I figured I'd share the progress of my map. It's basically a true port of the original dod_charlie. I know that a remake has been done already, but I felt it strayed a bit too much from the original. I'm still at the texuring phase, so please ignore any of the dev textures and random walls, etc. I'm sorta delaying until this objective code comes out. Lots more to go, but moving quickly. Fun times.

Check out the basic screenshots so far:

http://www.unc.edu/~alricha5/dod/screens/dod_strand0000.jpg
http://www.unc.edu/~alricha5/dod/screens/dod_strand0001.jpg
http://www.unc.edu/~alricha5/dod/screens/dod_strand0002.jpg
http://www.unc.edu/~alricha5/dod/screens/dod_strand0003.jpg
http://www.unc.edu/~alricha5/dod/screens/dod_strand0004.jpg
http://www.unc.edu/~alricha5/dod/screens/dod_strand0005.jpg
http://www.unc.edu/~alricha5/dod/screens/dod_strand0006.jpg

Edit: Named changed to dod_strand

Looking good so far and way better than the most early beachmaps. Keep up the good work

is does look good
in the second and the last picture, you can see that part of the cliff that oddly sticks out. maybe try making it look a little more natural? let it come out on less of an angle, because it seems likes it perpendicular to the other side of the cliff.
and yes, ill agree that this does look like a more true port to charlie than the other one

The bunkers suck and the sand is too deserty

Other then that it looks pretty good

Sand does look like a desert. May just be the yellowish lighting. Rest looks completely awesome.

I think the sand looks perfect!! :eek:

Awsome work!! Beach maps always make me wet :)

The destructable parts of the sand berm don't blend in very well. Also, the Shermans with snow on them look kind of silly. The trench area looks pretty good though.

Is the beach the same scale as Charlie was in 1.3? It seems to be a bit more open and/or larger in some of those screen shots.

Also, include the TNT crates that were in 1.3, even though they have no purpose in Source at this time. They add more cover, which is a good thing.

I also have the impression the beach angle and all will not offer much cover. Like when prone neer the sand dune, I get the impression a sniper will still see you. Also looking at dod_easysector0004.jpg I get the impression sniper will see inside the whole crater on the beach. I just get the impression there is not much cover atm. The rest look really nice.

The beach is definately too sandy. The single sand texture looks bland and it looks more like an African theatre. You need to use/make a blend texture and blend it with a grass texture (look here for info on making your own http://www.mardymouse.co.uk/pages/Alpha_Blending.html).

Little patches of grass further up the beach and then a full blend into grass by the bunkers would look much better.

The visible lines on the sand in dod_easysector0001.jpg do look weird, try and fix that by smoothing it all out a bit. Also, if that bit is destroyable, what will you do about the model on top, which Im sure cant be a physics in any way so will just float there when the sand is blown?

Trenches look great.

And yes as bocasean and chl said, maybe try making the beach a little smaller and adding a lot more cover.

Anyway good start, lots of work to be done get cracking!

I'll go ahead and address some of these early comments, since I have the time. I have noticed many of the main gripes you guys had and I'll let you know some of the reasoning.

First off many people commented about the sand looking too much like a desert. Here's my view on that. The only difference between a beach and desert is water. Except maybe for some shells, but no dice on that. I wont add grass to a beach, doesn't seem right. Especially if the sand wouldve been churned up to build a shingle anyway. Plus it doesnt look that bad when on foot, and there will be lots of mortar fire to distract you.

The part of the shingle that is destructable has to be a func_dynamic or func_destructable to make it disappear when blown. That means I CAN'T make it a displacement like the rest of the seawall. It's gonna be tough to make it blend. Also, the shermans have snow because Valve was too, eh, short-sighted, to make a non-snow skin. I'll change them when they add it. I used to have Tigers in their place, simply because there was no snow on them, but all the anal retentive people would've complained about an axis tank on the allied beach.

Neutrino - I agree about the cliffs. I'll see what I can do.

Bocasean - Beach is exactly the same scale from what I can tell. Unless the scale changed when coming to source. But running up the beach takes about the same amount of time when i play it. More TNT boxes will be added once Valve releases the objective based code in the new update.

