I'm on-target for a release of Beta #2 on Monday morning. This beta fixes some game balance issues and other things that were identified during Beta #1. There are still some outstanding issues that won't be corrected in time for Monday, so they have been tabled until Beta #3.

Major changes:

1) Reworked the raindrop effect. In order to reduce the risk in case the raindrops cause lag on the server, there will be a server-side CVar added so that admins can control the number of raindrops. Setting "syb_rain_nodes" to a value between 0 and 10 allows you to control the max # of raindrops visible for each player on the server. Good values are probably 2-4. You can also disable the raindrop effect by setting "syb_rain_nodes" to zero. (This information is also in the ADMIN README file inside the PK3 and ZIP files.)

2) The area south of G1 has been reworked. The pak40 has been moved NW to be closer to G1 and have a less commanding view of the SW Bridge. There are new rocks, trees and foliage that make the defense of G1 more complex.

3) All pak guns have had their firing angles adjusted. It should now be possible to hit what is visible in the firing arc but not possible to arc shells across the map to hit spawn areas or bases.

4) The R2 pak45 has moved south to the middle of the stone wall overlooking the field at R2. The wall in front of the pak45 is taller then the old wall. I'm waiting to see if the pak gunner needs additional protection beyond that.

5) There is a new spawn bunker with attached trenches in the Russian spawn. Two of the Base Assault spawn points have been moved closer to R2 and R1. This should also help with spawn-rape situations in the Russian spawn as the spawn points are spread out more. Also moved some vehicles around in the Russian spawn area.

6) Fixed the double-spawning T34 and double-spawning jeep situation.

7) The Russians have traded in one of their KV1s for a stock T34 tank. The current vehicle balance for Base Assault is as follows:

German
(2) Jagd
(1) StugIII
(3) Panzer IV
(3) Panzer III
(3) Halftracks

Russian
(2) KV1
(2) T34 stock
(2) T34_76
(3) BT7
(3) milk trucks

And 12 jeeps / horches spread across the map.

8) A few more trees and rocks around G2 make it more difficult to defend and give attackers places to base attacks from. Replaced the tank-eating snow drift and replaced the tank-eating old-style trench with a new one. The trench on the south side of G3 will be replaced in a future beta (ran out of time).

9) Two new paths through treelines have been added along the north flank of the German's side. These allow infantry to get closer to G3 without being spotted.

10) Fixed a bunch of road segments that exhibited the "pothole" effect. (Vehicles going wonky as they travel over that section of road or players that fall through the road surface.) I'm still on the prowl for any other reports of broken road segments. General locational information is enough as I will replace all of the road segments in a particular area when a broken one is identified.

11) A pair of FG-42s have been added to the map. Admins may wish to turn them off in their configurations. I'm leery of adding them because they are too powerful (the scope does not unseat after a round is fired like a standard sniper rifle does).

12) A few additional satchel spawns and anti-tank ammo spawns have been added on the map. They are on 30 sec respawns. Also added 2 more flamethrower spawn points (also on 30 sec respawn).

13) Fixed some of the uneveness in the Farm area, but there's a lot more to be done.

14) Added rocks and foliage around the North Bridge.

15) Fixed the exploit where players could hide in the treeline on the southwest side of the German Spawn.

16) Added additional VCLOG data to the map (which is the major reason why the BSP and PK3 are getting larger). This should help players to get more even performance across the entire map.

17) Reworked terrain around the bases. It should now be slightly easier to jump through the side/back windows of a breached base.

Known broken (or possibly broken) or outstanding issues:

1) The DOM gametype is broken and I didn't have time this week to examine why.

2) There are still two russian bunkers in the Russian spawn area that need to be detailed.

3) Hill 13 possibly needs some foxholes.

4) The fence lines in the East Farm area are still incomplete.

5) I may remove one tank from each side in order to add a jeep to each side. Unsure yet, waiting to see how it balances out in Beta #2.

6) No crater holes on the map yet. I keep meaning to add them. There are also other missing details such as changing the color of the lamps inside of bunkers and adding the flag poles during BAS.

7) Haven't added CTF yet.

8) Didn't get around to adding a flowing water sound to the riverline.

9) Still some trenches left to replace or to be added in various locations. I'm thinking of adding a few tunnels in the Farm area.

