I don't think I'll stop placing small rocks. I place big rocks and wrecks for early game reclaim targets, and small rocks for aesthetics and late game attack move engineers. They serve different purposes. Admittedly on maps of mine like Stickleback I could replace some of the rock bundles with geothermal style rock groups but then I have to worry about the aesthetics and the disproportionately large reclaim the geo rocks provide.

Edit: one of the maps that I think gets the balance pretty perfect is Twin Rivers.

tldr; I'm not too fond of having two versions where one is low-res and one is hi-res.

This is a hi-res re-work of Two Step Shuffle. I used it to experiment with. You can view it in the video in the previous post or just enjoy these screenshots:

This is some of the work that needs to be done in order to make two versions of a map.

World Machine Miss match

World machine itself can render at a lower resolution without a problem. But, we do not want to introduce features that are present in a higher resolution, but look odd in a lower resolution. For example: a cliff that is slightly offset in the lower resolution, causing the according map-wide assets to miss-match the heightmap.

As an example in Kaali:

93215a47-9978-4f6e-8e84-d38d5d6b88b2-image.png
High-res version based on a low-res heightmap from the top

76720a10-0736-47bc-ae7c-c537bd8bfe01-image.png
High-res version based on a low-res heightmap from the side

They no longer match. Typically this isn't an issue because you're not viewing the map from such an angle. But I suspect cinematic shots will be more common because you installed the high-res versions of the textures.

scaling

One solution would be to just use the high-res version and resize it.

3942582e-4166-489b-ae09-71cd2ada24de-image.png
original 16k (340mb) version

4bffb205-f001-4e01-9540-1c40810187ea-image.png
4k (22mb) version of 16k albedo texture

The high-contrast you'd expect / want is gone. The erosion was processed at a resolution of 16k, creating small pathways that can not be captured in 4k. Therefore they get 'merged together', reducing the overall contrast / sharpness even further than just being in 4k. To mitigate this you can create a version with more contrast by default, but at that resolution it just takes a lot more time (RAM).

Detail

Another issue is that there are just less pixels in a 4k (or 2k) version of a texture. A solution is to make the texture more transparent to use the stratum layers to compensate for the loss of detail.

Luckily, this can be tuned in World Machine using a parameter in the automation script. Sadly, this adds more complexity and it hurts the maintenance and flexibility of the template as adding or removing parts requires not just changing the template, but also the automation script.

Automation pipeline

I made an (extensive) automation pipeline so that I do not need to touch Gimp or Photoshop for anything. The idea is that I do as much in World Machine as is reasonable. This would need to be refactored / adjusted to make two maps instead of one. Once that is set in place I do not expect it to be much more effort, but it makes the entire workflow more complex and that is typically not something good.

Decals

I anticipate over 95% of the players to be playing on the low-res version. This version should still look decent. In order to compensate for that there would need to be more-than-required number of manually placed decals. Even though they can look brilliant, it is very time consuming (Archsimkats Valley took roughly 40 hours to make - majority of the time clicking decals) but more importantly: it is uninteresting work. At some point you cap and don't learn anything from doing it.

There's more than just these points, but for the sake of time I'm leaving it at this. Point being is that the overall pipeline gets significantly more complicated and the time investment increases by a lot and I'm just not sure if it is worth it. Just 'dumping' a 4k version is not an option, as I have an intended experience that I want people to feel when they play a map.

And last - where could I host the hi-res versions of the decals? We're quickly talking about gigabytes of data.

Thanks to H-master and Chunky for their suggestions. I've decided to work with the following list:

Gates of Annubis / Osiris - Mozy
The Ganges Chasma / Adaptive Tartarus - BorgCubeJanitor
Selkie Isle - Blodir
Hallnac / Palaneum - Chosen
Adaptive Mars - Svenni_Badbwoi
Highway to Hell / Flaming Saddle - Couchwolf
Adaptive Synthetic - Ajack
Durfait Isles - BullydozerNoob
Oscars Graveyard - Fremy_Speeddraw
Bacarzi Basin - Madmax
Gods of War - Biass
Madnass -2- - H-master
Falcon Stone River - Lenkin

Lily Pads?
Two Step Shuffle?

I've looked at previous tournaments and just randomly through the vault. I'm not expecting anymore ideas from people therefore I'm now also closing the suggestions 🙂 .

As an update if you have client version 1.4.5 or higher then you can generate asymmetric maps. To do so set the number of teams in the generate UI to 0. This will produce an asymmetric map with the number of players you select.

More generally you can also create symmetric 3v3v3 or 1v1v1v1. You just need to set the number of teams to however many teams you want and then set the number of players. Example num teams at 3 and num players at 9 results in 3v3v3 map.

@keyblue very cool! Thank you 🙂 version 46 is online!

I've updated this topic with scripts that I commonly use during the development of maps. This includes:

Batch resizing (drag and drop any folder / file) Batch appending (drag and drop any folder / file) Batch composing (drag and drop two folders: one with RGB images, another with greyscale images. Greyscale images become the alpha channel of the RGB images. Tad harder to use with drag and drop - first click greyscale folder, then click rgb folder) Batch converting to DDS (drag and drop any folder / file) Batch converting to TIF (drag and drop any folder / file)

See the original post for a link to the repository. You need a bash shell and Image Magick installed in order to use these scripts. More information later on how I use these scripts in my own workflow.

WorldSet War Bridge
7 vs 7 player
20 x 10 km

War_Bridge_Header_1.jpg

This map is one of my "War Series" maps. It's a multiplayer battle arena style map like Dual Gap. This map features 7 bases behind mountains accessible only through small areas between them, the two different lakes or via air.

The most important physical features are 2 land bridges, thats were the name "War Bridge" comes from. In the north two players walk through a door like gap marked with pillars which opens up to a big plane with ponds and lakes. The same setup is found at the southern side of the map.

