Level Design New level: Marinovka

[Vassili_Zaitsev]

I've been working on a new tank only level. Here's the info.
Any comments would be more than welcome.

History:

Operation Uranus was the Russian response to the siege of Stalingrad. On Nov 19th 1942 the Russian 5th, 21st, 65th and 24th armies crossed the Volga north of Stalingrad heading southwest. On 20th November the Russian 64th, 57th and 51st armies crossed the Volga south of Stalingrad heading northwest.
They punched through the german lines, ultimately linking up at Sovetsky on Nov 23rd.

The premise:

The idea is that a unit of SS panzergrenadiers try to stop the link up, mounting a defence at the town of Marinovka between Kalach and Sovetsky.

Allies:
Unit Name:
26th Tank Corps
Description:
COMRADES! Now is the time to strike back at the fascist invader! Secure the road from Kalach to Marinovka. Secure the bridges across the Volga-Don canal and the road to Stalingrad. Destroy the SS headquarters near the town. Sieze the railyard and any materiel. Then on to Sovetsky to link up with 4th Tank Corps.

Axis:
Unit Name:
16th SS Panzergrenadiers
Description:
Garrison duty ... it's so easy. Sit in the warmth until spring and the new assult on Stalingrad. Nothing to do but drink the local vodka and meet the local girls. After all, the front is over 60 miles away ... right?



The map:
http://www.redorchestragame.com/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=816&d=1161473108
Taken from a satellite image (Google earth). This map is approx 3 miles on a side. The straight black line at the bottom is the Volga-Don canal. In the bottom right of the image, the small white blob in the canal is a container ship(for scale).

To do:
I'm having some problem with Spawns (RO spawns players in areas where I have NO player start actors) and Objectives (some show up as secondary objectives, when I want them all as primary, and one cap wins the level).
So, fix these problems, then alpha test for AI and balance.
Add decorations (layers as well as meshes) to make things look more realistic/believable.
Beta test for player reaction.

Credits:

Big thanks to Tripwire for a kick-ass game.
Massive thanks to Moz and Slashbot for two great levels (Black Day and Orel) and the advice, suggestions and help they have given me.
I hope this level will live up to their examples.

 

[myzko]

Goodluck on that!

 

[Nestor Makhno]

That's a big ol' map if you want to cover the area you have on the photo

 

[Moz]

hope to see some ingame stuff soon

 

[ANG3L]

People will be falling asleep at the wheel lol, good job m8t best of luck for this one.

 

[Vassili_Zaitsev]

People will be falling asleep at the wheel lol, good job m8t best of luck for this one.

Yeah, it's kinda Orel big ...

Anyhoo, if anyone's interested, I posted an alpha on addonDB.


It's a BIG map too, 33Mb. Gotta bring that down somehow. Plus there's speed issues.

I'd like to know if I'm going in the right direction. Would folks like to play a map like this? Does it look good?

What I really want to know is, is it worth while taking the time to polish this?

 

[DeV]

Isn't add-on DB for finals mostly? I don't think they like to be flooded by beta's and alpha's. Anyway, I'll check your map later on today.

 

[Nestor Makhno]

Yeah, I wouldn't put alphas or betas up on add-on DB.

Anyone that has any interest in testing new maps would use this forum. People who use add-on DB as a primary source of maps would prolly just think "WTF? This map isn't done yet!"

If you need hosting just PM me and I will upload it to my webspace and also put up a compressed version for you. you could then post the link here.

 

[Rrralphster]

I'm not sure if you have historical accuracy as a top priority but your 16th SS Panzergrenadiers was formed in the end of 1943 and served on the Western Front (Anzio etc.)

Another thing is that Operation Uranus was aimed at Germany's allies, Italy and Romania. They were guarding the flanks and the Russians knew that. They also knew they (Italy and Romania) were much weaker then German forces.

 

[sander]

I'm not sure if you have historical accuracy as a top priority but your 16th SS Panzergrenadiers was formed in the end of 1943 and served on the Western Front (Anzio etc.)

