WW2: World in Flames [REVISED]

[Fingolfin]

@Foxy; the idea of being able to sell vehicles to other nations is very nice and realistic (since that is much how the countries did during the war), but it kind of ruins the whole concept of having separate models instead of teamcolor. The effect i'm trying to create is for players to immediatelly come to one realization when panzer tanks starts rolling across his borders - OMG, IT'S ZHE GERMANS!!!

I'm also not so sure about the hijacking idea, since trade ships are uncontrollable by deafult and since that strategy was hardly practiced in the real war.
For those of you who missed it, there will be land trade transports that can be "robbed" like suggested.

I can tell though that terrain will buff your units to a large extent. The current environmental buffs you can recieve are the following;

Natural Protection - boosts the armor of all units in target area.
Difficult Terrain - slows the movement speed of all mechanised units in the target area.
Harsh Conditions - slows down the movement speed of all organic units in the target area.

I'm thinking of implementing more types, but at the moment, theese three can be tweaked to fit most situations i can come across.

By the way, i am on the athens airport right now awaiting my flight. It's about 9 o' clock here in greece, and my flight will leave at 14.00 (duh). Can't wait 'till i get home.

 

[WOWWARS]

Nice Turkey should recreate the ottoman empire Greece is poor.


EDit: i got a crazy idea about neutrals join the fraction they want. lol everyone joins axis.

 

[Miss_Foxy]

How about instead of vehicles, make it like, trading money for erm, goods such as food to sustain the nation. And a different percentage currency for different countries too would be nice

Edit: And maybe also make some upgrades for certain specific vehicles to be able to move through certain harsh terrain conditions.

 

[baassee]

I guess the natural protection is good. However in some situations it shouldn't be able for mechanics such in forests? I don't know but I think a tank can make quite a noice in the woods.

 

[Hugomath]

@Fingolfin: well those terrain buffs seems nice. I got one suggestion:
-Urban Environment: slows the movement of mechanized units(since there would be lots of buildings and stuff) and increases armor of organic units(since they can take cover in cars, buildings, etc).

I also got this idea of being a chance of fighter pilots to eject from their planes after being destroyed. Something like 50% of chance the pilot eject and activate its parachute, so when it gets to the ground become a infantry soldier. But the problem I see is that if it would become a normal soldier or a weaker soldier (like a guy with a pistol), since pilots don't take smgs or rifles with them lol.

 

[Fingolfin]

The whole thing about the pilot ejecting is really too tiny of a detail for me actually. I'm actually pretty sure the catapult chair wasn't even invented by then!

Also, there's the problem of having planes above water - the ejected soldier would "jump" to nearest land wich would look lame.

I'll look into the urban environment idea, it makes sense, i just don't know if the cities are big enough for it to do much difference. But yeah, i might use that.

And by the way:

HOONEY, I'M HOOOOME!!!!

 

[Hugomath]

Well then, make that only in bigger cities. Like Stalingrad, Berlin, Paris. etc.

So, how was your trip?

 

[Falafelkorv]

Welcome to sweden fingolfin! xD
How is foodlimit working by the way?

 

[Miss_Foxy]

Hmm... How about adding an animation for letting people off a transport plane, like parachuting downwards?

 

[Vuormalainen]

Too bad I thought Fingolfin was coming back next week so I thought that I had the whole weekend to work on it.

However, Fingolfin will receive the updated map when I return home from school, these are the changes and additions I made (mainly for Fingolfin to have something to read ):

Added "Mass Command" which allows you to easily command masses of troops instead of selecting them 12 by 12.

Added "Foreign Business" which you use for signing peace treaties, declaring war and creating military alliances.

Finished terrain in europe.

Put all hotkeys which weren't in the following order:
Q, W, E, R
A, S, D, F
Z, X, C, V

Added a menu with camera options, zoom in, zoom out, reset.

Added custom icons to units which didn't have yet.

Finalized the UI by changing tooltip strings to display correct information and make it different from the typical WC3 UI.

Added pathing blockers to all mountains which didn't have any already.

Completed most cities' terrain.

Basically, I did the finalizing stuff (preparing the map for a release) that Fingolfin didn't have time to do yet.

I have two other features ready as well but I'am not sure if Fingolfin likes them so lets see. If he does, I'll post them as well

 

[Miss_Foxy]

Hmm... I wouldn't if you'd mind if one more thing was suggested, I hope not. Maybe add extra researching for the different countries, and allow them to improve during a certain stage of the game till this era's technologies, or further?

