Barbarossa II - Smolensk Beta 1 Options

[Slyk]

First off let me thank you guys for enjoying and playing the crap out of 'Barbarossa'. I've stopped by the servers a few times and I know quite a few of our After-Hourz regulars slut their way over here now and then. One comment I have though is on the tanks. Running them at stock reload times really really diminishes the effectiveness of the BT7 and overpowers the KV1. We run slightly modded times at AHz that gives the BT a faster reload rate of about 35% or so over the Panzers. Slowing down the KV makes it more important to have some support infantry or BTs with it. And overall it adds a new angle on gameplay.

Anyway. I really like this article. Very well done. Lots of great observations and smart, well thought out points. Don't find that so much on forums! haha I wanted to take a few minutes to introduce the followup NOT SEQUEL map to 'Barb'. The new one will be similar in feel, but play differently for sure. I am just getting internal Alpha testing started and hope to have a public beta1 in less than 10 days. Only BAS, CNQ and CTF will be featured at in the first beta. You will have to deal with a lot more open space and far less effective pak guns for bombardment. I know that will annoy half the crowd, but... well, here is a copy/paste of the latest info...

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As we approach internal testing time, I thought it was time to get some in-game map images up so that you can have a perspective of the map.

**NOTE** There are a LOT of tree and bush models, but I chose to leave them turned 'off' for these pics. There is much more cover than appears here and more on the way as I mod the map...what you see now may be different in four hours!

The first one is looking NE from the southwest corner of the map. The main German spawn region for Base and CNQ is in the lower-left part of the map around the farm buildings. Going toward the right you find five small houses and a stone bridge over a modest size stream (CNQ objective). Just up in the picture is a trench works with a concrete AT bunker and 45mm gun. Beyond this section you see the larger village with several small fields around it and a dominating church with tower. Further right over the next stream is a steep ridge with the pillaged 'Barb' trench system. Behind this a thick forest sloping down toward the rail depot and another sizable village and fields.




The second image is a top-down look at the entire map. This image will be included in the testing files. Note the map key at the upper right.

[ScrapyardBob]

I got the "hunkmegs" error when I tried to connect with 19 players. Changing my com_hunkmegs to 256 fixed the issue (or maybe it's simply because there are only 8 players online now).

First impressions (in spectator mode);

- Man this map is huge!

- There are a lot of spots where more bushes / trees would be welcome. Some parts of the map have abundant foliage, other parts are extremely sparse. Best I can do right now is give locs:

a) -11694 -6290 318 - this is a great little passage. The wider passage away from the T intersection could use another bush (and it's a bit open farther that direction). But a good example of providing enough bushes / trees to obscure sight lines and allow for steallthy movement.

b) -20034 -7098 962 - Another beautiful hillside with lots of trees / bushes. It's gonna be a pain to defend against just about any assault.

c) -8711 -14289 441 (near the russian church?) - There's the end of a ridge that falls down to a river with a fence. It feels like there needs to be a bit of cover here so that infantry can bypass the tunnels / sneak along the riverbed.

d) -23762 -9746 657 (sorta W of G #3) - A hill top passsage between the river and the field that could use some cover (and more in the surrounding area). IMO, shallow trenches like that are a deathtrap without some brush cover.

e) -27354 -14630 589 (german tank park) - Probably wouldn't hurt to have a tree or two at corners of buildings, mostly to obscure sight lines of any snipers that want to snipe into that tank park from the surrounding hills.

f) -20778 -19961 779 (G1) - There's almost no ground cover for infantry to hide behind / under if they would need to defend this base. Although I suspect a lot of folks will end up hiding up the hill in the foliage around the pond.

Wouldn't hurt to gussy up a lot of defensive spots with more sandbags / hay bales. Especially at the shallow trenche liness or around stationary guns. There's a lot of spots that look suitable for defensive troops to setup shop at, but it's just a bare hill.

I also see that tanks foul easily on the shallow trenches (the set with the pillbox in the middle). Sandbags / hay bales / scraps of wood might be needed to keep tanks from attempting to drive over that set of trenches.

Any fences that are longer then 4 tanks lengths should probably be broken up. Either so that infantry can jump them or so tanks / jeeps can go through them. There are a few fences in and and around the town that are exceptionally long and block what looks like it would be normal flow.


This post has been edited by ScrapyardBob: 01/26/06 10:02pm

[Slyk]

I am gonna be here ALL day, Bob.... Thanks for stopping by AHz. We had just finished up testing Dreck's new map when we started rolling back in. I'll address your points one at a time because I think they are all valid comments, which I appreciate.

