Hi everybody...

(psychosanity) #1

Well, I hope this isn’t inappropriate…but I just thought I’d introduce myself as you will probably be hearing a lot from me in the near future. :drink:

I’m just about wrapping up the “learning of the tools” ritual, and have an in-depth familiarity with the necessary ones. (This is a lie I tell myself to keep me motivated, but I have a pretty good familiarity with them, provided I have my notebook(s) at hand).

Therefore, I’m getting ready to actually start my first map (which, from what I understand, will most likely suck rather badly) and I will undoubtedly be full of silly questions. (Don’t worry too much, I’m a great searcher)

So Hi! Thanks in advance :smiley:

Oh, if anyones curious where I am in the process…I can build some cool stuff, havent tackled anything really complex yet…most scripting is pretty straightforward to me, i can move stuff and make objectives…I can do a full-on resurrectable tank that blows stuff up (with my notebooks and some Tylenol)…I understand (mostly?) structural/detail brushes (WHY didnt they make DETAIL the default?!)…I’ve got an idea I think is a good one…and I have no idea where to actually start planning and scaling things gameplay-wise. I’ll figure something out, though. :banana:

I’ve had at least one major headache every day since starting to learn, I’m sure I’m in for TWO a day now…

(carnage) #2

hi welcome to the forum

by the sounds of it ur way ahead of where most of us were when we started mapping. Still ur first map propably will suck but everyones does

make DETAIL the default

how long have u been learining? this is pretty advanced stuff

scaling things gameplay-wise

i gess ull just get to it after a few testmaps and some experimaneting, its pretty often that 1st maps do look very disproportaionate with large doors and small windows stuff like that but ull get it in the end

btw good luck and hope i can answer a few of ur questions

(psychosanity) #3

Thanks for the welcome, carnage!

I’ve been learning about 3 months (maybe 4), but I’m a pretty smart guy, they say. :smiley:
I actually have this outrageously huge IQ, so I learn stuff like this fast…doesnt help much in real-life though, I do plenty of really dumb s**t on a regular basis.

As far as the scaling, I mean more like “How long should this attack-route be?”, and “How far up should this forward spawn go” and “Can the Allies get to Hitler’s wallet too fast?”…stuff like that, feels as though I should have a good idea of where everything should go before I start the heavy brushwork.

Starting the structures before my terrain is DONE also feels risky, because I am still in the Easy-Gen phase. I have NO idea how to manipulate terrain in the editor yet, so it seems I should have my terrain fully complete before I really dig into any permanent structures and such.

Any thoughts?

P.S. Hitler’s wallet will NOT be in my map, it was just an example. :smiley:

(Mark.C) #4

Hitler’s wallet…Hmmmmmm, lol… original idea though.

Welcome to the community.

(Bondo) #5

Hey, thats not fair! My first map was really good. Everywhere I go, people love to play it as a pick me up map.

And hello psychosanity! It seems you are doing some homework like I do (28.8k real quality high-speed connection :P, I usually save any web pages I search upon)

I have a really cool map idea that you/anyone can have. I have been doing research upon Germany’s atom bomb. Well, to make a long story short… you need either plutonium or D20, (heavy/dense H20 - water). So Nazi’s invaded Norway to steal there D20 and start making there bomb. Here are some links to some really nice info on the basis to the area layout/purpose why the nazi’s were there.

http://www.aip.org/pt/vol-53/iss-7/p34.html


http://www.simviation.com/fsdcbainhe177.htm
http://ehistory.osu.edu/wwii/ArticleView.cfm?AID=14
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/history/telemark.shtml

(Ifurita) #6

FWIW, I like to mock up a map concept in photoshop/powerpoint, save it as a grapihc, texture the bottom of my map box with the graphic, drop texture blocks of caulk on top of the drawing as placeholders, then run around a bit. Then I add a heightmap, cut the terrain, raise my building placeholders up, run around again. That should give you a good sense for scale.

As for distances, I like keeping objectives within 1-1.5 spawn intervals away. That way, people aren’t running forever and then getting creamed by spam just before they get into the action. As a general rule, defender distance + spawn interval > attacker distance for a more offense biased map

(psychosanity) #7

Good thoughts, ty. That graphic-texture-boxfloor-thing is quite an interesting idea…I believe I may fool with that a bit. :drink:

P.S. FWIW?! That’s a new one on me. I though I knew them all, ffs.

EDIT - Oh, I just got it…lol…for what THAT’s worth. :smiley:

(carnage) #8

I actually have this outrageously huge IQ, so I learn stuff like this fast…doesnt help much in real-life though

are u dislexic too?

well i can only recormend that u ditch easygen however that idea isnt very popular wth many reound here, ime working on a very terrian based map without using easygen and the results are far better then i ever manged to get with easygen

anyway god luck

(d3coy) #9

I do use easygen, but I do as iffy said to get the general layout. Then move buildings as needed and raise and lowere them according to how I want the terrain to be.

Once you have that you can import the .map file into easygen and manipulate your terrain based on where you KNOW your buildings will be. Works for me.

(psychosanity) #10

Oh yeah, thanks! I forgot you could bring those colorful brushes into EasyGen…I found it once looking at goldrush, then I blew it off. :rolleyes: That will probably help.

are u dyslexic too?

Hmm…not as know as I far.