Another thing is that Operation Uranus was aimed at Germany's allies, Italy and Romania. They were guarding the flanks and the Russians knew that. They also knew they (Italy and Romania) were much weaker then German forces.

Maybe an idea for the new add-on with Romanian forces?

 

[Vassili_Zaitsev]

I'm not sure if you have historical accuracy as a top priority but your 16th SS Panzergrenadiers was formed in the end of 1943 and served on the Western Front (Anzio etc.)

Another thing is that Operation Uranus was aimed at Germany's allies, Italy and Romania. They were guarding the flanks and the Russians knew that. They also knew they (Italy and Romania) were much weaker then German forces.

Historical accuracy is what I'm aiming for, except in the sense this is a "what if" scenario.

This map covers the area where the two arms of Operation Uranus linked up, after punching through the Romanian and Italian lines, so it would have been a German unit.

However, you and I are both right ... in a sense.
As far as my research tells me, it was 16th Panzergrenadiers BEFORE they were called that.
The unit should be 16th Panzer and should be Heer, not SS.

Also, Sovetsky is apparently slightly to the southwest of this map, not southeast. Marinovka remained in german hands and was the westernmost point of the Kessel.

Accordingly, the map will need to be changed to show a different area and the russian unit should be 4th Tank Corps, coming from the south/southeast and looking for an exit to the northwest of the map, heading to Kalach.

I will (when I can work out how spawns work) put the germans near the russian point of entry and, as caps are made, move the german spawn area further northeast toward Marinovka.

However, the important question remains, is this map worth tinkering with? Does it look and feel like a good map? Or is it a POS?

This is my first map, I'm not looking for a pat on the head, but some honest criticism and some idea of what I'm doing well and what needs to be changed or removed.

Thanks anyways for all the comments so far.

p.s. I used a program called World Machine for the terrain, so redoing it from scratch is NO problem. I'd highly recommend this program to everyone.

 

[Boogerhead]

p.s. I used a program called World Machine for the terrain, so redoing it from scratch is NO problem. I'd highly recommend this program to everyone.

Up front: No, I haven't tried the map yet.

World Machine looks as if they want to you to pay for the Standard version to incorporate into games. Dunno.

I seem to recall that one of the D-Day: Normandy guys recommended this:
http://www.planetside.co.uk/terragen/

I'm pretty sure that's the package. That's free, and can even make photo-realistic drawings when you're done.


I can't wait to try the map!

 

[Rich_Zap]

Just tried world machine, just as with maya ple it allows you all the same controls but it doesnt give you the licence to be able to make money out of anything you create.

Also i would suggest to anyone else to use terragen, machine world looks more powerfull but it also looks harder to get into.

 

[tropsobor]

I'm not sure if you have historical accuracy as a top priority but your 16th SS Panzergrenadiers was formed in the end of 1943 and served on the Western Front (Anzio etc.)

Another thing is that Operation Uranus was aimed at Germany's allies, Italy and Romania. They were guarding the flanks and the Russians knew that. They also knew they (Italy and Romania) were much weaker then German forces.

The flanks were guarded by romanians alone. italians were further to the right of the romanian 3rd army. Immediately to the left the german 6th army was guarded by 75,000 romanians of the 4th Army and immediately to the right she was guarded by 150,000 romanians from 3rd Army. In total 250,000 men covering 430 kilometers. 430 kilometers is almost the distance between the western french border and eastern french border.

 

[Lruce Bee]

Vassili - I haven't downloaded the map yet but can you post some screenshots of your work

Lruce

 

[Vassili_Zaitsev]

Oh damn!

I've been re-working this. I moved the map area to cover the river and two bridges.Then I found out that the rivers should have been frozen and so and son ... until I realised I would basically be remaking Barashka.

So I'm gonna stop work on this. There's no point creating what would essentially be a larger version of an existing map. Thanks for your input, though.