4c-The Lost River - WIP by Olrox

[Olrox]

Hey everyone!
I'm making a map, inspired by Flail13's excellent map editor. It is

~~~The Lost river~~~
(oohhhhh :suprised: )


I wanted to make a really dramatic terrain, but I couldn't due to height limitations. The idea is a River lost in icy plains, a region with significant oil resources, which caused war between the expeditionary teams sent to conquer the region. The river was, in reality, dry for a long time, and its course allowed grass to grow in the middle of the snowy cliffs.

---End of "fertile imagination" xD ---

The map is for four players, it is 256x256, and the purpose is to have a lot of space, indeed. There are 4 oil resources in each player's starting position, and most of the others are concentrated in additional places for secondary bases. Those will have 3 oil resources each.

The objective is to cause more fighting for strategical positions, instead of the usual hard strikes to the main bases only. As there are going to be more "secondary bases", and those are going to have a great importance power-wise, I think that most players will prefer to conquer as many of those strategical positions before striking the enemies in their HQ.

With narrow paths crossing the river's canyon, another struggle would be for controlling those passages, and a good reason to constantly scout those areas. Area of effect weapons will be very good because the units are going to be concentrated in the bottleneck anyway.

The "river" level isn't going to be accessible for ground units. I'm currently painting the textures, the heights and cliffs are already done, and the "river" area is almost completely textures. Will add plenty of trees later.

I'm thinking about making some ghost villages around the map as well.

Hope you guys like it when it's finished! Here's a screenshot of it in the current state:

The attachment The Lost River - A new concept 1.PNG is no longer available

Everyone is free to add opinions, but please don't go too far from what I've already planned! Improvement is always good.

[Berg]

Looks like it could use bridges..
Looking through the forum posts over time there are many ideas that I have not seen in action and one of them was bridges, going from the screenshot in this thread bridges would realy suit this map.
I don't know if they were ever finished but one can only live in hope.

[KukY]

Is river level going to be only grass or grass and water? I think it should have some water.
Are there going to be Scavangers? I think they should be on those secondary bases.
I think you should place some oil in the river to encourage use of Cyborgs (because you would need to use Transports).

More later!

[Olrox]

Looks like it could use bridges..
Looking through the forum posts over time there are many ideas that I have not seen in action and one of them was bridges, going from the screenshot in this thread bridges would realy suit this map.
I don't know if they were ever finished but one can only live in hope.

I agree, completely! But I don't think they were finished or even if will ever be, unfortunately
If they are really implemented, I'll be glad to make the necessary changes!

Is river level going to be only grass or grass and water? I think it should have some water.
Are there going to be Scavangers? I think they should be on those secondary bases.
I think you should place some oil in the river to encourage use of Cyborgs (because you would need to use Transports).

More later!

I thought making it with water as well, but I dunno if the height difference I can get from the first lines of cliffs and the lowest level (axis of the river) is enough, even though I've made the height map with this in mind:


There are going to be some oil resources in the river, yes, but only a few (probably only 4 in the whole river so that the players don't start to make too many defenses there, the idea is to concentrate value on the secondary bases) Hmm, I dunno how to set up the scavengers (for them to be enabled/disabled in the game settings). Might need the help of anyone who knows, if I can't figure out.

Thanks for the comments, Berg and KukY! They are going to affect the map, surely.
I'll post updated screenshots as I go on with the development.
Regards, Olrox

[KukY]

I thought making it with water as well, but I dunno if the height difference I can get from the first lines of cliffs and the lowest level (axis of the river) is enough, even though I've made the height map with this in mind:

That doesn't have to be a river; that can only be remains of a river, few small pools of water somewhere.

There are going to be some oil resources in the river, yes, but only a few (probably only 4 in the whole river so that the players don't start to make too many defenses there, the idea is to concentrate value on the secondary bases).

It is a big area so they will be very spreaded... I think 8 will be good enough.

Hmm, I dunno how to set up the scavengers (for them to be enabled/disabled in the game settings). Might need the help of anyone who knows, if I can't figure out.

I think you only need to place structures for player 7.

And what kinds of features will you place?

[Olrox]

That doesn't have to be a river; that can only be remains of a river, few small pools of water somewhere.

It is a big area so they will be very spreaded... I think 8 will be good enough.

I think you only need to place structures for player 7.

And what kinds of features will you place?

Hmm, yeah, I can handle making some lakes in the largest areas - it will look good, indeed.

I'll see for the oil resources. Yeah, maybe 4 is a bit too drastic. You know, I hate oil in every corner, maybe I'm paranoid xD I haven't started placing the features or structures yet, so I don't have a precise notion of the scale of the map yet.

