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What I do not like about town graphics !


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I did not expect it, but some things about the picture of the town of Nijmegen in the river crossing screenshot section at combathq.thegamers.net disturb me:

<ul>[*]There are these grey building with next to no windows. They look like bunkers ! What are they supposed to be ? Compared to the beautiful (new) graphics of the houses next to them they look quite poor ! [*]Those new houses, why do they have those red-brown firewalls on the side ? All walls should look the same on a free standing building [*] The grey "town square" tiles look a little bit naked[*]The pavement is completely oversized and the streets are too wide compared to the houses[*]There should be a type of houses (terrace houses ?) which touch each other to form a row (like 2 small houses on one tile with small gardens in front and in the back)

I am curious what cities will look like in the final game. Right now, I do not think they can compete with the rest of the fine graphics !

Regards, Thomm

[This message has been edited by Thomm (edited 01-18-2000).]

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Hi<

I'll try and address some of this as it has been brought up before. the Buildings from what I understand are one of the top things on the list for BTs to improve, although I'm not sure how much will make the first release. I do believe based on some hints I've heard that there are some building types we havent seen yet. As far as the roads go, to say they are all to wide is a relative thing to the terrain, not every road in the WTO was a narrow cobblestone street, but I too hope there is some variation to the paved version smile.gif. I myself was hoping to see a paved curved section rather than just the 90 turns shown. Hopefully if this stuff doesnt make it into 1.0 it will make it into the expansion. As far as the windows and appearance go I believe you will be able to take the buildings into paint shop pro or another paint program and give them designer colors if you wish :P hope this helps

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SS_PanzerLeader....out

[This message has been edited by SS_PanzerLeader (edited 01-18-2000).]

[This message has been edited by SS_PanzerLeader (edited 01-18-2000).]

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Well others are into doing stuff like that so I'm sure ther will be graphics mods available. Cool col J has been doing a great job with textures and with sounds. I'm sure everythign we get in the final version will be dramatically improved over what we've seen so far.

ya must not hate em that bad if ya don't want to change em :-P

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Guest Madmatt

Thomm,

Please do not post links directly into our screenshot gallery. It messes up the site statistics and doing so without permission is just plain rude. No harm done but please remove that link....

Thanks,

Madmatt

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If it's in Combat Mission, it's on Combat Mission HQ!

combathq.thegamers.net

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redface.gif Ouch, sorry ! redface.gif

Sorry, I did not know about this violation of netiquette ! redface.gif

After all it was obvious, which site the picture came from since the whole link was given, and not just some "Click here" anchor ! Well, I will remove the link right away and will not try this again !

Please accept my apology !

Thomm

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Guest Madmatt

Thomm,

Thanks for the quick response. I guess I need to put some sort of disclaimer about links to pictures and stuff on CMHQ, but like I said no damage done. The really bad thing is when people actually have the picture come up in a message, that just totally screws up everything and can even keep me from updating a page that the software thinks is currently in use. The Gamers Network, the people who host CMHQ, have rules about outside links and such and it is against their rules (I believe I read that right) for links to go directly into a hosted site instead of at the top level domain. Again, thanks for changing the link, as you have it now is fine!

Now let me make a brief comment on the Nijmegen scenario. There is a way to (I believe this a seperate building tile in fact) to depict apartment houses in a row or large industrial stlye buildings. There are no gardens as such but you could use the hedge terrain and grass and make your own quite easily and such has been down in a scenario I tested which takes place in an area of Paris. I have tested scenarios (including the afore mentioned Paris one) with cities and they look great. Remember different scenario designers look at things differently. The terrain editor in CM is VERY powerfull (I am doing some test maps now for Wild Bill and there is a lot I haven't even begun to explore) and it has many level of complexity that can be put to use. If you just want to whip up a quick and fun map it is quite easy to do so. If you want to spend DAYS tweaking every little incline and depression, then you can do that too, the editor is totally scalable. The same goes to building cities. Try and hold back from making judgements on the graphics until the game is released, sure, that's hard to do when I keep posting pics every other day but think of the alternative, no pics! smile.gif You may have valid concerns about what you see in that picture, but you really need to wait until you can access the editor and see if it will do what you want. One of the great things about the editor is that there is NOTHING to keep you from going into Bill's Nijmegen scenario and changing the buildings around, or using different buildings or change the road layout or anything for that matter. The editor gives you TOTAL control over EVERY facet of the game, units, reinforcement schedules, experience levels, ammo, weather, time of day, ground conditions and those are just offa the top of my head and I havent even built a 'real' scenario yet!!!

