.Map :: MoHAA Mapping

Hmm... after reading your light comment, I took a trip through the map... There are 2 places where you can use the shadows to hide: the closed/bombed shop on the "shopping street" and the "backyard" ( as seen in The Level map for "The Canal" ).
These are both nade friendly.
And besides: why should the "Snipers" and "Assaulters" have all the fun? As a level designer you must also cater to the "Campers", right? A little something for everybody.

( the light settings are ambientlight/4 4 4 and suncolor/70 70 70 b.t.w. )

This map reminds me of Malta from Spearhead... I thought it was too dark, too. The lighting was very cinematic, but not practical for death matches.

There are 2 places where you can use the shadows to hide: the closed/bombed shop on the "shopping street" and the "backyard"

Yes, those were 2 of the darkest places for me. They were obvious camping spots. But when I entered the backyard, I couldn't see where to go next. I think you can still keep the majority of your shadows by adding a very small light along the main path. That way, someone just passing thru will know where to go, but a camper can still hide in the shadows in the corner.

The bombed out shop was a little difficult to maneuver in since I couldn't really see the walls and floor. The entire street outside is kind of dark so some external lamps wouldn't hurt or be out of place. And that would keep you from actually putting a light inside the shop.

When I started the map, I was in one of the many narrow walkways along the canal. There were parts of this area especially under bridges where I quickly got turned around in the dark.

Maybe this was the intent, but there is a door in the basement of the hotel that opens out onto the canal. But once the door was shut, I couldn't find it.

If I run thru the map again, I'm sure I can find some more examples. But for the guys using SMG's on the move, it could be frustrating to constantly run into super dark areas all over the map. I always play with my brightness settings above default, but even that was nowhere near enough for me to see where I was going.

Also remember, that if players are cranking up the brightness manually to compensate for a dark map, then you are going to lose your Shadow Camps completely, anyway.

On the map I am working on, I started out with an ambient of 15, but I found that it was just too dark in many areas for a daytime map. Actually, I think I've got the same sky in mine and my ambient is up to 30 now. And I've been increasing the brightness of my interior lights across the board. The main reason I'm doing that is I don't want people to crank up their brightness on my map and wash out all the hard work I've put into it. But at the same time, I don't want it to have the flat illumination that you see in the majority of the stock maps. That's a fine line to walk.

It's just my humble yet obnoxious opinion that the amount of contrast between the light and shadows is too strong across the map. I wouldn't mind seeing this one with an ambient setting somewhere between 15 and 25. If that illuminates your shadow camping areas too much, that can be compensated for by darkening the texture maps in that area. -- Even bright white light can't illuminate a black surface.

By the way, looking at that overhead view, your shadows are very crisp and detailed. They look fantastic. I noticed your trucks cast shadows, too. Did you get that just by turning on static shadows? Or did you use the shadow clip. Mine don't necessarily cast shadows on the ground.

-----Damn, sorry for the long post.

For my daytime maps that I'm working on, an ambient light of 10 is usually more than enough to do the job for me.

Maybe the brightness level on your monitor is low. Just a thought.

Really Diego... what brightness value ARE you using? To me it sounds like you can barely see the V2 rocket in the stock V2 map... crank it up man!

The model shadows are done with the -staticshadows flag. The sharp shdows are done by setting "Density 8" in the texture properties dialog for the faces I want to have sharp shadows.

LOL. I haven't played V2 in a while. I'll check it out and let you know. I have the lever for my brightness setting directly under the "B" in Brightness. Default value is a short distance to the left of that.

For your map, I have to move the lever all the way to last "S" in the control.

My monitor brightness is calibrated thru photoshop. I'm sure that darkens my video desktop. But MOH always increases my brightness about 20% in game. If I recall correctly, MOH recommends you set your brightness level so that you can just barely see the second second circle in the round black monitor above the brightness lever.

But I only use that setting on Single player levels.

I've gone back and forth with my own lighting several times because I've been second-guessing myself as to what the standard level of brightness should be. So I've been meaning to ask around to see what settings other mappers are using. But basically, I decided that you can't please everyone (Like me) And you just have to light your map according to what looks good to you on your own setup. And everyone else will just have to do whatever they need to do to make themselves happy...........

but I am still curious to see it with a higher ambient value. LOL


---What is the default shadow density?

The default is 8 I think... or 16.... no 8... almost sure... Adds to compile time however...

im too lazy to dl custom maps aswell. how mayn servers REALLY host custom maps anyway? what u might want to do is ask EA for a contest so on the next map ur custom one becomes s stock one, like for SH.

So what is the winning formula to get our maps hosted ?

I would say find a niche that isnt catered for too much. For example Spearhead TOW maps. Apart from me the only other people I know making TOW maps are Slyk, Crizz and Drecks over at after hours. I know Slyk has had mucho success with his Gun Assault map.

The two TOW maps I released were hosted on quite a few servers and proved pretty popular for a few months after their release but now seem to have gone off the boil and dont get played anymore.

