New Island from USEC

[rocket 9]

Based on a real world location, although I have taken some creative license. I have used Digital elevation scans for the real-world location (extreme lattitude island), to a resolution of 30 meters.

Maximum elevation is 1100m, and the area of the map is well over 12,000km square. For the sake of comparison, Sahrani is 400km square. Originally the area was much larger, but it was taking forever (hours) to fly anywhere so I decided to half the size.

The map will feature:

* Custom snow-camo units

* My hypothermia script

* Custom sounds

* Weather effects

I would appreciate any non-combat ideas that I could incorporate into this map, to bring out a sense of isolation and realism to the elements. Also side mission ideas, etc..., of a non combat nature would be appreciated.

The majority of screenshots (daylight ones) were taken just after lunchtime, indicating the effect of extreme lattitudes in Armed Assault.

My goal with this map is to present a bleak, isolated, environment where the environment can be as much your enemy as the OPFOR. I've based much of the work on my own experience mountaineering, including the sounds and snow textures.

[andersson 285]

Very nice!! I loved winter-maps in OFP and by the look of this I will have plenty of arctic missions!

It would be nice to have an editor-placed object that is a submarine tower with breaked ice around it

[rocket 9]

I've actually modelled a submarine, but its not quite finished internally, so I could easily include that with this mission. I would need to cut the polygons down a considerable amount however, as I originally designed it for Flight Simulator. Thanks for the idea

[Daniel 0]

Looks epic! The landscape and features as much as the units. Will be cool.

[Col. Faulkner 0]

Will there be skiing?

Will you be able to do this:

[rocket 9]

Thats very much what I am aiming to achieve with this. When I've been mountaineering, its the silence and isolation that has always really left an impression on me, the difficulties judging scale and distance, the neverending white of the landscape. These are all things I wanted to see if I could get into ArmA.

While roaming around the map, it struck me how beautiful such a simple landscape can be. It is truely a gigantic map, but I think any bigger and it would not have been as playable. As it currently sits, it is about 37 times bigger than Sahrani. I'm struggling with map issues associated with the Grid Referencing on the map, but I should have that resolved soon.

[andersson 285]

If you have flat plains that will simulate ice you could maybe make some long cracks with water in them? Maybe its difficult to achieve a good visual crack but if you make models that will "melt" into the rest of the ground and use the same texture you might be able to pull it off. Maybe its possible to use the lake hidden ingame as a base?

Some tents and barracks for expeditions/scientists can give some nice missions (locate a lost expedition, get data from enemy scientists, random encounter).

edit: Take a look at FDF mod for OFP and see how they made the skiis. It was based on a bicycle, dont know if its possible in arma..

[buliwyf 4]

Star Wars Eposide V ?

Sounds interesting, but... it`s only white...

[rocket 9]

Fantastic ideas! I have built an underground complex, but I am having issues getting it working the way I want in game. We shall see! The scientist expedition stuff is great, I'll whip up some models for it. I'd like to build a good toolbox of stuff for mission designers to build on.

[andersson 285]

Skiidoos!! If you can port them over it would be great, I loved them in OFP! Used them alot.

Shit, I will be so happy when you release this! Like you so rightfully wrote:

Quote[/b] ]its the silence and isolation that has always really left an impression on me, the difficulties judging scale and distance, the neverending white of the landscape

[M.Andersson(SWE) 4]

12,000Km".......?!?!?!?!?

Does anyone actually dare to do an island that big...

Or is it the map in totale that´s in that size???

[dmarkwick 261]

This is a very nice idea at first glance I had initial doubts but your explanation of desolation isolation and environment has sold it to me

I expect it would be possible to make some sort of included simple addon that generated blowing snow effects for peaks & bumps in the landscape (that's me, always thinking of smoke-type implementations ). Also, if you can successfully match the landscape terrain material with a modeling material, you could even have custom "dunes" and ravine coverings that will blend in nicely.

[Drongo69 117]

Quote[/b] ]I would appreciate any non-combat ideas that I could incorporate into this map, to bring out a sense of isolation and realism to the elements. Also side mission ideas, etc..., of a non combat nature would be appreciated.

More on the mission-making side than mapping, but stuff like shelter/exposure, food/hunger, navigation difficulties, etc. A free-form survival mission could be interesting.

Also, I'd love to see missions inspired by The Thing or Dyatlov Pass.

[PTV-Jobo 820]

Whoa! It looks killer so far from what I'm seeing here. It's certainly a breath of fresh air. It's nice having a break from the brutally hot desert once in awhile.

Excellent work!

Quote[/b] ]Originally the area was much larger, but it was taking forever (hours) to fly anywhere so I decided to half the size.

