Matrix Games Forums

Just popping in to say all is well - sorry I've really busy (first week of the year is always brutal at work!), but updates and uploads are coming. I'm hoping to release something to play with by the start of next week. I've been sitting on a pretty much completed DB mod for the conflict (first version of it, anyway), though I'm conscious of the fact that without a Grozny map to play on it's sort of missing its main point. So on the weekend I'll try to see how to best fill in the missing chunks of the city map to make it presentable and playable (rather than polished to the level of accuracy I'd eventually like it to be, since I think there's easily 50+ hours of work left for that, and that'd take me till March at the current rate!)

So, look for a first version of the DB and Grozny map by Sunday-Monday-ish [:)]

Same here, I'm writing papers and scripts these days, but time to time I come back to AB and pop some tanks. I'm still waiting for map-making manual, but slowly work for DPRK map whenever I have some time.

ORIGINAL: exsonic01

Same here, I'm writing papers and scripts these days, but time to time I come back to AB and pop some tanks. I'm still waiting for map-making manual, but slowly work for DPRK map whenever I have some time.

Do not panic!
I finished the tutorial So any questions could be answered )

ORIGINAL: CCIP-subsim

Some big progress on the map today - I think this picture speaks for itself! [:)]

Pretty damn good looking!
I can well imagine how much effort it took
I think it will be necessary to add a separate tile with a fence so that it will not so red.

Cheers, and good luck! [:)]


So I'm going to give myself another week(end) - I've pretty much finished laying down all the terrain and buildings, but I want to do at least one pass through the "new" parts of the map to add some details, since there's a pretty jarring contrast.

Best way to explain it is this screenshot:

Top right side is a part of the industrial district I did with "old" methods, and bottom left is "new".

That said, map is getting there!


And yeah, I've noticed the bright red fence - but it only really jumps out when it's zoomed out all the way on the isometric view. Not too bad up close!

So I think I'll give myself till about next Monday - that should give me enough time to at least make another pass through the map and test things out a bit before uploading it [:)]

Wow, amazing! Looking forward to playing on it!

The location labels look a bit cluttered when zooming in. Is there a need for a smaller location label size, that's rendered when zoomed-in? How about an additional font color? The gray color was suggested, but in my opinion it's hard to see.

Another sample.

amazing [&o]

ORIGINAL: JiminyJickers

the fictional battle of my hometown in New Zealand

Attacked by the Faroese?

You too?

good Morning


Chechnya will be a good theatre of operation for this game

i like the idea

I wonder if CCIP-subsim is still around. It would be great if he could muster some time to complete this very original mod.

ORIGINAL: nikolas93TS

I wonder if CCIP-subsim is still around. It would be great if he could muster some time to complete this very original mod.

It was a very detailed map, perhaps to detailed.

Hi folks - I'm back to the land of the living [:)]

I did underestimate the effort involved, but unfortunately my real problem with shortage of time was health issues that I ran into earlier this year, which forced me to step away from my work on this (and also work that I was doing on CMANO scenarios). The work was a lot (I think it's somewhere around 300 hours in total for the map alone) - but the bigger issue is that I just wasn't in the condition to work on it for a few months.


But I'm here with good news:
As of today, the map is fully completed [:)]



I'm going to run some tests on it (and the accompanying database mod, which I have not touched since January), and release it very soon pending any obvious problems. I also need to write up a bit of documentation for it as well, but I guess it'll still be a work in progress!

For now, you can take a look at a zoom-friendly image of the (almost) finished map here:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1xthMJxEB254AlGDGQBTshvMvjClLknVO/view
(image preview)


Here's what it looks like in isometric!





And here is a side-by-side view with a (post-war) satellite photo:





And if you're wondering why it took so long, well... here's the level of detail that ended up being involved:







And here is a comparison between one in-game area and the real-world topographic map from the period:


Not quite exact (some stretching required to fit in buildings and make the blocks navigable, and some re-aligning to make streets fit an actual grid), but close enough!

There are nearly 2000 locations marked on the 15x15km map, all based on Russian topographic map data (plus some additional research) - meaning there's about 50 times (!) the density of labels compared to a typical AB map. It's a lot, but hey, I wouldn't have done it if I weren't treating this as a research tool [;)] There are obvious compromises that had to be made for scale, looks, and playability - but I'm very happy with how it came out overall.



This will be my last post before release - I'm hoping to have the first version of the mod ready to upload within a couple of days!

Again - sorry for disappearing act. Hopefully the actual result makes up for it [:)]

[&o][&o] Well dome sir.

Impressive! Great to have you back.

The level of detail is breathtaking! Also, I hope you are in a good health now!

What a fantastic work, I should start my Korea map really.

ps) Good to hear you back CCIP, I still remember your teachings helps and hints for my project. Hope you get better as soon as possible. I wish I could make something like yours...

That should be showcased on Matrixgames' frontpage. Titanic work and beautiful dedication!

Edit: Whoops saw there is a newer thread