enough fictious islands ....

[Daniel 0]

I've been looking around at some islands lately. There's some good ones, but the best is still Nogova, and It's been used to hell by now. There's some good ones that stand out, like Freya or Aghanistan, but other than that, they are either too basic, require too many addons, or have bugs or aren't finished.

I think more islands would be great.

[DBR_ONIX 0]

http://ofp.gamezone.cz/index.php?showthis=8805

Great island, uses no addons, is well thought out, some really nice looking areas, and, most importantly :

Look here.. 4 months from screenshots posted to when it was released, and from the screenshots it looks better than a lot of islands released..

It's not that fictious islands are always rubbish, it's that people spend longer working on islands based on real locations in most cases.

It's all down to the effort put into the islands, and it's just that ficticous islands are easier, thus there are more, and as they are easy, it means I could go now and make an island with a bunch of buildings, and it wouldn't be good, but I could go now and start planning a realistic looking island, and several months later have a half-decent island..

- Ben

[mattxr 9]

well if the island makers want to make islands, they do them how they want.. If i was a island Maker i would make my own fantasy island which fits my needs and release it, i wouldnt care if people used it or not. and i woulnt care if it was a good island or not..

Real world locations would be nice but i dont think it could be done properly becuase size.. and making a smaller version just doesnt work, and when u make big maps in ofp it just lags with a few units..

as a mission maker, i dont care if the island is real or not it doesnt matter to me... when i do find a island to produce missions i look for quality in the island itself like how the towns are placed forests roads and villages and so on..

[CJE 0]

Q: Why are islands never used in sp missions?

A: Because no one makes any sp missions no more, well, not a lot.

[Johan_D 0]

And the reason for no SP missions anymore is the high demands of the players.. the bar is high these days, and it almost takes a team effort to please anyone.

[Sepe 1]

Wrong, wrong, wrong!

I'm happy as long as it doesn't use both Tonal and a gazillion of other BAS addons. Tonal and just Tonal is ok, and a gazillion of other BAS addons is ok alone.

I, personally, don't really need fancy and useless scripts that makes using the action menu impossible. Who needs a farting menu? Or well, maybe a farting script would actually be something new

Where are all those BIS-style missions that require no addons? Then we could play them with those good replacement mods that are around.

[klavan 0]

And the reason for no SP missions anymore is the high demands of the players.. the bar is high these days, and it almost takes a team effort to please anyone.

I totally agree with you.

A good SP mission requires from 2 up to 4 months of editing work, a lot of headeaches and, when released, additional dozens of hours of work to fix/modify/improve it.

Naturally I'm speaking for those like me try to do the job all alone.....

Only few weeks ago the main probs were represented by the addons requirements, but now, that high speed connections are becoming common even in the dear,old,slow Europe the situation changed and the quality of a mission is now determined by other factors: gameplay balance, innovative storylines and situations, the continously demand for realism and so on.

I think that creating "real" island could revert the situation, helping the mission makers in receiving new stimulations for releasing new stuffs.

I will always approved islands based on real locations.

Klavan

[-)rStrangelove 0]

Columbian campaign would be nice. Us SpecialForces and government troops against rebels, drug dealers and muslim terrorists.

[Ironsight 1]

)rStrangelove @ Aug. 26 2005,19:39)]Columbian campaign would be nice. Us SpecialForces and government troops against rebels, drug dealers and muslim terrorists.

=

Nightstalker mod which is now dead I believe

[sanctuary 19]

As a mission maker , what is making an island staying on my hardrive is 2 points :

-lag free : an island that is making my system crawling has no chance to be used by me, whatever superb landscapes and amount of eye candies they can have.

-AI friendly : as a mission maker , any island that has small "casbah-like" streets , lots of walls around house are certainly giving a lot of eye candy, but as it will block the AI 99% of the time i will not use these islands other than for photography.

Island should be built by island maker with AI in mind.

Fiction or real place has strictly no importance in my opinion, what is important is that an island must offer different locations for several kind of battle (huge flat places without hills have no interest for missions by example)

[chipper 0]

my clan made their own island hehe and we the towns were named after our members. we even made a wgl cti for it yay. err members only sry

[-)rStrangelove 0]

Island should be built by island maker with AI in mind.

