[Map] Dead Man's Reef - BF Pirates 2 Map [UNRELEASED]

Rhino · 2009-02-03, 01:27

# Name: Dead Man's Reef
# Location: Fictional, Tropical Islands
# Size: 2km
# Factions: Peglegs vs Undead
# Game Play Type: Naval Conquest and CTF
# Download: N/A, will be released with Battlefield Pirates 2 - yarr 2.5 (will bump this topic when released)

Hey all, before I start I would like to make sure everyone knows this map is not related in any way to PR but thought some of you may be interested in my little project with showing some of the works of how a map is made which when making a PR map is normally kept very closed up etc.

Anyways the Battlefield Pirates 2 (BFP2) Mod was running a mapping contest so thought it would be the perfect thing to do in my little brake from PR is to make a quick, non-stressful map for fun for this mod as the mod itself is pretty good, got into the top 100 of MOTY for a few years and is pretty cool and IMO, underrated mod. If you haven't checked it out you should when the new yarr 2.5 release is out. Although the gameplay is nothing like PR it can be pretty fun and with the right squad you can have some good teamwork, epically on the naval battle maps like this one

More info on the completion here, no big prizes involved or anything just the winning map gets into the mod: Bf Pirates 2 - Mapping Contest Announced - Official BF Editor Forums

Anyways the map is focused around Naval Combat, with small islands mixed in to help brake up the combat and add a little bit of terrain tactics into the mix and plenty of shallow areas like the perilous Coral Reef which large ships will run aground on if trying to go though it and as such as a small safe haven for the smaller, faster boats. The islands also allow a little bit of infantry combat with guys being able to land on the islands and setup deployable cannons (with the right kits) and sniping positions. But the combat is mainly focused on Naval combat with all the flags in the water, so if you don't have a boat, your sunk

The map will feature both Conquest and Capture the Flag (CTF) game modes, with CTF IMO being the most exciting as it should bring some excellent head to head naval combat, with also some good old fashioned amphibious warfare attacking heavily fortified sea batteries!

While making this map there have also been a few things made for it, such as the custom corals which I made for the reef bed and also a floating flag poll which I also made using the normal BFP2 flag poll for the post

Although my favourite thing has to be the new Player Controlled Galleon which [R-DEV]AfterDune made with some help from me which is huge and has a total of 20 guns and will be featured excursively in my map

Although a Static version of the Galleon has been in BFP2 for some time and is featured on quite a few maps, mainly the map "Dead Calm", there was never a version you could sail yourself!

Map Briefing:
After a string of rich plunders on the high seas, Capitan Rank was caught up in a fierce storm that ran his ship aground on a treacherous corral reef costing him and most of his crew there lives. According to one survivor, The plunder was lost in the wreckage and still lies somewhere in the reef in a locked chest, full of gold coins, preciouses stones and other treasurers.
After hearing about Captain Rank's lost plunder the Peglegs raced to recover the booty. However, when they arrived they find that they are not the only ones looking for the rich takings!

Minimap:

Early Design Plan:

Gamemodes & Layers:

Conquest - 64 Players

Conquest - 32 Players

Conquest - 16 Players

Capture the Flag (CTF) - 64 Players

Screen Shots:

Coral Reef

Islands

Pegleg Bay

Undead Bay

Galleon

Quote:

Originally Posted by Original Post

Hey all, before I start I would like to make sure everyone knows this map is not related in any way to PR but thought some of you may be interested in my little project with showing some of the works of how a map is made which when making a PR map is normally kept very closed up etc.

Anyways the Battlefield Pirates 2 (BFP2) Mod is running a mapping contest so thought it would be the perfect thing to do in my little brake from PR is to make a quick, non-stressful map for fun for this mod as the mod itself is pretty good, got into the top 100 of MOTY last year and again this year and is pretty cool, if you haven't checked it out you should, although the gameplay is nothing like PR it can be pretty fun and with the right squad you can have some good teamwork, espically on the naval battle maps

More info on the completion here, no big prizes involved or anything just the winning map gets into the mod: Bf Pirates 2 - Mapping Contest Announced - Official BF Editor Forums

But ye, IMO the mod was lacking a bit in naval battle maps and IMO its one of the best areas and easily the most unique area of the mod with the only BF2 mod rival to it being the Battleships mod which also has some awesome naval battles but not quite the same as this.