Also CM is built (I am not sure if this was intentional or not but I think it was) with the graphics and sound in an open architecture form. That means if you got a sound program and a paint program, then you can change almost every sound and graphic to your own taste. I am sure people will (and if they dont I probably WILL) come up with a program that will let you 'import' your own graphics and sound sets for CM while saving the originals. Something like this already exists for European Air War and that game is going on TWO years old and is still fun, in a large part due to a similar open structure (although it didn't start that way!). My ideal would be that down the road, once the game is released that designers will release more than just a new scenario to be posted but also include custom graphics and operation maps that go along with the scenario. The maps could be printed out before play and used for overview or quick reference. I think that the Meta Campaign that Fionn is working on has a similar idea about maps. Imagine the added level of emersion by the player if after they donwloaded the shiny new scenario that they also have grapics of vehicles with correct markings for the units depicted or special camo patterns and .jpegs of battle maps. This is just the tip of the iceberg, I plan on talking about these things much more in the days and weeks to come...So Thomm, that one block may not have looked right to you, but that doesn't mean it can't be changed, and in fact could be changed to suit your taste with what is already available in the game...

Madmatt out...

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If it's in Combat Mission, it's on Combat Mission HQ!

combathq.thegamers.net

[This message has been edited by Madmatt (edited 01-18-2000).]

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A scenario in Paris... smile.gif Cool...

I hope not with too many 90° streets wink.gif

I'm a little afraid of european street design in CM. I've seen the Private Ryan scenario on

TGN (Air attack section).The Town is awful !!! I'm not talking about buildings textures which are ok for me. But the streets design is american style and don't look very european...

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To Madmatt:

As an off-topic curiosity, did you apply the "Meatpack" add-on or the "Enemy Coast Ahead" (ECA) for European Air War? The first one gave some GREAT sound effects, the latter gave some added planes like a B-26.

Also, I've been wanting to ask anyone, but do you or anyone else know how to add graphics images to these forum posts?

Ed

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Guest Madmatt

Enemy Coast Ahead, Metawater Soundpack 2.5, Charles (not the Charles form BTS) Gunsts awesome EAW Control Panel (gives you Pacific War Planes now) new Terrain from MS CFS, tweaked aiming reticles, tweaked plane textures, this game is still great fun and just gets better with age.

Adding graphics must be done with a url address and is documentd in the faq listed above in the thread list. Please dont link any pictures from CMHQ though! wink.gif

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If it's in Combat Mission, it's on Combat Mission HQ!

combathq.thegamers.net

[This message has been edited by Madmatt (edited 01-18-2000).]

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SS_Pz leader

I didn't want to be discourteous. My english is not perfect. I find all BTS work on CM is fantastic and I like very much TGN site too.

So I'm very confuse if I made someone an offense.Appologize,enschuldigen,excusez moi...

Some people seem to be more royalist than the king himself.That's not my case, if I think something could be better, I tell it.

I just wanted to say that west european towns are not like north american towns. In most villages, it was very difficult for the big tanks to manoeuvre.

But it's often a known recurrent problem in wargames.It's the same thing for the church, it's not looking very european.(But I agree it's a detail)...

