Isla Terra

[.kju 3240]

At least last time I heard building a world of the size and detail of Sahrani already takes

man years. You suggest even bigger scale?

[bogdanm 0]

I think this kind of project needs a big/huge map, even if it won't be very detailed. Europe/Australia could be the size of Suthern Sahrani and North America/South America/Africa/Asia be the size of North Sahrani. I know this is huge but it would realy be odd to hover in the middle of USA and with 1 km view distance be able to see both east and west coastline.

IceBreakr, please don't think that we are telling you how to do your own map, take these posts like friendly suggestions. I'm sure you will find the best sollution.

[PuFu 4591]

Maybe i see this differently than yourself.

Right now, picturing it the size of Sahrani, i am imagining another island, that would feature all the relief and climates of the world, with a earth-type shape, where you would need 2 mins to move from Germany to France :)

I know where you are coming from, but would rather have this somewhat of a community project, where IceBreaker could for instance do the relief, and then beeing populated later.

Oh, and I know the amount of time needed for such a project (although man years is a bit....much)

But again, nevertheless, no matter of the size of it, it's still an ambitious project. I was not criticizing it, i was just giving my input. And so where you for that matter

[Dmahon 10]

What the hell are you on about? what does your mission type idea has to do with an ISLAND addon?

Well i was just thinking out loud, but you seriously see no correlation between my idea and this map?

If so, i think you need to read it again, or look at the map again.

Edited August 26, 2009 by Dmahon

[PuFu 4591]

Well i was just thinking out loud, but you seriously see no correlation between my idea and this map?

If so, i think you need to read it again, or look at the map again.

1. Mission design has nothing to do with Addons/Mods discussion.

2. Not all the countries' armies are features in this game. More to the point, some will never be (by bis or addon makers).

3. I see the correlation, yes, but i don't see why there are so many ppl posting besides the point "thinking out load". Does BIS hands out candies for post count?

So my suggestion would be that all the countries being played start off with equal resources and equipment, so that at the end of the day it comes down to whoever is the better player/s.

You are making a suggestion that has nothing to do with the subject, witch is an ADDON, more specific an ISLAND.

Even if i were to analyze your suggestion from a mission design POV, there would be flaws in what you are suggesting:

a) there are only 4 sides in the game, including the civilians.

b) By no means it would be possible to create a scenario where all the armies of the world would be included.

c) Does all the countries in the world have the same resources? Is that in any relation to the size of their country borders? The correct answers are No and No

FairPlay is always overstated

[icebreakr 3107]

Again: ideas are welcome. If someone would like to do a continent/certain part he'll be able to send me open .pew map so I could import objects to the full version.

If I make it a much bigger scale I would need BIS to fix a roadtool so that doubleclick would work for automatic road placement. For example roads on Island Panthera took me 14 days(!) and ingame map is 5x5 km, of course they are set on RL positions!

I'll be using random object placer for forests and other vegetation. Vegetation needs to be somehow realistic its no point to have a huge map and crappy sectors with no tactical abilities except terrain heights, you agree?

For example, London, Berlin, Tokyo, New York will probably be small towns in sizes somewhere around Polana-Berezino (Chernarus) :)

Island will be a sandbox for all mission makers. Some will do World Domination with two sides battling for more resources and third side will be an independent (rebel resistance) that will be AI played and control the world in the start.

Another guy can make a smaller scale mission where one island(continent) attacks other, third creator will make a mission pack that only plays in Africa or S. American jungles.

This will probably evolve to an open community project so we can improve the "world" together. I'll keep you posted and hopefully have to show first alpha shots so we can agree on the size ;)

Edited August 26, 2009 by IceBreakr

[Dmahon 10]

Okay pufu, no offense but stop being an ass about things, I was just throwing out an idea to any mission makers out there who were looking at this map, that's all.

Drop it.

[memphisbelle 99]

How can we help you IceBreakr? If help is apriciated so just share some details about what the com could support you with, as there would be parts of the Sat Map (considering the total scale of the map), parts of the Mask, scriptwork, may be custum textures (ice and snow, desert sand...) and so on.

I also would suggest, that the guys who really want to help are getting together to a Group. A Fileserver with FTP access for every member would be great to store the current result. And anytime when someone has finished his part so he can upload his material. So that the parts can be put together like a puzzle. Espacially when it comes for Objectplacing so such a ftp offers a huge advantage. I totaly agree with kju when he said that this Project would take years. What do you guys think?

By the way, an awesome Idea which could probably took a massive dynamic to the whole gameplay.

