Messages

301

Maps, tilesets and scenarios / Re: Volcanic Released

« on: 10 November 2009, 21:24:21 »

surface_1e

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[URL=http://s821.photobucket.com/albums/zz136/TrappinGlestMaps/?action=view&current=surface_1e.jpg][IMG]http://i821.photobucket.com/albums/zz136/TrappinGlestMaps/th_surface_1e.jpg[/img][/URL]
burnt shrubbery

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[IMG]http://i821.photobucket.com/albums/zz136/TrappinGlestMaps/volcanic_suggest.jpg[/img]
tileset conventions dictate certain object types cannot be changed beyond shape, form, texture and walkable nature (true)/(false). We need bushes, shrubs and plants in the 4-bush and 5-water object slots or the tileset loses qualities of generic portability when viewed on maps designed with differing tilesets.

The old v1.0 volcanic_tileset surface_1e looks great - small and meduim sized pebbles - people complained about them but you were on the right track and just needed a couple more random tiles to choose from when generating the ground textures.

Athena's_Valley.gbm

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[IMG]http://i821.photobucket.com/albums/zz136/TrappinGlestMaps/athenasvalley.jpg[/img]
Volcanic needs larger (bigger than the typical bush on forest tilesets) burnt-looking bushes otherwise the playfield is too barren - yes its a burnt and destroyed world but we need to populate the surface with objects or it looks incomplete.

302

Maps, tilesets and scenarios / Re: Volcanic Released

« on: 10 November 2009, 05:20:06 »

Maps made specifically for this tileset will still look nice but generic maps designed using forest type tilesets will look quite bad. Athena's_Valley.gbm is a very cool forest map but looks like hell in Volcanic. And by "Hell" I mean hundreds of bone corpses scattered all over the map... Orion used hundreds of bushes and water objects when she designed the playfield.

surface_1e has an odd repetition on Magma.gbm so I revived the old volcanic_tileset and imported the new sound fx then "liberated" 4-bush and 5-water objects from other tileset authors. The private build looks okay and can be used when gaming on generic forest/evergreen maps.

It's not fair to needle Omega about this tileset - its done.

303

Maps, tilesets and scenarios / Re: Map: Wadi Nefud - November 2009

« on: 10 November 2009, 04:12:57 »

I appreciate the hard work of all the modders here on the forum. The game looks much better when using the complex composited textures people are creating on the latest generation of image editing software. Lots of fun maps, tilesets and factions make Glest look and feel like a new game.

RE: Roman faction size3 units.

I think this size breaks AI pathing functionality on a number of maps made by a whole host of different authors - but i haven't tested which maps are affected yet. Not sure what should be done, if anything. I test all my maps by running multiple ultra cpu games using different factions - the checks are:

1- enough room for start location building - ultra AI typically constructs at least 12 buildings around the starting area leading to unit movement congestion.
2- resource node location placement to ensure AI units do not become stuck while harvesting in large groups.
3- AI Pathfinding on long routes - ensure AI can find the hostile base or group of hostiles.
4- pathing at least 3 tiles wide at chokepoints - entry/exits to start locations tend to be narrow to accommodate defensive oriented gamers - turtles and porcupines.
5- game world visual appeal - does the map look good at various locations? Do objects enhance the organic feel of the map? Do hills, valley's, mountains and artificial trails and roads look natural?

Wadi Nefud is a very difficult map to play on if a player tries to move large groups at the same time. Tag on it should read: Difficult map for newbies. I think I'll leave all previous maps as they are but plan future maps around size3 models. I have 3 unreleased maps under construction and 2 of them may fail the size3 criteria.

PS: Map naming convention for maps using surface texture custom5 (STC5) will be tagged: Map_NameSTC5.gbm / Wadi NefudSTC5.gbm

304

Maps, tilesets and scenarios / Re: Map Making Tips & Guidelines

« on: 9 November 2009, 23:23:58 »

http://glestmaps.wikia.com/
Trick the player and conform to the AI pathing rules:

1) Draw diagonal perimeter lines on a map as the first step using the pink colored invisible blocking 10-C5
2) build the usable playfield as desired.

