Fortress of Amun-Shir (4) (Soulstorm)

[kingfisher13]

YO PEEPZ!!!! WHHHHAZZZZUUUPP????!!!!

Anyway, I have created a map, my very first, and I thought I would share it with everybody. It's called the Fortress of Amun-Shir, and here is its description:

Deep in the Frozen Wastes of Anankis VII lies the long forgotten fortress of Amun-Shir. Thousands of years old, the fortress dates back to the time of the God Emperor, whose holy feet may very well have stood on these frozen plains. Ancient relics litter the wastes, unguarded for millenia. Will you claim the fortress as your own, or will you join the long dead who lie here? Until such time, the only sound heard in this desolate place is the deathless whisper of the cold, arctic wind... (Best played in 2 vs. 2)

Basically it is a four-player map, ideal for either free-for-all or 2 vs. 2. It is a 512 x 512 map, large for a 4 player map, but that only adds to the fun of it. The four players are situated in the corners, two on the first level of the fotress, two out in the drifts. Connecting the fortress to the drifts are two causeways on the fortress, each located near the base of players 1 and 2 . Players 3 and 4 are connected to the fortress via a series of passages through the snow, protected by a series of strategic points, placed at critical intervals. There are 6 SPs located on these paths, which lie in the center of the map. Each base has 2 SPs protecting its immediate borders, as well as 2 SPs farther out. A single SP inside the base area protects 2 slag deposits, allowing for a nice boost early on for power and req.

Also present, between each of the two sets of bases, lies a shrine containing two relics and a critical location. As there are only two critical locations, take-and-hold is not recommended. This however, allows (in vanilla Soulstorm) two teams to each have relic units without having to fight over the relic. For the Ultimate Apocalypse mod, in which CLs are needed to produce titans and fire superweapons, the choice must still be made- which is fair, as titans are significantly more powerful than standard relic units. Each shrine is protected by four SPs.

The map uses minimal decals to run easier on less-capable machines, but contains plenty of props and gizmos to add character to the map. I have played it once before this post, and I had no problems with any part of it, even while having massive numbers of titans on the map. Anyway, enough talk. Here are some screenshots:




Not the best screenshots, but I don't want to give away too much. Here is the link: http://www.mediafire.com/?m43zuqk3sxo3vwt

I use mediafire because it has the best free user service, and no download speed limitation. All credit is mine for this map, please do not redistribute or modify ANYWHERE without my permission.

Instructions: Unzip the zip file using 7zip or the like, and place all the files inside the folder into your Dawn of War - Soulstorm/DXP2/Data/scenarios/MP folder. It is also compatible with Dark Crusade, but Soulstorm has everything DC has and more, so I don't even use it.

Anyway, enjoy the map. Positive feedback and constructive criticism are welcome.

[jONES1979]

Mmm, new maps for DOW! CooL!!!

Have you plans to add some scar-scripts to the map, at least basic like music themes or weather change?

The map uses minimal decals to run easier on less-capable machines,

I respect your choice, but without decals the map looks bare/humble/poor, forgive me my Russian.

[fuggles]

Also, DoW is 8 years old, I wouldn't worry about computers running things very much - trust me, I hate adding decals but they do make the map. Is nice to see a new mapper about though - keep it up!

[kingfisher13]

Hey, thanks guys for the support. I don't know how to use SCAR scripting, I usually try to avoid scripting and programming language, as it is often extremely complicated and difficult to use. There are decals in this map- I didn't say there were none, I just tried to make them as little used as possible. My computer is 5 years old, and was never made for gaming, even then. I usually experience some lag on larger maps, or maps with lots of decals, especially when there are a bunch of units in the same place. That's why, unfortunately, any map I create that I intend to use myself will have minimal decals

I would like to learn how to script in a snowstorm or sandstorm, though, that would be awesome. Thanks again for the advice, and I hope you enjoy my map :3

[uncle_anaesthesia]

hey king if your comps only 5 yrs old then go for it mate and add some decals and some more models. you may want to make the playable area a wee bit less than 1024 so as to give some depth to the original map.
get you imagination going there is so much you can achieve without lagging your game

[fuggles]

SCAR is really easy, just let me know if you need a hand, however snow is easier still. That is just an object in the ambient section of the entity dropper in the map editor.

[Jaguar-Lord]

welcome in the map-room Kingfisher !

as guys said above : do not be afraid to use a lot of decals, if ever the map is less than 1024x1024 nowadays comp, and even 5yrs old comp, wont have any problem running it with the better (and even more ) graphic setting possible.
+decals is what turns a bare flat lands into a good environment. i count less than ten decals on the map, a good point when it comes to increase performance but a very negative impact on design and ambiance. there a complete lack of snow and ice feeling, this can be only achieve with decals and fx. (you got snowfall fx object available in snow/fx folder ,but you need WinterAssault instaled to access it. )
+if you are afraid of decals, you can always design you own details map stamps and blend them together with Photoshop or Gimp to have nice seamless ground painting with only the Mission Editor stamp too.
+now about the sky+fog: you should adjust the fog density and color for it to match the sky base color (your fog color is white, try RGB: 149/166/172TSL : 130/29/151 this is the optimal blending with the ELdarStronghold _sky)

+impass map needs to be utterly completed :take a look at your mountains.... there are a lot of free squares, remote pools of free space, inaccessible by ground troops. this can lead to a of of pathing issue and problem (especially if a squad get blown up and scattered by artillery and one of its unit get up in one of these free squares. the wall impass map need also to be completed . take a look at your mountains....

