Well this hasn't been announced before, but I've been working on this map over the last couple of weeks. It takes place in Belfort, France. It contains roughly 6 objectives (To be play-tested and determined when the layout is complete.) I'm aiming for a lot of detail but keeping r_speeds under 800, around 600 if I can help it. I want this to work for everyone. Currently the highest corners are 800/4000 which is reasonable. Playtesting will also determine the American/British factor and Para/Ground troop status of the teams. Anyway, enough of the chit-chat here are some images. Feedback is nice, but keep it specific if you can. "That area sucks" is not good feedback, give me something to work with, a reasoning etc. Thanks. -Gorbachev

dod_belfort image page (http://members.shaw.ca/gorb/dod_belfort/index.html)

looking good

Great map so far, can u give us some more info on map, the images all seem to show one area, is that area that main battle area? Map looks great so far I can't really spot anything that bad about it, maybe the river maybe u can make it look like it extends farther and just doesnt bump into a wall.

Looks good, but as Capt Winter said it appears to only show one area so, who knows.

From what I see it looks kick ass though.

What about pics of other area's?

So far I have one of the 3 main areas finished, as with one section of the tunnels/trenches and pathways. I'll add more pictures as areas are added.

Damn this looks awesome.
Very clean and nice brushwork, good scale, great texture usage!
My only gripe is the roof texture - looks odd.

Oh, and I personally wouldn't use a wallpaper texture for a garage =). Infact I would redo the garage if I were you cause its just kind of weird looking.

make it out of wood

Looks good indeed...

Originally posted by kleinluka
Damn this looks awesome.
Very clean and nice brushwork, good scale, great texture usage!
My only gripe is the roof texture - looks odd.

Oh, and I personally wouldn't use a wallpaper texture for a garage =). Infact I would redo the garage if I were you cause its just kind of weird looking.

I like the wallpaper garage :p I'm just trying to get a canopy style going, and since this is such an unusual case I haven't seen any textures that fit the bill.

Thanks for the comments thus far guys.

Very nice, I love the brush detail in the river, look very real. Same with the bushes.

Since that area looks small, you gonna fully open up those few houses?

Looks great. The only problem I noticed was with the roof tops. Usually there are only shingles on the surface of roofs.

I'll be messing around with the textures on the siding. I plan on opening all of the houses in some way or another, with more connectivity than just a door in mind. I'll be sure to post more pictures later...each page is a new section of pictures, the first two pages are of old compiles, the 3rd page is most recent. So for the latest check for a page 4 within the next day or two.



Alright, first picture shows that the water actually doesn't run into the wall, it comes from a small grate. It also flows very, very slowly in a direction away from the grate. So that clarifies one question.
http://members.shaw.ca/gorb/dod_belfort/dod_belfort0019.jpg

This picture shows both what I've done with the roof edges, and with the garage-ish thing, I've turned it into a more neutral lean-to. Complete with brick/wood foundation. I've also begun opening the buildings, but have only opened them up and made the doors so far, nothing is furnished.
http://members.shaw.ca/gorb/dod_belfort/dod_belfort0021.jpg

the lean to looks nice :)

Looks good.

Suggestions:
Give the water a greenish tint, then it wont contrast so heavily with the surrounding area;
Make a tunnel (which is inaccessible) on the wall the river is up against;
In photoshop, give the house texture a slightly dirty appearance (again to make the house less contrasting with its environment).

I may give it a very small tint...but the contrast seems fine, if I don't have any contrast the map could get too bland. There already is a tunnel that's inaccessable on that wall, the water flows from it as well, it looks fine in game, tough to see in the shots I suppose. As for the houses, I think they look clean from afar but the texture is already pretty grimy, if I grime them up too much more it'd also be out of place, but I'll test it out to be sure.

IMHO water looks frozen. Maybe you should reduce brightness and/or add more transparency.

if only my stuff looked half as good as yours LOL

very nice lookin

Get your New Pictures here (http://members.shaw.ca/gorb/dod_belfort/dod_belfort_recent.html).

I've constructed the insides of two of the three main houses so far, and changing slight details to keep the r_speeds lower than they are in the corners (850 at most, which is too much for my preference.) Lots of little connectivity has been added (but tough to see...which was the point, it's a very stealthy map, openings are hidden by bushes, secret doors, barrels, etc. etc.) But they aren't intrusive nor slow down the gameplay. The water was made a little more see-through and is at an amount that doesn't look "frozen" although it moves in game (I converted it to scroll) so you would never get that impression while playing. All the little roof lips and such have been changed, windows overlooking the area are open, and clip on certain models was changed so that no "stick" occurs. That's all I can think of for now, enjoy while I get to work on the next 1/4 of the map.

