[7A_Woulf]

If you have the FP-space for it, go for some teams with BARs and/or A4s.
-That's my humble opinion  

And personal time? -Well, I'm 'between jobs', had some plans for a OMG mod six months ago, like to sort these type of things out and got an excuse to order some new books for 500+ SEK. Can it get much better?!?  

Enjoy your holiday Hoogley, cya

[Hoogley]

Ok, so it's been a while for updates, and a bit has happened in that time.

Firstly, LSA is out.  Did I blink?!  

Bought it.  Playing it.  Love it.  Adds a lot of features that are specific to the needs of this operation.

So, what do we do?

Well, 7A_Woulf, ronson, and myself have discussed that, and it was a pretty easy answer: keep going.
7A is keen to do the Germans his way; ronson has some really great things happening with the British lists; I want to complete the artistic design and finish this Photoshop Map Painting Template file I'm trying to do.

At the moment I'm re-doing the Arnhem Bridge bgm image from LSA - not because I don't like it, mind, but because "tracing" is the easiest way to work through the template and iron everything out.  If I'm going to trace, might as well trace a map we intend to use.

7A and ronson are studiously researching through the axis and allies and working out the BG and unit tables.  We'll post some info on the development of these lists as soon as there's enough to post.

In the end, this may end up being a "tweak" mod for LSA rather than the originally proposed full TLD mod.  This is yet to be officially decided.  Maybe we could do both; not sure.  I intend to bulldoze through LSA to the end of the GC, so I'll know by then what I would change (req' point costing is already on that list).  :D

Hoogs.

[Andreus]

I'm glad to "hear" that. From the screens you've posted, your mod looks amazing...
Keep it up!

[squadleader_id]

Glad to hear the mod is still moving along...good luck!
Looking forward to 'taste' your PSD map templates too!

[golani_2]

I'm actually glad the game was released this soon before your mod, gives you a great base and a huge head start to get down to the real business and have enough energy to do so right.

Like getting rid of the awful point system...

[Hoogley]

Update on the PSD map template - It all works great until you get into urban/structural details.  I'm "tracing" the Arnhem Bridge map (Southern_Land's map?) as a trial.  All of the grass, dirt, roads/asphalt, footpaths, etc are pretty easy to accomplish and are looking ok (the grass, earth and water are the most successful).  

The fiddly bits like the little stairway on the southern end of the bridge, the cobbled footpath through the park at the north end of the bridge, and all of those bits... proving less successful.  These are the kinds of elements where it would be easier to "build" an object and then just place it, rather than using terrain layering to "paint" them in.  However, the problem is always going to be that if you make preset object, they may not match the specificity of the aerial image you're trying to recreate.  

I've also started to realise that the psd file is HUGE - about 1GB currently @ 4800 x 4800 max resolution, and I'm not even finished yet.  This is because each layer is a full image texture with a layer mask attached.  I think that all of the objects - houses, cars, hedges, cows, etc - will have to be seperate image files dropped in a folder alongside the psd file.  That way you can just import the objects you require instead of starting out with a file 10GB in size and filled with heaps of unneeded objects.

I haven't even started houses yet.

The current terrain layer/folder list is something like this:
Water (Small Body) - Clear (Blue), Muddy (Brown)
Man Made - Asphalt, Concrete, Rock (Piled), Dirt Track, Cobble, Brick, Hex Tiles, Herringbone Tiles
Water (Large Body) - Clear (Blue), Muddy (Brown)
Ground Cover - Grass (Full), Grass (Medium), Grass (Sparse)
Earth - Sand (Patterned), Sand (Smooth), Dirt (Wet), Dirt (Dry), Rocky Dirt (Wet), Rock Dirt (Dry), Pebbles (Brown), Pebbles (Blue), Bedrock

Or something close to that, anyway - I'm not near the file at the moment.

All of these are painted in using standard PS brushes so far.  I'll have to write an accompanying pdf Tutorial for brush guides, etc.

Crops will probably be objects so you can align them how you want, which is why they don't show in the terrain layers.

I'll have to post an image of the map in progress I guess, but there's not much to show at the moment.

[Hoogley]

Ok, so this shows a test work in progress with the map template.  In the end, there's still going to be a lot of construction involved in creating a map.  Sorry, guys, but in copying out the Arnhem Bridge map from LSA, I'm quickly coming to realise that there's only so much that a template and pre-constructed objects can do.  I quickly ended up chopping, copying, and moving terrain layers around on the fly to suit my needs at the time.  Not that that's a bad thing, but it just means you'll still need a bit of Photoshop nous.

What you can see of the bridge is very heavily painted in.  In making the railing for the bridge, I had to duplicate my "concrete" layer and then create a new layer mask to draw it in.  I also had to make a "brightness/contrast" adjustment layer to make it stand out a little from the walkway.  There's not a lot of layer effects being utilised for the shadows; they're all painted in.  Same goes for the topographic rise for the road - all painted in.  The stairs are created by painted in multiple shadow layers to get the shadow overlay look.  I'll probably put an "outer shadow" effect on the bridge shadow to defocus the edges a little.