Here is where we add visual object and surface elements to the map while conforming to AI pathing rules. These areas are highlighted on the map with yellow circles.

3) Place objects outside the perimeter of the ground unit playfield - ground units cannot travel in this area so a mapper can break AI pathing rules. This method enhances the visual appearance of maps - things just look better.

305

Off topic / Re: Off Topic - Main

« on: 9 November 2009, 07:22:52 »

People have always been disturbed by the story of Isaac's binding but pointing to the horror of what God commanded and then swiftly condemning religion and the people who choose to follow it seems shortsighted and uninformed. Casual dismissal is anti-intellectualism. Great men have pondered on this story. Kirkegaard offered three or four alternate endings while explaining Leap of Faith. French existentialist (forget name) explores Bad Faith which leads to Freudian concepts on the human mind. The western intellectual path of discovery travels through Isaac and leads to us.

I can't claim to understand religious faith but secular/atheist people do encounter a faith variant in daily life - romantic love.

Scientists can observe and manipulate magnetic lines of flux to our benefit but we really have no idea what it is. Science assumes many things that cannot be proven IE: magnetic lines of force travel in north south directions. Can't prove it but I take it on faith that science is correct. E=MC2 is such an abstract thought and concept that people like me take it as an article of faith that science is leading us down the correct path but it might as well declare god=omnipotent for all I know.

Modman: You are a mathematician right - Physics? Do you not see the poetry? Is the magnificent beauty and symmetry of complex formulae just a construct of our own minds or is it more than that? Just numbers we scribble? Many years ago I experienced an philosophical epiphany while working on a complex math problem - for a brief moment in time I saw into the beauty of it all, and then it was gone. That moment lasted no more than .0001 seconds but has remained with me for more than twenty five years. It didn't change my life or grant me supernatural powers.

The paths of science and religion are not mutually exclusive but compliment one another and will lead humanity to a greater future. (all this from the mouth of a cynic = there is hope for the world after all)

edit: I have a response to Omega but that is later.

306

Off topic / Re: Off Topic - Main

« on: 9 November 2009, 01:49:37 »

Look to the people of history you admire and respect. Did they wear religion on their sleeves? Maybe they were radical thinkers and defied traditional religious orthodoxy. As an American I look to Ben Franklin, Samuel Clemens, Thomas Paine, Washington and others. Some were devout Christians, others deists but none were athiests.

Paine was an early socialist - as is possible by modern standards. He was a radical revolutionary and spent many years in exile and a year(?) in French prison. Franklin was his friend, Washington an early ally but later they parted ways. But all of these men believed, at varying levels, that there was something more to the natural world and universe than mere collections of atoms, light and gravity. Samuel Clemens lived at another period in our history but would easily have been a revolutionary - I'm not aware of his religious beliefs but I know he carried with him notions of the spiritual world.

I'm not sure of the advantage we gain by bickering on the internet - the same old arguments and rebuttals are recycled over and over again. No consensus will be reached and no victory can be claimed by anyone. The only way we lose the right to worship god - or not - is by allowing our elected official to dominate our lives through onerous legislative acts. We bicker and moan while our governments devise ways to consolidate power for their own selfish purposes.

  

307

General discussion / Re: Early Magic attack against AI Tech Opponents.

« on: 8 November 2009, 01:26:14 »

Early RTS game attacks are known as rushing and as noted by kedaha can be a very effective strategy versus AI and player controlled units.

Archers and Swordsmen will always try to kill the 2 Daemons so by moving them around with the mouse.

MMORPG tactic known as kiting - Everquest 1 Druid class and Anarchy Online Nano-Technicians breed use this for powerleveling groups of players.

Cool topic kedaha.  

Rush and swarm works on some maps too. Rush using kedaha's tactic but then quickly build an energy well then start summoning daemons for swarms against the next opponent.

Destroy farms -> kill workers -> ruin castle.

308

Maps, tilesets and scenarios / Re: surface5a ( extra ground texture)

« on: 7 November 2009, 22:02:51 »

Evergreen STC5 is nice - and the Mediterranean C5 is very, very, very, cool - the texture made the Wadi Nefud map look incredible.

