Hello!
I'm currently building a Moon TDM!
This is a new and exciting sort of project for me, in that it will be my first ever TDM map, my first ever Landscape map (even if it's Cubescape) and it will be my first big(-ish) project post V21!
Hopefully I'll be able to get this completed to a level that I'm happy with, and with a bit of luck, it'll be fun and playable. And if that's the case, then I hope to release the finished project here to anyone who wants it.
So far I'm not exceptionally done on it. It's got a large way to go. But before I show some pictures, I want to explain what the general theme for the TDM is, beyond being on the moon. So, bear with what may be a long post. Or just skip on down to the pictures.
Sir Dooble's
Moon TDM
(Awaiting a new name!)
The year is 1971. 5 Years after the first manned flight to the moon. Although publicly announced missions to return to the lunar body have been few and far between, even since the moon landing, there has been near constant secretive lunar-visits by both the USA and the USSR, for both purely scientific, but often strategical reasons.
Recently two lunar exploration and scout teams, one from the USA and the USSR visited the
lunar crater, Stadius. Here both sides, unknowing to the other set up on the northern side of the crater, where both sides set out to plant high-tech surveillance and monitoring equipment. When the four intial astronauts and cosmonauts met a conflict arose, leading to the unfortunate demise of all of them. It wasn't long after that teams of US and USSR space-men set out to retake the land that they had thought lost. Since then a continuing struggle has continued from seperate bases established not far from each other, within one of
Stadius's larger internal craters.
You join the battle here, as either part of the USSR or the US, using powerful Cold War advanced weaponry, never used conventionally for fear of their collateral damage (of course, on the moon there aren't any structures to damage). Lead your side to victory in the great space race and force your foreign enemy off the face of the moon.
Pictures time!
Please note that currently this is very much an early stage of a Work In Progress, and as such
very little has been done beyond some basic landscape. The aim of this topic is to get constructive criticism and any advice and help that I can.
The Overshot
Here the general shape of the map can be shown. It's best to note how currently this map is colour-coded. This is due to the cubescape of the map, so colour-coding makes it easiest to spot different layers.
Of note here is the Northern edge, where there are 2 empty 64x64 areas side-by side. At this spot is where the USSR Base will be set.
At the very bottom of the image is the equivalent place where the US base will be.
For reference, at this moment in time there are a few colours that can be seen.
Maroon: This colour is the outer rim of all regular craters. It is made of a 4x4 BasePlate Cube.
Navy Blue: This colour is the first layer of all regular craters. It is again made out of a 4x4 BasePlate Cube. Most regular craters go down to this level.
Dark Yellow: (Ignore the Orange text). This is the third layer of regular craters. It is a further 4x4 BasePlate Cube deeper than the Navy Blue layer.
Green: This colour is the absolute bottom most layer of all regular craters. It is a 4x4 Baseplate cube deeper than the Dark Yellow level. It doesn't go deeper than this (although it could). This is only present in the largest crater, as the large depth makes it difficult for getting out of. It is highly likely that a powerful, perhaps explosive weapon will spawn in this layer.
Red: This colours indicates small mini-craters. They are more numerous and small enough to walk out of without jumping. They are also present in larger craters, where they take on a brighter colour of their respective layer, such as
Blue and
Yellow.
Purple This layer is actually just some level of 4x4 cubes that line at certain points the ridges of larger craters. This is to give the image of the ground being less flat.
Also possible to see in this image is the large empty region to the right, where hopefully a hill of kinds can be built, perhaps as a point capable of sniping from, but likely open to attack from anyone coming from behind.
You can also see the two Lunar Arches and multiple rock stalagmites.
The Largest Craters
Here is the largest crater on the map, although it provides a good idea of what the other larger craters look like and how they're interacted with.
Here you can see all of the layers, each of which is a 4x4 Baseplate Cube higher than the one below it.
What this means is that you have to jump out of the crater in order to escape. A fact which might cause problems for many.
The point of the craters is to provide cover from fire, as a player can easily hide from someone shooting at them from a distance. Of course, the problem is then that, especially in the larger craters, you're very open to fire from anyone getting close.
In the second picture, showing the second largest crater, you can see the half-crater layer, in Yellow. This here is capable of being able to be walked out of, instead of jumping. While this does also slow you down, it doesn't expose you as much. The general purpose of this is mainly to break up the ground with more craters, but without making the map too difficult to traverse.
In this particular area of the first crater, since I believe it's likely to be easy to attack anyone in it, and since it will hopefully be right in the lines of the yet to be constructed sniper hill, this area will have the reward of a powerful weapon, likely some form of explosive. I've yet to decide which though, as I don't want to make someone overpowered.
