Posted: Sat May 11, 2013 12:22 pm Post subject:
Africatorial (2-8)
Name: Africatorial
Player: 8
Naval: yes
Size: 424x70 (playable area) Map size is 430x80 which is almost biggest possible the TS engine can handle. X+Y=512 is biggest
A few minor changes are still possible, like different lighting.
sorry for breaking the topic/post width, but this is already rescaled down to a quite small size. (Megamap is 20352 x 1740 pixel) _________________ SHP Artist of Twisted Insurrection: Nod buildings
Well, you sure like breaking the boundaries. Literally.
This maps seems tactical, nontheless. I only fear it may pose pathfinding problems for the AI. Also, are MultiMissile-type superweapons able to fly all the way from one edge to another? _________________
Well, you sure like breaking the boundaries. Literally.
Definitely. I don't find any point in making the umpteenth reincarnation of the same thing. Be it buildings, maps, units or mods in general.
Nuke works fine: tested. It just takes a while to get from far west to far east.
AI pathfinding seems to work quite well too. After all there is basically only one way and that is from east to west and vice versa. _________________ SHP Artist of Twisted Insurrection: Nod buildings
But although it's quite interesting, I'm not sure if it's also practical...
In FFA matches the far west and far east players will have an obvious advantage; they can only get attacked from one direction and one player (being the one directly next to them), unless another player intentionally ignores a player next to him in order to attack one of the players at the very edge of the map and this will normally only give them a disadvantage.
And in 4 vs 4 matches the center players will inevitably die first, considering any attack from the enemy players has to go past them and because of the map's size the allied players are too far away to be able to send help whenever one of the center players get attacked.
Maybe it would be better to make up some sort of game mode for this map or even turn this into a singleplayer mission... _________________ QUICK_EDIT
Used right, the train could make it a bit dangerous for the far west/east players in the beginning, as the train moves in a ∞ course, so the middle player can send a group of infantry right back to the outer players.
But yes, the outer players are quite save.
In a 4v4 it's the job of the allies to send all support they can afford to the center player and help him defend the middle line. The center players can then concentrate on base defense. The several small passages like bridges should be also easy to defend.
Singleplayer mission sounds interesting: though considering the size it would be almost a campaign. The active playing field could also move along with the player, so he can keep units from the last mission for the next one and not the whole map is visible right from the start.
Crazy idea: how about connecting the far left side of the map via tunnel with the far right side of the map?
This would make it basically a ring and then every player can be attacked from 2 sides. _________________ SHP Artist of Twisted Insurrection: Nod buildings
Creating such a tunnel would actually not be a bad idea at all... although there currently aren't really any graphics available to make it look right and having your units slowly move all the way over the full width of the map would also get annoying, since you'll likely end up having forgotten about the units traveling through "tunnel space" by the time they get to their destination
It might work out if the tunnels are coded like I did the teleporters on comp stomp maps however, although those can't be entered by infantry.
To make up for the missing graphics it would probably be easiest if you'd add bridges at the edges of the map so that the teleported units can come from under the bridges. _________________ QUICK_EDIT
I did already a test with a simple "teleporting" tunnel as the 99 "steps" for each tunnel aren't nearly enough to reach all over the map.
So far it works quite well.
I think a special new tile would be good which looks like clear ground and has a simple anim of a glowing green arrow floating above it. (using tile anim technique)
the same arrow anim can then be used on a special water tile too, which would be necessary to connect the water route for ships.
\EDIT
ok, the map is now changed to have a tunnel connection from the top west corner to the top east corner of the map.
And it works good
A whole army was considering the tunnel being a faster route than across the map.
The only problem are infantry. I don't know why, but they seem to stop when the tunnel steps end. They don't teleport to the real exit.
I think the only way to fix that is making the tunnel unreachable for infantry. Though there is currently no tmp, terraintype, overlay or building that does that. (except placing cruentus tiberium, which can be removed) _________________ SHP Artist of Twisted Insurrection: Nod buildings
Megamap preview updated
It now shows the tunnel passages in the top left and right corners of the map, making it the (afaik) first ring map ever.
In the southern corners are tunnel passages for ships as well, but they aren't visible. The ships will just disappear there and "teleport" to the other side of the map.
I can see a mouse cursor on the far right... sloppy
How about just adding bridges in the bottom corners of the map as well? That way it'll be extra obvious that there's a tunnel there and the bridges don't need to connect to anything (since they'd come from off the map on the side and exit the map at the bottom again). _________________ QUICK_EDIT
Oh, should have moved it over the sidemenu.
Ok set my monitor to 21000x2000 and did another screenshot.
I tested it and it look very strange to have a bridge in the middle of nowhere in the water (even if it's only partially visible due to the corner).
Right now it's like the ships move away into the open sea when they hit the corner.
But if many dislike it, then adding a dummy bridge would be no problem at all. _________________ SHP Artist of Twisted Insurrection: Nod buildings
the size of the map is impressive. Its nice to see a polished TD art style...the terrain detailing, trees, etc...Just need some civvies and some roaming animals, oh and maybe a waldo colored infantry, thrown in for good measure. _________________ Delirium.. QUICK_EDIT
I put some civilians and visceroids yesterday.
Some more detailing like driving cars, ships etc will follow later.
Though most of the small towns are already abandoned (especially those overrun with tiberium), thus no civvies and just a few visceroids there. _________________ SHP Artist of Twisted Insurrection: Nod buildings
quite sure he is, as i've seen him once in a while in the staff forum (like in the desert trees topic)
So he can play it before the public release.
Though i first have to completely finish it and send it Bittah.
Maybe someone has some ideas for small eastereggs and stuff that i could implement to make it more interesting.
I had the idea of a very rare but big Neutral Naval Assault on all start locations. Due to the open sea, several fleets could arrive from south, do an attack run and then move after a while away again. _________________ SHP Artist of Twisted Insurrection: Nod buildings
I can't really imagine that anyone would enjoy being in an intense battle against one or multiple other players only to suddenly lose because neutral units started attacking you as well at the wrong time... _________________ QUICK_EDIT
Well, there are ways to prevent players being surprised: e.g. a few EVA messages "incoming fleet detected: ETA 5 min" "enemy fleet approaching coast" _________________ SHP Artist of Twisted Insurrection: Nod buildings
Couldn't you just reduce the buildspace or resources or increase the distance to tech structures or whatever for the outside players? That'd be a better way to balance it imo, without relying on gimmicks.
Gimmicks annoy me because RTS's are about standard rules being used by the players in interesting ways, and adding exceptions to them for specific maps goes against that. If unexpected things occur on a map I want it to be because my opponent is clever, not because the map maker didn't know when to stop adding things. QUICK_EDIT
ah, true but still, i'd imagine just wanderers, and a modified dog.shp to be a hyena, or tinted green for a proto-fiend. _________________ Delirium.. QUICK_EDIT
@Orac: the gimmick wasn't meant for balancing. It was supposed to hit every single player on the map in the same way.
It is just meant to make the map more interesting and giving it more "life".
I just don't want to add something like an ionstorm again, as this can be quite annoying.
Maybe i just add some ordinary meteor showers, which occur in rare cases.
@Ickus: I like the dog idea. Maybe a pack of wild dogs could appear in rare cases.
For the proto-fiend, Bittah first has to add such a unit. _________________ SHP Artist of Twisted Insurrection: Nod buildings
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