Why is STC5 (surface texture custom5) on the map editor but never used in tilesets? Tilesets have a default surface for STC5 slot so why the new code? Don't bother answering in XML coding language - since I won't understand anyhow. If STC5 is enabled (using the code titi supplied) for the official Glest 3.2.2 build will this not break the multiplayer function? If so, then this warrants an official Glest v3.2.3 build?

I won't use STC5 on maps if it isn't standardized for all users.

If tileset designers want to use surface texture custom5 then the default map editor v1.3.0_build colors need to be modified.

IMAGE

• Top row: 1-tree and 8-C3 are nearly indistinguishable when viewing a 128x128 or 256x256 map in the editor.
• Second row: 1-tree, 8-C3 and Custom5 red square.
• Third row: Surface texture custom5 masks the red 1-tree and red 8-C3 pixels when height elevations are added to the map.

.

  
Maybe change 8-C3 to a deep orange color and 7-C2 to purple and the deep red surface custom 5 to a meduim shade of Cyan.

EDIT:
Added a special page for custom glest maps using STC5 at the http://glestmaps.wikia.com/

309

Maps, tilesets and scenarios / Re: New! moon tileset

« on: 6 November 2009, 18:17:23 »

Very unique and ambitious tileset Elimnator. Monochrome themes can be a difficult medium to work with - especially for video games. US filmmakers, during the 1940's, didn't have the luxury of using color film stock on every studio film production but they had one clear advantage over modern indie game designers -the innovative use of lighting. The result was film noir productions - many of them were low budget with poor production values - but others survived.... most notably Casablanca and Citizen Kane. Modern color film-noir (future noir) examples include Blade Runner and Dark City.

Maybe you can control lighting using visual coding tricks or day/night value setting in the XNL code.

Have you ever seen screenshots of the indie game Darwinia? The darwinia developers achieved something quite interesting by fusing 8bit sound fx with visual homages to old video games and the Disney film Tron.

Nice work.

Edit: Space sounds - Vangelis/synth music fits space themes, those funny old 1950's sounds that accompany Sputnik satellite black and white film stock animations (beep.. beep.. beep) and submarine sonar sounds .. ping ... ping... ping and even the goofy star trek 1960's computer sounds. very funny.

Note: No 4- Bush object? just checking since it didn't render on my map.

310

Maps, tilesets and scenarios / Re: Tile set reqests

« on: 6 November 2009, 00:11:45 »

Depends on the theme.

Fantasy moon, 2001 or Forbidden Planet

311

Maps, tilesets and scenarios / Re: Map: Wadi Nefud - November 2009

« on: 5 November 2009, 20:08:41 »

Re: custom5 surface textures

Since titi created tilesets with textures for the Custom5 slot map designers may need an updated basic editor.



Check the GAE map editor thread.

[update by titi ( corrected the link )]

312

Maps, tilesets and scenarios / Re: Swamp tileset (download available)

« on: 5 November 2009, 05:38:06 »

Designed a swamp map here.

313

Maps, tilesets and scenarios / Re: Map: Wadi Nefud - November 2009

« on: 5 November 2009, 02:40:18 »

Relentless at sniping, parsing and bickering. Kid, you got style.

Version is outdated.

314

Maps, tilesets and scenarios / Re: Map: Wadi Nefud - November 2009

« on: 5 November 2009, 01:58:14 »

Added +4 more gold resource nodes per faction.

315

Maps, tilesets and scenarios / Re: Map: Wadi Nefud - November 2009

« on: 4 November 2009, 23:56:57 »

Okay titi, thanks. Updated version done and ready for review.

Will also check the  texture pack(s).

The brown texture (custom5) on Mediterranean is nice - it has a very complex color palate. I'd like to see this surface texture used more often.

Thanks John - 7z download link is now broken - sorry.

316

Maps, tilesets and scenarios / Re: Map: Wadi Nefud - November 2009

« on: 4 November 2009, 21:37:29 »

You went through my post like an old lady picking through a bowl of snap beans. Are we bickering about running a simple .rar application on Linux? I just wanna know which petty bullshit path we will be traveling down.

I will reiterate. You archive the 7z map files and I'll link them via the original post.

317

Maps, tilesets and scenarios / Re: Tile set reqests

« on: 4 November 2009, 20:45:26 »

Apology accepted.