Oh, and I've been making sure the custom textures have the right effects tied to them as well as tweaking the default sounds and sprites for my map as in their regular style they don't do what my map needs.

looking nice ! :) couple of sugestions :

-the garage still looks abit akward .. i think it has to do with the ultra thin roof .. not sure if you can spare the polies but try and go for alitle bit more detail

- the house roofs are in my believes way to thick. i would make them a few unites smaller and have that wooden structure you got there, stick out abit.. though still a tad smaller

- the dirt going over into grass ( at the water ) with hard lines really take away from the detail, i would use a grass to dirt fade texture .. im not sure if theres one in the wad you using but its not that hard to make yourself

- the litle wood bridge is nice but the wood that suports it on the waterside ( the block with wood texture on it at a 90 upwards angle) seems abit outoff place .. i would go for a riverstone suport or leave it completely and make wooden suport beams.

- the use of textures inside the houses are abit of a disapointment compaired to the style you have going outside.. the floor looks blurry and way to bright, the wallpaper just seems out offplace as awhole, klein made a set of varius excelent wallpapers that would fit on it perfectly.


great work sofar :)

Alright, well I've addressed all the issues you've pointed out with the exception of one (the blend of dirt and grass...I don't have the exact photoshop skills, and they're both textures from very different .wad files so unless I can get someone like kleinluka to make a few blends I'm most likely out of luck on that.)

Little list 'o fixes.
-Main building roofs have been thinned.
-Staircases and wallpapers updated, window texture fixed.
-Tunnel entrance altered 90 degrees to minimize r_speed hit.
-r_speeds lowered back down to an average of 500-800.
-Roof of garage thickened a little bit.
-Bridge changed to have stone supports & more fluid pathway.
-couple of other connections.

The map is getting better and better.. ;-)

Here (http://members.shaw.ca/gorb/dod_belfort/march5th.html) are some of today's screens. Everything but the grass-dirt fade has been addressed so far. r_speeds have been lowered back to the 200-700 range with only one spot that went up to 850 that I could find. Pictures of the new areas are there, of course esthetic changes will happen to those parts, but generally that's what the areas will look like.

looking good. I love the church

Vewwy nice..!!

checked out the screens, you fixed the things nicely,
be sure to align the river stone at that litle bridge if you have already, re-asign it to face instead of world , face doesnt blur when you make a "cliped" or edged brush


might wanna look at that church roof, its again a few units to thick,

pm me the name of the dirt and grass texture and ill make a blend for ya.

later

Looks nice, keep it up :)

Here's the new edge of the main area, it's no longer just a wall. You can also see IR's blend for the grass/dirt. (Thanks).
http://members.shaw.ca/gorb/dod_belfort/dod_belfort0043.jpg

Shot back a bit, shows the changes I made to the default chimney smoke sprite, it now fades out instead of being a hard cut on the top. (I also locked the z-axis so it turns left/right only.)
http://members.shaw.ca/gorb/dod_belfort/dod_belfort0044.jpg

A bunch more was added but I'm not going to bother with pictures until later.

New set of 10 pictures are here (http://members.shaw.ca/gorb/dod_belfort/march22nd.html).

I've set up the mortars to strike in main fighting areas, I want them to be useful. I've got custom sounds for victories, mortars, background etc.

I've got the custom grass/mud blend from IR, my own custom stained glass texture and more that I haven't shown.

I'd say the layout is about 60%-75% done, there is still a lot I want to do in the ways of routes and connectivity.

The map is nice and large, but I've managed to keep the r_speeds below 700/5000 now.

I've also dabbled a bit in modelling and converted the ouitz_hill to fit with my map, changed the origin, texture and stuff (and I'll do that for the phone_pole as well since VIS likes to make it disappear.)

That's all I can think of off the top of my head. Enjoy.

IMO you should build a shelter for the mortars. They look kinda silly just sitting there. Perhaps a shallow pit or some sandbags (or both :p)

This map is looking real nice, keep on with the good work :D

They're in a nook, so it doesn't look out of place in the game. The mortars are supposed to have been put there "on a whim" as they're American ones and the Americans are the invading force.

looks like a nice map, it is definetly comming along well. the finished product will probably come out well. one suggestion thought , maybe change that wood on the bridge, atm it looks a littel blurry and low res. i just think it would be nicer with a more sharp looking wood. nice work all round though

great work....any BETA yet?..;-)

I'm thinking fairly soon, I'm starting to put the player spawns in and deciding exactly what I want for objectives. I don't want to have to make a million betas so I want to make it count.