Well I'd certainly love that kind of size as long as it didn't cause unbelievable lag. That's great for the serious squads out there that do things that take hours. Especially flying? Well that sure beats having the planes and stuff instantly at your position within a few seconds. Isn't that a bit real out on the battlefield needing air support but need to cover up and wait till they eventually get there?

I can't speak for anyone else other than myself, but I'd love to see maps close to that size for campaigns and such.

Anyway, keep up the great work.

[Master gamawa 0]

Check this out

http://www.awi.de/fileadm....g_p.jpg

http://www.sethwhite.org/images....hut.jpg

http://www.eeiu.org/images/akademikvernadskiy.jpg

http://img.timeinc.net/time...._02.jpg

Just for ideas.

Also you could try making a glacier. That could also help as a landmark that helps you know your position.

How about them huge ice ravines? Long and deep cracks on the surface that could have bridges running over.

Small scientific settlements and winter cabins would be nice too.

And of course never forget the atlantean stonework of the obligatory lovecraftian metropolis that usually hides in those places.

[Commando84 0]

a shipwreck from the pirate times

that could be half under the ground.

could be used as a place to setup missions on or around or to use as a "landscape mark" when you orient yourself.

[WingedSerpent1969 0]

the nazis sent several submarines to the antarctic on archeological missions and possibly to stash gold?

a fallen satellite to locate and recover......a submarine conning tower breaking through the ice.....ice station zebra....

a buried spacecraft in the ice....the thing

a temporary landing strip for a stolen Firefox prototype

an aztec pyramid under the ice with aliens and predators

ok the last one was a bit silly!

how about a snowblindness script for units without goggles

[Daniel 0]

The the HDR will take care of that! I've asked this before, but is it possible for HDR to be disabled for certain units in game? Or at least have a material on screen so that the sun glare isn't present?

[rocket 9]

Great comments and ideas all round.

RE: HDR and snow blindness, food/hunger, etc..., I am scripting in my hypothermia script (I have not publically released this, but some at USEC are familiar with it) which takes into account what you are wearing, whether you are in a vehicle (and what type), the weather, if you are in water of not. It then cools you according to the conditions, and if you cool too much, you become hypothermic - first discarding your weapons and then eventually collapsing until someone comes to rescue you. I hope to expand this script to other areas, and this could include snowblindness and some other things.

RE: Making a glacier. This is a tough one, to get matched with the terrain, but I am going to try. At the very least I can model some serac's and possibly some icefall areas. Modelling and entire glacier may be tough, but it should be fun!

RE: Lag and performance. The map being huge, the load time is significant. However once in, it the LEAST laggy file I have ever played! More so than the small ArmA island even. This is probably due to a very simple (yet effective) texture and satellite map, and a lack of clutter.

RE: Is it really that big?. I can confirm all the above screenshots were taken, in game, on a map with an area of exactly 12,099km's square.

RE: Skidoo's, Ski's, and Snowmobiles. Anyone with any plans, reference materials, or ideas on these vehicles (or 3D models) - please contact me. Especially any experienced modellers with any idea how to make and animate a character to ski.

RE: Inspiration - I have long wanted to develop such a mod, after having enjoyed the atmospherics and situations in games such as "the thing". I do a considerable amount of mountaineering here in New Zealand, and I want to convey a sense of what that is like in the map.

Here are some more pictures of how I have gotten on so far today:

Sniper (left), and a scientist (right)

The snow HMMWV50 while driving

A pilot next to a helicopter. Note I have edited the helicopter to have opening and closing doors (pilot controlled). This affects temperature of crew inside, but is required to be open for loading of supplies of injured persons.

Team of scientists on the upper neve of the main mountain on the island

To give an impression of scale, here is some HMMWV's crossing the upper neve of the main mountain, height is about 600m where the vehicles are

Comments, thoughts, problems, and ideas most welcome...

[wika_woo 182]

That looks awesome, especially those units i must say!

Makes me wanna turn up the heat

[bravo 6 0]

I know it says Island in the topic title but but you also mentioned as a map, so it this an Island or a Map?

[rocket 9]

I will be releasing it as two complementary addons.

In one addon, will be all the data and files relating to the Map, which I am sure will be put to good use with the mission builders in the community.

The second addon will have my new units, and reskins of existing ones, as well as a mission file or two.

[Benoist 0]

I love this because it's not a map only for combat, it's like the enemies are "another" danger.

[TheKaing 0]

Cant wait to get stuck into this map Have to say opening and closing doors on both sides of the backhawks is gonna look so awesome

[Ryan_D 0]

Looks awesome. Looking forward to it.