new map: NTC Ft. Irwin

[CapnDarwin]

Fixed/scripted weather for a scenario will be in 2.1. You can already change out the weather art shown in the info panel. It would change for all scenarios played because you would be swapping it out. Refer to Mod Guide 3 to see the particular specifications of the art.

[WildCatNL]

ORIGINAL: Jamm
Looks good.
Sat map overlay?

Sat map comes standard on this one, as an alternative "skin".

With such an expansive piece of featureless terrain (the map is 93x72 hexes - 40x36km), the terrain needs some kind of texture to help you understand where you are when panning and zooming. So I set out to blend in satellite data from the start. The last couple of days, however, the the version with just hill shading and contours started to look better in my eyes (since reading elevation is easier). But there's no accounting for taste.

The nice thing about the sat map is seeing the commonly traveled tracks and trails on the ground. If I've done my homework correctly, they should match with the passes and accessible areas.

The yellow borders painted in on both versions indicate barriers to vehicles. The barriers aim to prevent units from simply driving to the top of a mountain, or up the side of a canyon, thereby making control of the mountain passes critical.
Lacking true barriers in FC 2.0, I've followed up on Capn Darwin suggestion: terrain on the high side of the barriers is first covered with an invisible stream (at the yellow border) and subsequently by "9" mobility restrictions. It seems to work reasonably well (and, anyhow, is the best I can do right now).

William

[Phoenix100]

It really is superb. Can you not do one of the German maps like that also - just to see how it would look?

[MikeGER]

ORIGINAL: phoenix

It really is superb. Can you not do one of the German maps like that also - just to see how it would look?

+1 please [:)]

[Tazak]

Really like these maps, plenty of scope for scenarios (would you mind if I looked at using them - credited ofc)

Also you might want to look at BATUS - in Canada in the area north of a town called 'medicine hat' (I kid you not!), massive to us Brits as its the size of wales (about 1/4 of the British Isle landmass)

[Mad Russian]

Not sure your computer is strong enough to run units on a map half the size of Wales!! [X(]

Good Hunting.

MR

[IronMikeGolf]

All you need now are the IVLs. (just kidding)

Wonderful work and I'll get them just to look at for nostalgia's sake.

[Tazak]

not sure anyone is daft enough to map all of wales [:D]

[WildCatNL]

I just released the map (58MB zip file including both plain and satellite graphics - the maps is as large as four normal maps). See first post. The map comes without scenarios; I look forward to what you can do with it.

The (yellow) barriers occasionally seem to be traversed by (non-amphibious) support units. I've had a battery of M109 bridge into "inaccessible" mountain terrain, and an Soviet Company HQ. It would be nice to prevent this, but there's little I can do about it.

Enjoy,

William

[TAKODA]

I'm downloading this immediately, whilst drooling. Thanks for sharing.

[DoubleDeuce]

I'm doing everything I can to avoid downloading this for now because it'll only end up slowing me down on the already slow progress of my Silver Lions campaign. [:(]

[Tazak]

ORIGINAL: W1ll14m

I just released the map (58MB zip file including both plain and satellite graphics - the maps is as large as four normal maps)

58mb zip file, damn cant wait to get home and see what mb the actual map is, and at 4x larger I smell a NATO division size action [8D]

[Mad Russian]

What I smell are scenarios so big that the normal machine won't run them.

Good Hunting.

MR

[Tazak]

ORIGINAL: Mad Russian

What I smell are scenarios so big that the normal machine won't run them.

Good Hunting.

MR

the PC market is fairly low at present so a good time to go and buy that upgrade [:D], will likely have to scale things down but already have a few ideas

[harry_vdk]

ORIGINAL: Mad Russian

What I smell are scenarios so big that the normal machine won't run them.

Good Hunting.

MR

With the forces from the "NL_BS Thors Hammer" its run without problems. intel i5-2540m


But the german landscape [;)]

Why are there bridges?


But I have a serious question to:
How to handle with the HQs on this type or large maps and how to have a working command cycle?

[hazmaxed]

The NTC certainly has enough space to have division-sized forces fighting each other. Units that went there to train in the 1980s and 1990s were typically of brigade(-) size;  usually 2 battalion-sized manuever task forces with attached artillery, engineers, ADA, MI, and Forward Support Battalion elements.  One task force would do force-on-force against the resident OPFOR, an MRR.  The other task force would do the live fire exercise.  After about a week to 10 days, the 2 TFs would switch places.

[WildCatNL]

ORIGINAL: harry_vdk

Why are there bridges?

Those bridges are created by units crossing the yellow border into "inaccessible areas".

The yellow borders (dashed lines) rendered on the map indicate barriers to vehicles. The barriers aim to prevent units from driving to the top of a mountain, or up the side of a canyon. The barriers make it critical to control key mountain passes in your maneuvers.
Lacking true barriers in Flashpoint Campaigns 2.0x, I've followed up on the developer's suggestion: terrain on the high side of the barriers is first covered with an invisible stream (at the yellow border) and subsequently by "9" mobility restrictions.

I've had this bridging happen with some support units in the rear (a HQ, and some SP artillery) for reasons I don't understand. The good news is, however, that it doesn't impact the battle. Front line units do avoid the hills and fight for / bottle up in the passes.

Thanks for running tests, and making available this scenario to all.

William

[TAKODA]

harry_vdk thanks for uploading the scenario, and thanks W1ll14m for the glorious map.

[Phoenix100]

Where is Harry_vdk's scenario, anyone? Can't find it.

[Phoenix100]

Scratch that. Found it. Just loaded up the scenario with the satellite version. Incredible. THIS is all the developers need to do to improve the graphics in the game I think. The map is superb, very realistic feel, great immersion. [&o]William! If only all the maps could be like this. As someone commented in one of the other threads on improving the game via better graphics - it's a serious game so give it serious graphics - well, this is it. This looks like a map for a military simulation. Really superb in terms of improving the feel of the game.

Froze/crashed on my system, by the way, within about 5 mins, though I guess that's the size of the map to blame. I too have an i5, decent graphics card and ram etc. I suspect MR is right about 'normal' machines struggling with it, though will test further....