We've had the core of this map finished for quite some time now, but then lack of interest due to errors and bugs caused a major slow down in production. We finally decided to pick the project back up and fixed everything within a few days. So now, without delay, Team Majestic Red presents you with dod_Rommel.

The first open terrain Africa map for Day of Defeat!

features:

4 corners style spawn system
custom win music
2 piat destroyable bunkers
target air strike feature...rain down death upon your enemies!
land mines that destroy the ground as well as your adversaries, or possibly yourself
custom overview file
360 degrees of strategic combat
the largest open combat zone seen ever seen in dod
fun with low numbers as well as high
500 point map capture bonus
w_polys not exeeding of 950 and rarely over 800

fps hit of only 5 to a 550 celeron 32 meg radeon 256 ram

this map would not have been possible without the use of xp-cagey's modified compile tools that allowed us to change the maximum amount of clipnodes in order to have an appropriate number of models and clip brushes. Even then, we hit the limit.

Thank you a5th clan and cooper for helping me test this and lending me the use of your server so many times.

andy over at inw, you've solved my unsolvable problems countless times.

DOWNLOAD (http://home.houston.rr.com/redfalcon/dod_rommel.exe)
bot waypoints made by smitty
dod_rommel waypoints (http://members.aol.com/jester1069/dod_rommel.wpt)

*note: some mirrors would be helpful, and it appears i can no longer remote link pictures from my personal web space.

-Thanks
Team Majestic Red

Sounds intriguing!

What are the r_speeds like in the open spaces?

Can you post more pics?

ugh, i really want my 20mbs of web space back. for now i'll just make 4 posts with attachments

sorry if you have lower than 1024x768 res.

757

950

771

It looks that you have pretty high epoly counts in those screens.
Any major fps drops?

Wow looks very interesting, GJ although I don't like 10K of epoly :/. Other than that this looks like it could be very fun!

It looks like you just took a terrain genrator then sparingly placed models and put some brushwork down. Not a whole lot in the way of looks or appeal. This high Poly counts is another downside. In all it looks ok.

You should make yr own lower-poly sandbags!

You should optimise and make your own forts. If you observed the fort .mdls, you would notice the netting has tons of unnecessary patches in a grid fashion. This is totally UNNECESSARY for a polygonal computer game!! That dense grid patch could easily be made into 3-4 strategocally assigned patches!! Smoothshading should do the job well enough and show no visible loss in quality!

Make the terrain smoother! Currently, it's so jagged! Deserts are smooth!

And the slopes could use different textures, sand with more outcrops.

And you need a proper sand texture!

Originally posted by redfalcon


this map would not have been possible without the use of xp-cagey's modified compile tools that allowed us to change the maximum amount of clipnodes in order to have an appropriate number of models and clip brushes. Even then, we hit the limit.



Could you gimme the links to these tools? Apparently, i used to work on a map that is totally open with smooth/rugged terrain ala bf1942, game-playing area occupying the whole Hammer grid!. The main feature is a large climbable hill in the middle, rising up to a plateau, whrere from above there you can you could basically shoot downwards from the hill plateau onto the poor Allies/Axis far down below. I envisioned it to be a viscious battle, especially with treebrusts. THe hill is extremely high attide (close to 400 meters) and is climable to the top. Unfortunatley, i had to scrap it (ie. remove the climb up mountain/hill feature), as there was a limit of clip nodes. Thus, the layout was no longer full open combat.

Hope for more MOHAA:Breakthrough style of maps soon!

Glidias :) http://collective.valve-erc.com/index.php?go=mhlt Comment n°16. Check http://xp-cagey.com/ aswell :D

Direct link to the thread he released the tools on

http://www.natural-selection.org/forums/index.php?act=ST&f=4&t=21248&

I'm confused! Are you sure you are refering to setting max clip nodes or max planes??? Those are 2 differnet things!

How to set max clip nodes?

u really dont want me to post what i really think ;) nice idea execution is not all that great

haha cool idea, bunnyhopping down the hills is fun

nice map .... smoothen the edges a little ..
otherelse very good :)

TBH it doesn't look too interesting, especially this spiked terrain.
Plain (;)) Kar98 vs Enfield war.
Too litle cover + terrain not too desert-like.

Glidias:
XP-Cagey has added -cliptype switch to his tools, you can download them from mentioned thread at naturalselections forums (starting from p3 version).

Originally posted by Craftos

Glidias:
XP-Cagey has added -cliptype switch to his tools, you can download them from mentioned thread at naturalselections forums (starting from p3 version).

It lowers clipnodes about 10% for me :)

Originally posted by Craftos
TBH it doesn't look too interesting, especially this spiked terrain.
Plain (;)) Kar98 vs Enfield war.
Too litle cover + terrain not too desert-like.

Glidias:
XP-Cagey has added -cliptype switch to his tools, you can download them from mentioned thread at naturalselections forums (starting from p3 version).

so by adding -cliptype in the relevent parameter in the batch compiler would lower clipnodes? shizzzzzzzzz gotta add that myself >_<

It may be me, but from the pics it looks a bit bland.

play it with at least 8 people, and you'll experience something like never before. i think we've all played on maps that weren't the greatest visually but were a lot of fun. it looks like too little cover but you can be sure, its not.


the compile tools of cagey's increase limits, reduced current counts and do other crazy stuff in a variety of different categories. just depends on which commands you type in.

the major downfall of the clipnodes though is sticky terrain as you'll sometimes experience in rommel.

if you want the terrain smoother you must reduce the size of the triangles causing dramatically higher r_speeds

@glidias - another example of someone who hasn't actually played the map. why do you say its not a proper sand texture when its made by kami, named sand, and shoots sand particles when hit?

seriously guys, actually play the map before criticizing it. and if nothing else, at least run around in it.