Also note, my big problem here is colouring the craters. Obviously they'll go back to a grey colour when completed. My problem though is the lack of colours I have to use, and how the colours should change. I would like the layers at the centre to be slightly darker (or lighter?) than the outer layers. I also need a way to break up the regular ground so that it isn't so monotone, but without using lots of bricks.
The Moon Arches
These large stone arches are found on either side of the map. Although unclimable, they do provide some level of cover for anyone near them, as well as breaking up the landscape, introducing larger much needed objects.
Let's just ignore for now though, the fact that there are naturally occuring geological stone arches, which could only be created volcanically/hydrologically, in an inactive, atmosphereless and pox-marked crater.
Rock Formations
Here you can see some of the stalagmite style rock formations that I've currently built. This is really the only sort of common vertical addition I have at the moment, and it's spread around quite a bit.
The general use for this is to provide some cover on the ground from enemy fire, especially ground-level snipers. It also breaks up the terrain from being so flat.
What I really want is more rocks and things, so hopefully I can get some ideas on ways to incorporate rock formations that are both realistic, attractive, useful and good at making the terrain seem more natural.
Human Constructions.
The plan in the long run is to have a number of Human constructions of varying design.
So far I have rather few.
Hopefully we shall have 2 bases, one US designed and the other USSR designed. Unfortunately, these are not my areas of expertise, and any advice, help or references you can provide would be much appreciated.
The bases won't be functional however, they will just be a facade.
There will be a base that the individual sides spawn in, and then from there you will select to enter the battlefield, and will randomly come out of one of a number of exits. This is to both make your gameplay more dynamic, but also to prevent spawn killing.
There will also be other items and buildings too. I really want to include atleast one US and USSR Moon-Lander as part of the base, also likely some sort of lunar-rover vehicle prop made of bricks.
There will also likely be surveillance equipment from both sides on the battlefield. If I can work out how to, I'd make it so that destroying the enemy equipment grants you one point, and destroying your own loses you a point. They'll slowly respawn, so that people don't just camp and destroy the equipment again and again.
There will also be perhaps some sort of beacons, which light up the battlefield, as well as being different colours to sort of differentiate between the two vague sides of the map.
These are the items we currently have.USSR Sentry
This is a completed USSR Robotic Defense Sentry, which is mostly just for looks and decoration of the USSR base.
Built by;
Liquid - 1622
US Cannon
This is a completed US defense cannon, which is mostly just for looks and decoration of the US base.
Built by ;
Liquid - 1622
This is an unfinished, and most definitely out of scale Apollo Lunar Lander, which will hopefully be completed or replaced.
Built by;
Sir Dooble - 7482
Foundation Design
Currently the entire map rests upon a tiered foundation.
This foundation comprises a number of blocks stacked on top of each other.
The bricks used and the pattern used is as follows (From top to bottom);
- 1 Layer of 4x4 cubes.
- 1 Layer of 4x4 cubes.
- 1 Layer of 8x8 cubes.
- 1 Layer of 16x16 cubes.
- 1 64x64 baseplate.
- 1 64x64 cube.
Currently the brick count for this design is quite intensive.
On a completely full up foundation block, with each layer filled entirely I have in total 594 bricks for a 64x64 area.
Digging craters obviously reduces that by a little bit, but not entirely.
My current plan as of this moment however is to hollow out the foundations.
Take this for example.
This is one foundation piece with a small-crater on it, which in total has 626 bricks on it. (This is because although I removed some bricks for the crater, each 4x4 cube removed is replaced by Three 4x4x1 blocks, which make up the slightly lower level.
If I take this foundation piece, I can hollow out the underneath.
As you can see the very top layer of 4x4's remain.
In this place I need only the top layer. If there were no craters I could replace the entire top layer with a single 64x64 baseplate and put on any bricks that sit on top of that.
If a crater goes below the first layer, then I have to keep the second layer too.
This other picture shows the effect better.
Here the foundation is replaced instead by a tower of One 16x16Cube, One 8x8 Cube, Three 2x2x1 bricks and One 64x64 plate.
The top layer then sits on this 64x64 plate.
Instead of using hundreds of blocks, I now use only
6.
In total, this hollowed out piece uses
296 bricks. Which is a difference of
330 bricks less, compared to the previous
626. Hopefully, once the top is completed, then I can transfer everything over to this system, which ought to greatly reduce the brick count, which at this very moment in time is equal to
approximately 34500 bricks.
Plans and Wishes
So, currently I've gotten this far. It's not exceptionally far at all really, but I'm happy with my progress, considering I've taken a significant break from Blockland this year.