+the mountains and various "ice"outcrop need some visible display such as rock/snow decals and such ...without them it is complicated to have a good understanding of the environment. everything is the same colour and texture, you can achieve great improvement in this area too.

+now you need a good minimap and icon, the base one that you provided with the map are not very useful (and very ugly !! ) thus said you didn't omitted them which is a good point for you
+and don't forget the most important : the Loading screen !! staring at the old dusty vanila loading screen if depressing , make you own this is where you can sign your work and add you very personal touch !
have fun and ask for anything if you need help.


JL

[kingfisher13]

NICE, thanks, fuggles and jaguar. That is exactly what I was talking about. I would like some help with SCAR editing- I basically want to add some sound effects, like blowing wind, maybe the cawing of a crow, at points in the map, so you hear them when you move across the map. I would also like to add blowing snow, like a blizzard. I will try to add more decals, but I was serious about my computer barely handling the game- it has an integrated Intel graphics card, with the equivalent power of a very slow 64 mb vram card. It basically means if I have more than ten buildings in view at a time, I lose framerate considerably. That's not even taking into account units and animations... But anyway, I will work on all the stuff you guys mentioned, and I will make it much better

EDIT: I fixed all the impass problems, added a crapload of decals, added a nice furious blizzard, and I will fix the fog when I get home. However, I don't know how to make a better minimap or icon... I know how to have the editor make one for you, but that was what I got when I did so. I will create a loading screen as well, I have some ideas in mind. How do you make better icons and minimaps?

Also, VERY IMPORTANT: How do you make the terrain properties window totally visible on your screen? The only way I have been able to see the whole thing and actually use it is when I am using my HD 1080 monitor at home. My current resolution is 1280x800, which should be more than enough... any ideas? Thanks!

[Kasrkin84]

The problem with the terrain properties window is something that isn't fixable other than by increasing your screen resolution. I have mine at the maximum available of 1920x1200, which just about lets the whole thing fit on the screen. How much of it are you actually able to see?

For the minimap / icon issue, the way I do it is as follows:

1. Get Corsix ModStudio.
2. Use it to open any Dark Crusade mod, it doesn't matter which. Just remember which one.
3. Navigate to "Data/camera_me.lua" and extract it. Close Corsix.
4. Navigate to "Dark Crusade/modname/data" in Windows Explorer where you should find "camera_me.lua". Cut and paste this file into "Dark Crusade/engine/data".
5. Using Notepad, open up "camera_me.lua" and find the lines "DefaultDeclination = 45" and "DefaultOrbit = 45". Change these to "DefaultDeclination = 90" and "DefaultOrbit = 0". You may also wish to increase the value of "DistMax" so you can zoom out sufficiently on larger maps to take a full screenshot.
6. Open up your completed map in the Mission Editor. The camera should now be looking directly down at the map. Do not adjust the camera in any way other than zooming in or out for the rest of this process. Also, do not save your map at any point.
7. Zoom out just enough to see the entirety of the map, but no further.
8. Go to the heightmap editor, and use the following settings: Mode = SetValue, Brush = 32, Feather = 0, Strength = 100. The height should be set to half-way between the highest and lowest height levels on your map that troops and buildings can use (ignore impassable terrain like deep water and mountains for this). Place four blobs of this at each corner of your map.
9. Use "Scenario/Entity List" to hide all the starting positions, strategic points, relics, critical locations, slag deposits and player units and buildings on your map.
10. Take a screenshot, and then close down the Mission Editor. Do not save.
11. Open up any decent image editing software (I use GIMP) and paste the screenshot as a new image.
12. Crop the image to the four corners of your map (should be an even square thanks to the heightmap editing you did).
13. Change the canvas size to 50% and centre the image, so it cuts away everything around the outside, and set it to resize all layers. What's left in the middle should match the playable area of your map.
14. Scale the image to 256x256. Depending on how much you are scaling the image down, you may like to add some blur to the image before you do this. I don't usually, but it's up to you.
15. Save as an uncompressed .tga file using the following format: "mapname_mm_custom.tga". This is your minimap. It should go in the same folder as your map's .sgb file.
16. To create the map icon, scale the image down to 128x128 pixels and use the text function to add numbers to your map, corresponding to each player's starting location. Save this as an uncompressed .tga file using the following format: "mapname_icon_custom.tga". Same location as the minimap.
17. Fire up Dark Crusade and try out your map.

There are other tricks you will need to learn, such as for when creating rectangular maps, but this should be sufficient for this map.

[kingfisher13]

When I use my monitor, the entire window is easily visible with room to spare, but with my laptop's display, I can't see the ok button, so I can't use the terrain tool when not at home. It's kind of a pain, but I will be home soon, and I can fix everything using my monitor. I will look into doing the minimap and icons now. Thanks for the help