Lucky_Strike

Yes that's got to be done. My FB is mostly unmoved at the moment, awaiting my eventual snow and winter mods. There are probably some snow covered sandbags already. Had contemplated doing this, I wish there were some way of doing it wholesale rather than one at a time, maybe a Blender addon exists, will have to hunt around. Yes, I was trying them just to see what they looked like positioned for overwatch on a valley below. Still no sign of the actual bunker team, only managed to find their visitors. Have you tried the bunker on a map at sea level, terrain set to 0 or 1m?

I had another look at how I had buried the bunkers for comparison especially in light of the extra info/pic of your map. mine were only 2m deep whereas you had them 3m deep. So now I have buried them 3m deep and your special bunker is definitely sitting better in the ground. I tried switching them as well to see if it was just something to do with the ground mesh, but in both cases your special bunker sat much more centred in its hole than the stock MG bunker, as well as looking like it was slightly lower down. Yours is on the left here: yours ... where is everybody? the stock mg bunker ... no amount of clicking would get it into the hole nice and centred.

I'd imagine it's the modern affliction. I certainly suffer twinges and I have no doubt that our very own GeorgeMC must given the detail on his maps. That's why the map generator script by Butschi will really help for some of the random textures clicking.

And what's that I see in the distance? Just a moment whilst I put my specs on Is it a ? Is it a ? ... no ... ... it's delivering an early gift ... ... not really, but ... ... ... got it? ... ohh yessss! ... big @ss chimnies'r'us ... is it big enough? Is too much? ... texture needs a bit of work, depending on the size. Absolutely not tested, and unknown what might happen if anyone gets inside which they might be able to do. A free glass of my whisky for me if you can guess the host. Answers on a postcard, closing date for entries tonight, my time.

Repetitive strain injury - what we'll all end up with no doubt There we made it for them ... Not a chance!

I guess the R in ARMA stands for RSI ... Yes, don't know why we don't get an overview map of some sort, heck even real commanders in WW2 at least had decent paper maps. I did wonder about somehow manipulating the LOD system for aerial views to make something more useable, but it's too complex and still wouldn't satisfy.

Nope, not going there I love maps, have always been fascinated by them, so I know that if I got started on them here that would be the end of me, you'd never get another mod out of me. Maybe once I've finished making mods I'll have a serious go at maps, until that day we've got George and Nigel and Harry and other talent to satisfy my map lust.

So I had a look at the shelter. I placed two wooden bunkers in a section of the Twin Villages master map from FB with snow and everything for added fun. After I had figured out where was a good location I made a big ditch, wasn't sure how big/small it had to be; turned out it was way too much. Both positions ended up being one tile wide by three long, and 2m deep; the bunker at the front, door at rear. One was a regular MG wooden bunker, the other your special wooden shelter. I couldn't really see any difference once they we placed, both were quite well embedded in the terrain. I had four squads of infantry - two scout squads, a breach squad and a FO as lead squad. Two squads per bunker. The MG bunker squads went in, one squad became the bunker team the other their visitors. All happy and warm in their bunker, LOS as expected etc. With their neighbours in the special shelter it was quite different. As soon as I placed them in the shelter it was obvious they had been beamed off somewhere. I looked in the corners but couldn't find them, no floating icons anywhere. Targeting tool showed they were behind the bunker in the corner. So I elevated that corner by a few meters to see if they would get good LOS over the map, which they did. What I then noticed was that one of the missing squads, the visitors, was actually way down below the map. I could just see their icon at the edge of my field of view, enough to click on it. I tried to lock my view to theirs but I just ended up staring into space. The other squad, the ones who took over the shelter were nowhere to be found, clicking the bunker gave me their LOS but they were just nowhere! This corner of the map was at an elevation of 630m. From what I could see the visiting squad were just outside the edge of the map maybe at sea level? 0, 0, 0 in X, Y, Z coordinates? The occupying squad ...? I probably need to see a few more examples as this wasn't a very scientific test. But it's definitely mind bending.

Great stuff Phil, thanks for this - I'll try to get a run at it this weekend. LMAO ... I thought he was a brain in a jar but I think your description is far closer - kinda like the big chained-up Alien mother, only not as productive ... still LMAO as I leave the room ...

Oh yes, they're very good. Real nice without barely any repeats. You already have some really good road textures - sort of old tarmac/concrete which I really like and would happily use in other titles to replace city roads and some of the cobbles. These will certainly add to our choices. Big from me!

Yeah the flipping is quite useful just extra work and most mappers forget it's even there as a possibility. For sure - there'll always be those we can't satisfy ... limitations of the game as far as I'm concerned.

Yes that would be very useful. And truly 3D ground tiles. Haha, yes, I only design the stuff I'll leave the click-fest to others!

