what kind of maps?

lol, once again i've been beaten to my own idea!

that's really awesome news to hear, i can't wait to hear about how many ranks there'll be.

P.S. whens the 2nd Mega Update due? it's been aaaaaaaaaaaages.

-pyro

Actually we may do a smaller "middle" update today or tomorrow (to show ingame images and development, specially since the latest focus is to get vehicles rolling ingame so we can bring the beta ASAP ).

Snake wrote:Actually we may do a smaller "middle" update today or tomorrow (to show ingame images and development, specially since the latest focus is to get vehicles rolling ingame so we can bring the beta ASAP ).

u serious ?

yaaaaaaay

great job !

Yeah

I can't be 100% sure at this exact moment, but if it's gonna be in fact shown, it'll be a forum-exclusive mini update to show some exclusive in game material and to explain why we haven't released the Second Mega Update yet.

Too bad the mod isn't using power, something like a hydro electric plant would be great to fight over. Then have controls to shut flood gates and drown opponent or open them and do the same. It would be a good reason to have engineers of some sort. Plus if you destroy a hydro damn, anything that doesn't float dies. It creates a nice little reason to scrap.

LOL!

Zero Hour haves some really interesting animations for exploding dams , the standard animation is the one from a Chinese campaign (I think it's from Generals 1), main problem is to establish a connection between the dam destruction and the consequent flooding (on a real time scenario, without cutscenes I mean).

I had some funny screenshots I had taken ingame with exploding dams, sadly those were deleted

Tusker or James was talking about a mod with a volcano and flooding system. Atleast the board starts out with a river in the middle then after a while when you have built your armies up it receades revealing passage.

It would be pretty cool to have boomers or SDV's that could travel in say a cave that leads from the ocean to a pond or river somewhere on the board. Missions with ice would especially be nice for boomers.
It would also be cool to have upgrades like snow shoes or ski's for infantry, or even those tracked wheels for humvees to increase speed in snowy conditions. That could practically be a whole nother game all together.
You could always have those options for purchase, but then on regular boards without snowy terrain there would be no reason in buying them.

Jarhead wrote:Tusker or James was talking about a mod with a volcano and flooding system. Atleast the board starts out with a river in the middle then after a while when you have built your armies up it receades revealing passage.

Yeah, once you mentioned flooding I recalled that system as well, I'm not very familiar with that system though it surely is quite interesting and opens up many possible game modes .

Jarhead wrote:It would be pretty cool to have boomers or SDV's that could travel in say a cave that leads from the ocean to a pond or river somewhere on the board. Missions with ice would especially be nice for boomers.

I think that making underwater caves would require some considerable skill (I'm not sure if it's possible in ZH due to the rather low water level and mapmaker limitations though it would be more of a mapper skill rather than technical feature).

Boomers are very interesting units, however, if subs are included I don't think boomers will be included as directly controllable units (specially since ballistic missiles in TAOW will be extremely destructive, making these subs a very complicated case of balance, a sort of a maritime superweapon).

Jarhead wrote:It would also be cool to have upgrades like snow shoes or ski's for infantry, or even those tracked wheels for humvees to increase speed in snowy conditions. That could practically be a whole nother game all together.
You could always have those options for purchase, but then on regular boards without snowy terrain there would be no reason in buying them.

After some revisions (after the introduction of the Class System), we decided to limit upgrades and make them only available for specific unlocks (like some extra weapons or ammo).
The main issue with upgrades is that there are roughly about 120 upgrades as the maximum limit (I'm afraid there's no other way to add more upgrades after these are all used up except deleting old ones). We have to keep a considerable number of upgrades free when we include newer units later on (such as the Naval Mode), so I'm afraid we can't include many other map-specific upgrades

I don't know why the game producers decided to have such a small upgrade number (it's unfortunately hard coded in the game so it can't be modded, modders have to adapt to it in this case).

Snake wrote:

Jarhead wrote:Tusker or James was talking about a mod with a volcano and flooding system. Atleast the board starts out with a river in the middle then after a while when you have built your armies up it receades revealing passage.

Yeah, once you mentioned flooding I recalled that system as well, I'm not very familiar with that system though it surely is quite interesting and opens up many possible game modes.

