Preview mission for Task Force Panther released

[ChrisND]

I am releasing a mission for Task Force Panther onto CMMODS later tonight. It is titled "Snitch".

In this mission you command Bear Platoon of Alpha Company, 2/505 PIR, days after they made a combat jump onto Aleppo International. Your platoon, along with a humvee-mounted section from Delta Company's Dog Platoon and a Special Forces Alpha Team, must move through a cramped town to retrieve an informant before Syrian and foreign fighters reach him, and then deliver him safely from the town.

Expect the file to be posted within a few hours. It will also come with a truncated form of the PDF that will be included with the campaign.

Squads Bear 1 and Bear 2 make their way to the informant:

Doorway? Who needs stinking doorways?

Bear Platoon has reached the marketplace where the informant is hiding. But so have the fighters!

Alpha 56 escorts the informant:

[ May 23, 2008, 12:58 AM: Message edited by: Normal Dude ]

[ChrisND]

The file is up on cmmods. Enjoy.

[handihoc]

Looks damn good!

[salwon]

This mission is punishing. Trust me, move fast!

[ChrisND]

[Cpl Steiner]

Played it and enjoyed it.

Normal Dude, in the PDF it says you used some sort of height contour map so that the height changes in the game are 100% correct for the area modelled. I'm intrigued - how did you do this? Are you saying we can get real world height information for our maps? If I could combine the imagery of Google Earth with real world height information, it would give me some fabulous mapping opportunities.

[ChrisND]

Yes - a set of topographic Syria maps (and many more countries) are available at mapstor.com for something like 7 dollars - and it is digital download. The map is a foreign language (Russian, I think?) but using Google Earth and armed with some map reading skills you can easily find your battle location on the map. Most of the country is mapped in 1:100,000.

ETA: In this scenario the contour maps made little difference, as the area is almost flat. But in others scenarios, you will see the topographic maps at work.

[ May 23, 2008, 05:47 PM: Message edited by: Normal Dude ]

[ChrisND]

Originally posted by handihoc:

Looks damn good!

Thank you. I spend a LOT of time on my maps - this one took a week to make.

[ChrisND]

Here is a walk-through on how I make my maps. I will use one of the campaign scenarios which depicts a Scud plant as an example:

First, knowing what I want to model, I scout out a location using Google Earth. I then select the battle space and mark it out. I tend to make the maps slightly larger than needed for the size of the scenario to minimize edge issues.

Next, I take screen shots at 1500 feet altitude in Google Earth and paste them together in Photoshop:

I then lay a grid layer that corresponds to 8mx8m at that altitude over the composite photo as a seperate layer:

Now I can place important terrain, like roads and buildings, and place everything else in a spatial relationship to them. I always start with the important terrain and work towards the least important, because errors tend to compound as you go.

Next, using the contour maps, I draw the contour lines using the elevation tool. On my maps, one contour line is 10 meters below/above adjacent contour lines. So I draw those line at those elevations, and then let the game do the rest.

Next, clean up is in order. I set elevations manually for smaller changes such as rivers etc, and make sure groups of buildings are level with each other, and the roadds don't look funky etc. You get this:

And in game:

[Vergeltungswaffe]

Great way to map.

The scenario reminds me of the hospital map in America's Army.

[the Fighting Seabee]

Originally posted by Vergeltungswaffe:

Great way to map.

The scenario reminds me of the hospital map in America's Army.

That's funny, I actually made an Insurgent Camp map. It actually plays out somewhat similar too!

Great map making technique!!

[Pandur]

The scenario reminds me of the hospital map in America's Army

haha, maybe one can grind "honor" in the CMSF version too

it even got a VIP.

[DzrtFox]

Just played this and had a great time!! Can't wait to see more!!

[Cpl Steiner]

Normal Dude,

Thanks for your mapping tips. I will have to check out the contour map source you mentioned.

When you say you lay out a grid that corresponds to 8m x 8m at 1500 ft altitude, how do you do this? By the looks of it, you could probably just say a road plus a small amount of curb/side-walk corresponds to 8m and work from there but I was wondering if you use a more accurate method?

