New RMA: Harbour map

[mameister]

Hi people,

I discovered your game via my computer magazine in Germany (CT, if anyone has heard of). First of all I want to say that, although I never was involved in XCom, this is simply amazing and a very cool game. Congratulations to all contributors for this great piece of work&art. I am impressed by the consistency which speaks of great team lead and spirit. Cheers!

The map idea:
As I grasp the main theme, aliens strike where polulation is dense, or there is population at all. Ok, got that. Since there is a fantastic winter industrial theme and another industrial one (that I play often in my single player campaign), I thought that a harbour map could be needed.

The "story" idea spawnpoint-wise is:
- either a ufo has landed and the guys kill the workers as usual
- the aliens assault a captured ufo as it is shipped or about to be shipped
- the aliens start on a ship
- the PHALANX guys start on the ship (or dhingy type infiltration, assault)


Greetings to all and don't by shy to pull me apart

Martin


PS: thinks that are lacking that I now of already:
- height levels not implemented
- textures sometimes not very appropriate
- problems with containers
- not very impressive ship parts
- inconsistent height levels
- few/little indoor areas

[mameister]

- another pic

[mameister]

- some more RMA tiles

[Kildor]

Very big thanks for your work. Really, we always need more maps and mappers. Ask if you need any questions, and please, can you share your current work?

[Mattn]

welcome.

great. besides your already noted statements about what is still missing, i have nothing to add. add details, fix/improve textures, lighting and so on, and we are going to include it if you want this. i think the theme might be quite cool - you know that we already have a harbour map i suppose? also did you see the prefabs sections in uforadiant? there are ships and some other harbour related items. of course it would be cool if you would add new and unique brushworks to your maps, but feel free to use them as direct map drop ins, or as inspiration for new things.

as kildor said, please make sure to share your map files - we could also add them to our data_source repository so you can take this as a backup and other can give you hint about mapping techniques. feel free to join our irc channel if you have any questions.

[mameister]

you know that we already have a harbour map i suppose?

No, I didn't, bummer. Just checked it out: it is a static map right? Uff, it seems my work is not yet completely bogus I in my harbour map strive for some more realistic proportions, more interesting mission, generally more flexible map layout, bigger ships, fightable ships. Of course, I can't help my map also being somewhat to small scalewise (compared o the sheer vastness of real container freighter, especially in 2084)

can you share your current work?

Me being naive again: what is the best way of how to do so? Svn check-in? Attach it here?

[Kildor]

Attach archive with *.map, *.ump and maps.ufo files.

[mameister]

Attach archive with *.map, *.ump and maps.ufo files.

Ok. I will fix a lot though before. So it will take a while (at least this weekend) and then I will post something in a zip/rar that I am comfortable with. Thank you for the comments, I will work on improvements.

My TODO list for now:

Fixes:
- textures, dimensions, levels
- more interiors (but not all, not necessary in my view)
- more variety of crate/container area (similar to be arranged in tilesets, to be used with "1 1"
- work out ships hulls, especially prow

New tiles:
- some cranes overarching the ships and part of container harbour
- Street with truck trailers with containers on
- Boat launch ramp into container/crate area
- more dropships/ufos supported

And i have yet to understand, what the maps.ufo is for

cheers,
Martin

[H-Hour]

Wow, what a nice surprise! We really need new maps and it looks like you're well on your way. I'm perfectly happy to have two harbour maps. I like the vertical scale in your map and the construction trim around the edge. This kind of trim is really nice. And anyway, not every harbour should look the same so it will be good to have some variety for players.

Don't worry about the maps.ufo for now. It is a big text file where we have all the maps configured (ie - what gametypes are compatible, which areas of the map, what ufos are supported, etc.). More info here.

I'll just say again, feel free to join IRC and ask questions, or ask them here.

[mameister]

Hi, thanks for the warm welcome I hope that I can contribute.

Sorry for being such a pedant:
Did some research about containers (checked out the prefabs). I have no idea how "cartoony" the game is supposed to be designwise, but the containers in the prefabs is somewhat small. Considering that the players bbox is 32x32x64, with 64 equalling his/her height: since the "level" concept works in 64 increments, it could be safe to say this equals about 2-3m in realspace (again, how cartoony should it be).


Wiki says about ISO containers:
12,192 m / 2,438 m / 2,890 m (40 foot high cube)

My containers are:
256 x 128 x 128 which would equal 8m / 4m / 4m.

I am quite happy with them since the textures fit nicely (although with scale 0.5[edit] -> blurry but good=convincing). The prefab container is much smaller. Should I change them all?

cheers,
Martin

[H-Hour]

Don't change the prefabs, but feel free to scale as you see fit.

[mameister]

Ah, I think I figured out that I will make my containers:
96 x 192 x 96
(making them 3m x 6m x 3m)

[tilli]

just having a look at your pictures, very good start, can't wait to try playing on that map.

don't worry that there is already another harbour map, two are better then one, and they are different anyway.

- more variety of crate/container area (similar to be arranged in tilesets, to be used with "1 1"

Uh oh, RMA map tiles. That is a long and tricky road to go, as I discovered myself.
1x1 tiles are nice, but I can only ask you to go for bigger tiles (3x3, 4x4) too. Makes life much more easier (as I had to discover the hard way). Very important is to put some unique id marker on every map tile, it makes finding that tile and troubleshooting much easier.

If I can make a suggestion for the arrangement of the containers: put them right next to each other, nobody would waste space that way in a harbour. And by cleverly arranging them on the different tiles you can create quite a labyrinth that way.

another thought: add some sort of canteen or restroom for the workers

[mameister]

Uh oh, RMA map tiles. That is a long and tricky road to go, as I discovered myself.
1x1 tiles are nice, but I can only ask you to go for bigger tiles (3x3, 4x4) too. Makes life much more easier (as I had to discover the hard way). Very important is to put some unique id marker on every map tile, it makes finding that tile and troubleshooting much easier.

What you are seeing in the pictures are a lot of 1x1 tiles, all mole type tiles are 2x1, crane is 2x1, ship tiles are 2x1, the dropships/ufos of course bigger. But yes, my first RMA project (a Monorail scenesy) has spectacularly failed, I had IDs from a..u (not kidding).


The labyrinth is exactly what I was going for, but due to lighting, there needs to be some room between the containers. Nevertheless, I have decreased the container size (as I posted before) and that enables me to have more containers in one 1x1 (or n x m) tile thuis making it more "realistic"

cheers!

[edited because of bad spelling]

[mameister]

Short preview of reduced container size