Damn good point.

That's why i don't use Tonal. It looks great, but has serious AI issues. Most jungle islands have, btw.

Does anyone know jungle pieces that the AI can't see thru, won't block ur shots with invisible LOD walls and will let the AI navigate correctly ?

[jakerod 254]

Quote[/b] ]Great island, uses no addons, is well thought out, some really nice looking areas, and, most importantly :

Look here.. 4 months from screenshots posted to when it was released, and from the screenshots it looks better than a lot of islands released..

It's not that fictious islands are always rubbish, it's that people spend longer working on islands based on real locations in most cases.

It's all down to the effort put into the islands, and it's just that ficticous islands are easier, thus there are more, and as they are easy, it means I could go now and make an island with a bunch of buildings, and it wouldn't be good, but I could go now and start planning a realistic looking island, and several months later have a half-decent island..

The 3 finished ones here took 2 (Lorient), 3 (Saint David), and 4 (Avignon)months to finish. Now think if I were to need custom objects and textures from my mod team to make an island.

(Being Directed at the topic starter)And now once you figure out how long that would take think of how long it would take if I had to make them all myself.

Quote[/b] ]I've been looking around at some islands lately. There's some good ones, but the best is still Nogova, and It's been used to hell by now. There's some good ones that stand out, like Freya or Aghanistan, but other than that, they are either too basic, require too many addons, or have bugs or aren't finished.

I think more islands would be great.

Here are some of my islands.

Some people like them some people don't.

Some of them are finished some of them aren't.

Some of them are based on real places some of them aren't.

Maybe you will like them maybe you won't.

Finished

Lorient

Saint David

Avignon

Unfinished Based on Real Places

Fulda Gap

Iceland

Unfinished False Places

Grizzly & Fox

[DB-ERAUPilot 0]

Quote[/b] ]Great island, uses no addons, is well thought out, some really nice looking areas, and, most importantly :

Look here.. 4 months from screenshots posted to when it was released, and from the screenshots it looks better than a lot of islands released..

It's not that fictious islands are always rubbish, it's that people spend longer working on islands based on real locations in most cases.

It's all down to the effort put into the islands, and it's just that ficticous islands are easier, thus there are more, and as they are easy, it means I could go now and make an island with a bunch of buildings, and it wouldn't be good, but I could go now and start planning a realistic looking island, and several months later have a half-decent island..

The 3 finished ones here took 2 (Lorient), 3 (Saint David), and 4 (Avignon)months to finish. Now think if I were to need custom objects and textures from my mod team to make an island.

(Being Directed at the topic starter)And now once you figure out how long that would take think of how long it would take if I had to make them all myself.

Quote[/b] ]I've been looking around at some islands lately. There's some good ones, but the best is still Nogova, and It's been used to hell by now. There's some good ones that stand out, like Freya or Aghanistan, but other than that, they are either too basic, require too many addons, or have bugs or aren't finished.

I think more islands would be great.

Here are some of my islands.

Some people like them some people don't.

Some of them are finished some of them aren't.

Some of them are based on real places some of them aren't.

Maybe you will like them maybe you won't.

Finished

Lorient

Saint David

Avignon

Unfinished Based on Real Places

Fulda Gap

Iceland

Unfinished False Places

Grizzly & Fox

that fulga gap and iceland map would definately be good for some cold war era missions

[Hit_Sqd_Maximus 0]

Cuba

[-HUNTER- 1]

I think there should be much better textures insteado of just green with some trees, the old BIS buildings placed like 5 in a village, ohh some roads. A fuelstation and a church!

Every map is filled with little towns and small stuff! And most of the maps use the same standard buildings. Imo maps that are good have much more then just some buildings. Much more work has been done like placement of stuff like fences, doors, green stuff, the more infrastructure you have the more stress for pc but the better the gaming experience gets because its more real.

And am I the only one that things its strange that there are only like 2 good iraq maps....

Mia Iraz and Badahur... Najaf map will be about the city only but imo will be really elite! Lots of stuff placed REALLY well together forming lots of small alleys, and walkways, little coridors and places to hide or shoot from, lots of rooftop acces, lots of spots to give surpressive fire from... But its not done yet.

