"A Map Maker's Guide to Combat Mission" CMx3 request

[Badger73]

From - Battlefront Forum > CMx2 > Combat Mission Red Thunder > CMRT - BETA AAR - Soviet Side

New thread to avoid digressing off topic from Bil's AAR (no spoilers)

Cheers mate

TBH the additional terrain elements in the editor and the flavour objects all make a huge difference to the final look of the finished article - and that's all kudos down to the talent and efforts of the artists. Overall I reckon the 'look' of the game has been greatly enhanced. IMHO

Having the terrain overlay function where you can import maps that you can effectively 'draw' your map - that's a huge time saving. It's worth taking the time with the new and additional flavour objects as it's well worth the effort when you get down and dirty in the view. I reckon you'll enjoy the new and expanded palette scenario designers now have access to.

Having just watched Chris Nelson's Twitch.tv first Red Thunder video, I am extremely impressed with quality of graphics in the CMx3 standard game engine now. The "look" of the game seems enhanced indeed. In Chris's game and both Beta AAR's, your maps, George, are exceptional!

As an new-topic request, might you consider making "A Map Maker's Guide to Combat Mission" much like Jon Sowden's Market Garden Scenario Design DAR/AAR? While Jon's tutorial is very good, I would welcome learning whatever tricks and technique's you might wish to share.

[MikeyD]

The cool thing about the map editor is *you can't break anything* so nobody should feel intimidated about playing in the map editor. If you want to make 200 foot tall escarpments or volcanoes or anything no matter how crazy, have fun! Yes, there are useful tips and techniques that could be shared but 80% of the battle is just feeling comfortable playing in it. I recall someone, I forgot who, crafted a mountain range in the shape of a reclining nude for the pixeltruppen to fight over, with the various landmarks pointed out. Think of the map editor as 2nd grade finger painting class. Free to do whatever you want.

[Fizou]

One thing that I would like to recommend, and what got me started with the editor is to load someone else map (a scenario or QB map), then start to expand on that map.

So much easier with something to start with and not so intimidating. Once you get a feel for it you can start your own original stuff.

The editor i truly a powerful tool.

[Combatintman]

Leaping in and just having a go has always worked for me. I tend to favour historical actions and so the ground is already a given. You just have to work out a method for 'copying' the real ground in the editor. This does involve some compromises for road alignment but once you make your design decision it is then a fairly easy process.

I derive my real ground view from Google Earth so it is a case of marking off your ground and going from there. Due to a lack of fidelity around elevations I have a couple of my own rules. Rivers are 1-2 elevation levels below the ground terrain (this is for CMSF - I have no idea if this would work in the newer WW2 titles) and embanked roads sit 2 elevation levels above base terrain. Other than that I just see what looks right based on tilting the Google Earth view and comparing it with my CM map in 3D preview.

If you are interested in some of the results, have a look at some of my threads in the CMSF forums, many have 'real World' and 'CMSF World' comparisons.

[Badger73]

<snipped>

I recall someone, I forgot who, crafted a mountain range in the shape of a reclining nude for the pixeltruppen to fight over, with the various landmarks pointed out.

<snipped>

That's not quite what I had in mind . . . .

However, this and the other comments below it are helpful. Thank you.

I'm puttering away at my first scenario attempt. The map overlay feature helped me a lot. Don't know how designers did without it. I still think there are techniques which create exceptional results. I'd like to leverage these lessons learned by others.

I'd also benefit from a "Beginner's Guide to AI planning". I'm sure I'll learn by trial and error. Again, I'd prefer being able to saddle up properly and face forward when I mount this horse instead of facing ass-backwards for most of the ride! Appreciate all ya'll's encouragement though. Thankee' kindly.

[Dadekster]

I just act as if I am playing SimCity.

[Glubokii Boy]

If you are new to the map editor i think it could be a good thing to spend and hour or so EXPEREMENTING with the elevation features of the editor...

try the different elevation editing tools, try ditchlock, experiment with were and how you should 'lock' the terrain to get the result you want...

What effect will increasing/decreasing the altitude in different increments have...What will it look like...how will it effect the placing of other terrain-objects when doing it...

Stuff like this...

For me...getting the lay of the land to be the way i wanted has been the most complicated...but with a little practice it is very easy to do and now i have no problem with it...

the 'painting' of the terrain (placing woods, buildings, road etc) is pretty strait forward imo.

However, learn how to best use the 'line drawing function' (or whats it called) when placing roads, fences, walls, boccage and hedges...

At first you might feel that its notworking VERY well (many road/boccage pices etc being the wrong type to fitt in the lines...especially with crossing lines...Experiment with this and learn HOW to place these 'waypoints'...Once you get a hang of it it works VERY well and will speed up your map building tremendouisly...

Finally...

See and learn !...studdy the 'pros' maps with MAP BUILDING i mind...See how they do farm, villages, forrests etc...(you can easiely load them into the editor if you wish)...