[EDIT] Your attention to detail when doing the maps, plus your excellent presentational skills for the briefings and accompanying PDFs is truly exceptional. BFC should hire you to do scenarios for future modules and CMx2 games as the quality of your work far exceeds that of many official scenarios that shipped with CM:SF.

[ May 24, 2008, 12:12 AM: Message edited by: Cpl Steiner ]

[Speedy]

Great map making guide Dude.

Thanks for sharing it.

[ChrisND]

Thanks everyone. I try. Glad you enjoyed it.

To make the grid for 8m x 8m, I used the ruler tool in Google Earth to measure out 8 meters. Then I took a screen shot and opened it up in paint, and made a square that matched that dimension. I then built a grid from that square. The 1500 feet is completely arbitrary, you can use whatever you want, but you have to make sure you use the same altitude or the scale will be off.

Incidentally, the roads often are about 8 meters.

[Cpl Steiner]

Originally posted by Normal Dude:

Thanks everyone. I try. Glad you enjoyed it.

To make the grid for 8m x 8m, I used the ruler tool in Google Earth to measure out 8 meters. Then I took a screen shot and opened it up in paint, and made a square that matched that dimension. I then built a grid from that square. The 1500 feet is completely arbitrary, you can use whatever you want, but you have to make sure you use the same altitude or the scale will be off.

Incidentally, the roads often are about 8 meters.

Hey, Normal Dude, I've just found a really great way of doing your grids. I downloaded something called GE Path (see link).

GE Path

[Edit] My original instructions involved editing KML files but the following is better.

Instructions:

Right-click on "My Places" within Google Earth and add a new folder called something like "CMSF_Map". Now when you add placemarks to the map they will be put in this folder. Add a placemark for the top-left corner of your map and another for the bottom-right corner. Now right-click over the CMSF_Map folder and select "Save Places As". When saving, choose the "KML" format instead of "KMZ".

Launch "GE Path" and open the KML file created. Now check the "Make Grid" checkbox in GE Path and enter 0.008 for the "Distance between Lines" parameter. Click "Run" and it will prompt you for a filename to create another KML file. If you double click this file it will be opened in Google Earth and show an 8m grid (see below). How cool is that!

[ May 25, 2008, 01:37 AM: Message edited by: Cpl Steiner ]

[MarkEzra]

Any Chance you could put this scen map design info together as a down loadable primer and put it on CMMODS....Please!!!!...EXCELLANT STUFF...thanks

[ChrisND]

Cpl Steiner - excellent, I will check this out today. Looks like a bit of work in the middle can be cut out!

MarkEzra - will see what I can do.

[ May 24, 2008, 02:23 PM: Message edited by: Normal Dude ]

[Webwing]

Normal Dude,

Yes, this map technique is really interesting. I've got to give it a go.

Great stuff, thanks!!!

-

[kipanderson]

Hi,

Congratulations….

Great stuff…. Very cunning map making .

I look forward to it…

All the best,

Kip.

[ChrisND]

By the way, if anyone wants to play these scenarios before everyone else does, I am still looking for beta testers.

[ May 26, 2008, 12:46 AM: Message edited by: Normal Dude ]

[kipanderson]

Normal Dude…hi,

Thanks for the mapstor.com resource .

As someone who is familiar with the Soviet Military Series topographical maps I am truly stunned by the quality of their service, price and ease of use.

Just bought and downloaded 45 very high quality, fully digitised maps from around Belgorod and Kursk for just $4….

I hope the powers that be will forgive me pushing this site so hard but with a long line of CMX2 games coming this is by far the best such resource for scenario designers.

Thanks…

All the best,

Kip.

PS. Do not have time to do proper beta test but look forward to downloading the game when you publish. Cheers…

[Moon]

Go ahead and submit this to our new Weblinks section!

This is really a great resource!

Martin

[SgtMuhammed]

Very nice. I tend to work backwards from the way you do it. I set the elevations first and then begin adding the buildings and stuff. Excellent work.

Are you planning on incorporating your Aleppo scenario into this campaign?