Misc Notes:

1) We're running a 20-sec bomb plant time on the .76 server. The default timer is 15 seconds to plant. That extra 5 seconds is just enough to give defenders a slight edge, yet the plant vs success rate is still 63%.

Filename for beta #2 will be: mp_uo_tuchola_b1.pk3

Download link for beta #2 mp_uo_tuchola_b1.zip (7436KB) - Apr 17 2006

This version will be going up on .76 soon.

If you were on the .76 server during restart, you may have downloaded a partial PK3. Please look in your UO folder for files named "mp_uo_tuchola*" and delete any incomplete downloads.

Also, players may want to delete the old beta1 pk3 and any early versions of the map files (not required, but suggested).

running on anarchic-x now as well

I think CuF-League is also running Tuchola Forest (at least, beta1) on their large-map Base Assault server.

Waiting to see how the gameplay balance is between Germans and Russians this week. That's one reason I rushed beta2 out the door even though it has some detail missing.

can we add server side colored smoke? red and blue?

Smoke would be a server-side (client-side?) mod such as AWE (which has it? I forget...)... so I defer that question to Druid.

...

So, 56 bases destroyed in the past 7h40m. 28 were allied bases, 28 were axis bases. Looks about even to me.

Things I plan on changing in Beta #3:

- The incomplete russian bunker just north of the tank barn will be removed. It blocks the KV1s from having a clean exit out of the barn. It will probably be replaced with a trench.

- The incomplete russian bunker just SW of the intersection in the russian spawn will be moved south a bit, made smaller, but with trenches extending west and south. Again, this current location constricts the flow of the russian vehicles as they leave their starting positions.

- The new bunker/trench in the russian spawn will be adjusted slightly to allow vehicles to cross over easier. Vehicles get hung up in the middle of the western trench as they try to cross from south to north.

Scrap, all your changes are great! I really like the new paths leading to G3. Very easy to get there now and cause some real trouble.

I continue to moan about the After-Hourz tanks. The damage zone from a shell just doesn't match the stock tanks. Can't understand why they decided to limit them that way. It would be nice if an 88mm shell acted the same no matter what shot it. The KV-1's are so limited on this map due to their cumbersome movement. It would be nice if that shell acted like a typical 88mm shell to match those on the Elefant and SU-152s.

Anyone else have an opinion about this??

my opinion is to raise their rate of fire (i'm assuming you use AH settings for that as well?)...

we have our own rate of fire at anarchic-x and it makes it a bit more interesting

speaking of, tuchola b2 is NEXT in the rotation if anyone wants to taste the different flavor

this will be my first run at b2 so i'll give you some feedback later bob

- Need to fix the bazooka box at the NE mortar spawn, players are still getting stuck

was firing on R3 from the NE and backed my jagd into a rock where it got stuck

http://halo.anarchic-x.net/images/screens/shot0097.jpg
http://halo.anarchic-x.net/images/screens/shot0098.jpg

Our solution is quite obvious ... we never back up!!!

The smaller damage zone radius probably gives infantry more of a chance. I think Tuchola especially demands this...

The overall slower rate of fire also means that blowing bases takes longer, which gives the opposition a better opportunity to defend, I like...

The KV1's are indeed pretty limited, but I think they play a more of a defensive role for the Russians. Rarely do they make it all the way to a German base unscathed on an offensive simply because they are too slow. Damage caused by the KV1 is greater than the other tanks, and I dont think it should be increased any more...

The Elefant is one of the reasons I DO NOT play the MOB stock server - I dislike how any shell that lands within 1 mile of my location causes my death!

Not one step backwards, Comrades!

It seems even the rocks work for Stalin!

Very strange, but once Bob told me the FG-42's were located on somewhere on the infantry trails, I found one on each of the next two trails I ran down. Sgt. Thomas was ecstatic, as he'd been searching for them for ages, and offered sexual favors in return for their locations. I turned down the favors (shudder!) but told him where they were anyway. Now he's unstoppable.

They're on a 45 second respawn rate, and start out with only 20 rounds, building to a max (that I saw, anyway) of 86 rounds if they sit there long enough. For those that don't know, the FG-42 is a fully automatic assault rifle with a scope. It has by far the fastest rate of fire of any gun in the game; you can empty the 20 round clip in about a second, though I wouldn't recommend it. I'd estimate the rounds do about as much damage as an MP-44.
Up close, this gun takes 'em down like a chainsaw. It ROCKS for crouching in the stairway defending a planted base. Personally, I find the scope a hindrance, though. The same visibility problem as with all scopes, but without the "one shot, one kill" power of a sniper rifle.