 

[Hugomath]

Are there any artillery tower? Something like a stationary artillery that the engineer can build?

 

[Miss_Foxy]

I doubt so, because he already made capturable watch towers

 

[Fingolfin]

I've thought of it - you might remember us having the discussion over the flak cannon - but there is nothing yet. We will see how things turns out.

 

[Miss_Foxy]

But Fin... How about giving planes an ability to crash land?

 

[Fingolfin]

Why would i want that?

 

[Hugomath]

You could do like the "Afrika Korps" video I shown previously. Those large artilleries firing are so awesome XD

 

[Fingolfin]

Just watched them - great stuff there!
Those tanks and artilleries sure look awesome.

 

[Hugomath]

Glad you liked them.

Now I watched them again, this time analyzing better the tanks and artilleries, and here's what I thought:

-The artilleries I suggested could be like the one in 0:50 of the Deutsche Afrika Korps video, with a reloading sequence animation, just like in the self-propelled artilleries.
-See how the tanks got problems passing through woods, like in 2:00? They demolish all trees they see, so could be in the game. Tanks are slowed down in forests, and can break through trees, to open path (and if isn't much, the trees would regrow). That sounds a bad micro though. I mean, noob players would say something like: COME ON FATASS TANK!! ZOMFG DID I JUST KILLED THAT TREE WTF???

 

[Fingolfin]

Trees are oftenly used in this map as natural boundary so i don't think that is very likely, even though it looks so awesome. There is also the issue of unit proportions - some units are made smaller and others bigger to give their class a stronger visual impact, and sometimes just to avoid overscaling. Trees are also sometimes very large in proportion to a tank.

And what was that about artillery cannons?
I too have started to like them (empire earth ruined it to me at first - they look so silly rolling about on their own), but i thought we decided for engine mounted artilleries a long time ago, and that is also what i have created.

 

[baassee]

Why would i want that?

Japanease Suicide Bombers.

 

[Hugomath]

@Fingolfin I dunno I thought about stationary artilleries that are build by engineers, like towers.

 

[Miss_Foxy]

Yeah, kamikaze would be unique. Also, it could apply for units that are dying in a plane with less than 10% hp, there could be a skill added called 'Crashland' it's suicidal but does damage in an AOE, how about that Finny?

 

[Vuormalainen]

My idea would be a available research for Japan which makes planes "suicide crash" into close enemy unit (if there is any) when about to die.

Simple, obvious, classic for Japan as well as anti-micro!

 

[baassee]

My idea would be a available research for Japan which makes planes "suicide crash" into close enemy unit (if there is any) when about to die.

Simple, obvious, classic for Japan as well as anti-micro!

Second that.

Found a suiting spell for the purpose
Link

 

[Fingolfin]

That spell looks pretty nice
let's not get ahead of things though, we'll have to find a nice system for the airplane movement first.

 

[RiotZ]

That's exactly what I was going to recommend.. I guess you've played Halo Wars.. (Banshees have a final upgrade allowing them to kamakaze enemies nearby when they are near death).

 

[Vuormalainen]

I guess you've played Halo Wars.. (Banshees have a final upgrade allowing them to kamakaze enemies nearby when they are near death).

Me.. Halo? Ugghh

 

[Miss_Foxy]

I don't play Halo, it was just another random idea I got. Oh... And what do you mean by a 'plane system' Finny?

 

[RiotZ]

Me.. Halo? Ugghh

Pfft..

If you've never played Halo or Dawn of War, you are failing a gamer's life.

 

[Fingolfin]

Actually, halo wars was a bit of a flop, imo.
It's still nice though.

@Miss Foxy: With "plane system" i mean a system that causes planes to move realistically, i.e. never stand still at one point, but circle around a point whenever they are not going somewhere. This is also what somewhat complicates the kamikaze idea, but if i can manage to have the planes attack while moving, they should be able to suicide bomb.

 

[RiotZ]

Actually, halo wars was a bit of a flop, imo.
It's still nice though.

@Miss Foxy: With "plane system" i mean a system that causes planes to move realistically, i.e. never stand still at one point, but circle around a point whenever they are not going somewhere. This is also what somewhat complicates the kamikaze idea, but if i can manage to have the planes attack while moving, they should be able to suicide bomb.

I recommend Phoenix Fire or.. A dummy that attacks for them. (To attack while moving). Of course I haven't figured out a way to make Phoenix Fire have AoE yet..

