Afrika Campaign Mod
- Thread starter DirtyRat
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Anybody feel like taking topographical maps of North Africa and making boxes around areas that were battlefields in WWII? I'd love to see a series of those posted in this thread, to see what kind of terrain types and climates were involved.
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If I can make a suggestion...
I LOVE the energy and enthusiasm you guys are bringing to this. Reminds me of... us!
When you start a mod all the different disciplines have wide open voids to fill, so everyone naturally starts running off and doing things. Coders code, modellers start creating models, texture artists start doing textures, level designers, welll they do whatever it is they do.
The thing is, with a mod, you want to establish a clear, common purpose and a consistent approach. Inevitably, your options are too open atm. It may be necessary to set some boundaries.
For example, the desert war covered 4 years and changed quite drammatically over that time. Are you aiming for '43 or '40? If you want to include Americans, then I'd say you're looking at the former. Are you going to include Italians?
All this can overwhelm you at first and spread the effort too thinly. I suggest selecting ONE battle as the core effort for the first release of your mod. I might suggest Tobruk. From that figure out what weapons, art, code you might need. Use the level to "pull" stuff from the art team and the coders. The pull model makes it less likely that people will waste time working on stuff that won't make it into a level. Some may say I'm biased, but if a piece of code or art isn't represented in a level, it might as well not exist.
Doing what I suggest will help narrow the focus for the mod and get everyone pulling in the same direction. Remember, you won't be able to do it all in one release, so relax. Don't be in such a hurry to get stuff done that you forget to have fun along the way.
Another suggestion I might have is to create a "play level" that everyone can use to try stuff out. Set it up so artists and coders can use it to try out new tanks, weapons, pieces of art, etc. Make it a kind of "museum" for as much of your content as possible.
Hmmm, I think I'm starting to write "Modding 101" here, which wasn't my intent. You guys have great energy and enthusiasm and I'm sure you will succeed. Hopefully, my suggestions aren't annoying and might help you avoid some problems.
Cheers.
I LOVE the energy and enthusiasm you guys are bringing to this. Reminds me of... us!
When you start a mod all the different disciplines have wide open voids to fill, so everyone naturally starts running off and doing things. Coders code, modellers start creating models, texture artists start doing textures, level designers, welll they do whatever it is they do.
The thing is, with a mod, you want to establish a clear, common purpose and a consistent approach. Inevitably, your options are too open atm. It may be necessary to set some boundaries.
For example, the desert war covered 4 years and changed quite drammatically over that time. Are you aiming for '43 or '40? If you want to include Americans, then I'd say you're looking at the former. Are you going to include Italians?
All this can overwhelm you at first and spread the effort too thinly. I suggest selecting ONE battle as the core effort for the first release of your mod. I might suggest Tobruk. From that figure out what weapons, art, code you might need. Use the level to "pull" stuff from the art team and the coders. The pull model makes it less likely that people will waste time working on stuff that won't make it into a level. Some may say I'm biased, but if a piece of code or art isn't represented in a level, it might as well not exist.
Doing what I suggest will help narrow the focus for the mod and get everyone pulling in the same direction. Remember, you won't be able to do it all in one release, so relax. Don't be in such a hurry to get stuff done that you forget to have fun along the way.
Another suggestion I might have is to create a "play level" that everyone can use to try stuff out. Set it up so artists and coders can use it to try out new tanks, weapons, pieces of art, etc. Make it a kind of "museum" for as much of your content as possible.
Hmmm, I think I'm starting to write "Modding 101" here, which wasn't my intent. You guys have great energy and enthusiasm and I'm sure you will succeed. Hopefully, my suggestions aren't annoying and might help you avoid some problems.
Cheers.
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Ofcourse all of you modders are welcome to visit us at the AOC, since you're all making original content for the game
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Well one of our mappers had to leave and I need someone on here that has at least 7 months of experience mapping with UED to take his place. If you are interested send me a PM with some pictures of previous works you have done.
In addition to that Im looking to get another 3 mappers on board so that we have 10 mappers. The requirements are the same as I listed above.
In addition to that Im looking to get another 3 mappers on board so that we have 10 mappers. The requirements are the same as I listed above.
