[IceBreakr/IBIS] Island Panthera for A3

[icebreakr 3157]

Hey guys!

Intro for all A3 newcomers
"It's 2015 almost, mapmaking for such a popular game must be easy, right? Wrong :)"
I'm from Slovenia (Europe) and I've been a level designer for other games/simulations for ~15 years now. Many of you know me & my work from Arma 2, a bit less from Armed Assault (Arma 1) and even smaller number of folks from OFP aka Operation Flashpoint: Cold War Crisis (original Bohemia's game released back in June 2001). I'm an avid mapmaker/addon-maker for this Community and I get a lot of requests to release some my "old" work from previous titles to the Arma 3. I'm also a C/O for SBP (Slovenian Black Panthers) team that gets to play at least once weekly (Thursdays). Team has a rich (and also turbulent) history since 2002. We absolutely love to be hand in hand with realism in mil-sim games, well .... with a hint of zombie/alien/dinosaur chase now and then to break up the monotony ;)

If I'm to release my old maps to Arma 3 I better enhance them while in the process, right? Right :) After a very long wait for necessary tools by BI and that fiasco that actually holding back work and waiting on A3 that proved to be "alpha" or maybe early "beta" was, I gathered enough courage to get my hands dirty, overcome all new mapmaking problems and issues, to release some new stuff now that Altis is slowly "cooling down". As I've predicted, BIS in 1-year managed to release huge amount of patches, polish the A3 "sci-fi arcade shooter" into a well-polished "sandbox game" we've all wanted.
You cannot imagine on how many issues I've come across with "new" tool Terrain Builder official tool, how many sleepless nights I've gone through banging my head, well upper one... just figuring out that bridge objects (BI original ones!) that I used on the maps in 2 previous titles worked, but were crashing A3 game to CTD now... But here I am, stubborn as always, finding a way ;)
I would like to thank all the guys that helped me in the process: Bushlurker, Ben Rampling, Mikero, M1lkm8n, Hatchet, fabiano_celentano, jpauling1411, just to name a few! Also big thanks to Matt, Placebo, Dwarden, and some BI devs for pointing me in the right directions. And of course, all the people credited in my previous releases as stated in attached readme.txt files.

First map to get released for A3 is...
Island Panthera

[full view]

Couple of WIP Shots:




It is my first project for armaverse game, a place where I live in RL. Of course, map has been severely scaled down in size, otherwise I would be still making it and not releasing it back in May 9th, 2010. Last version dates from Dec 27, 2012, v2.9 for Arma 2/OA game. To see the complete history or the map, see the old A2 topic.

WHAT IS PANTHERA?
Name Panthera itself comes from Slovenian history of "black panther" crest. Map itself is based on the real height data of Slovenia's Northwest part in Europe - named Gorenjska Region.
"Gora" in Slovenian means mountain and Gorenjska region (represented in Panthera) certainly lives up to its name being home to most of Slovenia’s biggest mountains, including the highest of them all – Triglav (three heads) standing at an impressive 2,865 metres. The Julian Alps and the beautiful Triglav National Park are the main features of the region – offering not just outstanding scenery, but a wealth of plant and animal life and an abundance of outdoor activities. It is also home to the unforgettable lakes Bled and Bohinj. It is almost impossible to decide which one you prefer – Serene Bohinj and its majestic mountain setting or fairytale Bled with its seventeenth century church on an island overlooked by a castle perched on a rocky outcrop.

FANTASY STORY TO GO ALONG WITH THE NEW ISLAND?
Massive climate changes rocked the entire world and heavy ocean flooding left only numerous islands. Panthera is luckly one of them, but people didn't unite in this disaster - army is able to protect only major towns, villages form their own protection squads and neighbouring countries (in order to survive) invade the last island between newly formed sea. Armor is scarce, but several airports serve as an air bridge for more equipment and weapons...

INTERESTING FACTS
See here:

* Gorenjska region is in fact NW part of Slovenia in Europe and in RL it isn't an island, of course.

* due to heavy real-life vegetation and gameplay issues author' had to resize a sector of ~40x40 klicks (kilometers) down to 10km x 10km terrain, quite enough for a small infantry operation supported by light armor and choppers. Of course jets and heavy armor can be used too but it requires a lot of skill and tactics in such harsh terrain. Large mountains and deadly valleys can be tough even for the most experienced fighters. Roads are basically only way to travel around (except air transport), but dense vegetation and many chokepoints can be fatal for a single vehicle or even an armoured convoy, not to mention Panthera's terrain layout can be fatal even for an experienced pilot. Therefor recommended way of travel is tabbing a.k.a. by foot.

* first plan has been to create an entire Slovenia (of course resized to ArmA), but too many details were lost on mountain ranges. Slovenia is very similiar to other European countries with vast forests, several rivers, lakes and lush vegetation.

* real-life counterpart towns in the area had to be resized to small villages, couple of them listed here: Radovljica, Bled, Jesenice, Mojstrana, Kranjska Gora, Kobarid, Tolmin, Bohinjska Bela, etc. Map now features over than 60 settlements/places, of course much smaller than real life counterpart.

* texture is based on 10240x10240 composite of various satellite images and photoshopped in couple of places.

* there are four airports present:
- Lesce (real one is cessna/soaring plane capable, but in-game runway is the sake of gameplay paved and much bigger, so fighters & transport planes can use it)
- Bovec (real one, small for mainly helicopter operations or for very very daring pilots)
- Arnoldstein (fake one, Arnoldstein doesn't have one in RL, but this one has been added for better gameplay and mission makers' ideas coming to life. It supplies Tarvisio on SW. Its also the biggest airport with a long runway.
- Smugglers (another fake one, this one stands in the desert and locals use it for smuggling operations in and out of the island), supplies the Town of Skooma.