318

Maps, tilesets and scenarios / Re: Tile set reqests

« on: 4 November 2009, 20:41:06 »

Fit and finish preexisting tilesets before marching forward on completely new/ambitious projects.

Volcanic Tileset is a very good idea and it just needs some tuning to be perfect. Omega seems less than enthusiastic to do further work on it.

To do list includes:

Diversify the object list: too many skeletons/bone objects.  4-bush is good  but '5-water obj'   6-C1  7-C2 8-C3 need to be replaced with other models wich fit the theme.

Adjust sound files:  some foreground sounds are too loud and others are low quality - the lightning sound FX is terrible.

Surface texture: Stone should be re-textured.

Agree? seems I beat you to the punch on this. I have all afternoon to bicker with ya - so do yer best

319

Maps, tilesets and scenarios / Re: Tile set reqests

« on: 4 November 2009, 20:33:34 »

It's not minor, this is why I linked the object list and the element palate. You gonna bicker to the last word on this?

320

Maps, tilesets and scenarios / Re: Map: Wadi Nefud - November 2009

« on: 4 November 2009, 20:31:36 »

But I would suggest to use the red earth instead for now, the texture is not that good , it hurts the eye

Swap all custom5 to secondary? Okay, I can do that and will add more gold/iron resources.

titi - I tend to make maps for specific tilesets which in turn makes them look odd when loading the map into a non-preferred tileset . I spend a lot of time making these maps, maybe its just me, but the process of making maps is slow and takes a lot of practice to master.

Re: 7z files - If you guys zip the map and archive it then I'll be more than happy to add the 7z download link to the map download list on the original post. The file size difference between the .rar and 7z is 12,000 bytes and 10,600 bytes respectively. I'm a bit OCD and really dislike hosting multiple file versions of the same map - in fact I deleted my old MediaFire map file folder because people complained I was using 7z compression. Don't believe me? search my old post topics. 

*Nothing against Linux users - I just use what my computer comes with from the factory.

Alright, Wadi Nefud V2.0 coming soon.

321

Maps, tilesets and scenarios / Re: Tile set reqests

« on: 4 November 2009, 20:12:50 »

Objects are essential for a good looking map - if the tileset lacks visual appeal it affects the overall game play.

Why bother with images and models when we could all play as stick figure models shooting white dots at black squares?

Anyone up for some Breakoutâ„¢ multiplayer?

322

Maps, tilesets and scenarios / Re: Tile set reqests

« on: 4 November 2009, 19:59:28 »

Fit and finish preexisting tilesets before marching forward on completely new/ambitious projects.



Volcanic Tileset is a very good idea and it just needs some tuning to be perfect. Omega seems less than enthusiastic to do further work on it.

To do list includes:

Diversify the object list: too many skeletons/bone objects.  4-bush is good  but '5-water obj'   6-C1  7-C2 8-C3 need to be replaced with other models wich fit the theme.

Adjust sound files:  some foreground sounds are too loud and others are low quality - the lightning sound FX is terrible.

Surface texture: Stone should be re-textured.

323

Maps, tilesets and scenarios / Re: Mediterran tileset (released)

« on: 3 November 2009, 19:06:54 »

designed a map for this tileset here.

324

Maps, tilesets and scenarios / GlestMaps: Wadi Nefud - November 2009

« on: 3 November 2009, 19:01:32 »

Wadi Nefud

• Map Size: 128x128 but the playfield is smallish.
• Preferred Tileset: Mediterranean
  
• Map Type: Generic 4 player
• Resource Allotment: average
• Download: http://www.mediafire.com/file/jtyt5cm3igl/Wadi_Nefud.rar
• File type: .rar
• Wikia: http://glestmaps.wikia.com/
• Date: November 2009

Additional Notes - May be difficult moving large unit types/groups

.


Comments, complaints and suggestions for improving this map are encouraged.

Wadi Rum and Wadi Nefud in real life.

325

Mods / Re: Tasks of the GLADE Team

« on: 3 November 2009, 16:21:48 »

There seems to be plenty of teams but not much is being accomplished.

In Texas they call it "all hat and no cattle".