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Kharkov Map Sneak Peak


Macisle

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2 hours ago, RockinHarry said:

Eastern front is more attractive to me in 1941/42 and western front in 1944/45 (until the 1940 game is released in 2031 something), thus I´d stayed with CMBN and CMFB until now as preference. If you´d have a look at my sig you see I can not load nor play large maps with just 512 MB VRAM. That´ll change soon with new computer (and GTX 1050 TI). Maps larger than 2x2km and tons of objects usually gets me CTD until loading maybe 30-40% and then ...Adios.

I´d used to the habit of downgrading textures for my larger maps in order to help some with low VRAM and it appears to work. Those textures I figured I don´t necessarily need HD, I downgrade to half sizes (512x512), but the main FPS eater yet remains shadowing. :P So I prefer bad weather settings, where´s no crisp shadows and removing them (ALT-W) doesn´t make a difference visually. Maybe bits of downgrading textures helps you with testing your full map, so at least you can play with better FPS. Anybody tried that (shrinking textures in PS, not by options texture quality setting)?

CMX1 operations, damage, yes...wrecks...was a random factor from retrieving repairable stuff between battles, IIRC.

Oh, wow. That's gonna' be a major upgrade! I just went from a GTX 550 Ti 2GB to a 1060 6GB and that made a massive difference in map size usage. Once I upgrade my MB, I should get even more juice out of the card, as right now, it's having to slum it in a PCIe2 slot instead of the 3 it wants.

Yeah, I'm also more interested in the 41/42 period. I would LOVE to have units from that period to play on my map. I've done some fun playtesting using Sicherung troops to simulate earlier German units by adding an LMG34 team for each squad. That gives the right weapon mix, except for the occasional PF. Soviets are harder as all the formations and teams in CMRT are pretty light on the number of Mosin Nagants. I sure wish we could fully customize -- or had access to earlier formations and teams.

One playtest I did was trying to dig fanatic green Soviets out of a factory area using simulated early period German veterans supported by PIIs (used the Stalingrad mod textures for the PIIs). Big fun.

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I just found some screenies I forgot I took. I may as well post them, as they show some cool close quarters fighting and don't give away any secrets. Here they are:

 

A scout team discovers a full squad of Germans and is taken out. Several teams are then sent in to attack from different sides.

47309320581_0a34016d94_b.jpg

 

Bodies start dropping and some Germans begin moving outside. The schreck man makes a run for it.

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He doesn't make it.

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More men drop as the Germans continue to filter outside. One German surrenders. However, a winner is unclear and both sides are sweating the encounter. Until...

47309320321_787a048709_b.jpg

 

My final team in lets go with its last jet of fuel.

40344374013_1ba37f107c_b.jpg

 

That does it for the Germans and the few remaining men start to bug out across the street. But...only to discover that the Soviets now have it well covered.

40344373933_4388f76325_b.jpg

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  • 4 weeks later...
7 hours ago, weapon2010 said:

when will this map be available?

I've no idea. Definitely after the CMRT module is released. I've got a ton of work left to do, and also want to integrate goodies from the module. Right now, I'm on yet another forced break for work. Currently, I'm planning to divide the master into 4 slices. Of those, slices 1 and 2 are finished except for final tweaks and flavor objects. Slice 3 is about half finished and slice 4 has not been started yet.

Originally, I was planning to have folks playtesting the areas that were at the final polishing stage while I worked on others, but I ran into a graphics glitch that I couldn't solve. Long story short, I can't get more than 8 modular building textures to work in a texture pack and I need 16+. Current status is that if a person has my exact mod folder setup installed, they see the correct textures. Anything else yields mismatched textures on muliti-section modular buildings. Stock textures as a control for testing don't help and neither does a fresh reinstall. I'm burnt out on troubleshooting and will tackle it again after the CMRT module comes out. Hopefully, the stock textures in that will serve as a better control and allow me to solve the problem.

In the meantime, here are a few more screenies I had on my hard drive, taken from a little testing I did as Soviets on defense:

Tiger on the advance (I forgot to add a dismount command, but it yielded some crazy cool firefights, as the Germans were high-quality and put up a bit of a fight, despite being riders).

40536862703_c8114bb33f_b.jpg

 

Alley ambush. There are lots of these little alleys on the map. -Should be quite useful for both sides, especially for the Soviets when up against local counterattacks.

