This week has been a tad quieter than I'd anticipated. I got a lot of things done over the weekend, but once the week began my output dropped to nearly nothing. Fortunately, what was done is reasonably substantial.
I've been working on terrain, and in addition to cleaning up parts of the snow theatre further I've also been hard at work on the interior terrain. Some of it was shown last week, and I'm already making progress past what I've already shown off.
I've begun converting a set of sloping cliffs from their rendered form into terrain tiles. These additional cliffs allow for the interior theatre to have more three dimensionality than it could otherwise have. I've also started on creating ramp tiles for the default interior tile, as you can see from the mockup they could still do with some touching up by way of lighting.
The secondary interior cliff set which I previewed in last week's update have also been made ready for conversion into game tiles. They've had to be bent around and photoshopped a little bit to get them to match the TS tile size, but so far I am very happy with the results. All the forward facing tiles have now been put together, and backward facing ones will follow when I get time.
All this together brings the interior theatre to a similar state as our other two theatres: Nearly, but not entirely complete.
I finished off the map I've been putting the majority of my mapping time into. DM: The Provinces (4) is a reasonably large map which centers around a rundown industrial district. In the past, this area was environmentally stable and even nominally green. Now, Tiberium has well and truly taken hold, and the basin has become a toxic slum.
The last time I showed off this map, a few weeks ago, I'd mostly finished the slum but was having trouble adding detail to the areas around player starts.
(It looked sort of like this)
I find it tricky adding detail around starting locations because I don't want to clutter the area and prevent expansion, but I also don't want it to be too boring. I'm OK with the current state of things.
Provinces still needs some lighting tweaks and a bit of added flare by way of traffic and civilian liveliness, but it's pretty well wrapped up. I'm turning my sites towards a more naval themed map, since most of the current set of maps do not particularly allow for the use of this integral aspect of the mod.
Speaking of the current map set, Morpher has produced a set of more detailed map previews for use in the game's menus. The maps have a unified set of icons to denote starting points and what variety of capturable assets exist on the map.
The top row are the player location markers. The second row are the current set of capturable structure markers, with two sizes for each. We have GDI, Nod, Cabal, Civil GDI (Peacekeepers), and The Forgotten.
Below are all the maps which have thus far been given this treatment.
A Tale of Two Cities (2)
A civil GDI radar array overlooks each of the bases, sitting just outside the city.
The Last Forest (2)
There are civil GDI construction nodes at either end of the land bridge, an armoury nestled in the southern forest, and a radar array in the township to the southwest.
Typhoon Warning (3)
Nearby to the first starting location are a pair of civil helipads. To the west of the second is a construction node. To the east of the third is another construction node, and to its west is a radar array.
Core Overload (4)
Between the players are construction nodes, left over from GDI's attempts to reclaim the area. In the centre is a well defended Cabal base.
Covalence (4)
A civil armoury, array, and hospital occupy the paved area roughly central to the map.
Stalter Headlands (4)
No capturable structures. But hey, not every map needs them, right?
Transmexican Superhighway (4)
Another map with no capturable buildings, from before the capturable building even had proper artwork.
Next week I hope to have the interior theatre more fleshed out and running, further snow theatre progress worth showing, and some more mapping. Morpher and I have also been discussing some further tech units suited to naval maps. Especially early game, where amphibious mobility is an issue for Nod.
But for now, this is what we've been up to this week!
That's a really good idea! =D
Will Hills of Silence get the same treatment as the last two of the old maps you've posted?
From what I remember it had two cities, with a hospital and an armory. It was also my favorite of the older TO maps.
I've always liked the map design in TO, you and Morpher seem to make maps that have a natural asymmetry, while seeming to preserve a balance between the spawn points, which feels very much like old TS maps.
At the moment I believe the map isn't included in the current build. You'd have to ask Morpher why, but there's probably a good reason. But I did like the aesthetic, so we should definitely have another go at it.
Damn, that was my favorite of the older maps. It was 3 player, asymmetrical, had ruined cities, red/orange tiberium, and a neat deserted highway.
I think it deserves another shot like the last forest, maybe adding a few Nod/Forgotten capturable structures to make it a little different from the current set, but entirely up to Morpher if he ever chooses to remake it.
I'd want to do a mutation set for the red/orange tib first. I've kinda been planning it for ages, but I might do it soon.
Well that's good news, I do think the lifeforms for this mod have some cohesiveness to them when it comes to their design, almost like a believable ecosystem.
Those are some freaking top-notch maps, and I love the markers for the capture-able stuff, nice idea.
Those cliffs are gorgeous.
This is amazing! I can not wait to play your mod!
hhh
hey i remember that you had HD version of the older map pictures so you could see every detail of the map will something like that come for the newer maps too :)? i would love to take a look at them.
to the spawn area details i agree that it is difficult to add them without blocking the base so i suggest that you could work with the ground texture mabye some old rails or craters something that way
i really like that underground area textures! , how about add some were the tunnel collapsed and dirt and rocks are cover some of the ways
greetings from germany your arcofshadow
Terrain and props are looking Ace, those elements just add so much atmosphere into a game.
I'll be remaking Hills of Silence thanks to a fair few new terrain props and goodies I've got at my disposal!
Excellent to hear.