Tuchola Forest 1945 preview Options

[ScrapyardBob]

Don't know why I posted these screenies in the private thread... so I'll make a copy of them here:



South Radio Shack - This is a focal point for CNQ and also serves as the south flank for germans to attack the Russian #1 base.



Southeast Bridge pak45 - A nasty surprise for germans as they attempt to move east across the SE Bridge and up the hill towards the South Radio area. The pak45 is not well protected, but it's not easy to tell whether it's manned until the gunner opens fire.



The "farm" area. I might use this as my splash image...



Russian #2 base is on the left. Russian spawn is at the far side of this field, barely visible at the edge of the fog.



Russian #2 bunker. This bunker holds a commanding position and guards the middle of the russian front. The mortar on top can lob shells onto the two approaching roads and infantry can hole up inside the bunker.



Russian spawn area (looking north from the middle road).



Russian ammo room. This is a tunnel that runs from the trench outside into the basement of the Russian's spawn house.



Interior of the Russian #2 Bunker (the one with the mortar on the roof). The tan colored box in the corner is the official "satchel spawn box". Any time that you see that particular box style will indicate satchel spawns.



The view from Russian #1 base, looking SW towards the South Radio area.



The north road. This shot is taken from the Russian #2 Bunker. The North Bridge is barely visible at the left edge of the shot. On the right, you can see the east exit from Glacier Pass as it comes down off the ridge. This area needs some detail work done (stone walls, shrubs, rocks).






Another shot of the Russian #2 Bunker.



The Southeast Bridge, which is currently missing some pine trees that will need to be added back in.



The East Farm Pak45. It will probably get a few sandbags around it for cover.



The Southeast Farm Mortar position. A secluded hiding spot with a good view of the crossroads.



A more finished shot of the West V2 Launch Site.

[Blinky]

[Cpt.Canuck]

Bob, if you need a hand with testing let me know!

[ScrapyardBob]

Mid-Late April for beta testing (about 2-4 weeks away). There are still missing terrain patches, dozens of models that need collmaps created/fixed, and dozens of other things that need to be adjusted or fixed. Wish I could find a set of collmaps for the AHz vehicles rather then having to create my own collision maps.

We do have it up and running as BEL on a private, password protected server. So a few of the MOB members have seen the alpha version.

[Lord Lipton]

me and lyonheart tested it out a bit last night, despite falling into the abyss it was amazing. really hard to play with just 2 people though....good thing we had arty so much we used it so we could let eachother know where we are. ITS SO BIG.

[ScrapyardBob]

really hard to play with just 2 people though....good thing we had arty so much we used it so we could let eachother know where we are. ITS SO BIG.

(chuckles)

Which is why I switched it to BEL mode, at least the axis players will have something to hunt.

The map size is slightly larger then Barbarossa. Spawn to spawn distance is 23500u (Barbarossa is 21500-22000u). However, the map is wider then Barbarossa (which tops out around 16000u). Even though the map is wide (22000u at the widest point) it narrows down to 15000u in quite a few places and the ends are only around 12000u wide.

It follows the pattern of 3-4-3-4-3. As you move east-to-west across the map, there are 3 major avenues for vehicles leaving the spawn, which branch to 4 avenues before you reach the middle of the map where you have 3 basic avenues. Then you get to pick from 4 approaches before getting to the 3 passages leading out of the spawn. So there are plenty of funnels, bottlenecks and ambush locations.

In Base Assault, the distance from spawn is a closer match to Barbarossa then Smolensk. Here's the distances on Smolensk and Barbarossa (from the spawn area to the bases):

Smolensk

R2 - 6600
R1 - 7800
R3 - 12300

G2 - 5100
G1 - 8600
G3 - 9200

Barbarossa
- Barbarossa numbers are listed in pairs. There are two spawn locations for each side, so the range-to-spawn values are different depending on where you spawn.

R3 - 2500 to 3100
R1 - 6200 to 9400
R2 - 8700 to 9700

G2 - 2500 to 6100
G3 - 4100 to 6800
G1 - 7000 to 8300

Tuchola Forest:

R1 - 4900
R2 - 5000
R3 - 5200

G2 - 4600
G1 - 5100
G3 - 6500

I'll post a 2-week old map in a bit.

[ScrapyardBob]

There's a lot of "junk" around the map edges that won't be there in the final version...

[Mr.Scruff]

bob it looks great im totally phsyked!

the map looks really big though?

[ScrapyardBob]

Like I said, it's the length of Barbarossa but a bit wider in the middle (more like Smolensk width). The "bigness" is probably due to the winding and organic nature of the terrain. Once you get in and play around on the map it will start to seem smaller.

In Base Assault, control of the river crossings is probably going to be key. There's only (3) ways across the river for vehicles (N Bridge, middle ford, southern bridges).

Plus, the map is designed so that either side can try to control the middle third of the map. This takes heat off of the spawn defense and bottles up the enemy into their spawn area. For example:

Russian Forward Line:
- North Road Bunker
- Farm buildings or West Farm Bunker
- Southwest Bridge

German Forward Line:
- Glacier Pass
- Russian #2 Bunker
- Area between the SE Bridge 45mm and the South Radio Shack

There's probably a few dozen ways that Russians or Germans could choose to defend their territory.