*note, no one's commented on the airstrike yet.

Originally posted by TheNomad
It may be me, but from the pics it looks a bit bland.

The pictures really do not do the map justice. I've tried for a long while to make them. The only way to experience it is to download and run it. The map is as big as the entire grid, and has too many cool new features to even list. As RedFalcon said, we ran into numerous difficulties due to passing limits, and the map in its final stages took all night to compile even on a brand new computer.

Even if you end up disliking the play style, anyone who calls themself a mapper owes themselves a look at this map. It defies so many long held conceptions about half-life that it is groundbreaking technically if nothing else. But don't trust me, play it for yourself.

Some quick waypoints. Big, open field map. Had a blast testing this one. I strongly recomend using as many bots as you can, formsquad on and a ratio of about 2:1 or 3:1 rifles to autos. LANed with 3 humans and 29 bots, pure carnage, tons o fun. Might update later with nav points and general cleanup. Lemme know what you think.

dod_rommel waypoints (http://members.aol.com/jester1069/dod_rommel.wpt)

I remember beta testing this early on. It was more fun than I would ever have imagined. A bkast Can't wait to try the new version.

Krusty

ok, im downloading it... what servers is it on?

I really should finish dod_cliffside, it's roughly similar to this in the terrain aspect, but it's snow based. I'll see if I can finish up the entities this week, and redfalcon, if you like we could release a dual pack with a clash of snow/desert maps. The map is probably still available on a few mirrors around, it was widely available when houstondod was around, but that vanished, so I think it's time to finish the objectives and release this beast.

http://members.shaw.ca/mikaelcatt/dod_cliffside10002.jpg

I've run this map on my comp (not played actually) but my judgement comes from previous experiences with similar maps.
It can be fun but only with "friends" on LAN or when everybody has similar net connection to server. One camping sniper/Kar grenadier can ruinn fun completely. The same is when you have worse connection (higher ping) then others - it ends with score 0:something unless you are try camping too. As for mad run/jump/shot action I really liked it while playing Quake or UT but not DoD. I simply expected something else (large open area desert map, I've imagined dod_tobruk-style). If this map is fun for you - great, for me it's not.

But this does not mean anything else, like you are bad mapper, idiot, I hate you, kill him! or anything else about things other than this map IMHO.

Originally posted by Craftos
But this does not mean anything else, like you are bad mapper, idiot, I hate you, kill him!

Kill him.. KILL HIMMMM!!!! :D

Originally posted by Gorbachev
I really should finish dod_cliffside, it's roughly similar to this in the terrain aspect, but it's snow based. I'll see if I can finish up the entities this week, and redfalcon, if you like we could release a dual pack with a clash of snow/desert maps. The map is probably still available on a few mirrors around, it was widely available when houstondod was around, but that vanished, so I think it's time to finish the objectives and release this beast.

http://members.shaw.ca/mikaelcatt/dod_cliffside10002.jpg


don't hi-jack threads, its not very nice

aw, you beat me too it plato

thread already got hijacked once...the whole clipnode thing...but i'm willing to let that slide.

seriously if you wanna talk bout something like that pm me but i don't think i'd be too interested.

*note: i tried to remove snipers from the map but people were just *using a certain exploit* to be sniper anyways. so i changed the limit to 1. i feel this will discourage the exploit.

and try to actually shoot someone on this map with your kar from really far away. hard enough when they're just standing still. thats why it doesn't need anymore cover really. if you don't believe me, try it.

i'm working with some people, trying to get the map running regularly on some servers. anyone that'd like to actually help out that'd be great. maybe the weekend will bring about some more response.

i add a mirror at www.dodmaps.de
Mirror: DodMaps.de CUSTOM MAPS (http://dodmaps.ngz-network.de/index.php?site=custommaps.php) @ NEW MAPS

This map really fun! Played it with bots. We need more of such open combat maps! 4-way spawning is nice. And flags are placed at perfect strategic positions, unlike other maps like avalanche which places a silly flag in the center...a center which holds no strategic significance anyway. At least, the flagged areas are stratgegic, high hill tops that provides cover and view. I'm inspired to make a similar map!

For the documentation, i see no mention of reduction of clip nodes except for "Clip node economy mode" which my compile tools already have that! Are you sure u got it right and the xcagey compile tools is capable of adjusting max clip nodes?? Or are you refering to max planes instead?

@ redfalcon = good work

i add a mirror @ schlex.net this weekend !

Sounds like fun mate! It would be great if you had controllable tanks as well! And yes that airstrike sounds great (rain hell from above on those Sturmbots!!!) I love it already!!

sweet idea.

Just some friendly suggestins man, the terrain in places is very hard to traverse (problem with v1) and if you added a few more polys here and there to make it smoother it would allow for much greater combat. But otherwise good work once again!!

I must admit that when I looked at the pics I didn't think it would be very good, but I went ahead and downloaded Rommel, the waypoints, and tried it.

I'm GLAD I DID!

The 4 high hill base/bunkers with the valley in the middle is excellent! The addition of the mine fields is a nice strategic touch. Also the bots play this map very well in Sturmbot.

Anybody doubting this map, give it a chance! Its really great!!