So thought I would make a mainly naval battle map but wasn't just open water to allow terrain to play a big role in how the combat focused the combat.

L3DT released a new version with some new added features so thought I would give its design editor anouther go see how much it had improved.

Made up a quick design map in a few hrs, a lot of trial and error went into get what I want exactly but ended up with a pretty good result:
http://img167.imageshack.us/img167/2444/83942526tq5.jpg

To explain it quickly, blue = water, the darker the blue the deeper the water, green = ground, the darker the green the higher the ground, pink = mountain seed.

Note that normally I don't use these terrain generators, I do my terrain by hand in photoshop and the editor etc then I pain my base terrain colour using L3DT but this turned out quite well getting pretty much what I wanted with only so much hand editing needed on top.

Anyways I wont bore you guys too much on this so to get to the map, here is what I have so far, note its still very WIP.

http://img183.imageshack.us/img183/4593/planur7.jpg

Blank Minimap: http://img156.imageshack.us/img156/3089/minimapwy3.jpg

White Circles = CPs
Red Circles = Base Defences (Cannons, note that its a estimated max range, will depend on view distance)

As you can see, 4 CPs, all in the water none covering land, but one CP is a shallow coral reef that only small ships will be able to go into safely, larger ships I plan to make it so they will run aground making them venerable if they go in them, thou will make small pockets of deep water to allow them to go though but will become risky if they do.

Anyways like the title says, as of yet I have no name for this map, was going to call it Shallow Waters then I realized there was a BFP2 map already called "Shallow Draft" hehe so need something different, suggestions are very welcome

Feedback and comments are also welcome

Cheers.

Some Screens from the editor:
http://img519.imageshack.us/img519/6549/89678640ma1.jpg
http://img519.imageshack.us/img519/2581/88584323ns6.jpg
http://img519.imageshack.us/img519/9468/59540242rn9.jpg
http://img519.imageshack.us/img519/5307/30394661ky5.jpg
http://img519.imageshack.us/img519/3043/39357817nn8.jpg
http://img502.imageshack.us/img502/1520/30479287hn7.jpg

Quote:

Originally Posted by Update 15/12/2010

This map focuses mainly around a naval battle, between some small islands and a shallow reef that only small to medium ships can get in without being run aground.

Hope you guys like it, cheers

[R-DEV]Dr Rank · 2009-02-03, 02:05

Looks ace mate!

Only Rhino (ok maybe duckhunt too) would take a break from mapping by making another map!

Very nice textures and sea colour

McBumLuv · 2009-02-03, 02:13

Wow, Awesome work Rhino, looks like you'll get alot of good naval action going

Dunno if I can provide the best constructive criticism gameplay-wise, because I haven't played BF2P much, though I can surely tell you you should try and stay with what seems to be a naval focus.

You'll have to decide whether only the main should be a spawn point, as to encourage the use of boats, or if only a few of the flags have spawns on the islands, so people could spawn and hop onto passing boats, or whether you'll decide to give some ground defenses such as cannons to let people defend on land.

I'd personally go with the second choice, if only so that you get some more boarding action

The maps looking great though, must be nice to get away from making the huge maps for pr

EDIT: BTW, any list of of what assets you'll be using/pickup kits?

Rhino · 2009-02-03, 02:20

Quote:

Originally Posted by [R-DEV]Dr Rank

Looks ace mate!

Only Rhino (ok maybe duckhunt too) would take a break from mapping by making another map!

Very nice textures and sea colour

hehe, brake from PR not mapping

Quote:

Originally Posted by McLuv

Wow, Awesome work Rhino, looks like you'll get alot of good naval action going

Dunno if I can provide the best constructive criticism gameplay-wise, because I haven't played BF2P much, though I can surely tell you you should try and stay with what seems to be a naval focus.

You'll have to decide whether only the main should be a spawn point, as to encourage the use of boats, or if only a few of the flags have spawns on the islands, so people could spawn and hop onto passing boats, or whether you'll decide to give some ground defenses such as cannons to let people defend on land.