Behind these 4 frontal players are 3 support bases which can chose between specializing in air cover and/or navy. A landlocked ocean sized lake is found in the middle of this map. Be careful, there are certain spots where players can drop and build hidden bases behind enemy lines to build a surprise army flanking inside enemy territory.

All this territory is complimented with a lot of flat top mountains to build radar, anti air turrets or even small bases where players can spam artillery. This map is meant to appeal to Dual Gap players or players wanting to mix up their Setons Clutch repertoire.

War_Bridge_Header_2.jpg

As with all of my maps I wanted to keep it simple and max out on the playability side of things. There are 3 distinct heights, the flat lands and two different heights at the mountains. The top and niche like areas.

So - download this map - open up a lobby, beam down to this planet, build a base, conquer the middle, build a lot of boom boom sticks and pew pew lasers and throw them at your opponents. Can you be victorious?

Close Ups:

War_Bridge_CloseUp6.jpg

War_Bridge_CloseUp5.jpg

War_Bridge_CloseUp3.jpg

War_Bridge_CloseUp2.jpg

War_Bridge_CloseUp1.jpg

War_Bridge_CloseUp4.jpg

Mapping tools
FAF Map Editor (@ozonex)
Photoshop

ah ok.. i think i need to download a client 😄 tnx!

I've always dreamt mix that 2 intros))
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1YYVGFxmQRo

Open Palms - FAF version .v0002
right based rework of the original FA map (v60): SCMP_007
open_plams_right.png

Issue 40a & 40b
FAF version ensures symmetrical heightmap, textures, decals, marker and props (180° rotation based on the right side of original content). This results in a total decrease of 92 mass & 748 energy (see below).

open_plams_compare.png

Middle Plateau
The right based rework slightly changes the layout of the middle plateau, due to irregularities of the original. Compared to the original, the plateau is now approximately 2 land factory's wider. A rework based on the right side was chosen over other options.
compare_rotation_options.png

Marker
Resource & spawn marker were moved to the corresponding 180 ° position.
old_marker.png

Props
The 180° rotation of the props results in a decrease of mass and energy.
open_palms_props.png
The small Log props that interrupt adjacency at the spawn of ARMY_3 have been deleted.
8d471172-e118-4f9a-82ef-c00e9db332ed-image.png

Decals
The Cutoff Distance was increased from 600 to 1500.

Issue 40
The map now contains improved AI marker --> No air marker displayed
open_palms_marker_compare.png

With thanks to @KolmarEye for helping out with a graphical bug.

It appears that a map can end up being partially downloaded / unzipped. Causing you to miss assets, causing a graphical bug. This bug makes it really hard to play one of these maps.

To solve this issue:

Uninstall the map in question via the vault Install the map in question via the vault. Let it finish as it can take a long time: each map is about 200mb!

Then, once finished, it should it all be good. If this isn't the case, please contact me.

@Rowey @Resistance thanks for the info. That wasn't on purpose 🙃
The problem was caused by wrong unit restrictions and is now fixed.
old: local NAVALbuildRestriction = categories.NAVAL + categories.ANTINAVY
new: local NAVALbuildRestriction = categories.NAVAL + (categories.ANTINAVY * categories.STRUCTURE)

Thanks to @jip 's hint, version 2 also contains a black waterramp to achieve a better transition between the moon and space.
waterramp_black.png
waterramp_black2.png

@MadMax said in Map is Broken, there is an Easy Fix, can't find Author, what do?:

send an offine message through the client pm "thesetoner" with the command: !offlinemessage [name of player] [message] or leave a review on the map

Alright sent the message, I'll wait and see if anything crops up over this week.

@biass said in Map is Broken, there is an Easy Fix, can't find Author, what do?:

Join the FAF Creative discord and keep me informed of your progress in contacting the author.
If you can't; we'll discuss a workaround there instead.

Noted, I'll join if Author is MIA.

Edit: if anyone is checking in on the situation I'm going to wait till 18th of January before I assume long term MIA.

Hello Jammerfar ,

You say "nets in the sea" and "Naval Links".
Looks like you are only placing waypoints but the AI needs a "Naval Area" marker for building naval factories.
Its the same like a expansion area but in water.

And like Sprouto said;
What AI are you using ?
Did you set "naval expansions" inside the game options to 1 or more ?
Are there amphibious waypoints from land to the naval area for engineers ?
In case you use my AI (AI-Uveso) is there enough build space for a naval area ?
(Did you know, my AI can autogenerate markers; Ready for copy & paste to your map script)
(My AI also has some debug functions to visual display how the AI is using waypoints and marker grids)

And if all fails, post us your unfinished map here, and we can do some tests with it.

A few screenshots of the Alpha (current) version

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Yes, the only problem was one army with color 20, that high number doesnt exist in vanilla colour files so the editor crashes

https://discord.gg/8gyq6c253S

U can ask questions on the map discord aswell

Madness -7-

A (very) quick action map. Go straight for your opponent? Or go for the middle island? Or both?

Madness 7.png

Madness -8-

A 5 vs 5map made for a navy, land and air battle. The two outer spots are straight forward as for what to focus on. The top spot on land and the bottom spot on navy. The middle three spots can choose focussing between land, air and navy.

The main island is divided in 2 parts with in the middle a well-defended civilian island. The 2 parts make sure it's not easy to hold both of the islands.

Other features of the map are:

Custom yellow sand texture AI markers that work with Sorian AI Drop spots for the air player Civilian areas that will open new areas later in the game A large area for naval battles A large area for land battles

Madness -8-.png

Madness -9-

3 vs 3 vs 3 mapMadness -9-.png

cant you just close it like on the last forums?