On release of the maps I posted links on a lot of mohaa forums and download sites. Once released they seem to stand or fall on the quality of the map, no one is happy with inferior brushwork while they are fighting.
FPS is also a major issue with servers, get those leafgroups working.
So if you know you could build that house again but better but are thinking it might take too much time, THINK AGAIN, rebuild that house, strive to get as much detail in as you can. Quality will stand out and hopefully get your map played

I myself enjoy custom maps. I download 20 at a time sometimes and go into a server with friends and test them all out.... When doing so, you come across the crappiest maps ever created (sorry to say...) and some of the most magnificent maps ever created. Now, these maps can be considered 'crappy' or 'magnificent' on more then one term.

My imput on 'how to decide the custom map for servers' is this:

While making a map, many mapper's flaws is that they get carried away with the architecture of their buildings and not consider what the map will be like during actual gameplay. Some mappers get carried away with the accessibility of buildings. they make all the buildings accessible causing the players to get lost driving through room after room. This, i feel, makes a poor map. Some mappers get carried away with details of the architecture, creating really really beautiful maps, but the gameplay isn't smooth. And yet, some mappers focus on the realism of the map, creating all these models in rooms, putting 'secret rooms,' putting small nooks and crannies, creating many passageways and rooms. All these add up to poor gameplay.

What makes a good map is, yes you guessed it, Even, well-balanced, gameplay.

some of the popular maps out there are:

The falls - This map, i feel, is well-balanced in the 'sniper' aspect. It's more of a sit and wait type of map. The long range part of it adds to the gameplay, many people like seeing it when they hit someone from really far away. (just saying this map attracts the snipers )

St. Lo - Not that big of a map, Pretty basic, but yet, it keeps to the 'theme' of things. The gameplay is smooth, with not THOUSANDS of different choices to go for the player to make.

Das Boot - Very well done map for OBJ. Gameplay is well-balanced.

Those are just 3 of the popular maps ive seen, there are MANY more of course...

The Canal... When i played that map with a few friends a long while back (on the older version, sorry, i haven't checked out the newer version)... I felt it was one of the VERY WELL DONE, B-E-A-UUUTIFUL Maps.... but that is mainly in the 'looks' department. Me and my clanmates/friends felt that it lacked in the gameplay department. It WOULD be a good map if the server hosted many people, but i myself do not like servers with over 20-25 people in them because it gets laggy, chaotic, and uncontrollable. This goes for other people to, that ive talked with.

As for my clan server, we really don't play custom maps. I'd like to, but we just don't. I guess our server admin is just lazy where he doesnt want to put custom maps on it...

well,i think the primary cause 4 a map not being dloaded is SIZE .ur map is 7.9 mbs as i remember .i tried 2 dload it a few times but i get an error on the ffon link and the file planet just sux.anyways a 7.9 mbs is a large investment and 2 dload such a big map 2 find that its not fun (im not saying it isnt,im talking about the concept) is a big disappointment.i also like custom maps alot .i have a lan and i usually run alot of custom maps,but i rarely dload anything over 4 mbs .another that might make my opinion insignificant is that im on a 56kbs but i think the perspective is the same

I am a member of a MOHAA clan called {DieS} or Die Schutzen(The Rifleman) As you might guess, we run only rifles nearly al lthe time.

Our standard rotation is very simple... Omaha =p Its awesome with jsut stock rifles. However, we play customs whenever the modd suits us and in particular, I run theme weekends every other weekend.

Number of players is the main issue for custom maps. You need regulars, who are willing to get, and play the custom maps that you want to run. This is really hard to do, and for our theme nights, we need good attendance from our clan and/or regulars, and its just not always the case. Installign a pk3 is simple, and downloading one for 90% of people takes a couple minutes at most, but casual players wont go through the trouble, and the maps often suffer with few people.

This weekend we are running Opera, Desert_base and probably canal, with both snipers, and rifles. We love opera, and play it quite often with rifles only, so this time we are trying it out with snipers as well. Servers with constant customs(especialy more then one) are really really hard to fill in mohaa, and even moreso when you do not play realism(crap) or you exclude weapons like shotties/rockets(also crap).

I am not sure yet, whether we will try the obj or liberation version of canal, does the liberation beta work well?

We love to play on fun, well designed OBJ maps(we almost never play TDM) but it is hard to get casual or even semi-regular clients to go through the effort to get these maps. We make sure to post each pk3 on our site before they will be run, if they are not already, people just are too lazy to do ANYTHING.

Like I said we will be playing opera, canal and desertbase this weekend, probably at around 8 or 9pm est on probably fri, sat, sun.

Our server is named Alou's Beach Blast -- IP - 69.22.144.144:12203
Mohcommand.com is our site =)

Opera is definately one of our favorite maps, none of us as of yet have played canal though.

PS- the only complaint I ever here on custom maps is FPS.


Oh yea, before I forget, Canal is beutiful, it looks great.

Yep I think clans are the way to get it out there.

i still think the reason cusom maps arent popular is ppl are just oo lazy to get them. u shud see if EA will put a custom map in a new patch that would be cool and mandatory!!!!! muhahahahaha!~!~!~!

this is a little offtopic but its just a question,woould a 56kbs modem play decent enough pn a server?

not by the standards of anyone who has ever played broadband