I don't think it was me that mentioned it initially, but I am familiar with what your talking about. It was a simple script that you can add to your map via worldbuilder to flood and recede the river at set intervals. The first time I ever saw this used was on this map:
http://www.cncmaps.com/index.php?s=&showtopic=1759&view=findpost&p=1981934

There is also a script to allow you to flood or recede a river when a unit comes within a certain trigger area. It only works for skirmish or mission maps though.
Water Rise N Fall By Trigger Areas, trigger area make water level change:
http://www.cncmaps.com/index.php?s=&showtopic=194&view=findpost&p=921437

As for the Volcano thing. I saw a couple of maps that used scripts to continually detonate a firestorm weapon effect at the center of the volcano, and continuously detonating radiation fields around the volcano to simulate the lava flow. It worked out pretty well. I don't have the exact name or location of those maps right now, but you can find them over at CnCDen.com.

Sounds very simple, a simple script and voila, excellent find Tusker

We should include this on the future TAOW Mapmaker Tutorial so any mapper that wishes to include these on their maps is able to get detailed info.

I can write half your manual with this one simple post...

"For more cool scripts and s*** for your maps, go to CnCMaps.com. They'll hook ya up!"

Snake wrote: I don't know why the game producers decided to have such a small upgrade number (it's unfortunately hard coded in the game so it can't be modded, modders have to adapt to it in this case).

and i thought the game was suppose to be mod friendly (JK)

do you mean its in the engine and to change that you have to edit the engine
(which is illegal and you can end up with a whole lot of law suits)

I can write half your manual with this one simple post...

"For more cool scripts and s*** for your maps, go to CnCMaps.com. They'll hook ya up!"

Many thanks Tusker

Once we start with Mapping Threads (after the first versions of TAOW are released), we can probably tell aspiring mappers about these misc scrips which can make maps very fun by adding brand new rules .

and i thought the game was suppose to be mod friendly (JK)

do you mean its in the engine and to change that you have to edit the engine
(which is illegal and you can end up with a whole lot of law suits)

Nope, in this case something which is hard coded into a game is locked away (it's something which is permanent and cannot be changed), a perfect example of a game with a lot of hard coded content is Battlefield 2, many fellow BF2 modders agree that if BF2 wasn't so restricted in terms of certain complex logics, it could be the ultimate modding platform.

When something is hard coded, it's like a big stone which is stuck on a road, a modder cannot "remove it" but haves to adapt to it and improvise (to find a way around).

Snake wrote:... When something is hard coded, it's like a big stone which is stuck on a road, a modder cannot "remove it" but haves to adapt to it and improvise (to find a way around).

The Marines have a motto to remind the troops how to perform under fire, even under the most dire conditions, "improvise, adapt, and overcome."

Though I'm not a modder, I've been around the staff of a couple of mods now, and under the sometimes adverse circumstances of modding that I've heard about, the same motto definately applies for the modders. My hat's off to you guys for making all this work out.

Tusker2Zero wrote:

Snake wrote:... When something is hard coded, it's like a big stone which is stuck on a road, a modder cannot "remove it" but haves to adapt to it and improvise (to find a way around).

The Marines have a motto to remind the troops how to perform under fire, even under the most dire conditions, "improvise, adapt, and overcome."

Damn right!
A soldier never says "I can't", that was one of the things that me and some friends got to learn a few years ago while we were in a military training program (civilian).

Tusker2Zero wrote:Though I'm not a modder, I've been around the staff of a couple of mods now, and under the sometimes adverse circumstances of modding that I've heard about, the same motto definately applies for the modders. My hat's off to you guys for making all this work out.

Salute...

Many thanks

is that 120 upgrades for one faction or all in a map at once?

Those 120 upgrades are all the upgrades the game supports (for all factions).

Basically it's a rather solid limit (we have to distribute upgrades wisely and sparingly since the only way to have extra upgrades is to delete old ones).

another reason to adapt our class 1,2, and 3 units and assets logic.

Definitely , the class system will take care of so many potential probs, it's an amazing logic

And i cant wait to try and see that logic when you finally release it.

I think you already checked it, but if you want to get some extra details about this logic and the new tech tree check this thread:
https://taow.forumotion.com/member-s-access-f5/the-art-of-war-tech-tree-concept-t265.htm#8728

this topic is really getting interesting!
Snake, what about giving "orders" or send requests to your allies, like "send some backup please!" or "I need money" or something like that, but not only by typing it in the chat box, but with a menu so that we have some buttons with standard messages (i'm talking about the BF2 logic, when u press a and then u can send orders like "need some backup here!"...)

greetz