olvie
Potporucnik
Posts: 104
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Post by olvie on Oct 27, 2019 22:32:31 GMT 1
(More screenshots below) Hello BK community, I've finished making a detailed 32x32 map that I've been treating as a pet project over the last year. I've always enjoyed playing around in the editor and about a year ago, when I had a little Blitzkrieg revival phase, I decided to start this project as a way to wind down on a free evening. I've found the process while listening to music very relaxing and truth be told, I never thought I'd finish this. To my surprise, I did, so I thought I could share it in case someone wants to make a mission with it. I've tremendously enjoyed the content this community has created and thought this could maybe bring joy to others. The idea came after playing GZM's Sevastopol mission (which I've already praised elsewhere here). The map blew my mind with its design, use of space and level of detail. This, along with some of the beautiful maps featured on this site, inspired me to try something similar on a 32x32 canvas. The goal for this project was to make the map look realistic and believable, and use the plentiful space to create vast and diverse landscapes that have been somewhat lacking in vanilla BK. However, this was never intended to be a playable map, and I did not create it with any particular mission or layout in mind, nor did I pay any attention to gameplay and playabilty. While attention to detail was definitely a huge part of the process, and I've tried to give every inch of the map some attention, the result may not always be perfect. After finishing the last corner of the map, I actually went back and spent hours reworking the first areas I made, as they were not consistent with the style I developed as I progressed. This includes reworking every part of the map that was made with the help of zoning tools (because turns out zoning tools are ugly), replacing a metric ton of flora and terrain items that didn't fit the rest, redoing villages and moving a billion trees around in generated forests. There are probably still some parts that need a retouch, but at this point I just need to upload this, otherwise this will become a case of "it's never fully finished yet". All in all, I have found it very fun and therapeutic to do this, almost like painting maybe, but after a crazy amount amount of hours spent on this, I need to move on from this project. Key facts: - The map is set in Russia in Summer after a light rain. It features a large city, smaller towns, villages, grain fields, dense forests, a mine, a grain elevator complex, a military complex and a large factory. - There are no units, except for a very small number of neutral civilian vehicles. There are no civilian squads such as animals. - There are no trenches, bunkers or other items that would imply a frontline. A mission could be designed in any layout or direction. - There are no traces of war, except for the few landmark buildings that only exist as damaged sprites (eg. the grain elevator). In those cases, the surrounding area is made to look like it was targeted by aerial bombing. - All bridges and railroads are tested and work (although at certain parts trains "skip" a bit, I suspect it's because of track placement but I can't seem to be able to fix it completely) - The only acute problem is the randomly changing opacity of terrain objects, eg. shell craters are sometimes on top of, sometimes covered by the rubble I've placed next to them, which is really annoying. This seems to change with every time the map is loaded and I haven't found a way to fix which layer a certain terrain object is. If you tell me there is one, I will post a fixed version. Otherwise, if you see any random piles of stones on the map, there's probably a crater beneath it. - I made this in GZM 7.77, as that was the latest available version when I started. I really hope it is compatible with newer GZM versions..? I haven't downloaded the newest one yet, so I haven't been able to test it unfortunately. - Last but not least: performance. The map takes a very long time to load, both in the editor and in-game. Do allow at least 5 minutes for it to load, if you have a slower PC maybe even 10. The map has never crashed on me yet, so don't assume your game has crashed if you see no loading progress. I hope you will find that the wait is worth it though. I don't know what the item count is, but I was really worried about hitting an item limit, which fortunately hasn't happened. Performance in-game is fine, but I have a relatively fast PC, so I can't speak for everyone. Also it remains to be seen how performance changes if there are many units on the map. Please feel free to download the .XML and check it out yourself. You are free to change anything on the map, and upload any finished mission as your own, or to include it in your campaign/mod. I only ask you to let me know in this thread, so that I can play your mission. In the meantime, I've had the idea to make this a multiplayer map so I can play it with a friend, but I would need to learn how to script such a map. I might check back here and ask for help on this matter... Thanks for reading and enjoy. Download (.xml, 41.94mb): www.mediafire.com/file/3wbhsrq5filqlw3/zz_32x32_project_final.xml/file(if you prefer the .bzm file, let me know) Screenshots: imgur.com/a/Ks86iJU
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kaoz
General
inter faesces et urinam nascimur
Posts: 1,112
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Post by kaoz on Nov 1, 2019 22:07:17 GMT 1
In the meantime, I've had the idea to make this a multiplayer map so I can play it with a friend, but I would need to learn how to script such a map. I might check back here and ask for help on this matter... That shouldn't be so hard. The best way to understand the basics for this, is to look at the lua files from other multiplayer maps. Start with learning what's necessary. Don't write from scratch, but copy/paste parts you need and change scriptID's and area names to your own.
