All 27 Red Storm maps re-done, in summer and winter colors

[Panta_slith]

I concur. [8D]

ORIGINAL: pekische

I would be interested in maps from post 48 also

[z1812]

ORIGINAL: W1ll14m

jds1978, z1812: I would offer a set of maps with these elevation colors if I had the web space for them. A theme map pack is another 200MB, and bound to grow once Mad Russian or the community create more maps. But I don't have that space.
When Matrix Games starts hosting mods / scenarios, I'll happily upload all map themes to their web space. Until then, I'm not going to bother with annoying file hosters, or creating another personal Dropbox / Google Drive / Skydrive account to host the files.

The other thing that would help would be the game accepting .jpg maps, which (in my case) are about 60% smaller than (optimized for size) .pngs.

Thank you for your reply. Hopefully Matrix, and/or Slitherine will open a mod site soon for the proper support of this game and others.

[Mad Russian]

ORIGINAL: W1ll14m

The other thing that would help would be the game accepting .jpg maps, which (in my case) are about 60% smaller than (optimized for size) .pngs.

The reason they are smaller is they compress and you lose detail. That's why we went the route we did.

Good Hunting.

MR

[WildCatNL]

ORIGINAL: Sabre21

Nicely done. I like the looks of the grid lines, gives them a militaristic look to them. One thing I would say is that I think you over did the small individual type trees.

I'm quoting this picture again since I've just changed how I render these "mixed" / "clear" hexes. Although I still put a bunch of trees in them (to indicate these hexes are harder to see through and move through than the "fields" acres hexes), the trees are no longer distributed randomly. Instead, the trees there are either grouped in a few clumps (in case the hex doesn't contain a road), or the trees are positioned to line up with the road. This matches the Bavarian terrain on Sabre21's photo.

The maps also received additional soft wide shading "behind" the hills, which makes it easier to read elevation. (Actually, it makes elevation so much more obvious I toned down the elevation color blending in the forest). See below:

Please use the link in the first post to fetch the new maps (in Summer, Summer Inverted, Winter and printer-friendly themes).

William

[TAKODA]

W1ll14m I'm finding it much easier to see different elevation heights with your new maps, great work.

[WABAC]

ORIGINAL: W1ll14m

ORIGINAL: Sabre21
[...] One thing I would say is that I think you over did the small individual type trees.

The thing I noticed about living over there was that there were 3 types of terrain. Built up area, heavy wooded areas, and farmers fields.

I attached a pic I took over an area that was referred to as "Little Switzerland" due to its hilly terrain. This was in Bavaria and if I can find more I will post them. Note that where there are steep inclines or hills, there are trees, and outside of towns and denser forests there are farmer fields with few if any individual trees.

The Germans farm every bit of land possible. There are very few trees outside of the towns and forests. [...]

Great comment. I'm also not happy with the randomly placed individual trees. However, I was less happy with the empty "clear" aka "mixed" hexes, whose look didn't match their meaning the game: these empty "mixed" hexes are harder to see through (4 hindrance vs 2), and to move through (5 hindrance vs 3) than fields. It didn't feel right to put arty units or HQ units in empty "mixed" hexes instead of "fields" hexes, although this is the right thing to do.

Now the roads are positioned right (see post above), I like to try filling the "mixed" hexes in a more appropriate way. For "mixed" hexes containing roads (and most of them do), lining up these roads with trees and the occasional building probably looks better (as in the bottom of your Bavaria photo).
For other types of "mixed" hexes on hills, putting in small clumps of trees might be an improvement.
I'm not sure what to do with the remaining mixed hexes (probably representing breweries, landfills, power stations, automotive test tracks - I can check on Google maps),

William
p.s. Sabre21, thanks for your contributions to this forum. Your posts have added greatly to my understanding of helicopter tactics, and to me enjoying the game!

Regarding the open spaces . . . Orchards? Vineyards? WWII British Geographical Section, General Staff maps have nice depictions of these: http://gallery.bl.uk/viewall/default.as ... &n=24&r=10

Added this one from around Luneburg: http://www.bl.uk/onlinegallery/onlineex ... 39006.html

Everything but golf courses [:D]

[Killjoy12]

Really nice maps!

[Killjoy12]

The more I have used these maps, the more I like them! Once again, this is a really nice job.

[tombo]

help...i try to D/L the maps but the D/L stops half way through..then i get a diagnostic warning that it breaks?? Tried a few times and get maybe 6 to 10 files. Not seen that before.

[jds1978]

ORIGINAL: tombo

help...i try to D/L the maps but the D/L stops half way through..then i get a diagnostic warning that it breaks?? Tried a few times and get maybe 6 to 10 files. Not seen that before.

I also had this happen.....just keep DL'ing. It took me about a half dozen attempts before I got the whole zip file. Frustrating, but this is great user content for free. [:)]

[WABAC]

I am using one of your winter maps (Red Storm 1) for my first effort at creating a scenario. I hope I can do it justice.

[WildCatNL]

(This update is very much inspired by The Plodder's introduction of urban textures. Without these as an example, I wouldn't have been able to come up with good 'perimeter blocks' to define rural/city roads, houses and trees. Thanks!).

Zoom-in on a map (Red Storm 1, 'Inverted Summer' theme):


As of this update, towns and cities are represented through "perimeter blocks", and houses and trees are planted accordingly, except where there is a road, stream, bridge or hillside. This yields better looking towns, with more realistic town outlines.
Additionally, I've toned down blurring of the terrain.
All 27 maps have been re-rendered, in Summer, Inverted Summer and Winter themes.

William

[jds1978]

Hate to be the party pooper, but I can't seem to DL this. It gets about 1/3rd way through then breaks off. Has anyone been able to succeed?[:(]

[budd]

i get a check sum error when unzipping on CA 3 redstorm and the unzip stops there so only the first 2 maps unzip.I downloaded the summer version....not inverted.

[budd]

The inverted ones worked fine. The new cities and less blur looks goods, thank you.

[Killjoy12]

I had some trouble for a bit, but then they downloaded fine when I tried a few hours ago. They look nice - thanks!

[WildCatNL]

The .zip files are hosted externally at one of the better (and expensive) Dutch hosting providers. I can download and unzip all themes without issues. If you had troubles before, please try again, and let me know if the downloads continue to be problematic.

William

[jds1978]

Still no luck....I get between 20-50 MB and the DL stops

[budd]

tried to download the summer theme again since i got the check sum error on the first download. Tried twice, first one stopped at 10 megs , next one at 16 megs .....they both just said finished at the sizes i posted. I have the inverted ones installed and working fine so far.

[Emx77]

ORIGINAL: W1ll14m

(This update is very much inspired by The Plodder's introduction of urban textures. Without these as an example, I wouldn't have been able to come up with good 'perimeter blocks' to define rural/city roads, houses and trees. Thanks!).

Zoom-in on a map (Red Storm 1, 'Inverted Summer' theme):


As of this update, towns and cities are represented through "perimeter blocks", and houses and trees are planted accordingly, except where there is a road, stream, bridge or hillside. This yields better looking towns, with more realistic town outlines.
Additionally, I've toned down blurring of the terrain.
All 27 maps have been re-rendered, in Summer, Inverted Summer and Winter themes.

William

William, thank you VERY MUCH for this. Your urban textures are awesome and certainly are rising gameplay experience on a whole new level. Thank you again.