I got the "hunkmegs" error when I tried to connect with 19 players. Changing my com_hunkmegs to 256 fixed the issue (or maybe it's simply because there are only 8 players online now). I note this in the 'readme'. Big maps/files need the fix.

First impressions (in spectator mode);

- Man this map is huge! Believe it or not, same area as 'Barb'. I'll post comparisons later today.

- There are a lot of spots where more bushes / trees would be welcome. Some parts of the map have abundant foliage, other parts are extremely sparse. Best I can do right now is give locs: General answer. "Yes". You are correct. Couple reasons: Max_index error. Too many mesh. I pulled out a TON of the cattails. I had them all over the stream banks on the whole map. As I added other details, plugged tree line holes, etc, I had to delete them by the dozens to get a clean compile. Lex is working on a model for me of them so hopefully I can repopulate the crap out of them.

a) -11694 -6290 318 - this is a great little passage. The wider passage away from the T intersection could use another bush (and it's a bit open farther that direction). But a good example of providing enough bushes / trees to obscure sight lines and allow for steallthy movement. Point noted.

-20034 -7098 962 - Another beautiful hillside with lots of trees / bushes. It's gonna be a pain to defend against just about any assault. Love that hill. I want to add some more terrain smoothing and texture diversity. Lots of nice trees. More in the area opposite would be nice, but watching FPS now and waiting to add my cattails in the steam bed area first.

c) -8711 -14289 441 (near the russian church?) - There's the end of a ridge that falls down to a river with a fence. It feels like there needs to be a bit of cover here so that infantry can bypass the tunnels / sneak along the riverbed. See 'cattails' story ^ This entire stream from the swamp to beyond the bridge was full.

d) -23762 -9746 657 (sorta W of G #3) - A hill top passsage between the river and the field that could use some cover (and more in the surrounding area). IMO, shallow trenches like that are a deathtrap without some brush cover. Love that trench. Lots of work in that one. Any cover to me would seem out of place, unless the entire crest was full of it, basically a thicket type thing. This trench is best for Russian snipers plinking into the German spawn...a favorite tactic of mine in alpha test. Also good for laying in wait for approaching armor from either team.

e) -27354 -14630 589 (german tank park) - Probably wouldn't hurt to have a tree or two at corners of buildings, mostly to obscure sight lines of any snipers that want to snipe into that tank park from the surrounding hills. Good point. Artistic impression. I have a source photo: www.after-hourz.com/misc/slyk/smolensk/germancamp.jpg that you might recognize....

f) -20778 -19961 779 (G1) - There's almost no ground cover for infantry to hide behind / under if they would need to defend this base. Although I suspect a lot of folks will end up hiding up the hill in the foliage around the pond. Valid point. Again with the steam side, see 'cattails' and 'was full'. Up the hill I may add an odd bush or two, this base was originally at the crest of the hill, just north of the dirt track. That position was too favorable to the Russians and virtually un-defensible for the Germans. The new position is much more neutral and gives the opposing pak some viability. I'll drop some cover around though...maybe on the south fence line???

Wouldn't hurt to gussy up a lot of defensive spots with more sandbags / hay bales. Especially at the shallow trenche liness or around stationary guns. There's a lot of spots that look suitable for defensive troops to setup shop at, but it's just a bare hill. True. One thing I have avoided was adding too many models. Hence the stark house interiors etc. Each new model is 15k+ of gamestate. I've already ditched the cool smoke/fire efx from the house, which is a BIG ambient killer without them, in favor of gamestate and FPS. I completely forgot to cover the pak by G2 though. My bad. I'll probably use lots of hay bales around and one sandbag model.

I also see that tanks foul easily on the shallow trenches (the set with the pillbox in the middle). Sandbags / hay bales / scraps of wood might be needed to keep tanks from attempting to drive over that set of trenches. I debated what to do. Difficult to vehicle clip them well... could do stakes with vehicle clips around them... but for beta1 decided to do nothing and let players learn they should stay out of that trench system. I don't like clipping it to be driven over, so the stakes/clip option is maybe best. I'll consider that.

Any fences that are longer then 4 tanks lengths should probably be broken up. Either so that infantry can jump them or so tanks / jeeps can go through them. There are a few fences in and and around the town that are exceptionally long and block what looks like it would be normal flow. Flow, schmow. hahaha. I broke up a lot of fences. The longer solid ones south of the main village really are more to cover infantry. Most fences in the middle of play are either broken or can be jumped over at sprint. I'll double-check to make some rails down to allow more crossing.