One is on Hill 17 trail B, craftily hidden behind a tree. The other is on an A trail in the NW somewhere (Hill 83?) and isn't as hard to spot.

I'm adjusting game balance to be based on stock settings. No custom vehicle speeds or changes to the amount of damage. (Which is why I have not adjusted anything with regards to the vehicles on Tuchola. It's a bit outside the scope of the mapping project.)

...

- I'm still considering putting an infantry trail through the treeline just east of G2 (or a 2nd bunker connected by a tunnel to the W Farm Bunker. The map has been designed for it, I just haven't implemented it.

- Hill 13 may get more rocks and foliage to make it more of an extension to the South Forest.

- Looking at the stats from yesterday, it seems like the Russian and German bases have about equal chance of being destroyed. Chance of successful plant has fallen to 57% this week (down from 63% last week). Curious to find out how close to balance we're getting between the two sides.

- Not much long-range shelling yet. The pak guns should be out of it and unable to shell across the map.

...

Gameflow and timeline is interesting. Without the long-range shelling via pak guns, it can be 10-15 minutes before the first base is breached. Then there are rounds where the initial tank blitz is not detected and counter-attacked, resulting in the loss of one or two bases during the first 10 minutes.

Bob,

I love the FG42, i can't use it for shit but i want it. My Brother on the other hand says trash it for life, it's to much gun. I like it just the way you have it, but it's up to you. I can live without it, but i don't see it making a difference in the outcome of the game. Don't make it available for mass production though. It's fine the way it is.

Yep! It's a treat, and lots of fun (when you'r on the right end of it, anyway). It'd be too much if everyone had one, but the way it is is great.

Stats from today's play:

101 bases destroyed, 53 for Russian vs 48 for German - which is just about dead-even.

The team that communicates and coordinates tends to win the round.

As usual, Cpt.Canuck, I totally agree!
I H8 the Elefant!

Stats for the week:
http://8.9.4.75/Barb2_7day_stats/index.html

448 breached
599 plants
329 destroyed (55%)
282 defused

For just Tuesday:

216 planted (107 allied bases planted, 109 axis bases)
101 destroyed (47%, 48 allied bases, 53 german bases)

45% chance of an allied base being planted and destroyed
49% chance of a german base being planted and destroyed

...

Pretty even, eh?

Wow! Cpt. Canuck, always thought you were a warrior. Who knew you were such a wimp!! LOL!

My only point is the KV-1 After-Hourz tank doesn't match the real-world physics of the shell it fired. The splash radius does not reflect the true damage zone from that tank's shell. Why on earth would the Russian army field a leviathan of a tank that fired the equivalent of a BB?

The Elefant fires an 88mm shell. The damage zone reflects that of the identical shell fired by the stationary 88mm Pak guns. The Elefant, as we all know, is very, very slow (12mph) and an easy target for infantry ... as long as they aren't wimpy!! LOL

I can't believe that the Russians would have deployed the KV-1 in the infantry-supportive environment of Tuchola. A smarter move would have been to deploy the KV-8. It had the same body, retrofitted with a flamethrowing system. It fired a devastating wall of flame. Now, that would be cool!!

i would tend to say that this map is nicely balanced

on another note, we'd like to play you guys in a scrim on tuchola
http://www.mobclan.com/forums/upload/index...showtopic=10871

let us know whats up

YAY!!! we have to scrim BHC as well on there....

Stats for the week (includes Sunday which was using the beta 1 map)

860 plants
473 destroyed (55%)
395 defused

...

And the server already has 16 players on it...

Bob, its unbelivable how much i enjoy this map. its the perfect blend for guys like myself, feezy, stickman, etc. to be able to run around with a mosin, guys who love tanks, and guys like shadow who can just run around with a 44 and cause the most havoc ever.

its also brought a lot of MOB / other regulars to the same server for the entire day. so we can all coincide with eachother well.



fantastic job man, its the best BA map i've ever played..

map in my opinion is very balanced as i mostly end up on allies (alot of peeps like germs) ive had no probs defending at all.still trying to find jeeps in beta 2 though .

only prob i had was at germ 3 i was allies and planted ,went crouch in stairwell to defend my plant and i kept getting pushed up the stairs only to finally get capped. dont know if thats beta 2 or not.