 

[Miss_Foxy]

Or you could try that flak cannon thing that gyrocopters have.

 

[Fingolfin]

I meant a way for the system to make the plane circle around, then head straight for the enemy while firing, then circle back again etc.

 

[baassee]

I meant a way for the system to make the plane circle around, then head straight for the enemy while firing, then circle back again etc.

The circle stuff wouldn't be too painful but at the same time the second one would either have a dummy phoenix fire (but the effects aren't what you are searching for) or a custom missile system that fires.

 

[RiotZ]

Oh you mean like it makes strafing runs, well you could do that with Phoenix Fire too but it's pretty hard to do with anything at all.
Perhaps Phoenix Fire could be used in Gunships, if there will be such aircraft, or it could be used for anti-air turrets on certain planes.
What model file are you using for bullets?

 

[Fingolfin]

Currently, i'm using the rifleman bullets, but i might make a custom one.

 

[WOWWARS]

can u plz hurry & finish its been months wc3 is going to play WoW and prop boring games like Modern warfare 2.

 

[Fingolfin]

I have some problems opening the map.
Since the very beginning i have had a corrupt trigger that exists even though i have deleted it, and the first time i start it in the editor, i usualy get an error message saying that a trigger native does not exist in the database (issueOrderAllUnitsRect or something like that), but the second time i get some kind of other error regarding a string length, but then the map opens properly.
To make it short, my map was defunct, but then so was my editor - which meant that only my unique editor was capable of opening it.

I just got a new internet for this computer, and some things had to be changed on the harddrive for it to work (basically the main harddrive was taken out, a new drive was set as C/:, and then the old one was reinserted as a slave). This somehow removed the wierd bug from my editor unallowing me to open it. I had copied some files from my newgen folder to Vuorma before this happened, so now he is the only one who can open it.

I will try to reinstall my warcraft though and see how that works.

 

[WOWWARS]

omg gg map.

 

[Fingolfin]

Just fixed it!
Great, now i can get back to work.

EDIT: I have some great progress to show!

North africa has been a subject of constant change since the moment i started terraining it; and now it has recieved a well-needed face lift by the help of some custom tiles!
I have also done some recolouring to the rock textures to better suit theese.

If you look carefully, you can see the sign saying "el Alamein" in the top right corner

The green boxes are just buff dummies; ofcourse, they don't show up ingame.


Great thanks to Red Shift, for sharing those awesome tiles!

 

[Hugomath]

Nice! By the way, what's done so far?

 

[Fingolfin]

Check the above post.

 

[Hugomath]

Wow!! So awesome!!

Outstanding job! Oh and what about the Pacific War? I mean, which islands will be in the game and etc.?

 

[Fingolfin]

The pacific theatre looks pretty much like this:

*The left end starts just before india begins, i.e., all of india is included.
*The right end ends somewhere in the middle of the nevada desert, U.S.A.
*The bottom end goes exactly below new guinea and the solomon isles. Most of theese islands are included, but very small.
*The top end goes right above the topmost of the japanese isles.

Importand islands included are:

*The Hawaiian isles (3 of them); contains two cities, a harbour, and an airfield.

*Midway island, contains an airfield.

*Wake island, contains an airfield.

You also have a bunch of other islands that naturally include within theese borders, most of them are not properly terrained yet though.

 

[Hugomath]

I see. Well I just feel that I have to say two other islands that are very needed in the map: Iwo Jima and Okinawa. I'm not sure, but I think there was a castle in Okinawa, which American troops had to fight hard to get it. And Iwo Jima was one of the key islands to the American victory in the Pacific.

I hope I'm not being an ass, but I'd like to ask how's the Eastern Front until now?

 

[Miss_Foxy]

Wow. It looks awesome, maybe it needs JASS, you could ask Ham_Ham for the plane thing, or you could use 'Patrol'.

 

[Fingolfin]

Nah.. uuhm.. Ham_Ham doesn't know any jass. I've actually promised to help him sort out his GUI triggers on his map.
I have seen this kind of system work in warcraft, so it is not impossible!

 

[Miss_Foxy]

Nothing is impossible in Warcraft, hehe
Anyways, you know those commands where you 'Shift - Right Click' those spots in the game and you'll see those little rally flags pop out? Maybe use that system, except make the flags unseen.

 

[baassee]

The thing about the movement is that a unit can't move in a circle without a hell of a lot orders, ordering to coordinates in circle borders. This however would be simple if you triggered the movement but that would ruin the control of the unit, although it might work.