[Map] Operation Archer [released]

[[R-DEV]PARAMEDIC.CA]

Hey all:
Though I would introduce something that I have been working on for a few months now. It started out as my "break from schoolwork" thing and is near completion. In saying this, I figure I would present it to the PR community as a WIP. IMO, the PR community has the most critical mapping pundits per capita in all of gamming (lol, jk -kinda )... Nonetheless, we will be testing alot in the near future and would appreciate feedback.

OPERATION ARCHER: Winter 2009, North Eastern Afghanistan

TEAMS: USMC vs. MEC
MAP SIZE: 1024X1024
CP's: 14
SG's: 10

INFO: The American led Operation Archer is a push to remove the MEC forces out of a northwest province of Afghanistan. The 2 objectives of the US coalition forces is to push through the City and retake the nuculear plant east of the city. British intel suggests that the plant has been creating WMD's under the cover of a domestic engery generation plant. The Coalition's secondary objective is to destroy the opium plantations that generate funding for the MEC. The MEC have responded to the American advance with a objective to regain control of the oil production facility in the south and to abolish western influences within the region.

• OVERVIEW MAP: MAP
• COALITON HQ:
• OIL PLATFORM:
• MEC OUTPOST:
• INSURG, VILLAGE:
• COALITION OUTPOST:
• MEC CHECKPOINT:
• UN DEPOT:
• VILLAGE:
• ENERGY PLANT:
• MEC HQ:
• CITY:http://forums.dvbsquad.com/imagehost...b110e85c5a.jpg
• OPIUM PLANTATION: ,

.

[GeZe]

looks very nice

I like the terrain, a break from the normal flatness that we have in most maps.

[Maistros]

Looks pretty cool, but the main thing that urks me about it so far is that the terrain seems to steep and sharp. Doesn't look like realistic cliff sides or shapes. Especially the spear pointed mountain tops.. there's one that looks like a triangle. Seems like you need to take the smoothing tool to the tops a bit.

Also, try going in and doing some hand-painting on the textures to give it a more realistic feel. Do some very slight color variations in the color/texture mode and it will add more to it.

As well, seems like the oil platform area could use a lot more industrial objects to be a more fully functional oil facility. There should be a ton more pipes, and tanks, and really feel like the most industrial part of the map.. since oil facilities are incredibly industrial.

Also, the terrain at the top of that cliff side base or wherever the littlebird is.. it looks like the size of a skyscraper but a cliff.. which isn't natural. Plateaus like that would be very large, and not have such a steep incline.. it needs more of a support base at the bottom.

Nice concept though.. really like the "beauty" of the opium fields.

[V3N0N_br]

I did like it a lot, the minimap looks cool. So does parts of the terrain, just make sure you consider what maistros said too.

http://forums.dvbsquad.com/imagehost...b110ef036f.jpg
Take a look there. These houses seen to be all facing the same direction, wich doesn't look that good given the fact it's a village.

http://forums.dvbsquad.com/imagehost...b13e2e1ca0.jpg
You're using the wrong heli pad. This one may be used, but I personnaly think it looks weird...
mAybe you should try the objects\roads\staticsnoblend\concretehelipad


http://forums.dvbsquad.com/imagehost...b1309de8d5.jpg
There's a misplaced brickwall there - maybe I'm just being frisky, it won't change the game at all, but maybe there's a simple fix for it.

Also, you should add more walls and industrial objects to the power plant too...it looks too empty, I'm not sure if there are any of those reactors towers in Afeghanistan. That's not really a stopper if you look at it, so doesn't mean you'll have to get rid of them.

Pretty sure this map really took some of your time, and well, IMO it's looking good
Maybe you should try fixing stuff above and maybe releasing a beta.

[luizinhuu]

be-heautiful map, use as much custom statics as you can!! =)

and make it as big or bigger than jabal

and keep it flatless

[[R-MOD]Mongolian_dude]

Its real nice.

couple thingies though.

1) the Cliffs are a little....steep. They are only REALLY like that in the cartoons lol.

2)Construction site is a little too clean

3) Laggy?

...mongol...

[Happy-n00b]

The opium shots look really good... looks like a very promising map. Just some less pointy mountains, and it'll look hella good. The waterfall looks really cool, btw.

[$kelet0r]

Are you going to use destructable buildings? Designing the maps so that there are strategic chokepoints or flags would be an opportunity to implement them

[[R-DEV]PARAMEDIC.CA]

Originally Posted by [R-MOD]Mongolian_dude

Laggy?

The view distance is 600 with fog @ 550. These are pretty demanding numbers. However, I was fairly stingy with undersgrowth and overgrowth and kept the statics to a minimum. So in saying this, with my Nvidia6600 gt i got a frame rate of 60ish with everything on medium and shadows and dynamic lights turned off -pretty good IMO. Havent had the chance to really stress test it, we had 12 squaddies and friends on it the other night and it worked well.

Anyways, tyvm everyone for the advice.
PMED

[[R-DEV]Dr Rank]

Looking good! Without reiterating what has already been said (all of which you should take on board) here are a few other points/suggestions:

• As Maistros said, your texturing needs some work, at the moment it just looks like you T painted it and left it at that. Thats not a bad thing, but giving that some work could really help lift the overall look. At the moment it looks too 'perfect' to be natural. You could also rough up some of the terain, particularly in the rocky areas. Have a look at some similar areas in real life i.e. http://www.painetworks.com/photos/hn/hn1127.JPG - just google 'desert mountains' and have a look at some of the images.
  
  
• Your helipad on the mountain - looks good, but it would be great if you could walk to get up there, even if its fairy steep. Its great to have steep slopes, but I would advise making sure there are a number of different approaches so the assaulting force has options when attacking the area.
  
  
• Again, as has already been said, watch the spiking of mountains etc, refer to some reference pictures to help.
  
  
• One major consideration you must make with regards to your undergrowth (i.e. the poppy fields) is impact density has on performance. The higher the density the more performance intensive it gets (which really hits your RAM hard.) At the moment they look very dense, you might want to turn it down a notch (the last thing you want is laggggg! ). While I'm on the fields, which do look great btw, you might also want to consider the texture of the land they are planted it. Helmand Province is a really good reference for crop textures. You can also use an FPS tool like fraps and move around your map to make sure you get a good average framerate and consider lower spec pcs (i.e. ones with only 1GB RAM). This will let you see what, if any, areas are sucking up the FPS (for me its my damn glows! ).
  
  
• Again, have a look at reference photos for your industrial area too. A lot of improvement can be made just by adding more texture detail.
  
  
• It would be nice to see some more undergrowth/overgrowth (i.e. grass and bushes!) if you look at the reference photo I linked you to you'll see quite a lot of undergrowth. Some brown and green grass could again really add to it (remember to keep the density down! )

There's a lot of pointers here, but don't let that put you off! What you've done looks great and has lots of potential! Building a great map takes a LONG time. Stick at it, don't be afraid to make major changes just to see what they look like (just have a backup copy saved! ).

Keep it up!

Dr Rank