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Anyone making maps?


jonp

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CMSF vets should be able to adapt well enough, but it may take awhile for newbies or CMBx1 players to master both map making and AI orders sets. I suggest all wannabe scenario makers (and I hope that's everybody) spend time looking over the standing scenario AI orders sets in the editor to get an idea of how it gets done. Even QB maps need decent AI orders sets. :)

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CMSF vets should be able to adapt well enough, but it may take awhile for newbies or CMBx1 players to master both map making and AI orders sets. I suggest all wannabe scenario makers (and I hope that's everybody) spend time looking over the standing scenario AI orders sets in the editor to get an idea of how it gets done. Even QB maps need decent AI orders sets. :)

Didn't realize that QB maps needed AI order sets. I guess I need to read the manual (looking forward to getting it in the mail)

Thx

jonpfl

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I am starting work on one map, fairly large (950m x 700m) depicting a small river wandering through the middle with wooded lands and farming (bocage) villages on both sides on terrain climbing from the river valley. I also am doing my own version of a sunken lane- seems to be a hot item right now... ;)

It actually is based on a drawing I made a few years back for a Call of Duty map in Radiant, however, the game interest fell off and I never did anything with it until now. Learning the editor will be easier when my manual arrives so I don't have to keep ALT-Tab'ing out to the .pdf file.

Three means to cross the river for now- stone bridge in middle, ford on one flank in a swampy area, and a footbridge on the other.

I will keep you guys informed and am sure I will be asking for advise here plenty before it is done.

Glad to see so much interest! :cool:

G.

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A question for one of you mapper vets:

Have you found that river crossings give the AI fits thus far? In my post above I have three in an area about 750m wide. Two will support vehicular/heavy traffic and a footbridge is near one edge. Am I going to need to be careful how I write the AI plans due to this foot-only restriction?

Thanks.

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Gromit

After an amphibious landing, I'd imagine that a contested river crossing is one of the most hazardous military operations. Further, such a mission is likely to involve quite large numbers of units. The AI requires a lot of work and tweaking to make it effective on the attack and so a river crossing is a real toughie for it to pull off.

I'd suggest to you that you make the river tiles shallow ford tiles and not water tiles. That way, the river will be fordable along its entire length. Or create a few fordable sections and keep a few impassable ones. Only allowing it to cross at two points (vehicles) will result in horrible bottlecks and it will give an AI group kittens trying to get 2 or more vehicles across them... under fire... oh my!

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I've got one mostly finished (terrain only) and I just now getting my head around the AI scripting stuff. I didn't realize that in just doing a map (no units) I had to assign AI---discovered it when trying to test as defender and the AI attacker just sat there in the setup zones. Guess I'm still stuck in CMx1 brain mode.

Haven't experimented with AI plans yet but I'm assuming I can just do a simple "attack the two terrain objectives" to begin with.

Wait....how do I assign AI plans if I'm not putting built-in units on the map? :confused: I've read through the pertinent sections of the manual but it's not exactly clear to me.

Actually, I should probably stop guessing and take the earlier suggestion and load up some of the built-in QB maps and have a look at them. :)

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A word to you guys who are struggling with scripting the AI.

First, rename your QB map folder 'Official QB Maps' and create a new QB map folder. Put your virgin map into this folder. That way, you will have no problems tracking down your map when you fire up a QB. You'll also learn some other important things by doing this that you won't if you have 300+ maps to chose from...

Make sure that both sides have set up zones. Create a very basic Attack plan. One Group - one movement order. Keep the distance between them quite short, say 100m -200m for starters. Fire up the mission and play as Defender. Chose Infantry only for now as groups with vehicles require more careful planning.

Use Scenario Author mode to watch what the AI does with your AI plans. You will learn more in 30 minutes of watching the AI do its thing in this mode than you will exchanging posts here on these boards for twice that time. Create a really simple AI movement plan. Set up - move to Order 1 and watch the fun. Make notes. Make changes, try again. Add a second group to your AI plan. Repeat. Then try adding a second movement order to one of the groups, etc, and you'll catch on.

With scenario author mode, the AI controlled side is completely exposed to you. You can see what each soldier is doing, is able to spot, C2 issues, etc. You will also see any flaws in your script really quickly, such as getting through bocage/pathfinding issues etc. Then you can effect changes to your map to facilitate the AI's movement.

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Can a scenario map be used as a QB map? If this is possible, scenarios can be an additional source of QB maps if the designers will upload the maps.

Request to map makers... please make more small maps for QB. I like playing small unit fire fights. Quick and intense.

Thanks

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