But I would like to see more maps with larger city's in the middle east, which for example could also be used as Iran for that matter....

And about Eastern europe I think we've had enough of that because basicly Nogova looks allot like that! And so do all other maps that use the nogova models...

Another thing many maps dont have, is a proper well made airport that looks like its operational. Nooo 100ft tall buildings directly next to the runway, no hangar directly connected to runway... And for military airbases its even worse because there CAMOFLAGE is really a big issue but most airbases in ofp have just a single chainlink fence. No guardposts, and also no camoflage like shelter area in the woods....

This goes for all sorts of complex, like a industrial zone many times its just 1 little factory, or has anybody seen decent shops like a supermarket... Realisme isnt far enough in ofp because that isnt "cool" because making a building that sells food isnt as cool as making a new m4 pack!

Im not trying to tell anybody what to do, just commenting and sharing meh view on it all. And yes I do make maps!

[breaker44 0]

I second new jersey- great idea!

*fart* -Breaker Out

[Wachtmeester 0]

As allready stated, i'm working on Bonaire which is a 1:2 scalled down version. The downscalling isn't a problem, the island is still big enough to fit everything on it.

And yes, it's a hell lot of work, so far everything on the island is custom made, from the ground textures till the buildings. It requires a lot of work indeed, but it's really fun to do. I also have to bear in mind the amount of lag created by the addons and indeed the AI compatability.

Anyway, it's possible to do a real island but requires more work then an island using 'standard' objects.

[DB-ERAUPilot 0]

As allready stated, i'm working on Bonaire which is a 1:2 scalled down version. The downscalling isn't a problem, the island is still big enough to fit everything on it.

And yes, it's a hell lot of work, so far everything on the island is custom made, from the ground textures till the buildings. It requires a lot of work indeed, but it's really fun to do. I also have to bear in mind the amount of lag created by the addons and indeed the AI compatability.

Anyway, it's possible to do a real island but requires more work then an island using 'standard' objects.

I'm definatel looking forward to Bonaire island...is this the mod that is gonna have a campaign vs Venezula or something like that?

[Airbourne Alchaholic 0]

Hey I know it's been mentioned somewhere before in the OFFTOPIC forum but I know this tool will be of use to you:

Google Earth

It's a tool that you can install onto your computer and look anywhere in the world with digitally clear images.

Or if that dosn't work you can try:

maps.google.com

It isn't as clear as Google Earth but it still does a pretty good job, and you don't need to install anything to use it.

That should help some of you make more "realistic islands" if you ever need map info.

[Daniel 0]

Google Earth is a brilliant piece of software IMO  .

Search for New York, the whole city is mapped in 3D, and if you search carefully, there's a carrier with F14s on the deck.

I'm gonna try some of those islands now. I've already tried Avignon: it's very nice, with great quality throughout - tyhe only slight problem with it is that it is almost the same along the length of the island, with no or few striking features, making it difficult to find your bearings without having your position marked on the map.

[xnodunitx 0]

Are there currently any maps with huge (I mean huge) cities?

[remo 2]

Quote[/b] ]making it difficult to find your bearings without having your position marked on the map.

that's the best point of OFP...

[DBR_ONIX 0]

That'd help ( a lot) for terrain, but for the buildings (Which to be "realistic" would have to be custom-buildings, as I doubt many places have buildings that look like/are in the same states as the OFP ones ), so you'd really be better of making somewhere you can easily get access to, to take photos for use a reference and textures (Or have a friend who lives there etc), unless you have a good imaginatoin and lots of pictures of fitting-buildings, or are extremely good in photoshop

Getting textures for new buildings is hard, about 100x more if you don't have photos of them.

But, I don't think many people want to go though that process.. The only island I'm aware of that's done this is the North Devon Island, which looks (and sounds) fecking amazing..

- Ben

[Daniel 0]

Ok, just tried out those missions:

Lorient, while being high quality, was much the same as Avignon.

Saint David on the other hand is a great island, with a very offshore islands dotted around it, a rugged Falklands style south and long sandy shores to the East. I'm definately going to consider this for my campaign, thanks Jakerod.