Hey, bob the fg's are awsome, and thomas thx for showing me about their whereabouts... they are good, but the full auto's too fast, 20 rounds get eaten up fast, and the scope takes like 3 hits to kill a preson, unlike sniper rifles that take 1 or 2 at them most... but seeing as they are german weapons I think they should be closer to german side... just a suggestion, but they are well hidden... hehehe

, and I found out about the fg-42 by accident... I was defending G2, and an all out assault commenced, with russians littearly going suacidaly storming the pak gun... and one of the russians that toppled over dead the pak position had an akwardly looking gun, and I realized it was a fg-42...

I have an I dea for Beta 3 but it would have to be TOP SECRET!!!!

I will get on tonight and tell you I think it would be AWEAOME!

what does beta1, bet2, beta3 mean?



silver's got an idea....



uh oh...

In software development, you move through phases... internal revisions, then alpha testing, then beta testing, and final release.

Alpha versions are typically feature-incomplete, missing large sections but otherwise giving a sense of how the project is going to turn out. Beta versions are supposed to be nearly feature-complete and the focus is more in fixing bugs then adding more features.

sure bob dont pay me no mind....

updates for Thursday

1089 bases planted this week
595 destroyed (55%)
513 defused

Fun link:
http://www.game-monitor.com/GameServer/8.9.4.76:28960/

A few other servers have picked it up as well (most are running as part of a rotation, so you have to check the search a few times per day to find the servers):

http://www.game-monitor.com/search.php?sea...uchola&type=map


VPK_BAS 1.51 (VENTRI 2.1) http://vpkuo.ini.hu 7/28 152.66.236.9 28960

OneXAlliance.com UO FF 2 1/26 64.247.18.148 28960

{BHC} Battleground X |Tuchola Forest| 0/36 207.230.41.30 28965

Hey {MOB}...

Just wanted to tell you that I find your map, Tuchola Forest, absolutely amazing. The size affords players great latitude in their strategic efforts. Planning can actually happen virtually unencumbered. The tanks, the hills, the snow... it's so much fun. I've been spending way too much time on your server of late, coming in with my teammates and attempting various attack/defense strategies. This map has single-handedly restored my hunger for UO. If you are to share it with others, let me know... I would love to run it on our servers...

Cheers!

[FS] Ashes.

Hi all.

Bob, I found a spot where my tank got stuck. Bug or feature? You decide. Anyway, it was here:


Here's another view of the spot, to put it into context


And finally, a suggestion. Here is an image of the trench and bunker in the Russian spawn:

After spawning, I often drop into this bunker to pick up rockets and a satchel. Every time I exit the bunker into this trench, it annoys me that before heading west towards R2, I have to run all the way down the trench to the ladder in the foreground of this picture.
When exiting the bunker in this trench, a player either wants to go east into the spawn, north to R3, or west to R2. There are convenient east and north ladders. Moving the west ladder down to the bunker door would make it convenient as well.

A small change, to be sure, but one that would make me happy and give me warm fuzzy feelings.

Feel free. I only asked that other admins not host the map back when it was in alpha testing (it was changing daily). Now that we're in beta testing and the map is stable, I have no qualms about recommending it for hosting on other servers. (I already know of 5 other servers that host it.)

Beta #3 will probably come out middle of next week, mostly decorative additions as game balance is almost spot-on.

so on a traffic heavy server would you recommend just waiting until final to save some bandwidth?

's up to you, I plan on doing roughly weekly beta's until I'm happy with the map. I reckon that's going to take about 6 betas, so there will be a beta4, beta5 and beta6 before final. My estimated final date isn't until Jun 1, so I plan to keep fine tuning it until then.

Beta 2 is very playable, definitely better then beta 1. Beta 3 just finishes out the russian spawn area and adds final amounts of foliage across the map. I may even push beta #3 off another week and see if I can't get even more detail work finished.

Stats for Friday:

1328 plants
736 destroyed (55%)
595 defused

Note: We're running a 10 sec respawn, 20 sec plant time (stock is 15 sec).