I'd personally go with the second choice, if only so that you get some more boarding action

The maps looking great though, must be nice to get away from making the huge maps for pr

cheers, forgot to wright up about that thou normal game play fashion of BFP2 conquest mode is the same as vBF2 more or less, each flag you cap you can spawn at BUT for this map I do not plan to do that. I do plan to have little row boats on some of the islands just encase some one ends up on them and needs something to get back with or w/e but apart from that, the islands wont have much on them. Thou this dose not mean they wont come into play, in fact I want some players to take a small fast boat with no real weapons, sail it up to a island, and setup there field cannon on it and then open up on the ships. Thou this cannon is really hard to fire with accurately since its really fiddly so it will take a bit to hit a enemy ship passing by but the ship wont easily be able to counter this since its trying to hit a small target that if he hides in the tree line will also be hard to see

As for assets, that's always the last thing on the list since there are multiple game modes to consider, CTF might be pretty fun on this map for example

McBumLuv · 2009-02-03, 02:36

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rhino

cheers, forgot to wright up about that thou normal game play fashion of BFP2 conquest mode is the same as vBF2 more or less, each flag you cap you can spawn at BUT for this map I do not plan to do that. I do plan to have little row boats on some of the islands just encase some one ends up on them and needs something to get back with or w/e but apart from that, the islands wont have much on them. Thou this dose not mean they wont come into play, in fact I want some players to take a small fast boat with no real weapons, sail it up to a island, and setup there field cannon on it and then open up on the ships. Thou this cannon is really hard to fire with accurately since its really fiddly so it will take a bit to hit a enemy ship passing by but the ship wont easily be able to counter this since its trying to hit a small target that if he hides in the tree line will also be hard to see

As for assets, that's always the last thing on the list since there are multiple game modes to consider, CTF might be pretty fun on this map for example

Nice, thanks for the quick response. I'll definitely redl BF2P, just since I didn't actually play it much last time, and I had to delete it for more disk space

Should be cool, though will you also be encouraging players to sail in the big vessels? Like sailing on top of them and boarding other ships

Also, don't get pressured into the asset list, that's not what I had in mind, I just thought you were close enough to completion to post it, but if not don't worry about it

Also, how big of a map is it? 2kmx2km? Should be big, though I'm wondering if you should give it little to no fog, so that while you can see the enemy on the horizon, you both need to approach each other to properly engage, or whether you want more fog, so that by the time you can see them, you can engage properly.

I'll volunteer to help test it out for you if you want, too. Loving it so far

azreal64 · 2009-02-03, 02:57

ahhh L3DT, love that little program. Looking good so far. I know this isn't a serious project, but perhaps you could invest some time in Terragen and doing textures that way. Fenring from FH2 wrote a great tutorial on it and IMO it produces much better results.

Not that there's anything wrong w/ your current textures though

EDIT: and correct me if I'm wrong but you did Qinqling in L3DT right?

Rhino · 2009-02-03, 03:10

Quote:

Originally Posted by McLuv

Should be cool, though will you also be encouraging players to sail in the big vessels? Like sailing on top of them and boarding other ships

Also, don't get pressured into the asset list, that's not what I had in mind, I just thought you were close enough to completion to post it, but if not don't worry about it

Also, how big of a map is it? 2kmx2km? Should be big, though I'm wondering if you should give it little to no fog, so that while you can see the enemy on the horizon, you both need to approach each other to properly engage, or whether you want more fog, so that by the time you can see them, you can engage properly.

I'll volunteer to help test it out for you if you want, too. Loving it so far

ye the map is 2km by 2km, 1024x2 and ye, the big vassals will be very important for there firepower but will be limited to where they can go and will be at some what of a disadvantage from there speed, size and manoeuvrability where the small ships will prevail. As for fog, plan to have the view distance as high as I can, the islands with there trees brake up the view so you can't see much of a ship hiding behind them apart from the larger ships you will be able to see the sails over the top of the tree line

Quote:

Originally Posted by azreal64

ahhh L3DT, love that little program. Looking good so far. I know this isn't a serious project, but perhaps you could invest some time in Terragen and doing textures that way. Fenring from FH2 wrote a great tutorial on it and IMO it produces much better results.

Not that there's anything wrong w/ your current textures though

EDIT: and correct me if I'm wrong but you did Qinqling in L3DT right?

