[ADO] Tropica, an African adventure

[oldbear 390]

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I am proud to release today a new version of : [ADO] Tropica.

[ADO] Tropica is now a "Combined Operations" map

ArmA2 and ArmA2 Operation Arrowhead needed.

Required addons:

tropica_objets.pbo [included in the release]

brg_africa.pbo : African Foliage 1.23 by Berghoff

Description :

Tropica is a medium size island, 17 km x 13 km, located in the Mozambique channel, East of the Africa coast.

Most of the island is covered with dry savana, but in two large basins, some mangroves and tropical forest are to be found along coastal river beds more or less flooded by brackish water as the fresh water left by huge seasonal rain-pours evaporated.

The underground of Tropica is known to be rich in natural resources, from diamonds to gas and oil.

This island having been discovered by Portuguese sailors, then Spanish kingdom has conquered it, to be ousted by Great Britain and France. The agreement between these last ones leading to France remaining the last owner is unclear.

In the 70' during the decolonization era, North Tropica was ruled by a short lived Democratic People Republic of Tropica with a lot of help from Soviet Union, the only visible remain of that era is the long concrete runway built near Banga as an emergency landing site for Buran soviet shuttle.

The French are still holding an air base : BA96, on "ile du Corsaire".

The population of Tropica is a mix of peoples from different African areas as well as natives and Europeans.

The local government formally elected a 99% is in fact held by CEMTEX and TNT, two major companies looking after Tropica underground resources.

They are more or less blatantly fighting to gain control of all the riches using private militias to do so.

Features

Towns and villages:

* 2 main towns : Tropicaville and Banga

* 5 towns : Palmera, Toba and Bangataba, Ghaho and Djoba

* many hamlets along the few dirt tracks

* a dozen of huts villages in Gha and Djo basins.

Airports and airstrips

* one main air base BA96 on ile du Corsaire

* one air base on Swatisland Island near Banga

* one dirt strip near Djoba

* one dirt strip near Ghaho

Extraction facilies

* CEMTEX oil rig near Tropicaville

* TNT quarry near Banga

Note about tropica_objets : this needed addon is still work in progress, some feature are missing and some need some more work.

At the moment the object icons are not showing on the in-game map, it will be one of the next release features.

Changelog

V0.1 Initial release

v0.2,3,4&5 Private Clan ADO releases

v0.6 This version is using a new Berghoff African foliage addon: brg_africa_1.20.

other changes :

- 2 existing villages extented, 2 villages created :Cruce et Tres caminos, a ruined village and a disused base created in the middle of the island.

- a new North-South dirt track created,

- shortcuts created through the mangroves and through some fences in order to help IA movements.

v0.7 & 8 Private Clan ADO releases

v0.81 This version is a CO version.

Changelog:

- Added OA building in place of ArmA2 buidings ,

- Added OA objects,

- Removed from the map a big green bush model allowing AI to fire through without been seen,

- Modified ground texture to fit better OA building,

- Modified config.

- Removed a misplaced palm trees and bushes heap .

v0.82

Changelog :

- Config enhancement,

- Main airfields enhancements, AI friendly now,

- Added "Villa" to Tropicaville heights.

The needed Tropica_objets is still WIP, the config has been enhanced but is still unfinished.

Thanks

Kju for his help

Berghoff for his great African Foliage addon,

Rocket for his MaskMapper tool,

Homer Johnston for his Road Painter tool,

Gutm@sher for his help,and for Warfare and Frontline missions ports on the map,

[ADO] dob for the Tropica_objets addon content,

[ADO] GMC for his work and help on various issues on the map,

[ADO] Floosy for his work and help on buildings placement and oil rig,

All the Clan [ADO], my game team mates for their help looking for bugs and for their support.

and of course BIS for releasing such a great game.

- Palmera and Tropicaville - - Cruce -



- Djoho - - Banga -

DOWNLOAD -Tropica v0.9 beta - [55 MB 7z] from Armed Assault.info

DOWNLOAD -African Foliage 1.24_t2 by Berghoff - [34 MB] from Armed Assault.info

Note : the Tropica archive features the needed tropica_objets addon .