* Almost everything exists in the real World. But there are couple of fictional (FAKE) areas added to improve gameplay. One of them is a desert part on the SouthEast and entire Northern Sector (Austrian Coast) is also fictional with tropical vegetation and small villages, not to forget a fictional racing track ;)

* all roads are based on real-life data and cover all sectors of the map.

* first try to explore the island by positioning your squad on one of the four airports and launch vehicle and air patrols from there. Don't forget to visit highest peak Triglav or a skijump in Planica (NW Valley) ;)

Credits
Created by: IceBreakr
Contributors: PeterGrozni (ideas, feedback), Randy (normal mapping), SBP Team for extensive testing and valuable feedback, MAj Z. (Aljaz Tower object), Sgt.Ace/Atsche (A1-A2, Clutter & Plant configs), Kju (configs, help), Mikero (configs, awesome tools, help & support), Mondkalb (crowdstand at Arnoldstein Airport), Opteryx (protection wall), Bushlurker, Ian Banks (new roads), M1lkm8n (support), Hatchet (p3d help), fabiano_celentano (new weather, skies), Flossy, Nicholas Bell, Jakerod, Foxhound - thank you all for the contributions and support.
Testers & bugreports: SBP Team, Monsieur, Sgt.Ace, Kol9yn, SmukY, Spidi, Sjaba & Team L.A.M.B.S.
Special thanks: Bohemia Interactive for making of ArmA series.

 

CHANGELOG

3.9
- massive improvement of lighting and satellite image of the map
- 420000+ objects placed
- brg_africa addon is no longer required, uses Apex vegetation instead
- new snow road textures
- new rock textures for summer and winter
- new & improved vegetation on Winter version
- new island Malis on North (Winter version only!)
- fixed incorrect runway numbers
- various smaller fixes
- mirrored all fixes to Winter version of the island

DOWNLOAD
Release: v3.9 - Jan 12 2018
Required addons: CUP Terrains Core

Download of latest v3.9 available at:

1. www.icebreakr.info.

2. Steam Workshop

3. Play WithSix

[icebreakr 3157]

And of course, two map shots:

What is new in A3 when comparing to A2 version?

- nw Isla Nuba with a dinosaur park Pantherea (Dinosaurs not included, sold separately<g>)

- 5m grid (old one 10m)

- improved satellite graphics

- new hidden easter eggs

- improved forest vegetation

- new shape roads

- much more

Edited November 15, 2014 by IceBreakr

[GSP167 1]

Oh my god! First! Also this looks fantastic, can't wait to play on the map.

[SpartanSix 367]

Fuck yeah, now we are talking about some badassness right here.

[Dwarden 1125]

so lovely

[miketim 20]

Awesome! :yay:

Great to see panthera back, I am looking forward to the other ones too.

[lao fei mao 21]

Congrats and thanks a lot for bring us the classical island.

[Valken 622]

Awesome and cannot wait to try this in Arma 3.

[ArmaPilot 1]

To a lovely classic and the man who makes it.

[Rich_R 1087]

Great news. Very excited for this and certainly looking forward to seeing your work in Arma 3.

Does the first Icebreaker map make Arma 3 officially cool? You did have Dwarden comment on a mod, that has to count for something :j::j::j:

[panimala 25]

Looking forward to trying it out.

[luki 53]

Very nice, keep them coming ;)

[jelskipro 32]

hell fucking yea, look who is back!

[warlord554 2065]

sorta has that awesome "OFP" vibe to it, reminds me of Everon. Man seeing you type it, I can't believe its been almost 14yrs since OFP! I really feel old haha. Excellent work as always :)

[malcom86 33]

Wow, this map looks so exciting !!! Can't wait to see it...expecially to place some dinos in that park !!! I'm waiting sooooo much for a rescue mission in a park like that. It would be the best op ever XD

[papanowel 120]

Good to see it in Arma 3, it's a nice map that have many type of terrain.

Are the river deep enough for a diver?

[il_padrino 1530]

Yes,yes,YES. Najlepša hvala :)

[eymerich 11]

Damn... It's so long till 20...

Anyway thanks for your works!

Can't wait till 20...

[beaar 78]

Great news! Excited to see other maps of yours in A3 as well. Having started with Arma in the A3 alpha, I missed all the good stuff of Arma 2 :)

[superpower 16]

Isla Nuba :D lol. This will work nicely with the dinosaur mods, until someone makes a full sized Isla Nublar (or Isla Sorna).

And it's close enough to the mainland Panthera for the dinosaurs to swim across, if there would happen *cough* an accident *cough* with the dinosaur park. ;)

[kremator 1065]

Very excited to hear this news. Will definately be using Panthera on release !

I'd also make sure you have a licence on the island that prevent people from making money from it (aka Arma3Life)

[Richie 330]

Panthera and Lingor were always my favorite islands :)

[amatt 10]

Awesome!

[silola 1086]

IceBreakr, this is another masterpiece from you.

The community can be glad that there are people like you out there !!!

I admire your stamina, because it is extremely difficult to keep the motivation up to the end.

And I mean the motivation for only one project, but you work simultaneously on multiple projects. Unbelievable

Hold on and many thanks for your amazing work. :)

Greeting

Silola

[LykosMactire 298]

will any A3 buildings make appearances (ie. Terminal at airports, military structures, A3 stone houses)