A more thorough examination of the log files (thanks to Druid!), beta #2 stats only (Monday-Friday gameplay on .76):

1170 bases breached, 581 russian bases, 589 german bases

1482 plants, 751 by germans, 731 by russians

816 bases destroyed, 406 russian bases (54% plant success), 410 german bases (56% succ)

Not bad, not bad... pretty darn even.

By my count there were 125 matches spread over 5 days. Which is pretty close to 1 hour per match (a match being 2-3 rounds).

...

Our attempt to fix the snapshotentities error by putting the map in the rotation twice isn't working. The server still restarts after 2000-2500 minutes (30-40 hrs) with the error. Daily restarts are probably going to be the ultimate solution, or else use of a tiny map as a 3 minute intermission after every 8-10 matches.

Still working on Beta #3

- The raindrop effect in beta #3 will be doubled for a given config file setting. In the meantime, we're running beta #2 with a value of "8" (out of 10) with no issues.

- More foliage, mostly along the north half of the map and in the farm area.

- Tabling the idea of adding river sounds for now. I can't find a sound that I like and it would eat up a lot of gamestate to add the 20-50 sound nodes to the map.

- Ambient noise during snowy / rainy rounds will be increased slightly.

- I'm considering adding script to make random foliage noises from existing trees and bushes. I think I know how to do it in a way that will be light on gamestate / performance, yet freak people out. Trees cracking and snow falling would also be good sounds. Depends if I can find sounds for those two items.

- Finished most of the map edges so far, still have the backside of the German spawn and the area by R1 to finish.

Great scenario...my only feedback is that the vehicle types don't match the time period. German Pz lll, lV and Stug of the types you have used would not have coexisted with the JagdPanther. The later model Pz lV and Stug lV would be correct, also maybe add a Tiger, Panther or Hetzer. The Russians are closer to the time period except for the BT7 which were mostly destroyed in the beginning of the war. The large T34 you have is a T34 85 and would have been numerous at the time. You may know all this already but just trying to help out a bit. Great work!!!

honestly if you ask me 3 beta's is enough... it's very stable and playable and it seems like you only want to add aesthetic changes after that.

i'd say 4 at the max, but it is YOUR map.

the reason i'm hesistant to load all those beta's is simply because i'll get charged an arm and a leg for the bandwidth of 50-100 (or more) people randomly downloading it from our http redirect

Vehicles: If someone wants to spend a few months developing more accurate vehicles for that period, feel free. The primary reason I'm using the AHz vehicles is so that there is a wide vehicle variety which adds to enjoyability of the map. Except for the Jagdpanther, I could've said it was taking place in 41/42 somewhere in western Russia.

Betas: Betas are a fine balance act. I don't want to go too long between betas because all of the little tweaks do add up and I need to ensure game balance is still even. OTOH, at 8MB per map, each new beta is about 4-6GB of traffic for the {MOB}'s web server. (Maybe as much as 8GB, VSPstats shows over 1100 players in the stats database since early April.)

I do have a Beta3 planned, I keep pushing the date off for completion. I already know it won't be final and there will be a Beta4 about 2 weeks after that. (The original schedule was weekly betas, but finalizing a beta takes a full day of internal testing.)

...

My first idea of how to do the random rustling of snow didn't pan out. I would've had to convert all of the trees to script_models and that blows out numerous internal limits in CoD:UO. I have another idea, but it will require a large amount of repetitive code (a hand-coded list of the coordinates of the pine trees).

(evil evil laugh)

Okay, I got the random foliage rustling working. That is going to prove interesting as players chase ghost rustles. Just to give you an idea... there are ~1050 trees on the map. The SFX engine picks of them each time to "rustle". The odds of you hearing one rustle near you is pretty low, but it should happen every 2-4 minutes.

I also purchased a pair of snow sound effects today to represent show falling off of branches. I'm working on getting them into the PK3 file.

Okay, reworked it even more... there are now (5) threads that generate noises. Four of them handle the tall pine trees (split roughly according to map quadrant) and the fifth thread handles the short white spruce trees. That increases the odds that you'll hear a random rustling noise to about once every minute or two.

Let the chasing-your-own-tail games begin! (evil laugh)

For the stealthy folks, this is gonna be interesting...

Seems to have zero effect on gamestate and is very low server load (unnoticable on my test system).

Nature sound effects too. What will the Master think of next?