I'll take a looksee at this when I'm back at my desk for sure. But one big question I thought of last night - what happens if one player has a modded structure whist an opponent does not? Most of our mods are purely superficial even something as complex-looking as that PzIV bunker is still essentially just a PzIV in a ditch, acting and behaving as such. But what this appears to do is change how, for example, a bunker is actually functioning, better protection against HE, better concealment. So if I have the modded bunker but my opponent doesn't do they see a normal bunker on the map, but the AI can't see it and react to it nor shoot at it? Defensive works can be dynamically purchased and placed at the start of a game, or placed by the scenario designer but still be moveable, so they are not necessarily carried in the scenario/map unlike buildings, does this mod give a real advantage to a player? Argh! Of course the ditches have to be in the map for the bunker to be placed in, but with a normal bunker in a ditch the bunker is more exposed because of how the ditch deforms the landscape I need to go see it in action ... Yes the pixeltruppen behave very oddly when the geometry is altered beyond a certain degree. I noticed them burying themselves in the walls and floor in my own experiments, and then there's the issue where they will only tolerate a certain depth before they want to get out to see what's going on around them. Plus HMGs ain't too pretty looking firing at a mud wall! ... more like atom bomb ... look at the size of that thing! Amazed there's even a bunker left. Guess there no rubble model for them. ... another question - can the pixeltruppen who are at 0, 0 attack from there, so a surprise rear attack? Or do they run back to the bunker then run to 0, 0 to launch their attack? This could lead to some very underhanded sneakiness ...

Ah yes the human bottle neck ... As Elvis explained there's more to the pack than GeorgeMC's battles and maps - we are getting patched as well, albeit with stuff that probably has zero effect on the capability of the engine to run the new scenarios, campaigns and maps. No doubt it's the integration of the activation layer that will allow us to play the new content rather than the squashed bugs. Same layer that will prevent us from copying from PC game to Mac game without the patch on both. And it's this where BF are struggling in relation MacOS, most likely in terms of how it integrates with the newer MacOS's own security measures.

WWWWHHHHHAAAAATTTTTTT!!! WWWHHHAAAATTTTTTT!! You've got basements!! Indeed! Are you saying they are in the pillbox but their game position is kilometres off at the corner of the map? So it's some sort of wormhole warping the space-time continuum ... Okay, this makes sense. This is perhaps discovery of the year! May also explain why BF have never introduced below ground mesh stuff - can you imagine how folks would react if they didn't comprehend what was happening. Presumably the apertures on the bunkers are useless for shooting out of? I like that bunkers can be used as proper bunkers for sheltering in. How do trenches behave? I see you have some in your pictures. Whatever - they look great! You'll need a new thread for this one when you are certain of what you've found. AMAAAZZZING!

Well, hmm, there's always bits of maps that are just never used, it's in the nature of the game to have a centre of play then some peripheral stuff going on and then dead zones. So having a backdrop of distant objects that are not as far off as the horizon but in dead zones isn't going to break anything in terms of game play IMHO. I totally agree that something in the centre or periphery should function correctly, or as near to correct as we can force it to. In the case of a tall chimney, if it's in the play area, it would be nice if it could function as a tall observation structure - like a church tower can. But if damaged it may be off limits for this purpose, in which case it should offer some cover and/or concealment. Outside of the play area casting a shadow is about all it would need to do, it would have to be explicitly off limits - damaged and hollow. If it's being used in a corner of the map that's never going to see any footfall - all maps have those it's usually where dishevelled tank crews end up hiding ... then a flavour object could easily do the job. However I have a wondering mind - I may have an idea that would perhaps work in both use cases - another experiment is called for, and possibly a human sacrifice to create another me ...

Is it a missile destroyer, can't tell from your image. What's the original look like. Alternatively we just find a model of a WW2 destroyer and swap it in ... it's nice to have a backdrop, but at the end of the day it's not essential.

Yes, like @The Steppenwulf said. Our only real hope would be finding a suitable donor structure that could be remodelled, but I can't think of one ...

First one not to difficult, see my other comment, second harder, see my other comment. Chimney ... don't know. Isn't there one in the Stalingrad mod? Someone was making a mineret somewhere ... not sure what happened to that. I'm not really the one to ask about buildings ...

Yeah the underside is pretty poor, I did have to take a look I think the inside is just a reflection of the outside, but what I'm not uncertain of is if it actually has an inside surface. Objects where we see both sides need to have structure (mesh / material / texture) on both sides so that they exist from the game's point of view otherwise strange things can happen to them in game, odd transparency or other weirdness. If the lid is taken off the tram car then we need to make sure that the inside is meshed and has a material. A rough, simple box would probably be enough, nothing complex. Then it could contain some rubble (another box) or piles of other heavy objects like girders or hedgehogs, all made as part of the model.

Yes there's a fine balance when adding ground textures. Sometimes the repeat patterns become very intrusive.

Always the way - rods for our own backs and all that ...

The latter was what I was thinking as a flavour object, scattering of brick'n'rubble over a few square meters. Not sure how one would tackle doing gert big piles of rubble. We can't deform ground tiles to include any 3D objects. Doodads wouldn't really work as they are constantly in motion when viewed from close up. Flavor objects are quite difficult to make into ground tile-like objects as they don't really conform to the underlying ground shape very well, and are not going to be treated as ground by anything clambering over them, that is there may be some odd looking effects. For large piles of rubble we need something 3D that can be placed on the ground to create the impression of a covering of loose rubble and debris, whilst remaining static and traversable ... thinking ... still thinking ... yet more thinking ... this is a tough one. Hedges could be completely remodelled to represent a much flatter, wider shape, they create some restrictions to movement, mostly conform the ground undulations, come in a lot of shapes. A random smattering across one of your slopes of rubble ground texture might look quite convincing. An experiment is called for!

I bet that's the first time you've been called a chocolate fountain Nigel!

Haven't studied it too closely but there's a map in the Panzerwrecks' Panzers in Berlin book, which I referred to for the model; I think it might actually show the known locations of some of the panzerturm. The famous pictures of the Pantherturm surrounded by shell casings at least suggest that one was probably quite effective for a time.