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Post by Guderian on Nov 2, 2019 5:33:42 GMT 1
Dear Kaoz, sorry to post something out of topic, i don't know why i cannot send PM, or open topic or download from your website, previously i could now i cant, maybe because my current location, anyway i would like to ask you if you could send me by pm or email the last updated Dover map, i was trying to download from your website but is giving me some kind of error. thanks
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Post by Guderian on Nov 2, 2019 6:57:08 GMT 1
By the way olvie, is a piece of art your map, very good job.
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Post by keepitsimple on Nov 2, 2019 13:13:20 GMT 1
Hi olvie, Real beautiful map. Although, its takes real long time to load. Will see if I can make a playable map from this. Thanks for sharing KeepItSimple
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Post by keepitsimple on Nov 4, 2019 0:28:18 GMT 1
Lot of tracks so started playing with trains. Screenshot give a good impression on the level of detail on the map.
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olvie
Potporucnik
Posts: 104
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Post by olvie on Nov 6, 2019 11:18:22 GMT 1
Thank you for the kind feedback everyone! I wasn't sure if this was of any interest at all to the community and I didn't expect this kind of response. I finally got round to downloading GZM9. The good news is that the map works in GZM9. The bad news is that some items and flora are swapped for some reason. Those of you who have looked at it have probably already spotted the Bonzai looking trees that are scattered all across the map... obviously that used to be something else and looks really odd. Some other flora is also swapped but it's less obvious. Bit annoying, since I paid close attention to avoid all flora that doesn't fit the look, but not a big deal. Also, the barbed wire wall is completely bugged and can't be fixed. Fortunately, I only used it for the prison in the left corner. That needs to be redone. Unfortunately, I am knee deep in writing my Master's thesis at the moment and won't have time to revisit the map in detail soon. I'm a little bit sad that I missed out on all those new items that were added in GZM9. Some of them, especially some of the buildings, really look great and would made a perfect addition. On the other hand, the editor is now sooo incredibly cluttered (and so much of it is ugly or useless stuff) and it takes even longer to find what you're looking for now. I really wish the Devs would have chosen quality over quantity in this regard... Seriously, you could throw out literally half of all items and still make amazing maps. keepitsimple do the trains work fine for you or do they also "skip" at times? edit: I enlarged the link to the screenshots in the original post, since many people seem to have missed it (more people downloaded the map than viewed the screenshots - seems odd)
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Post by keepitsimple on Nov 7, 2019 20:54:36 GMT 1
Hi olvie , I had to fixed the tracks a little to let trains move across the hole map. Although a single train might move across a track, a train with wagons might not. Also going one way doesn't imply that can go back. This is now fixed and trains can move across all tracks back and forth (including bridges). I also spotted the Bonzai, I was hoping you have a suggestion for a good substitute. I hadn't spotted the prison yet. Will see if I can fixed myself. Having the problem with the trains fixed, I now move on to making a script and deployment troops on the map. Working title: Russia 1941 Player side: German AI : USSR
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Post by keepitsimple on Nov 16, 2019 13:35:57 GMT 1
Update: Still busy with trains. I had some trouble with moving the Russian Armor train. As player I could move it around without problems but by script it almost didn't go. Yesterday, I finally found the problem. I only give the train the command to move (has it's one number). This normal works fine. But now it was pulling a wagon with railway-gun and one with a couple of aa-guns. What I had to do is give all units the command to move or give all the same number. Script : 30% done Test : 10% done. Without Close Air Support you can't win. This is an older screenshot. The problem with the Bonzai and prison have now been fixed. German infantry has arrived
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Post by feldgrau on Nov 16, 2019 14:50:45 GMT 1
...This normal works fine. But now it was pulling a wagon with railway-gun and one with a couple of aa-guns. What I had to do is give all units the command to move or give all the same number. ... Hi Keepitsimple If the train carries AA-guns the train stops when enemy aircraft are on the map. You can not do anything about that.
