British Campaign

[Jonny(FGM)]

Hmmm this seems to be stalled a bit lol, still on the first mission. Thanks to stoex and teeps for the playtests, version 2 has been made with a much more aggressive AI. Hopefully onto the next mission soon lol

[Jonny(FGM)]

Ok i've changed my mind, what was going to be the first mission is now going to be the second mission and you only have to play it if you lose the new first battle

Our location for this new battle:

Tell Abvad - Northern Syria

Here is the shot im using from google earth as a reference, rotated 20 degrees or so CCW to make it fit the CM map better

Here's how far i've got with the map so far, i'm going to have to "bend" the town slightly as you only have 8 directions in which roads can go, not many of which fit in with the real life town. So far i've got some basic housing laid down and the basic road network but there is a long way to go!

This was one of the pictures of the town on google earth. This road goes out of the town to the Turkish border, so this will be where the main route which the british armoured force will have to pass down. Credit goes to Roadiemullet for the picture find and christening this one "RPG alley"

And here's an early development shot of so called "RPG alley"

[Jonny(FGM)]

Actually looking at it more, would you say that road in the picture is "paved", or is it just generally dusty? I think the roads in CMSF look to western, anyone know of a good mod?

[Paper Tiger]

LOL. I have to confess that when I was scrolling down through this thread and saw your photo of the street, just for a second, I thought it was a screenshot - which, incidentally, looks a lot like a typical street in Indonesia.

[Clavicula_Nox]

Actually looking at it more, would you say that road in the picture is "paved", or is it just generally dusty? I think the roads in CMSF look to western, anyone know of a good mod?

It looks like a paved road with a lot of dirt/sand/dust.

[Jonny(FGM)]

Some more WIP shots

[Jonny(FGM)]

RPG alley is coming along nicely

I'm going to add as much detail as i can to the western part of the town as that is where you will be fighting, the eastern edge pretty much acts as a covered route for enemy reinforcements so won't need to be as detailed.

[eniced73]

Looks good! I read through the posts and noticed that you were planning on using lots of artillery on the second mission (if you lose the first). My personal opinion is to use artillery sparringly. Albeit the allies will have lots of it I think it takes away from the game. Unless you balance out the Red side by giving them more or better fire power. Just an opinion.

[Jonny(FGM)]

I have toned down the artillery and CAS from V1 of that scenario, but when you have 1/2 of a british recce platoon (under 20 men) coming under attack from about 600 men you need that arty

[Jonny(FGM)]

The northwest corner of the map has been laid out, some extra detail added in, need to go through every one of those buildings and cap the no of windows on a wall to 3, make them the thin type windows and generally add detailed. What have i let myself in for . . . . . . .

[Jonny(FGM)]

About 50% of the map done, unfortunately it's the easiest 50% of the map lol. The northeastern corner of the map is going to be the hardest to do as this is where the majority of the buildings are.

Another look at the reference picture I'm using

And here is a top down view of the map

looking south-west from RPG alley

Looking out over the British staging zone

I've had to guess at a lot of the building layouts as the resolution on google earth of this area is pretty poor, but overall i think the layout looks about right

[Jonny(FGM)]

A shot of the town market, I'm guessing most of you will be avoiding this like the plague lol

[Vergeltungswaffe]

Sniper paradise. Looking good.

[Jonny(FGM)]

Probably not that much of a sniper's paradise, the battle will be fought at night. However RPG gunners will probably have a field day. However I will be releasing the map to the community so somebody could make a nice day battle with lots of snipers : )

I'm just looking in to when to set this, on 1st May there is no moon, and this would probably give the Brits too much of an advantage, but looking at 15th may when there is a full moon it looks a bit too bright.

[Jonny(FGM)]

About 75% of the 2D work done

[Jonny(FGM)]

Progress is steady but slow

At the moment the map is totally flat, i'm not too sure what to do with the height settings. The terrain contours on google earth arn't accurate enough to use really, this whole region looks pretty flat though so i think some tactically placed terrain undulations should do ; ), tips/advice?

[Sgt Joch]

google maps has a "terrain" setting which you can use to see contours. I find it more useful than Google Earth for that aspect.

Draw the general elevations and then fine tune it up or down, even small differences in elevation can be very effective in game.

nice map so far.

[Jonny(FGM)]

Sorry i meant google maps not google earth. Looking at the terrain feature there aren't even any terrain lines in the map area i'm making, I think i'm just going to keep the town itself flat and everything around it within 5m or so in terms of height, tactically placed to give some nice overwatching high ground

[ChrisND]

Raising some of the roads between the fields 1-2m wouldn't be a bad idea. Maybe put a canal in there somewhere. Also, very gentle slopes (1-2m) across the entire map add up over distance.

[Jonny(FGM)]

Well that's the 2D work done (apart from elevations)

just a hell of a lot of clicking in 3D mode to do now!