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trydis said:Thanks for all the tips, I'm sure someone from the management will answer this, because i'm just a coder
Ah! Don't say "just". The really cool thing, from my pov as a team lead/project manager is that a game (or mod) can't work without the contributions of a bunch of totally different groups: coders, artists, sound guys, level designers, testers, etc.
Everyone counts.
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DingBat, a great post, many good points made there!
I love the energy as well, one of the many reasons I think this team can really pull through.
We are working on completing our design doc with all the goals, what needs to be done etc. We just need to have a meeting first =)
I think we will concentrate on '41-'42, with El Alamein and Tobruk as the 2 largest points right now. From what we have said so far, we will start with British and German soldiers (most of all VIII Army vs. DAK). If everything goes as planned, Italians will be there, but not as of the first release - we're also thinking about Austrailians and other countries that was on the Allied side.
I agree, focusing on one special point is needed in this stage of the process. Since many of our mappers and coders does not have very much experience with the Unreal engine they will first need some time to adjust before they can start working on the real deal. I don't think anyone on the team think this mod will be something we will finnish in a month or two, I think all of them understand the time and dedication it takes.
About the play level, great idea! I haven't thought about it myself for this project, but I've used my own "play levels" when I've worked on other mapping and coding project by myself in the past. It's a great help, and I'll be sure to make this idea reality.
I would like to thank you for your time to write that post, I'm sure it will help us.
Cheers,
Molnies
I love the energy as well, one of the many reasons I think this team can really pull through.
We are working on completing our design doc with all the goals, what needs to be done etc. We just need to have a meeting first =)
I think we will concentrate on '41-'42, with El Alamein and Tobruk as the 2 largest points right now. From what we have said so far, we will start with British and German soldiers (most of all VIII Army vs. DAK). If everything goes as planned, Italians will be there, but not as of the first release - we're also thinking about Austrailians and other countries that was on the Allied side.
I agree, focusing on one special point is needed in this stage of the process. Since many of our mappers and coders does not have very much experience with the Unreal engine they will first need some time to adjust before they can start working on the real deal. I don't think anyone on the team think this mod will be something we will finnish in a month or two, I think all of them understand the time and dedication it takes.
About the play level, great idea! I haven't thought about it myself for this project, but I've used my own "play levels" when I've worked on other mapping and coding project by myself in the past. It's a great help, and I'll be sure to make this idea reality.
I would like to thank you for your time to write that post, I'm sure it will help us.
Cheers,
Molnies
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some solid advice there dingbat.
And now that the mapper that was going to do Tobruk left Im trying to find a solid mapper to do that map and have some of the more experienced mappers also help out with that map. I might do the same thing to the Alamein maps.
And now that the mapper that was going to do Tobruk left Im trying to find a solid mapper to do that map and have some of the more experienced mappers also help out with that map. I might do the same thing to the Alamein maps.
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If you ever get bored of Tripwire Dingbat, there'll always be a place for you at burning sands.
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Molnies said:
Heh. I'm sure you guys will do just fine without any ramblings from me. You've got the drive to make it happen.
Hope you don't mind if I lurk, just to see what you guys come up with.
Cheers.
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Lurk just how much you want
Well if you haven't already, you should sign up on the forums - when they are up again. Right now we're just moving the site to another host.
Well if you haven't already, you should sign up on the forums - when they are up again. Right now we're just moving the site to another host.
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Great post Dingbat, in fact i was going to post about that this week, because we need to conentrate our efforts initially on two armies...there are indeed lots of battles to choose from and I'd like the focus to be on the Afrika Korp v VIII army battles primarily. Italians, austrailian etc we can do later.
btw new domain NOW: http://www.burningsands.org
The site banner and button images i made will be changing, and we're looking for ANYONE to help submit pics to create a really cool looking banner, until we've got content of our own to showcase! Post HERE if you want to try!
btw new domain NOW: http://www.burningsands.org
The site banner and button images i made will be changing, and we're looking for ANYONE to help submit pics to create a really cool looking banner, until we've got content of our own to showcase! Post HERE if you want to try!
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Don't forget to dig around the Unreal fan sites and forums for people who might be interested.
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I for one, am really looking forward to this mod. Africa was one of my favorite theatres of WWII and it looks like you guys are going to put a lot of realism into it. I will probably play this mod more than the regular game. Any idea when you're going to release it?
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