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Post by keepitsimple on Nov 17, 2019 16:21:42 GMT 1
Hi feldgrau , You are right, the AA-guns most be the problem. But I disagree that you can't do anything about it. If it isn't firing but only "ready" then you can give the command move cmd(0, and it stop being ready and it moves. This why I had to give not just the train but also AA-gun the command to move. So if train is 180 and aa-gun wagon is 185 you have to this. Cmd(0,180,GetScriptAreaParams("T1")); Cmd(0,185,GetScriptAreaParams("T1")); Alternatively, you can give both train and aa-gun the same number 180 and then first line is enough. This might not work if AA-gun is firing. It will still move if you did the following: Cmd(9,185); QCmd(0,185,GetScriptAreaParams("T1"));
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Post by Kevin on Nov 17, 2019 20:37:23 GMT 1
That's what we call an awesome scenario-making job. Being able to keep that level of detail in a 32x32 scenario is just impressive. Congratulations and welcome!
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Post by keepitsimple on Nov 18, 2019 19:23:22 GMT 1
There she go's . Moved by script.
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Post by keepitsimple on Nov 30, 2019 1:31:05 GMT 1
Map : 99% done Script : 90% done Test : 30% done. Clear a village.
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olvie
Potporucnik
Posts: 104
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Post by olvie on Dec 5, 2019 18:03:32 GMT 1
keepitsimple Great to see your screenshots and sorry for the late reply! Been completely absorbed by my Master's thesis (but the end is slowly coming in sight, thank god). I wanted to offer you that I can do a visual overhaul of the map once you are finished with it, i.e. replacing all objects (mostly fauna, and it's not just the Bonsai unfortunately) that were wrongly replaced in the version upgrade. If you don't feel like that's necessary, or have already done it yourself, that's also fine. In that case I might make a overhauled no units version anyway. When I uploaded it, I didn't even consider the possibility that objects could be replaced in the new version. I thought it would be a case of either it's fully compatible or it doesn't work at all. Considering I spent so much time creating a "palette" for the visuals for the map, and the version upgrade screwed over some of the conscious choices I made, I don't mind visiting the map again and fixing it. One aspect is that I spent countless of hours trying to get it right, and a couple more to give it the final polish don't matter anymore. Furthermore, I promised a finished map, and it turns out it's not quite finished. Somewhat related but not quite: I gotta get this rant off my chest now that I've had a little bit more time to play around with the editor in GZM9. I really respect the work that went into GZM, but I really feel like the mod has had no quality control whatsoever. It seems like the devs threw EVERYTHING they could find in there, without any regard if it looks good or if it serves any purpose. GZM7 was already quite cluttered with objects of limited use, but GZM9 takes it to another level. There are some really great additions, but also so much crap that nobody needs, doesn't fit the visual style of BK at all, or that is just plain ugly. The best example are the buildings that are in the wrong 3D perspective and look horribly distorted (looking at you Japanese landing craft). Why is that even in the game!? Under no circumstance does that not look terrible!! Why is there 8 different sets of ravines, that are all incompatible with each other? I would have loved some more coast/ravines options that complement the existing ones, instead the new sets look completely different to the old ones, and all we get is more scrolling through the list until we find what we look for. As I said in my previous post, you could throw out half of all items and lose nothing. Rant over. On the positive side, there are some really amazing new maps. Does anyone know who did the Mareth Line map? That person did a couple more that blew my mind. Works of art!
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