Map Mod: "The Playthings of the Gods" (design to release)

TroyTomus

Hello, In the discussion I'll be documenting my process of making a map using Terry for tw Troy. If you have any thoughts, comments, suggestions, etc, please message me. It's always good to get feedback and input from others.

previously: "The Gods are Watching"

TroyTomus

Here is the workflow that I'll be following:

TroyTomus

TroyTomus

Key features:
1:
An island that seems to be a tabletop game with large temples around it as if it's a plaything of the gods.
This is inspired by the classic film: Jason and the Argonauts.





2:
Cliffs & water: I need to practice these skills

3:
areas to provide flanking & hiding. features that force the players to select a waypoint in the center of the map.






References:



Seaside village:










Farm:















Map to base it it on:





2d map:







cliffs:














Predictions:

Easy:
-the outfield/ sea
-the center highlands should be easy
-the towns, prefabs, and my previous experience should make this easy

Difficult:
-Cliff edges, I may be able to hide areas that don't look great with bushes and trees. Lots more reference images will need to be used
-Ai hints. I am not overly experienced in this area. In stage two, bare-bones, a lot of testing and reworking will be required. A lot of time will be allotted to this select







Here is a link to the map designer I recreated

https://forums.totalwar.com/discussion/280124/map-designer-template#latest

TroyTomus

Any feedback at this stage would be very welcome! Please let me know what you think if you have any ideas about the map/ theme/ etc

RafSwi7#7492

Looking forward to see it finished (I also don't mind some in-progress pics).

TroyTomus

RafSwi7 said:

Looking forward to see it finished (I also don't mind some in-progress pics).

on the way! I'm excited to know your thoughts

TroyTomus

TroyTomus

the temple where the battle map is, within the battlefield, there will also be a temple, exactly the same as the one you are in... meta

TroyTomus

first in-game test:

TroyTomus

place holder textures for cliffs to test ai- no go areas


the birds eye view of the map


place holder buildings (prefabs) to help with scale


height of the level, i´m quite pleased with it


these rocks are place holders to test the no go areas


cliff paths need to be tested

TroyTomus

PROBLEM:

I´ve had an issue with the units being completely frozen. it seems to have happened after adding Ai Hints.

i have just added:
*playable area (default development zones)
*no gos
*other "Hints"

I´m deleting the types one by one to try and find the issue.

TroyTomus

SOLUTION:

The height map was changed. I connected the outer field to the playable area with a height that the units could manage (but was later turned into a no go zone).




It will be hidden behind props to cover the mess from the player's view

A big thanks to @RafSwi7 for figuring out what was wrong.

TroyTomus

RafSwi7#7492

You are welcome. I am happy that I was able to help you resolve your map problem.

VisitaHareDanta91#2941

fantastic job! i'll keep an eye out.

TroyTomus

Cliff modeling:

TroyTomus

TroyTomus

tactical view

TroyTomus

Roads are in

TroyTomus

An olive farm

TroyTomus

Side notes:
When adding things in the "outfield" I did
a few things:

Turned off "cast shadow". This was because the huge temple could have made the map extremely dark.

Turn on the show in outfield box. this allowed the mesh to appear in game. Whilst still being out of the battle area ( @RafSwi7 helped me here)

TroyTomus

Problems with enlarging props:

The huge temple where the battle map is seated wasn't meant to be this big. If the play gets the camera angle just right, they can see what would be the ceiling of the temple. However, there are no polygons here so the player can just see the skybox. This is a very common method to keep polycounts down in games design

The workaround:
I will simply add a mesh, possibly a wooden table, and stretch it in place of the ceiling beams. The stretching and resolution issues won't be a problem as it will be so far away, but it will block the sky perfectly.

RafSwi7#7492

TroyTomus said:

Problems with enlarging props:

The huge temple where the battle map is seated wasn't meant to be this big. If the play gets the camera angle just right, they can see what would be the ceiling of the temple. However, there are no polygons here so the player can just see the sky box. This is a very common method to keep polycounts down in games design

The work around:
I will simply add a mesh, possibly a wooden table, and stretch it in place of the ceiling beams. The stretching and resolution issues wont be a problem as it will be so far away, but it will block the sky perfectly.

You might use some walls or other buildings for it (but flip the upside down).

TroyTomus

"You might use some walls or other buildings for it (but flip the upside-down)"

Good point, I'll play around and see what works best
Thanks @RafSwi7

TroyTomus

another issue from not having the poly's under the ceiling is that it shows in the reflection:

TroyTomus

A port town:











*There's a little texture stretching on a cliff above the town, it'll be fixed

TroyTomus

Organized:
I've been very careful when placing objects. Always making sure I have the correct layer selected BEFORE i start place helps.

Try to move placed objects from layer to layer is easy enough, BUT you quickly end up with 100s if objects that need to be moved which is very time-consuming!

clearly label them too.

This came in handy when i need to send the file to another modder for help ( @RafSwi7 )

Here's what the Scene Hierarchy looks like:

TroyTomus

Painting Vegetation:

Why:
The "battle map/ vista" I have selected, South coast 1, has bushes for the forest and doesn't have any tall trees,

Making a "tree" layer helped keep things organized when placing them.

TIP
pull the menu across the screen, a lot of the properties might be hidden
oh, and SAVE your settings to make it easier when you load Terry back up.

here are the settings i used.



The great thing about this is that they are objects, unlike if you painted a forest.
This means you can rearrange or delete the trees with full control!

TroyTomus

Painting "GROUND TYPES":



Roads:


sea, grass, roads:


NOTE:
This only seems to affect the minimap, it does not seem to impact the units in any way.

TroyTomus

Paint colours:

unpainted


I felt that adding a few brighter greens might be interesting.


painted



Unfortunately, this only affects the ground texture and not the grass model that appears when zoomed in.
This makes pop-ins much more jarring, so the grass will not be painted.