I am super happy with the water's edge layer effect.  That is one thing you won't have to waste time trying to paint in at least.  It's just done by creating an "outer glow" effect with a heavily jagged and heavily tweaked "quality contour" to get the defined edge and then translucency for the bank show-through.  When painting water in, all you need to do is just play a little with painting/erasing with a soft edged brush at about 10-25% opacity around the shores, and you'll quickly pick up the show through effect.  There's a little bit of a trick to attaining the gradient like look, but it's not too difficult.

The earth around the crops is maybe a little red.  I know crop soil will be different to the surrounding soil, as it is heavily fertilised and worked, but I think this might be a little extreme.  The crops are actually the only "object" I've made so far.  Still a little way from finishing a usable house yet.

Thoughts and opinions?

[Hoogley]

The actual current list of starting layers in the template is as follows:

Shading/Highlights - Topography
Objects - (Added in as needed)
Terrain - Water (Small Body) - Mud Puddle
                                        - Clear Puddle
          - Man Made - Concrete
                            - Wood Chips (may not make the final cut)
                            - Piled Rock
                            - Tile - Hexagon (also dubious)
                            - Tile - Herringbone
                            - Brick (currently only one colour - see Gravel below)
                            - Cobble
                            - Asphalt/Bitumen
                            - Dirt Track
          - Water (Large Body) - Blue River
                                          - Dirty River
                                          (ocean will probably make an appearance eventually)
          - Ground Cover - Grass - Verdant
                                            - Patchy
                                            - Rocky (dubious)
                                            - Sparse
                                 - Earth - Sand - Patterned
                                                        - Smooth
                                             - Mud - Wet
                                                       - Dry
                                             - Dirt - Smooth Wet
                                                      - Smooth Dry
                                                      - Rocky Wet
                                                      - Rocky Dry
                                             - Gravel - Tan
                                                          - Blue (it may be that I only include one colour for any layer and you can just add an adjustment layer to create variations when needed)
                                             - Rock - Sandstone
                                                        - Bedrock

I'm sure it's not over yet...

[squadleader_id]

Looking good, Hoogley! *drool*
Combine that template you're working on with library of pastable objects and buildings...and we should finally have a CC map maker tool!

[Hoogley]

Does anybody know if you can have a "roof" tile over an LSA "bridge" terrain area/object?  I think this question may be for Southern_Land or somebody else from the S3T dev' team.

The reason I ask is that I've drawn in the top of Arnhem bridge.  Problem is, you don't want troops walking over it, so I'm trying to figure out if I can add it as a "roof" to the bridge.  The next problem is that I've never coded a map before, so I don't know if that's possible or not.  Plus, there's the whole issue with exploded images and the like... hmmmm.

Anyone clued in?

I also realised too late that my geometry is wrong.  Damn it.  But, there is no god-damned way I am redrawing that bridge.  

[squadleader_id]

[7A_Woulf]

What are the top of bridges coded as now? I mean, since they disappear/shows when you Ctrl+T to remove/show trees?

In my eyes, the problem with the top of the bridges as roofs is that they are automatically removed when you enter the bridge and personally I prefer to have the 'nicer-for-the-eye' impression when the troops move under the top...

[Hoogley]

[schrecken]

It's a new feature ...Bridge O/H structures come in a new file for CC called  \graphics\Bridges.azp

This way teams can pass under Overhead structures

[7A_Woulf]

 

It's a pleasure pointing out mistakes...  

-And even a greater pleasure giving a helping hand.  

[Hoogley]

Strat map has been re-orientated to N-S instead of E-W, and expanded to fit the new LSA size.  I still have to tidy up the text and stuff before I can post any images.

The first draft for battle zones (which is now about the third or fourth draft overall) has been completed using operational reference maps and historical battle information.  There are very few arbitrary map placements, and I didn't have to compromise to any difficult degree.

The battle map zone markers are still going to be the small square battle zone locators, rather than large connecting map zones.  I'm hoping this will stop my map from ending up as green and red tiles.

I've done a simple check (an in-game print screen of BG icons overlaid over the strat map) and it looks like the battlegroup icon spacing is going to work out without too much cramping or gameplay interfering overlaps.  It will be busy in some places (Arnhem is one of them), but it should still work fine.  So, the only distortion I've made of the map is a slight stretching E-W to maximise the usable stratmap area, but other than that it's all geographically accurate.

I'm setting up a dev' site for the three of us to more easily integrate our workflow and consolidate the data as we complete it.  As soon as it's closer to running I'll post a link.

[Hoogley]

This is close to finished, I think.  (I hope)

[Andreus]

Damn Hoogley, this is one sexy strat map for sure!
Can't wait for the complete mod!

[Hoogley]

I couldn't upload the full sized version.  A full sized version of the strategic map is here.

[QM]

Excellent stuff mate!!