From my personal preference L3DT is far better than Terragen, I've pretty much mastered texturing with L3DT, ye, Qinling was my first "test map" for L3DT which I again, only painted the terrain with but only used default climates and textures etc and on a early version with no AA etc on the textures. Since then I painted Fools Road, Muttrah, Dragon fly and a few other maps with custom climates, textures etc, ever wondered why Fools Road looks so different from AoM? I saved Taxi months of work on it

Dont have the screens now but I do have a "Before and after" shots of Fools Road before I painted it with Taxi's Tpaint textures and after

Before I didn't find the whole design map feature of L3DT that grate but now its pretty workable, mixed in with its 3D editor etc its pretty good, but the main thing I really like about it is its terrain painting, once you understand the Climate system which is now FAR simpler than the old versions making custom climates with custom textures can get your maps looking really sweet, before it was all plain numbers but now you have bars etc to show you what you have. Muttrah's climate was pretty simple, only like 4 different textures but still saved me a lot of work etc. Fools Road used like 10 different colour textures all over the map to really spice up the colour of the terrain, if you look over the open planes espically near the Militia main you can see lots of natural colour variation in it

EDIT: just for a quick example of what L3DT can do that I have not seen Terragen able to do that I know duckhunt complained about a lot when he was doing Kashan is the merge between textures, in my climate I set the blend of sand to be so it had a bit of noise at the edges and blended between 1 and 2m in to the next texture, look how it turned out:

Now if I go close up you will also see the detail dose it too but that natural effect you simply can't get with Terragen from what I've seen, may be wrong.

LtSoucy · 2009-02-03, 11:17

looks amazing, going to need to get BFP2 for this map.

Cptkanito · 2009-02-03, 11:37

Taking a break by making another map, i couldn't do that

Hans Martin Slayer · 2009-02-03, 12:38

muttrah ligthsettings?

the map looks very nice, seems you're enjoying your PR break..

2009-02-03, 02:05	#2
[R-DEV]Dr Rank PR:BF2 Developer Join Date: Nov 2006 Posts: 2,727 United Kingdom Location: Reading, England Blog Entries: 1	Re: [BFP2 Map] No Name [WIP] Looks ace mate! Only Rhino (ok maybe duckhunt too) would take a break from mapping by making another map! Very nice textures and sea colour

2009-02-03, 02:13	#3
McBumLuv Join Date: Aug 2008 Posts: 3,506 Canada Location: St. Catharines, ON	Re: [BFP2 Map] No Name [WIP] Wow, Awesome work Rhino, looks like you'll get alot of good naval action going Dunno if I can provide the best constructive criticism gameplay-wise, because I haven't played BF2P much, though I can surely tell you you should try and stay with what seems to be a naval focus. You'll have to decide whether only the main should be a spawn point, as to encourage the use of boats, or if only a few of the flags have spawns on the islands, so people could spawn and hop onto passing boats, or whether you'll decide to give some ground defenses such as cannons to let people defend on land. I'd personally go with the second choice, if only so that you get some more boarding action The maps looking great though, must be nice to get away from making the huge maps for pr EDIT: BTW, any list of of what assets you'll be using/pickup kits?

2009-02-03, 02:57	#6
azreal64 Join Date: Feb 2008 Posts: 188 United States of America	Re: [BFP2 Map] No Name [WIP] ahhh L3DT, love that little program. Looking good so far. I know this isn't a serious project, but perhaps you could invest some time in Terragen and doing textures that way. Fenring from FH2 wrote a great tutorial on it and IMO it produces much better results. Not that there's anything wrong w/ your current textures though EDIT: and correct me if I'm wrong but you did Qinqling in L3DT right?

2009-02-03, 11:17	#8
LtSoucy Join Date: Mar 2007 Posts: 3,076 Lithuania Location: Lowell MA USA	Re: [BFP2 Map] No Name [WIP] looks amazing, going to need to get BFP2 for this map.
	Reality Gaming - Making Games Reality http://realitygamer.org/

2009-02-03, 11:37	#9
Cptkanito Join Date: Aug 2008 Posts: 383 Europe Location: Salisbury	Re: [BFP2 Map] No Name [WIP] Taking a break by making another map, i couldn't do that

2009-02-03, 12:38	#10
Hans Martin Slayer Retired PR Developer Join Date: Jan 2007 Posts: 4,065 Germany Location: Bayern Munich Blog Entries: 4	Re: [BFP2 Map] No Name [WIP] muttrah ligthsettings? the map looks very nice, seems you're enjoying your PR break..