The game's landscape - what are the limits?

[Lagarto]

The continuous development of this sim (thanks for that) makes me wonder what are the limits of the game's decade-old engine. Surely some things cannot be done, or can they?
Like, for example, new maps featuring double-lane roads and railway tracks, railway embankments (a common feature of European landscape, as seen in many guncamera clips), navigable rivers, and first and foremost, roads running in a more natural, curvy way, not this odd-looking zigzagging?

[Juri_JS]

I would really appreciate it, if TD could devote more of their time on improving the old maps. As far as I know there are plans for better textures. I hope they will also look at the heightmaps. Some maps are obviously more flat than they should be, for example the Balaton map.

[Lagarto]

IMHO the only eastern front stock map worth refurbishing is the Leningrad map, and I’d really like to see some seasonal variations of it – autumn colors and/or snow-thawing, ‘patchy winter’.
Some old maps don’t make much sense, like the Berlin map without the Oder river and Seelow Heights, the Moscow map without Moscow, or the Stalingrad map too small to cover the all-important Tatsinskaya and Morozovsk airfields. Not to mention the tiny Prokhorovka map. These areas would really need new, bigger maps.

[Juri_JS]

Adding winter versions of some of the existing maps would be a good idea, especially for the Norway map, some of the most well known missions in this part of Norway were flown during winter 44/45.


Btw, there is one thing I always wanted to ask TD. Are there any official map making tools or were the maps in the stock game build with the same methodes used for making mod maps (SRTM data edited in MircoDem and GIMP/Photoshop)?

[eduzk]

I miss a miserable brown muddy autumn season, and brown wastelands in locations of prolonged fighting. Green grass and shiny white snow everywhere is a little too happy for my eastern front.

Originally Posted by Juri_JS

I would really appreciate it, if TD could devote more of their time on improving the old maps. As far as I know there are plans for better textures. I hope they will also look at the heightmaps. Some maps are obviously more flat than they should be, for example the Balaton map.

One reason for unrealistic heightmaps might be that all water is now on the same (sea) level in game, AFAIK. Don't know if it's easy to change.

[Juri_JS]

Originally Posted by eduzk

One reason for unrealistic heightmaps might be that all water is now on the same (sea) level in game, AFAIK. Don't know if it's easy to change.

The modded version of the game has a corrected heightmap for the Balaton map, where the Bakony mountainous region north of the lake looks much more realistic than in the stock game. I am not sure, but I think it was done by VPmedia. So I guess the heightmap issues on some maps shouldn't be too hard too fix.

[Lagarto]

Perhaps the original flatness of the terrain was a compromise, as the AI were very inapt in avoiding terrain obstacles (they still are, to some extent). When the New Guinea map was released, it was a disaster, the AI notoriously crashing head-on into Owen Stanley Range.
By the way, no one else minds the funny-looking zigzags of roads? Nearly 600 views and only two people had something to say?

[RPS69]

The map that need the most on the eastern front is prokhorovka, with a little rezise. Best conflict scenario, and also Moscow map with the Kremlin.
No good Night bombing missions over Moscow could be done with this game. Night interception with only lights as help is an incredible game experience.

[IceFire]

Originally Posted by Lagarto

Perhaps the original flatness of the terrain was a compromise, as the AI were very inapt in avoiding terrain obstacles (they still are, to some extent). When the New Guinea map was released, it was a disaster, the AI notoriously crashing head-on into Owen Stanley Range.
By the way, no one else minds the funny-looking zigzags of roads? Nearly 600 views and only two people had something to say?

Although the AI is somewhat bad at avoiding mountains I'd say that often many people online are as well. I've managed some fancy flying causing both AI and human alike to crash into mountainsides.

The Own Stanley range crashing issue was actually bad waypointing. If the AI is told to fly at 500 meters... they will do their absolute best to do so. If it just so happens that 500 meters is inside a mountain... well

Sometimes it's just bad mission design. Other times it's legitimately the AI being fairly stupid but computers do tend to do what they are told to do. At least in this context.

[Asheshouse]

By the way, no one else minds the funny-looking zigzags of roads? Nearly 600 views and only two people had something to say?

IMO the zigzag roads and railways are one of the last remaining immersion spoilers. In recent years some wonderful looking maps have been produced compared with the original ones but still the unrealistic road/rail remains.

I guess the way this is coded into the game would make it very hard to change, and even if it were possible, it would be necessary to retain compatibility with the original mapping system and vehicle/train AI etc.

Ashe