Rehauling NPC structures in Warzone

[Avestron]

I've been thinking (as I usually do) about which aspects of Warzone could use a lot more attention.

As such I would like to propose a rehaul of map feature buildings and this in three ways:

1.) Realistic representation of structure durability

Put simply I'd like to see high rises and such be able to take a lot more punishment than they currently do. A few machinegun bursts will only bring down the frailest of structures.

2.) More types of buildings

Its been said before that structures are waaaay disproportionate to vehicles and cyborgs so how about having 7 or so types of buildings?

shed/ dumpster/ container = bunker sized structure = 1 x 1 x 0.5
small house/ lodge = hardcrete sized structure = 1 x 1 x 1
Large House/ small 0ffice block = power station sized structure = 2 x 2 x 1.5/ 2.5
office block = 2 x 2 x 3
High rise = 2 x 2 x 9
Larger versions of office block and high rise over a 3 x 3 area

- - -

I'd be happy to try come up with the models for these things - I'm sure that they are simple enough for even me to handle well enough...

- - -

3.) Useful structures

Direlect pillboxes dot the terrain along a great fault, an abandoned precollapse factory cllects dust, An old dockyard rusts quietly in a now dry harbour...

These are all opportunities for players to use the terrain to their advantage.

There would be three classes of structures:

a.) Inhabitable - these structures can be manned by a number of human units - larger buildings take on more humans. When at risk of collapse units scatter in all directions - units caught within a collapsed building take damage depending on the size of the building.

b.) Utility - these may only be garrisoned by an engineer unit (human or cyborg) - the unit is neutralized until the structure is abandoned or damaged sufficiently to cause units within to flee

c.) Military - these may be garrisoned by any human or cyborg and may come in almost any shape and size

- - - - - - -

Examples:

Dockyard = repair point - lesser

Machine shop = repair point - medium

Power Plant = a structure providing 30 minutes worth of 4 estra oil rigs, 30 minutes worth of 2 extra oil rigs and a further one hour's worth of one oil rig before drying up.

Factory = light or medium bodies - precollapse

pillbox/ small cannon bunker = relatively common defensive structures

sensor tower = rare

airfield = access to pre-collapse aircraft chassis

research facility = 3x shortcuts in research (similar to picking up artifacts) + minor increase in research efficiency.

etc.

[Avestron]

Ok I am losing my will to live... :-S

I am experiencing the exact same issue I had with the Tiger body. The shed looks decent in edit mode but won't render. I am attaching the blender file.

Medic!

[Thyranim]

when rendering i can see a building without texture ... correct?

[Avestron]

when rendering i can see a building without texture ... correct?

Correct - and when applying the image it turns out wrong. (its not on this PC so cannot upload atm but should be included in UV)

Will also upload a small house later and a grey guard-house variant of the shed.

Edit: - adding the shack in this post

[Avestron]

Attaching a second shed - a grey version, a shack and a few UV map images.







Still looking for help - I notice that the grey one shows obvious signs of inversion relative to the UVmap.

[Corporal Punishment]

This is rather a cosmetic aspect of overhauling map features, but anyway: I played through the campaign again and once again thought the NASDA central was made real sloppy. It's just the big satellite dish, all other buildings are the collective structures set up to defend it. Given that it was the headquarters of a large government agency, shouldn't there be something more, umm... HQlike? Some large office building for the administrative side of it and a flat concrete structure containing the actual military command post in addition to the sattelite control installation?

[whippersnapper]

.

Map Features can be way, way, more than mere cosmetics. They can actually enrich the tac-strat possibilities and opportunities of game play. I especially single out the Urban Tertiles feature set. The obstacle to this happening heretofore is 2-fold: one, the features are butt ugly and thus uninspiring. And two, it's up to mappers in their design and execution to exploit features in these ways but most are clueless about these generative opportunities or maybe just plain uninspired by the crappy quality of the original Pumpkin map features GFX. It's one of those conundrums that fall in the category of "What came first - the chicken or the egg ?"

I'm trying to demonstrate some of this technique in the mapping aspect of "WS 2112" which uses the Rocky Mountain set but like I said these techniques would really shine and take-off with re-done Urban features. I collectively describe what these techniques allow for as "Player tac & strat map deconstruction as pivotal to game play and outcome."

Another aspect of clever designing with these feature placement techniques in map making is that the map could play very differently with each engagement, make game play less predictable by nullifying any one dimensional walk-thru - these would no longer be the simple procedure to lay-out step-wise as they are at present a 100% of the time after playing the map once or twice..

Regards, whip

EDIT: The Arizona Feature set is also full of interesting promise in this regard as well but also has the added boon that igneous rock features deform in arresting visual ways on top of the aforementioned destructible opportunities leading to some deep deconstructive tac-strat possibilities in MP game play (skirmish A.I. can NOT take advantage of any of this so would be at a slight disadvantage in SP Skirmish Mode).
.

[XANAX]

I would love to see land marks
like Seattle "Space Neddle"
New York "Statue of Liberty"

malls, schools, apartment building, dead bodies(skeletons)

==============================================================
but other than that
what about when like "a tank or building gets destroyed"
maybe we could make a wreck for it, that would be a feature
& can be recycled like "Total Annihilation"

where does the medal for the tanks come from?
because it makes more sense if it came from somewhere "else(shipment of scrap medal)" or was recycled from destroyed buildings or vehicles already on the map (Recycler unit) .. truck or new unit maybe

[Corporal Punishment]

I bet you that the proposal of recyclers and equivalent means of procuring raw material will get screamed down saying it's to much micromanagement and WZ is a fast paced action game and not a war simulation anytime soon. But I second the idea of collapsing buildings leaving heaps of debris, in fact proposed this at several occasions myself.

[-Kosh-]

I've been thinking (as I usually do) about which aspects of Warzone could use a lot more attention.

As such I would like to propose a rehaul of map feature buildings and this in three ways:

1.) Realistic representation of structure durability

Put simply I'd like to see high rises and such be able to take a lot more punishment than they currently do. A few machinegun bursts will only bring down the frailest of structures.

I think all the pre-made buildings are so weak since a few nukes went off, so it would not take that much to topple them.

[Mysteryem]

what about when like "a tank or building gets destroyed"
maybe we could make a wreck for it, that would be a feature

Actually there is a wrecked droid feature, but, to be honest, it looks nothing like a droid wreck,

[XANAX]

well wrecks are hard to pull off
we would have to make a wrecked vision of every component and building in Warzone
and have them come together just like the unit would with connectors and all that

it's like a curse and a advantage at the same time

[Avestron]

How about a custom turret indicating destruction and nothing else? Or even fire or such?