Any player joining this terrain online would only see the V bases uncovered if the terrain had been up for less than 45 minutes.
Title: Re: CraterMA revisited
Post by: Skulls22 on December 26, 2009, 01:28:00 PM
WTG Greebo!

Rollin a M4 down the street, take a left and a on the other end of town you see a Tiger at the end of the street. The clock strikes High Noon. The guns aim! (To be continued)

Looking forward to it!
Title: Re: CraterMA revisited
Post by: Spikes on December 29, 2009, 01:04:28 AM
Greebo I love the towns you put near the non-tt bases as well...
Title: Re: CraterMA revisited
Post by: Greebo on December 29, 2009, 02:03:49 AM
Thanks Spikes, thought it would add a bit of interest. One thing to note if anyone else is thinking of doing this on a terrain though. The roads and railways disappear if they cross the same square as a city segment. The trucks etc. still run, but across an invisible road. Apart from looking a bit bogus I'm not sure whether GVs might end up running into invisible bridges or be hit by trucks where there is no visible road. So I have now gone through all my roads and rerouted them clear of the city squares.
Title: Re: CraterMA revisited
Post by: Kazaa on December 29, 2009, 11:09:26 PM
Greebo, I feel like you should create a lot of town buildings around the ports just like in RL, take Dover for example.
Title: Re: CraterMA revisited
Post by: Greebo on December 30, 2009, 10:48:54 AM
The problem is the island ports (and other bases) are all on narrow strips of land between mountains and the coast which doesn't leave a lot of room for towns. The city tiles have to be on absolutely flat land and I have to fit roads for the bases in that area too. If I redo the coastline or mountains to make room this causes other issues as I have to redo the clipboard map (not a trivial job) and make sure the CVs have room to get past the bases OK. I'm also reluctant to change the coastline because of the cmpwater.bmp bug in the TE. As there are no GV spawns into the island ports this would just be an eye candy addition cases with no effect on gameplay and I didn't think it was worth the hassle.

I'll consider adding more buildings for the three central ports on the main landmass. However one reason I kept the towns midway between the bases and spawn points was to draw the fight away from players spawning.
Title: Re: CraterMA revisited
Post by: Easyscor on December 30, 2009, 11:24:16 AM
Greebo, I feel like you should create a lot of town buildings around the ports just like in RL, take Dover for example.
Creating custom layouts for bases or strat isn't allowed for an MA terrain. See item #5 and #6, http://bbs.hitechcreations.com/smf/index.php/topic,176625.msg2030354.html#msg2030354. If you meant add more clutter, that might be accepted.


Quote
From the other thread: Craterma is currently about 6000 kb which is at the upper end of the range of current MA terrain sizes.

Sorry Greebo, I didn't see that before. 6MB for that terrain indicates you've left some extraneous files in your project. The safest fix is to create a temporary folder in the project directory and another in the texsrc directory. Then place all unnecessary files inside, especially the waterd and waterc bitmaps, also the .typ and .sys files. That should reduce your footprint to around 3MB. When everything is working, you can delete the two temporary folders.

Next, go back and check/re-level your cs objects, especially in the TT area. At least one tile is blinking out with view-angle tilting indicating a problem of some kind. 10,10,3,4.
Title: Re: CraterMA revisited
Post by: Greebo on December 30, 2009, 01:34:08 PM
Thanks for the feedback Easyscor. The waterd and waterc files were in the texsrc folder as you said, removing them has dropped the res file size to 3500 kb. I may play around with the water a bit more now to make it look better.

I think Kazaa means adding more of the city tiles in the squares adjacent to the port to give the illusion of a big coastal town.

I flew all round the crater several times circling each town looking for the blinking city tile you mentioned but I could not see it. Maybe its a video driver or card issue? There are no out of level errors when I do an object report in the TE. Just to be sure I checked the levels and the properties of each of the objects in question but could find no problems.
Title: Re: CraterMA revisited
Post by: USRanger on December 30, 2009, 04:17:12 PM
I know which one Easy is talking about Greebo.  I noticed it last week then forgot to say something.  I still remember which one it is so I'll post screenies when I get time.
Title: Re: CraterMA revisited
Post by: Easyscor on December 30, 2009, 05:31:37 PM
Look at 10,10,3,4 in CM Eye, it'll flash off to the edge of the screen.
Title: Re: CraterMA revisited
Post by: USRanger on December 30, 2009, 05:38:41 PM
Look at 10,10,3,4 in CM Eye, it'll flash off to the edge of the screen.