[MyWifesMule]

Looks great, can't wait to play. Great job Mr. Scrapyardbob.

[ScrapyardBob]

Here's the error that has been crashing my private test server in BEL/TDM mode. Looks like a bug in the 1.51 UO files.

Couldn't find weapon ""

******* script runtime error *******
cannot cast undefined to bool: (file 'maps\mp\gametypes\tdm.gsc', line 815)
if (level.teamkill_penalty)

*
called from:
(file 'maps\mp\gametypes\_callbacksetup.gsc', line 65)
[[level.callbackPlayerKilled]](eInflictor, eAttacker, iDamage, sMeansOfDeath, sWeapon, vDir, sHitLoc);

*
called from:
(file 'maps\mp\gametypes\_callbacksetup.gsc', line 63)
CodeCallback_PlayerKilled(eInflictor, eAttacker, iDamage, sMeansOfDeath, sWeapon, vDir, sHitLoc)

*
called from:
(file 'maps\mp\gametypes\_callbacksetup.gsc', line 56)
[[level.callbackPlayerDamage]](eInflictor, eAttacker, iDamage, iDFlags, sMeansOfDeath, sWeapon, vPoint, vDir, sHitLoc);

*
called from:
(file 'maps\mp\gametypes\_callbacksetup.gsc', line 54)
CodeCallback_PlayerDamage(eInflictor, eAttacker, iDamage, iDFlags, sMeansOfDeath, sWeapon, vPoint, vDir, sHitLoc)

*
************************************
********************
ERROR: script runtime error
(see console for details)
********************
----- Server Shutdown -----
==== ShutdownGame ====

Information on the IWNation forums

Since we don't run TDM/BEL servers here, it's not very interesting. But I'll include the PK3 that I think fixes the issue.


 user_svr_tdmfix151.zip ( 9.71k ) Number of downloads: 31

[grego34]

can't wait to see the Down load link here.. Looks real good!

[ScrapyardBob]

Looks like there's a dead router somewhere in Virginia (which is why images aren't showing up).

Internal testing is going well. Granted, we spend most of our time avoiding the holes in the map while playing BEL. But there's been a few nights this week where a few of us were in there running around shooting each other for a few hours at a time and having a blast.

We're about 2-4 weeks away from the first public beta test. There's still a bunch of stuff that I want to fix / add before I do a public beta. The current laundry list:

- Figure out how to add BAS (and test it with a few players)
- Get CNQ working
- Finish the terrain on the German side (it's only about half done)
- Finish the two russian spawn bunkers
- Place the vehicles, spawn points, etc in the German's spawn
- Clean up a lot of stretched textures
- Fix any broken pieces of road mesh
- Finish all the treelines
- Finish any unfinished detail work (fence lines, textures on the dragon's teeth obstacles, etc)
- Add collision maps for useable vehicles (mostly the german's tanks in the After-Hourz pack)
- Add collision maps (too many models that you can hide inside)
- Double-check performance and portals

Beta testing will last 4-8 weeks. Depends on how much stuff I fix in the next two weeks and how game balance seems to be working out. We've been testing new revisions of the map on a daily basis the past week.

[ScrapyardBob]

More pictures...

A Jagd tank sitting up on a hill, shelling the area around one of the russian bases.



Updated shot of the Russian's middle flank bunker, now surrounded by dragon's teeth tank obstacles. They're not perfect, but it still requires a good bit of finagling to get a tank or other vehicle past them.



More dragon's teeth



The north bridge with a few dragon's teeth on the far side.



Another shot of the middle of the map during a round where visibility was really horrid (very thick fog and light rain).



Pak45 position that overlooks the Russian #1 base.



Russian spawn area, this barn holds a pair of KV1s during Base Assault.



The north flank Russian base, parked in the middle of a field.



Ruined tank against a backdrop of bunkers.



Russian's middle base showing the trench position.



A darned foggy round (it's actually raining, once you pick a side and spawn in). Definitely not sniper weather during this round of play.



Another shot of the russian spawn area.



A russian tank scrape overlooking their southern base.



The southern radio shack (taken from the russian point of view).



One of the bridges down in the southern forest.



A more recent shot of the south forest area (and the bunker in the middle of the forest).



Another bridge in the south forest (there are 3 bridges on the south flank). The terrain needs to be dressed up with another bush or a few rocks.



A view of the farm area during a poor visibility round (complete with a light drizzle).



Another shot of the middle russian bunker and the dragon's teeth.



Another shot of the forest trails. Battles in the forest trails tend to be very CQB, especially of both teams are running instead of moving slow and listening.





Last 5 for today.

A closup of the pair of KV1s parked in the Russian's spawn barn.



Here's an example of what the map looks like on a clear day (10% chance). Visibility is probably around 9500u (upper limit of the random fog settings in my GSC file). On the right side of this picture is the exit of the north pass as it dumps out on the Russian's north flank.



Closer shot of the middle farm area. You can see a lot more detail now that it's stopped raining.



A screenshot from a similar position as one of the earlier pictures. On a clear day, you can see all the way west to the far side of the farm fields. Most rounds (60%), you'll just be able to make out the German defensive bunker on the far side.



A clearer shot of the north bridge.

[FeezyWeezy]

I hope that you'll add tons of more rocks. ... Maybe some lumber stacks...?covered by a bit of snow...