I do have plans and things that need to be tackled first though.
These include;
- More Vertical Detail. This means more rocks, hills and other such things. Anything that looks natural, makes the battlefield more fun to move around (yet not too restricting) and makes it much, much less ugly.
- More colour. I need to find a way to make this look more dynamic. So far, almost everything is built in one colour (besides the colour-coding). I need a way to make the ground look like it has different shades, without it looking like a puddle of vomit in a black-and-white video. So, if you know of any colour sets which have a wide range of greyscales, which don't change too drammatically and blend with each other, but also has enough colours for me to paint buildings and scenery, then that would be great.
- More texture. I need lots of things, from little tiny rocks to even just a few plate bricks to stir up the ground. This is a moon, bashed to pieces by meteorites and asteroids, not a steam-rolled slab of granite.
- More design. I have never made a TDM or DM before. I have no idea what sort of scales I need, how much room a team needs, or how big I can make the teams in an area before it turns into a moshpit. So, anyone who has ever done a TDM before, I would greatly appreciate input here.
As well as any ideas on how to set up areas for actual dynamic gameplay. I don't want it to be people running straight at each other and just shooting.
- More Buildings, and buildings of different designs. I've never done any Russian style buildings before, let alone 1960/70's USSR space-race stuff. I've not done American designs much either, so I'm no doubt poor at these, and any help or advice for that would be greatly appreciated. If Medieval englishmen went to the moon, I'd be an ace, but sadly they did not.
- Weapon design. I've no idea what weapons to use. I don't know whether I want weapons with ammo, or weapons without. I also don't know how they'll react to my gamemode.
This TDM will be (for as long as I run it) played in a timescale of
0.6-0.7. This is to give movement that slow, yet managable speed that you would expect in space. You'll have to re-adjust your aim and reconsider your movement. You might have more time to think and react, but will your blockhead move in time.
So, I want weapons that don't shoot rapidly across the battlefield and instantly kill at this speed.
And I also want weapons that are less conventional. Although I'm half-basing it on real designs, I want this sort of futuristic hidden cold-war weaponry style. I want laser weapons and that sort of stuff. The things you'd find in sci-fi films, or old crazy designs from mental WW2 and Cold-War scientists.
So far I've been recommended Gravity Cat's Baldr, Nidhogg, Silent Reaper, Thor's Hammer and Toxbow.
I like them, but I'm sure there are other things. And other weapons that you could look at it and definitely say "I could so see the Russians using this" or "This is just so American".
- A design for the walls of the battlefield.
I worry a lot about brick-count, and I know I'm in my thirty thousands, but that ought to decrease as soon as I hollow out most of the foundations.
What I really want is to be able to design the walls so that it looks like we're in a crater. But you can't get out. It's too steep, so you just stay in here and fight for now.
I'm not sure how to do this, besides using a lot of cubes in cubescape. Which I don't mind, so long as it's not super high in brick-count.
Basically, any suggest to this would be great.
I'd also like to share what I have as my Environment settings, as I'd like to adjust these to be the best they can be.
I currently use Demian's Slate (I think) Stars as the skybox, which makes the map rather dark due to a lack of sun, but I increase this slightly.
I try to make the shadows and light as a sort of grey colour, and I make the sun a very small flare size with a yellow colour.
The ground I use doesn't matter, since I'm on a 64x64 cube. I've messed around with editing the Vignette's and fog and view distance to being grey and long and other such things.
If you've got suggestions for these, I'd be appreciative.
Feedback, Help and Advice.
Overall, this topic is generally here as both a little something for people to look at, think about and maybe comment on or give some advice, but mostly it's here as a motivator for me to keep going with this project.
But, I would really love and greatly appreciated as much feedback as I can get.
I'm somewhat out of my league here, and I have some friends helping me (A big thanks to my friends
Liquid - 1622 and
Elycopterr - 37733), but I could do with plenty of suggestions, advice, references, help and support.
If there is anything you can help me out with, whether it's deciding weapon choices, rules, minigames, builds, scenery, environment settings and anything else, I couldn't be more thankful to recieve it.
And if you have anything you think I should add in or change, then I am all ears. Since I want to do this for me, but also as something I can happily release to everyone else, I want it to be the best it can be and as enjoyable as possible.
I also would really like a name for the project. Something less bland than "Moon TDM". Something perhaps that focusses on the Cold-War/Space-Race era of it?
So, anyway, feel free to comment, make suggestions and stuff, constructive criticism is greatly appreciated, but be aware that this is very very new and has had probably 2-3 hours of not-always entirely focussed effort put on it, and has a long way to go.
And if you want to rate an unfinished project, then feel free to.[/list]