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Armor ambush. A deadly corner. However, a shoot and scoot flanking shot by an additional T-34 actually saved the moment for the ambushing Soviet tank covering the street.

47502868841_13d3383c01_b.jpg

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  • 7 months later...
On 11/3/2019 at 7:41 AM, Artkin said:

hype hype hype hype hype

I put that in Google Translate and the answer I got was "hype hype hype hype hype." 🙂

However, yes, a status update is long overdo. -Am on one of my many breaks right now, but here's a summary:

  • Primary building of master map is complete. All doors and windows are done, unless I decide to redo something. I do have a couple of funky experimental church constructions that I need to work the clay on more, though. I also need to do a final round of fine-tuning the elevations. It's probably okay now, but I'd like to smooth things out a bit more in some areas. Balancing the sprawling connected building sections with some of the elevation changes, as expected, was a biatch. However, fighting through it yielded some neat stuff.
  • As stated many times in this thread, the project won't come out until after the CMRT module is released. I need elements from the module to finish things.
  • The current path to completion is:
    1. Finish what can be done on map/scenarios/campaign/QB maps without new module.
    2. Get new module, integrate new units, and create custom graphics pack using some elements from module. Also, winterize.
    3. Complete the map/scenarios/campaign/QB map work.

I'm doing what I can in terms of "pre-working" scenario ideas. However, I want to avoid duplicating work wherever possible. That means I need to wait so that I have to do things like unit setup as few times as possible (for example, if I change the master map, I have to redo unit setups for any slices, each of which takes at least an hour).

Anyway, that means the project is still a number of months away. But, it will be released in 2020 for sure.

And, there may be a SP campaign.

Maybe. 😁

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  • 7 months later...

As we eagerly await the coming of CMFR, here's a quick status update:

I'm picking up the project again after a super-long break and am pecking away at what I can do without the new module materials. The later release date means that I may or may not make release of my project in 2020. My hobby time is much less than it used to be, but I'm still hopeful and dying to get this baby out. Currently, I'm focusing on updating all the building internals to what I have identified over time as the best design for tactical play and user-friendliness. I'm making good progress there. I had forgotten how detailed some of the early pics I posted were, and so have decided to go ahead and post a current shot of the master map from the same angle as that which started this thread. Enjoy. 🙂

Kharkiveskya_MM_060720.jpg.d64d9862d3f7f6429409cd1baba3666d.jpg

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2 hours ago, Erwin said:

An awesome amount of great work!  

Thanks! It's been a journey, that's for sure. And many miles to go before I sleep.

1 hour ago, Freyberg said:

It looks beautiful!

I'd like to book a room overlooking the river for a week in July please :)

How I wish! But, I have to winterize before I can let folks book for summer stays. 😀

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  • 2 months later...
12 hours ago, Sgt.Squarehead said:

Want!  B)

I've been hard at work on the project in recent weeks. I finished updating building internals across the whole master and am now working my way through final elevation polishing. That's a slow slog because it can take a lot of time, trial and error to get the sprawling connected building pieces in line for both a flush series of connected roof pieces and doors at the right level on the ground. Sometimes it's impossible to get fully clean. However, the ones I can't get perfect aren't too far off and are fully functional as far as infantry use goes. Most players won't even notice and slightly sunken doors appear on many stock maps. So, not a big deal, I think.

I'm also polishing some of the ground textures as I go to get a more natural mix across near tiles. My eye has improved as the project has gone along and certain areas stand out now as needing more of that work. I'll largely be waiting to add flavor objects until I see what new FOs are provided in CMFR. However, I'm putting some in as I go when the fancy takes me.

I've also done some potential QB slice testing and am pretty pleased with those. Overall, the AI is setting up a defense that will provide a reasonable challenge for the player. I've just been doing broad areas of coverage with six AI groups. As per usual SP QB CM, the AI tends to leave undefended zones that a human would never do, but I've been impressed with the overall traction from the AI. One standout problem is ATG placement. The QB AI almost always puts its guns inside the internal areas of building blocks, rendering them pretty useless. It sometimes does the same things with its tanks.

So, going forward, I'll be continuing with the elevation polishing while waiting for CMFR. Then, once I have that, I'll be finalizing FO placement, updating the map with anything new, creating a custom texture pack (not going overboard here -- as little as possible) and getting the campaign, scenario and QB work done. Oh, yeah -- and making sure the map is ready to go for winter fighting!