You ask me what I have done... Nothing of course but I would enjoy to do something or help even if my science of WW2 is not encyclopedic. Oh,I do only one little thing; I just tell all my friend who enjoy wargaming to have a look on this site ,to download the beta version and to order the game smile.gif

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Oooo, Pacific planes too? Geez, I gotta get on the stick and do some web searches with the add-on titles you've mentioned. Thanks.

And gotcha, no linking to CMHQ. Actually, I was THINKING of plopping an EAW screen shot as a new topic here (the Jabo's point-of-view in CM wink.gif ), but haven't decided yet.

Ed

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Xavier,

Im sorry I jumped on ya - the initial portion of you post seemed well intentioned- ( well placed smileys) but the part saying the town was awful kinda irked me because Bill has been making a great effort to research an get us the best scenarios possible. I didn't realize your English wasn't good it seemed fine to me, in fact I didn't realize it wans't your native language. I guess when I saw you write "IT was awful" it hit me kinda the same way that Capt Maneris comments did over Colins site. Critcism is usually welcomed in a constructive manner and I guess the broad statement you made regarding this scenario sounded more like trashing. If this wasn't your intention please accept my apologies. I do realize that alot European towns have a lot of winding roads in them, So I would imagine that it has something to do with this particular tile format. I also noticed the 90 degree turns. Yet dispite this factor I hardly think it will ruin the playability of the scenario and I doubt very seriously if it'll spoil my fun.

no hard feelings i hope I was only sticking up for the designer smile.gif

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SS_PanzerLeader....out

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Xavier,

If you don't like the straight roads in Ramelle (the SPR scenario) then take it up with Spielberg. Remember that the scenario designer designed the scenario BASED ON THE MOVIE !

Think back to the movie.. Straight roads etc... Since the scenario designer wanted to recreate the movie scenario he also made straight roads. Don't be so quick to judge and make a public comment. Think a bit more first.

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___________

Fionn Kelly

Manager of Historical Research,

The Gamers Net - Gaming for Gamers

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<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Xavier:

A scenario in Paris... smile.gif Cool...

I hope not with too many 90° streets wink.gif

I'm a little afraid of european street design in CM. I've seen the Private Ryan scenario on

TGN (Air attack section).The Town is awful !!! I'm not talking about buildings textures which are ok for me. But the streets design is american style and don't look very european...<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Yes, I agree, the streets need to be narrower, Most European villages have a town square as well and a church of course.

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An interesting thing about CM buildings. As I am driving through some old towns to and from school I am starting to notice the old buildings in CM style. Looking at a structure built in the 19th Century and thinking that it would be a good picture to use for CM. Then I started thinking about how to defend such a structure. Then I got my gun...

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Can you say "3 day work week?".

Don't laugh - I have worked in France on

assignment.

More to the point -

Folks are using new and, from what I can see,

ground breaking tools for map building.

If the streets are to be narrow, designers will be very resourceful and find ways

to provide the most life-like maps possible

with the given tools. The folks programming

this software appear ready to listen. So hang on. If there is a problem the community

recognizes, it will be addressed. The product is almost done. I can not wait

for the editor as is.

- Kevin

PS: instead of "maps" perhaps I should say

we will design combat "environments"

What I see is that good.

Can you say "Quantum leap?"

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Fionn,

Ok, Ok it seems I've been a little bad boy...

The words I used were certainly too far away from what I wanted to say, sorry again.

I didn't realize it was such a pain to do a scenario.

Just one little thing There are sheep in SP Ryan Move. Do you think it's enough to think that there are some in Normandy.

Sorry no,there are no sheep in Normandy, only cows.

SPRyan is a great movie but with little obvious mistakes...So please designers don't put sheeps in Normandy Scenarii wink.gif

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Madmatt,

Thanks for explaining more about buildings in CM. I remember asking some time ago if it were possible to butt houses together to form a terrace row but got no answer! Yes, we urban europeans love living in little boxes all crammed together on top of eachother. Very cosy smile.gif

Just wonder if it would be possible to create a nice old cruciform-plan Norman church...

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