If it's as simple as that, I thought it only had something to do with a determined owner. Can someone confirm that it's player 7?

About the features, Mostly trees in the whole map, shacks and other small buildings in the small ghost towns, I don't know for sure. Still need to take a good look at those

[KukY]

About the features, Mostly trees in the whole map, shacks and other small buildings in the small ghost towns, I don't know for sure. Still need to take a good look at those

I just got another idea.
Place lots of boulders in the river.

[Mysteryem]

About the features, Mostly trees in the whole map, shacks and other small buildings in the small ghost towns, I don't know for sure. Still need to take a good look at those

I just got another idea.
Place lots of boulders in the river.

It currently won't work properly with the tileset he's used. Boulders are arizona only. Hopefully I'll get round to committing some changes to trunk, which will hopefull be backported to 2.x, to make them work properly with every tileset.

[Olrox]

Maybe I can try to contribute with new features. From what I've understood, I need to contribute directly with something for the main versions for the staff to evaluate the possiblity of promoting me to Artist. But AR and Colditz' models are going to take some time, because I don't want to have incomplete or half-done stuff included to the native game...
I've seen quite some people cussing at the wrecked buildings for urban tilesets. But hey, are you still working with that friend of yours, into those buildings I mean?

I really wanted to coordinate those new artists I'm seeing around here... Their work would be of much greater benefit to the project with some active guidance, IMHO.

[Zarel]

But AR and Colditz' models are going to take some time, because I don't want to have incomplete or half-done stuff included to the native game...

AR's Project and New Paradigm models are done, afaik. Why not just submit those?

[Olrox]

AR's Project and New Paradigm models are done, afaik. Why not just submit those?

They are not yet made with planned support for normal/bump map. Per said that this feature wasn't added because you didn't have content that supported it, and we are going to make content that supports it - that's one of the motives why it's going to take more time.

The other motive is that I don't think that leaving the Collective, Nexus and Dragon bodies would be a good company to a new generation of models. They won't fit the same style, and I'm sure it'll cause people to complain about them looking too ugly or out of place...

However, I was talking to Mangust, if you can allow use of bump maps soon (not too long after we end the production of the models), we are going to make the models with adequate textures. If not, we'll continue producing them with fake relief and texture tricks until you do.
But you see, there's the dilema: If we produce all the bodies and much more models which are not prepared for bump map, we'll have to remake all of them when you allow use of such effects. But, if we produce the models with support right now, and you take half an year to allow use of bump map, the models won't be used, will get old, and we'll probably have to remake them...

The best solution would be to have an agreement: We promise to make models that support those features, but you must ensure us that it will not take half an year to have the support.
Or decide to never implement bump map, and we can produce our models as we were with no weight in conscience.

Actually coordinating the new artists so that they aim for the same kind of art (supporting/not supporting determined features, and such crucial decisions) would be much easier. But I don't think I'll feel right to do that if I don't have the support of the staff. It is your forums, your project, and I have cared too much about it already, that I sometimes feel like I'm "hijacking" a part of the "vocal power" of the real developers.

I must ask that further talk is done via PM, and I'm sure you can understand why.

[Olrox]

Here's an updated screenshot, in which I've painted the river's remaining water, and some markers: the big grey ones are the starting position for players, the smaller brown ones are the secondary bases' positions. Please feel free to post a re-positioning suggestion, if you can think of a better one. For reference, the secondary bases' markers diameter is around 10 tiles, and the starting position ones have about 20 tile diameters.

I'll see about the ghost towns later this week, I'm accepting suggestions as well.

Well, I'm accepting suggestions about anything! I want to make the best map I can.

The Lost River v0.26

[Olrox]

Insomnia only causes porblems in the following day
But, here is an updated version with more textures, and ramps (those are all visible as all of them already have transition texture (Gravel Snow).

Dirt and grass are going to be added to the grey parts, and there'll be roads. The player starting positions are still marked with grass, but I don't think there'll be grass there. Any opinion on this?

The Lost River v0.38

[KukY]

So, in red areas you plan to place dirt and grass?
I think it won't look good.
Blue circles will be those secondary bases?

[Olrox]

So, in red areas you plan to place dirt and grass?
I think it won't look good.
Blue circles will be those secondary bases?

I'll try to put Dirt and grass on this area, but not in everything, because I want to put roads also: Those are ideally placed in dirt tiles, and The whole map has smooth terrain transitions right now.
Those circles will also be secondary bases, but are the most central ones. There are going to be 8 secondary bases, all of them are marked in this screenshot.