Or you could just do that. :D
Title: Re: CraterMA revisited
Post by: Easyscor on December 30, 2009, 05:40:44 PM
:)
You can still post your screenie.  :cheers:
Title: Re: CraterMA revisited
Post by: USRanger on December 30, 2009, 06:02:06 PM
No.  The moment is ruined. *Sigh*
Title: Re: CraterMA revisited
Post by: bravoa8 on December 30, 2009, 11:46:22 PM
:)
You can still post your screenie.  :cheers:
Do it Ranger we're too lazy. :lol
Title: Re: CraterMA revisited
Post by: Greebo on December 31, 2009, 03:03:01 AM
I wasn't moving the city to the edge of my view, once I did that I spotted the problem tile. I still could not find any problem with it in the the TE though and the same type of city tile is used 5 more times in the terrain with no problem. However deleting and replacing the tile seems to have fixed the problem.
Title: Re: CraterMA revisited
Post by: SlapShot on December 31, 2009, 09:45:35 AM
Hey Greebo ...

Just checked out your map ... outstanding work as usual (and expected  :D).

I do have one suggestion ...

Any map that has CV groups, any "base" that is on the shoreline should be equipped with at least 2 shore batteries, especially ports and vehicle bases. Port and vehicles bases have no other immediate support from a CV attack outside of the vehicles that it can spawn, especially a port seeing that it has only 1 vehicle hanger.

Also, as a general rule, placement of the shore batteries should be checked for proper coverage of the area and shoreline ... I looked at the upper left 1/3rd country and the coverage of your existing shore batteries looks good ... I was just mentioning this to other map designers.
Title: Re: CraterMA revisited
Post by: Greebo on January 01, 2010, 03:56:20 AM
Thanks Slapshot, glad you like it.

I spent a long time lining up the shore batteries, checking them in the game and then editing their angles and height in the TE and object file. In general they are set up so you can't quite hit the town itself but you can target LVTs that spawn offshore. The island V bases have two SBs each that each have almost complete coverage over 180 degrees, the other island bases and the airfields between the bases have one each. I didn't put SBs further along the coast as I figured CVs would have a hard time surviving buffs launched from the uncapturable fields if they got that far. Thinking about it though, if a side captures an opposition island they will then have a local CV nearby so maybe I'll put a few more SBs in.

On the subject of shore batteries, one thing that annoys the artist in me a bit is that HTC used the rock texture for the SB hill. It looks odd against the predominately green textures used in the game so I have to create little rocky outcrops wherever I put the SB for it to blend in. I'd say the rock/grass texture would be a much better choice for the hill overall.
Title: Re: CraterMA revisited
Post by: Greebo on January 22, 2010, 02:59:33 AM
I've been busy adding some stuff to the terrain. The latest files can be downloaded here: craterma.zip (http://www.gfg06.dial.pipex.com/screenshots3/craterma.zip)

Now the TE lets us create water at any alt I decided to add some small lakes in the mountains just for visual effect. I tried including these lakes on the arena map but the compression HTC use on the in-game map made them look crappy. As it also screwed up the map's altitude key I removed them from the map.

I've also added some more towns between the fields just to add some visual interest in featureless areas of the map.

The three central ports now have a big town behind them and most coastal bases now have shore batteries.

I'm going to submit it next week unless anyone can spot something that needs changing.
Title: Re: CraterMA revisited
Post by: Citabria on February 11, 2011, 08:56:51 AM
id be interested to find out if HT still needs the uncapturable bases with the change back to the 1 zone country wide for strat targets.

would be more fun i think to have nothing uncapturable and make the map easier to reset.
 maps beautiful though looks like fun.

have you considered the combined arms fight potential from more vbases between airfields? ive always been a fan of an ozkansas tank town in a large scale mapwide linear chain of vbases without spawns in between a chain of airfields.
Title: Re: CraterMA revisited
Post by: Lusche on February 11, 2011, 10:49:39 AM
id be interested to find out if HT still needs the uncapturable bases with the change back to the 1 zone country wide for strat targets.

