Hey guys me and my friend have made a few maps the The Specialists mod so were not complete n00behs but we could use some help. Were finally going to try to make an actual nice battle of the bulge or "bastogne" map which will take place in the Adrennes forest and Foy. We were obviously inspired by Band of Brothers but after seeing how...not good... coldline was we decided that it would be a pretty nice idea. I need help finding some sort of winter tree prefab or at least some advice on how to make some. I also was wondering if anyone knows how to make moving tanks. Not ones that you drive but ones with preset movements such as the ones in the Blitzkrieg* map that would fire on the forest. I'm pretty sure tree bursts are out of the question without making the whole tree explode or something, but that would be pretty stupid :D. Well thanks for any help and suggestions are of course welcom. -Maj*Winters

snow tree model: arc_xer_snowtree2.mdl

Found in your fav map dod_coldline :)

Warning: Totally not fundamental!

Trees:
I have 1 particular model of trees. Simple triangle based snow ones. To create a forest, i convert all numerous trunks brushworks strewned everywhere into an .mdl to save r_speeds. In fact, doing so produces no wpoly but a maginal amount of epoly that the engine can handle better. Of course, you need to know how to UV skin and all that (all the modelling stuff) and this takes time. This should only be done if you intend of having 100-200 tree trunks or more and are desperate for low polycounts.

Treeburst:
Have a .mdl consisting of 1 tree only positioned at the center. Place .mdl with env_model. Ensure the .mdl has 1 animation (standing upright), and another animation (fall down, shake, burst), etc. Since env_model supports 2 diff animations when ON or OFF states, just trigger OFF/ON the env_model to change its animation from standingupright to something else.

Regarding moving tanks:
"moveWith" code in v1.0 or higher is faulty. If you want to have moving tanks with a turret on top that can aim at enemies while moving, you've got to use b2.0 - b3.1 of DoD. However, nothing's gonna stop you of creating an .mdl of a tank that animates, perhaps travelling "outside" the map (or inside the map within invisible temporary/permanent funcwalls/clipwalls) ala dod_glider aeroplane flybys or dod_valley aeriplane flybys, and during that process of travelling across the map, bombard a particular position (either using a static env_explosion or an invisible AI-controlled func_tank_mortar which you activate/deactivate during the time the tank makes its scripted appearance....I prefer the latter method which involes a team-specific func_tank mortar that you activate/deactivate during the time the tank makes its appearance or leaves. Thus, you could script it such that when a tank drives up this knoll, it fires onto any "enemies" within its sights below at a particular spot. It's faked and all, and it would make it seem as if the tank is firing onto enemies (if enemies are there), but in reality the tank is merely a dummy animation model and the real work is done by this invisible func_tank_mortar. It has to be carefully orchestrated though, like how you do flybys in dod_valley. The latter version is more realistic since it won't bombard/fire the position unless there are enemies there. Another way is to have a tank drive into position first via animated .mdl sequence, then once it stops in its designated position, it switches models using env_render to a "turretless" tank, and using another env_render, render a real func_tank_mortar turret above it and activate it to home in on any nearby enemies. Of course, both the func_tank_mortar brushwork and the .mdl turret must look similar in order for it to appear seamless. Again, this has to be carefully orchestrated. Also, if you want the tank to be destroyable, then you can't afford to have the tank outside the map, but within the map in a non-reachable area but you can still aim a bazooka on the tank. However, since you can't allow func_breakable to moveWith the tank since the moveWith code is faulty, you've got to have a func_breakable at the designated spot where that tank stops to aim. Before the tank has reached its position, you've got to perhaps make a func_wall_toggle to protect the func_breakable until the tank arrives in its stationery spot, then you remove the func_wall_toggle and a bazooka round can now reach and touch the func_breakable. Again, this has to be carefully orchestrated. There's also another problem: you can't have a func_breakable on the func_tank_mortar (ie. the turret) 'cause that would restrict the func_tank_mortar's movement and might crash the game. Thus, complications arise if you wish tanks to be destroyable as well besides making a grand appearance. Sacrifices has to be made. However, if you are sticking with a standard tank driveby without any means of destroying that tank, then i'm sure it's easy to implement 'cause it works on the princpal of aircraft flybys in DoD.

the moveWith code is faulty because it teleports the train from one path_corner to the next rather than make the train travel smoothly from one path corner to the next.
You can still have destroyable, active, and moving tanks but.... But this would require tons of entities. For every single tiny game pixel unit, you've got to place a path_corner, so the train will travel 1 pixel unit each time, which makes the "jumpy"/"teleporty" effect less apparent. Think of it as in frame by frame animation vs. tweening animation. The tweening is faulty! So, you've got to use tons of path_corner entities just to display some silly animation. Remember, keep your entity count below 500 in DoD.

Resources:
http://countermap.counter-strike.net/Nemesis/
http://www.dayofdefeat.net/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=26239
http://www.dayofdefeat.net/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=197

Also, if you want it to look as good as BOB in terms of productino quality, more variety of vegetations and trunks in all shapes and sizes is definitely a must.

Why don't you ask Stoffer LOL

Did you ever release that map in your sig, Glidias?
Its looking really nifty.

Thanks guys! :D I know this will really help. This is exactly what I needed to know! I just need to find out how to model the tree burst thing since I'm pretty sure nobody has a tree model that has an exploded animation. Once I figure our that We just need to start mass producing a kathousand trees that arent all the same with this burst animation. After that I need to figure out how to make some foxholes and we'll be on our way. I wouldnt expect any screenies for a while beeing as this is a brand new project that is going to take a loooong time. I also have one more pretty simple question I'm sure. I'm going to set up either some 88's or maybee some nebelwerfers* that fire on the forest. How do I get them to fire in a certain area or whatever. If you've ever played dod_escape, its sort of like that idea where is fires on the bridge but its going to instead be firing on the front of the forest.
Again thanks for all the help and I'll keep you posted on progress. We still dont have an official map name yet but its going to be something like dod_ardennes or dod_battle_for_foy idk something like that. Thanks again. - Maj*Winters

Dont worry too much about a name at this stage, try to spend more time mapping.

rgr. :D yea i konw not to worried might actually want to get this thing going here.