Campaign Creations

Hey everyone.. I remember I was bored one day, and wanted to try my hand at making a small scale tactical map, mostly centered on an urban setting. These are my results thus far, the map sort of works when played with people but it's still in the early alpha stages, and it's protected for now until it reaches Beta/finished.

Some things to note about the map:

• Buildings are rather difficult to navigate (This is intentional, as most buildings will have a back door, but I need to impede progress to avoid the "Run through the building to get away without consequences" thing)
• Buildings also have tiled high ground within, so garrisoning a building provides a fire advantage to any units "ground level"
• All buildings are garrisonable
• The Highway (Insert Point for the reaction forces) doesn't really have any advantages besides narrow entrances, there's not really anything that can be done about that.
• More generic buildings will be replaced with new ones, within time...

It's missing a lot of balancing as soldiers within a building completely dominate soldiers on ground level, so I'm still thinking up of a limited cover mechanic to give them an edge in combat. I might never finish it, really, I was just looking for feedback.

Give me some suggestions.

Screenshots would be nice!

Good point.

You'll note that I'm shooting my own troops: My friends weren't on so I had to improvise.

Wow, I must be really outdated because that's the first map I see like that.

I haven't seen the roof idea used before either, really.

The inspiration came from a member of the DM clan from US West. One of the members showed me a map with something similar to that in it, but it was being used different. I think I may just place sprites that provide cover and use that as a cover mechanic, but I'm really not sure.

Wow, I wish I had the ambition to make something like this.

I'm pleased that people seem to like it, but I was looking for more harsh criticism

If you want criticism I could say that this way of doing stuff that all the cool kids do these days putting existing stuff from the tileset where it "doesn't belong", while creative, still looks pretty weird in most cases and if you really wanted to do something innovative create custom tileset files using TileEdit and custom tileset overlay GRPs - I think these files should all work with SCMLoader.

And if you want harsh criticism I could say the same thing but add uncalled for abuse for no reason

But regardless, I think it sounds cool, so keep up the good work!

Didn't see that one coming.

Well, it's not necessarily like I have a choice in the matter... there's no other sprite that can really do that job.
And if I started making a custom tileset that would be a mod.

Can you or someone else describe what exactly SCMLoader does? I mean, I understood the logistics of it, but I never understood if I made a mod-in-a-map could I host it on B.Net and everyone would be able to use it, or is it only available to people with certain patched MPQ's...?

SCMLoader allows you to put edited files that you would normally put in an mpq into a scx map. Unfortunately, you also need SCMLoader in order for it to work (everyone who plays the map).

If your looking for it to be a battle.net map, then stick to what your doing. I'll play the map sometime if you get some people and arrange a time.

OK I played it single player, and I have some issues with it.

First of all, theres no mission briefing. What do I do???
Second, no mission objectives in game, bunkers do nothing, lots of terrain is unfinished. I don't know where other people spawn so I cant comment on that. Why do I get 12 guys? Their names are wierd as well. Can I get any type of upgrades for the units? Some of the higher ground doesn't work (like the bigg tower near the top mid of the map).

The main thing is I don't see a point to the map. It looks really neat but where are you going with it? Can you add some type of CTF or score element to the map? That would be nice.

Good lord... Okay, I'll take it from the top.

Mantidz wrote:First of all, theres no mission briefing. What do I do??? Second, no mission objectives in game..

It's an Alpha, I've haven't even reached halfway done with it, hence the a0.4...

Mantidz wrote:Their names are wierd as well.

Phaethon = Reference to greek mythology (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phaethon)
ODST = Orbital Drop Shock Trooper
Evocatii = Uhh... not really sure.. Something a friend of mine hinted at me.

Mantidz wrote: Why do I get 12 guys?

The title of the map is Urban combat, at the moment it's a tactical squad based map.

Mantidz wrote: Lots of terrain is unfinished, Some of the higher ground doesn't work (like the bigg tower near the top mid of the map).

I'm going to begin replacing more generic buildings with nicer ones, adding in more city-scape and more doodads and just general things to make it look nicer. Once again though, this is just an alpha.. as for the high ground, it is not actually possible to make asphalt high ground, and that building should not even really exist. I was just playing with the idea of stacking a large building onto a small support, and forgot to remove it. Looked nicer with asphalt as a roof, anyway.

Mantidz wrote: Can I get any type of upgrades for the units?

I seriously doubt that I'll incorporate any features like that into the game, but I do plan to bump up Phaethon attack significantly and add in some specialist troops to replace the generic troops.

Mantidz wrote: bunkers do nothing

There really are no triggers currently in-place, but once I lengthen the beach a bit more I'm going to trigger a beach landing for the assaulting troops to allow the defensive teams to deploy into the city before the attacking teams arrive. And you know, then bunkers would change player status and be garrisoned and etc.

And lastly..

Mantidz wrote: The main thing is I don't see a point to the map. It looks really neat but where are you going with it? Can you add some type of CTF or score element to the map? That would be nice.

At the moment, I'm really not sure. I could go many ways with this. My initial plan was to make it an objective based assault and destroy map, but seeing how limiting the map size is, I may just lazy out and make it into a CTF/KOTH map that's round-based and such...