CoolHand - There's the same amount of cover as in the orginal. Meaning none. Behind the shingle is safe for allies if you lay down. Also, the craters offer protection (but not for long).

otF yetihw - see reasoning above for the shingle looking retarded. barbwire Models are prop_dynamic and thus can disappear when i tell them to. No floating. I'll add a pic of the destroyed shingle after my next test run.

Essentially I want this map to be hell for the allies. That's what made the original so fun for me. It was such a dissadvantage and I loved it.

Whoagh dude easy on the valve bashing jeez :o

A normal green model is going to be available like extremely soon!!

I would edit out your words if I were you...

Originally posted by Multiple Wounds
Whoagh dude easy on the valve bashing jeez :o

A normal green model is going to be available like extremely soon!!

I would edit out your words if I were you...

haha, ok ok, i changed it. Not that I fear any sort of retribution, but to ease your worries. You can sleep well tonight. :)

Errr thanks :rolleyes:

Are you still working on this map?

Originally posted by SilentSteps
Are you still working on this map?

You better believe it! I created this thread in the wee hours of last night! I'm plugging away at it even now. I want this sucker done.

I'm considering a name change. dod_easysector just doesn't flow right. Here are some other options, I'd like to hear your thoughts:

dod_chuck (haha, for charlie. Get it? oh man i'm genius)
dod_charles (same reasons as above)
dod_kueste (Küste = coast, in german)
dod_strand (Strand = beach, auf Deutsch)

I'm gravitating towards the last one, simply because it's concise and easy to say. Or the first, simply because it's funny.

I'd go with the last name. Would you consider another skybox for the beach map? I think a overcast sky would fit the map better. And the map itself is good. The sand, however, makes it look like this map takes place in the African Theatre. :P

dod_chucky

Originally posted by SilentSteps
I'd go with the last name. Would you consider another skybox for the beach map? I think a overcast sky would fit the map better. And the map itself is good. The sand, however, makes it look like this map takes place in the African Theatre. :P

I would definitely do another skybox. I was fiddling around with them briefly last night. This one looked sorta overcast, so i just stuck it in. I didnt go through them all. Is there any one in particular that is especially overcast? It's hard to tell from the sky list at the dev site.

I can change some, I'll shoot a PM over your way later today.

The map name was officially changed to dod_strand. I didnt want to use dod_easysector in case someone else actually wanted to make a map named that in the future that was more historically accurate. Since mine is just a port of charlie, I changed the name.

The 2 saving private ryan bunker cliche, hate that. lets call it dod_spromaha? The map could be a little bit darker and grayer and the sand is too deserty. anyways gj

dod_chucknorris

why dont you just call it dod_coast instead of all the other foreign words that mean the same thing :o

i was under the impression dod_coast was already taken. But now that i look, it's not. oh well.

The name has already been changed. I dont need any more suggestions. Thanks everyone. Comments about the map only from here on out.

I agree that sand is sand... but for some reason it still does look too deserty. I think a blend of the sand and a dirt could work well if the blend values are low in the direction of sand so the dirt is used more to create inconsistency than actually look like dirt. I'd say that could be said about most displacements. The officials look so great for that reason... it just prevents the visibility of texture repeating and <3<3<3<3.

I'd also have to agree the mound looks whack just as sand. Wouldn't it just level out over time if it were just sand? Ok, I don't know anything about sand, let alone beaches. It just seems like it would make more sense with the dirt and grass extending up the mound.

The proportions look great and I'm looking forward to playing it. Spicing it up a bit and maybe throwing some detailing to the cliffs or something, I don't know. Good job though.

Good suggestions, I'll see what I can do.

I can already see a problem with the seawall though. To make the two objective areas destructable/removable, they can't be displacements. That means I can't use alpha channels on them, meaning NO texture blending on those sections, which means the entire seawall should be the same for consistency (or at least a large part of it).

Any suggestions on other ways to do this? I'll try it a couple different ways and see how it turns out, but perhaps you guys can come up with something.

Maybe have a dirt and grass blend on the sea wall up from the sand, but the part thats destructable could be made of several rocks that get blasted?

does that make sense?

Yea, probably just break it up in some way or another into smaller brushes, displacing the ones you can. I really can't imagine a small part of destruction would prevent the whole thing from being displaced. That doesn't seem right.

Due to the name change, this thread has been moved. Go here for further updates:
http://www.dayofdefeat.net/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=65490