Standard maps

[ghosta]

I dont know how you think about this topic, but I am the opinion that there should be several "standard maps" covering the most scenarios like crashed/landed UFOs and maybe also terror-sites.

All of these maps should be created via RMA and as complex as possible, covering most UFO types.

Let me divide these maps:

nature:

• arctic/frozen
  I dont know if in 2084 they are all melted, but it would be nice to have something to cover the real cold parts of earth. Just rough ice covering the whole map... Of course a bit textured and formed. No plane whiteness
• cold
  Luckily we alredy have this one. Maybe we can extend it a bit, but the general shape is already here
• forest
  Not much to say. Many trees, some aliens... We have this one.
• grassy + hill
  I dont know if we need this one, but think about the landscape in braveheart Maybe extend the forest theme a bit. Maybe not
• mountain
  Not absolutely necessary but this one would be a real challenge to map.
• steppe/veld
  Something like the Africa map, but a bit more RMA.
• desert
  Is waiting for blondandy to make a mass CSG-Merge tool
• jungle/tropic
  Theres one called like this in the maplist, but unfortunately I haven't played it yet. But it is good to have this one already

So much for the nature themes. But there is something else we need:
populated areas:

• farm
  Nothing to discuss. This is a good one, but a bit too frequent in my opinion
• village
  Already available. Already for two different cultures: western and oriental. Maybe we can make some more
• city
  There are some available that call themselves city_blabla, but this aren't really cities... Just buildings... But I am working on this one.

Anything to add/remove? What do you think about it? Maybe mark it as TODO for the 2.4 release it would be good to have a target... and maybe we get some people who are interested in mapmaking...

[BTAxis]

Sounds good. When can you have them done?

Also, have a look at the TODO on the wiki.

[ghosta]

Lets say in 3 years?

[Kildor]

You forget about tropics, we have one RMA, but it doesn`t contain any UFO. I`m going to fix it at weekend, but as usuall I can`t promise anything.

> arctic/frozen
There is an RMA. But it is very unfinished.

We need to extend oriental theme a bit, to include some other ufos, this is in my plans too.

[BTAxis]

I still need to finish/redo that desert tileset. I just can't seem to get around to it...

[ghosta]

BTAxis if you want to finish your tileset made via gensurf you need to make some sort of CSG Mass Merge tool... Otherwise you get some nasty effects after compiling.

On the other side the unfinished desert map is some sort of, uhm, non RMA. The tiles are too big. And there is an easier way to create a random desert surface. I can show them to you this evening or tomorrow. But as I already said they cannot be implemented if the triangles arent merged.

[BTAxis]

What do you mean, the tiles are too big. They're supposed to be big. It's supposed to be a big map.

[ghosta]

big means too big for RMA.
I wouldn't call the maps with switching spawnpoints RMA. Those maps can be used for multiplayer, where you need to balance something but for singleplayer I would only add assemblies.

[BTAxis]

I have no idea what you're talking about.

[ghosta]

My plan of assembling the desert maps is making just 512x512 sized tiles created via gensurf.
To roughen them  a bit you can use the fractals. But to make a big hilly landscape you can change the height of the corners to values like 0, 64, 128,...

Making different tiles that way you can connect them correctly via the .ump file and you get a very easy and fast way of creating landscapes. (Of course you should add some models or details, but this is just about creating the landscape)

On the first picture you can see one of those single tiles. On the second one they are connected, how they get connected ingame.

[attachment deleted by admin]

[BTAxis]

Of course that'll work, but then there's little point making the tiles in the first place. All the deserts are going to look the same, i.e. a bumpy patch of sand with little in the way of landmarks. That's why I made the hills the way I did. They look nothing like any other tile, so the assemblies are going to actually LOOK different, instead of being quite different but looking samey.