Edited August 26, 2009 by MemphisBelle

[lao fei mao 21]

wow,sounds like google earth.We may call it ArmA Earth.In fact,after I using google earth,I have been thinking the possibility of creating a real world map to play such best simulating military game.I have ever caculated,the surface of the earth is 149million sq.km. but current island in ArmA 1 or 2 is no more than 200 sq.km.That's to say,it's 745,000 times bigger.If it's detailed like Chernarus.The ArmA size is no less than one million Gigabytes.It needs 1000 1TB HDisk to store.According to the technology developing speed,such high volume HD may appear and affordable with 10years.They we can really run in a virtuall earth.The third world war may happen in the ArmA earth....lol.

[MaxRiga 0]

I have some more little ideas how to make this map more fun with less work

1- each city can has it's own sightseeing made by arma community members, such as French can make Eifel Tower, Russians can make Red Square Basilica, Americans can make Golden Gate bridge and Empire state building ... etc. So, they can just convert this 3d buildings into arma file and send to IceBreaker to add on this map.

2- you can make asphalt roads only in Europe and North America, dirt roads around some other cities and no roads at all in Africa, East Asia and Siberia. I have nothing against this regions, just thinking it should be more interesting to play in Arma2 then...

3- you can make big water distance between continents so it will feel that the map is HUGE even if continents it self will be small.

[icebreakr 3107]

Lao Fei Mao: I still think that beauty is in the details!

This "virtual" world must be closer to RL than being just one huge but dull and boring land. We have couple of islands like this, but rarely we use them for squadnights. IMHO current A2 island Chernarus is totally boring and it can't be used for so many scenarios like we did with Sahrani and others (Barbuda, Avgani, Uhao etc.). These were masterpieces ;)

Currently I'm working not on one but three islands ;) priority is convert of Panthera to v2.0 (A2 only). Second is this Terra world with support of community after it reaches alpha/beta state. Third is a smaller fantasy island divided into two countries at war (desert/forests-hills).

First goal is to complete it with BIS only objects then we can maybe do one with "sightseeing 3d stuff". But I doubt it would look good to see there landmarks in middle of villages ;)

[Landmine 10]

Thinking of this map gives me an EndWar feeling.... I like it! :D Good luck! I'll buy the beer! ;)

EDIT: Yeah, why not simplify the armies like in EndWar (and sorry about being off-topic)?

Edited August 26, 2009 by Landmine

[Nadeaulescent 10]

wow, like the idea! as a canadian, it could actually be nice fighting in the streets of montreal alongside some us troops versus some russian, just picturing that in my head :P

[lao fei mao 21]

Icebreaker:I appreciate your great job for our fine.

A 1:1 size real world map is really a ambitious work.I suggest every map maker use the real island or country terran for reference,but not to create a virtual one.One day we can piece all maps together,bingo!Then we have a ArmA earth.

[icebreakr 3107]

Who said I'm making 1:1 :) ?!

Some of you don't realize that making even a 5x5km island can take months of work if you want to achieve high quality. Besides official tools are still bugged as hell (placing object that you cannot remove anymore, border map texture bug, very slow tool for making roads etc.) and you sometimes loose days before you figure out how to do something with improvisations and a lot of tests. As you know even mission making is damn hard because you have to test our all the placements, hopefully 3D Editor will be incorporated into 2D so you can switch between them when placing/rotating objects. All other stuff is still faster in 2D mode.

[memphisbelle 99]

Icebreaker:I appreciate your great job for our fine.

A 1:1 size real world map is really a ambitious work.I suggest every map maker use the real island or country terran for reference,but not to create a virtual one.One day we can piece all maps together,bingo!Then we have a ArmA earth.

Nice suggestion, but you shouldn´t take it too serious, at the end it´s still just a Island, nothings more. So you can create the whole earth even on a 256 x 256 map. The continents would be pretty small then and less detailed, but present. If the map would be created in 4096 x 4096 so it´s still pretty fine. And I think it shouldnt be much bigger...

[icebreakr 3107]

I'll try to make it as big as its possible. But I have much bigger problems: like the one that BIS removed bunch of cool vegetation and objects from A1. I'll take a look as see what can I do about that.

[MaxRiga 0]

hi, how it's going?

[icebreakr 3107]

well... I'm finishing up Island Panthera v2.0 and creating terrain/satellites for Isla Duala and Isla Terra ;)

[Hvymtal 1251]

If isla terra will be the size of sahrani, make it a little bigger, even for a scaled world it seems a little small.

[Farmox 10]

As work is ongoing? I can not wait..

[icebreakr 3107]

Thanks for the first BIF post Farmox :) I still have a vision to finish this "miniature world" map one day. Since Berghoff provided me all the vegetation I need (desert, savannah, jungle) I think its doable... of course in a very-very-very limited way ;)

But first... off for 6 days to relax by the seaside... a much needed brake =)

[jeza 5415]

And Deserved i think we might add. Hope this island does not cause to much stress on you :P.

[esco7800 10]

what can i say great once more

[bravo 6 0]

Do you think a normal Hellfire Missile can destroy Portugal?

I would love a lot :)