 A few weeks ago they forgot to designate some bases as uncapturable and quickly corrected that after some players called them

would be more fun i think to have nothing uncapturable and make the map easier to reset.

 But what will happen when one country loses all of it's bases?  ;)
Title: Re: CraterMA revisited
Post by: Greebo on February 11, 2011, 12:12:10 PM
I have made a few changes to CraterMA since this thread was last active. HTC made me get rid of the town clutter and bridges I had incorporated into the terrain for instance.

Following a discussion in another BBS thread about tank town layouts I also redesigned the tank town in this map to something similar to the one in Ozkansas. So the central crater now contains nine V bases rather than just three. These bases are closely spaced to reduce the need for spawning (and getting camped) and are covered by permanent low cloud cover.

I can see the benefits of adding more closely spaced V bases, but I won't be making any more major changes to this map. At 109 bases its already a bit cramped for a small map. Maybe if I ever do another one.

Title: Re: CraterMA revisited
Post by: mechanic on February 11, 2011, 12:24:39 PM
Such an unbelievably long and daunting venture to start let alone finish and release. Thanks Greebo (and the other map makers)
Title: Re: CraterMA revisited
Post by: Citabria on March 23, 2011, 11:32:23 AM
greebo your textures on this map are they default?

the textures im getting look outdated and  older than what show sup on yours.
Title: Re: CraterMA revisited
Post by: Greebo on March 23, 2011, 11:59:53 AM
Yes, all the textures on my map are now the ETO style default ones. Maybe you are using the PTO textures?

I did make some custom textures on an earlier version of CraterMA to let me show snow capped mountains rather than big green hills. However when the terrain system was changed these textures became obsolete. The new ETO default textures let me have the mountains I want so I didn't bother making new textures.
Title: Re: CraterMA revisited
Post by: Citabria on March 23, 2011, 12:04:41 PM
how do i get the ETO tiles to show? my map may be showing pto tiles i cant say for certain.

is there a switch or button somewhere?
Title: Re: CraterMA revisited
Post by: Greebo on March 23, 2011, 12:11:58 PM
There is a file in your map's folder called defset.txt. To change between the two sets of textures the text in this file should be either "1" for ETO or "0" for PTO. I think this is right, it's been a couple of years since I played around with it.
Title: Re: CraterMA revisited
Post by: Citabria on March 23, 2011, 12:18:41 PM
thx will try it when i get home
Title: Re: CraterMA revisited
Post by: Citabria on March 23, 2011, 03:20:54 PM
hmm can't find a file named  and every terrain icreate is the old textures not new eto

defset.txt

edit nm i made the file and put a 1 in it reloaded the terrain and poof eto tiles thx greebo
Title: Re: CraterMA revisited
Post by: Greebo on March 23, 2011, 07:16:16 PM
Your welcome Cit, look forward to seeing the updated terrain.
Title: Re: CraterMA revisited
Post by: jolly22 on March 23, 2011, 07:21:44 PM
I like it. A lot. BUT, It seems more of a GV map. Its going to be hard for some god air battles especially since there is a 14k ridge between countries.
Title: Re: CraterMA revisited
Post by: Greebo on March 23, 2011, 07:47:23 PM
There isn't a 14k ridge between countries, it is only around the tank town crater in the center of the map. This does mean there is not a "fighter town" area where all three countries have adjacent fields and so can easily furball in one spot.

The border mountains between countries have valleys running through them that never rise more than 2K higher than adjacent airfields. Even a C-47 can make the trip through the mountains in about 8 minutes. The valleys should tend to concentrate fights across the front line into a smaller area so there should be some good furballs.

I've tried to make a map that has something for everyone, including GVers. So the tank town is as griefer proof as I am allowed to make it. It is hard to bomb, hard for one side to take over and harder still to keep once they have. OTOH I don't have SPs running from everywhere to everywhere like on some maps. GVers have to take V bases behind the lines to get access to most airfields. So taking these V bases is strategically important to land grabbers. Personally I find fights over V bases generate some of the best furballs as neither side can either vulch or keep just reupping and getting back into the fight instantly.