So, still a ton of work to do, but very much a light in the tunnel and I'm very pleased overall with the combat on the map. It's performing better than I expected going into the project and the problems are all common to any CM map.

Over-n'out!

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11 minutes ago, Macisle said:

I finished updating building internals across the whole master and am now working my way through final elevation polishing.

Brother, I feel your pain!  ;)

I started this process on the, much smaller, urban section of my CM:SF2 'Bishr-Redux'.....Still clicking (& swearing).

As for map slicing & QB AI Plans.....Rather you than me, on a map of that complexity!  I've done it a couple of times in the past and it damn near drove me (& my playtesters) gibbling mad! 

Edited by Sgt.Squarehead
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6 minutes ago, Sgt.Squarehead said:

Brother, I feel your pain!  ;)

I started this process on the, much smaller, urban section of my CM:SF2 'Bishr-Redux'.....Still clicking (& swearing).

As for map slicing & QB AI Plans.....Rather you than me, on a map of that complexity!  I've done it a couple of times in the past and it damn near drove me (& my playtesters) gibbling mad! 

Yeah, the worst is when you're trying to clear a wall out and overclick. I eventually got a rhythm down to where I start fast and slow down at the right time. Thank goodness THAT work is done. 🙂

It's a bit hard to see from the picture I posted, but the map has a fair amount of elevation change. It's generally mild on the S/SE side of the river, but once you get across the river and go NW, it gets heavier. I actually had to flatten things out a bit from real life because the RL elevation changes are too extreme for the current CM tile system. It doesn't really matter because the tactical situation is primarily from the building environment. The elevations are mostly flavor, I'd say. However, I've done my best to keep them as close to reality as possible, while still keeping the sprawling connected building concept as first priority. There are some interesting areas near the N edge of the map that resulted from dealing with the elevation issues. I'm keeping those under my hat for now, but players who like to skate the map edge are in for something of a wild ride there.😈

The master could generate quite a few QB maps. We'll see how many I decide to do. I'm constantly getting new ideas, but have to limit myself to get things done. That's particularly true of scenario ideas. I keep having to pass on them to get the core work done. I might do one that's been in my brain almost since the beginning, but I can't allow myself to spend the time for any more. However, a good supply of QB maps will mean that the community is getting plenty of play from the master over the long term.

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10 minutes ago, Macisle said:

The elevations are mostly flavor, I'd say. However, I've done my best to keep them as close to reality as possible, while still keeping the sprawling connected building concept as first priority. There are some interesting areas near the N edge of the map that resulted from dealing with the elevation issues. I'm keeping those under my hat for now, but players who like to skate the map edge are in for something of a wild ride there.😈

I do pretty much the same on urban maps (as you know), it has the additional advantage of minimising the issue of doors being blocked by terrain.....A pet bug-bear of mine.

Outta 'likes'.....I'll be back.  B)

PS - Do you have CM:BS?  I'd really like to try this map with a modern game.

PPS -

10 minutes ago, Macisle said:

Yeah, the worst is when you're trying to clear a wall out and overclick. I eventually got a rhythm down to where I start fast and slow down at the right time. Thank goodness THAT work is done. 🙂

Accidentally Shift+Clicking the ground floor of one internal wall (but not being sure exactly which one) of a really complex multi-story structure (lots of single tile buildings with various walls removed etc.) is probably my ultimate building nightmare!  :o

Interlinked stilt-huts came a close second though (& TBH I'm still not 100% happy with 'em, too many doors).  ;)

 

Edited by Sgt.Squarehead
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On 8/12/2020 at 9:07 AM, Sgt.Squarehead said:

...Do you have CM:BS?  I'd really like to try this map with a modern game. ...

I do have CM:BS, but only spent a few months with it after release. Modern is just not my thing.  I don't have any of the other modern titles.

I've been pondering the conversion issue. I'm at, like 2+ years and counting of time IOUs to the wife and am kinda' sweating spending more time on this, TBH. At this point, I'm thinking that, perhaps, if BF or community members with the skill can do the basic conversion, then I could clean it up and provide the adapted clean master to the CM:BS community. I think that would be the limit of what I have time for.

I'd imagine this map would be perfect for military sim use. Would be way cool to see video of it being used that way! 😁

Edited by Macisle
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