Previous ArmA2 version still hosted :

DOWNLOAD -Tropica v0.6 beta - [95 MB 7z] from Armed Assault.info

Armaholic mirror: [ADO] Tropica v0.82beta

Edited July 26, 2011 by Old Bear
[ADO] Tropica v0.9 beta release

[enad 11]

Thanks! Looks nice! I'll post some feedback when I check it out!

Nice job on all these maps Old Bear!

[Sgt.Spoetnik 10]

Yep indeed great work again and thx ADO-team and Old Bear,

[jw custom 56]

Very nice island, is there plans on adding more cities in future updates(if any)?

[Fox '09 14]

i LOVE IT! the marshes could be ... brown or the same color as the ponds in chernarus.. that's my only suggestion. other than that, it's perfect. i love it

[Grey-Legolas 10]

Thanks a lot for my favourite african-style island:yay:

Downloading now:)

[oldbear 390]

@ all, thanks for the kind words.

From my point of view the map is still WIP for I need in a more or less distant future:

- Edited round huts, more models, more shapes and colors,

- Enterable houses in all the town and villages,

- A brand new Banga prison.

I do not plan to add many towns but to make some of them grow a bit, and let some hamlets grow as full size town ... thinking about Djoho and Ghaba, most ruins at the moment and also about 2 hamlets without name at roads crossings in Gha and Djo Basin.

The water being live water in the mangrove and not a pond object is a choice. I set it that way to have the fewer objects on map in order to have a better in game FPS level. To have all the mangrove areas covered by pond object would need more than a hundred of those objects ... not speaking about the nightmare to have them all at a decent realistic height on the whole map.

[enad 11]

Ok here are my critisms.

-The water in the Marshes should be pond colored. It just looks weird when it's so clear.

-Those european bushes that are all over the jungle areas HAVE TO GO! From a distance they turn into a blob of orange and make the jungle areas look insanly ugly. I'm sure you could find an easy replacement for that bush. It seriously needs to go, it looks out of place.

-Taller grass in some of the large Savannah areas and in the deep jungle areas. Not to much obviously for FPS reasons.

-The Towns need alot of work. They just look like placed buildings and nothing more. Some more grass in the towns would help, maybe make it feel like they are lived in. More objects, just more stuff going on inside the villages would REALLY help. Right now they are pretty dull.

-Remove the European trees from some of the villages. They just look stupid on this type of map.

-Another thing regarding the Marsh water. Since it is the same water as the ocean, every time you go near one you hear the obnoxiously loud ocean sounds. It makes you want to avoid the jungles, as do the orange/yellow bushes that lie inside.

But overall I LOVE this map. It has the best African feel to it and it's very large aswell! :)

I just think those points I stated above would REALLY help this map be one of the best ever made. :D

[Serclaes 0]

It reminds me very strongly of the old Novalogic Black Hawk Down series.

(Maybe you could increase the detail on the sat map a bit ;) )

Other than that i think i fell in love :cool:

[Devil Dogs SF 13]

Yes, beautiful map. The Molatian and Afrenian armies from Duala look right at home on this map. ;)

[Darkhorse 1-6 16]

It reminds me very strongly of the old Novalogic Black Hawk Down series.

I was thinking the same thing. Now we just need a mission to attack a dock, steal a patrol boat, and get into a running gunbattle with other patrol boats. :p

[Serclaes 0]

And shoot technicals as door gunner in the black hawk :D

[nikiforos 450]

Thanks for the very nice map.

I had great FPS and I just had a battle involving 20 tanks from eachside and 40 infantry men from each side near one city.

I was civilian watching from some distance and holding my breath in the night.

I would also like to add that the sand is very realistic and reminds of a real desert :)

Amazing scenes :)

[Callsign 128]

Great island! I especially love the cemtex areas like the oil rig and mine!

Just some suggestions;

1. Give the towns some form of centre/focus as at the moment as said they seem just placed, rather than lived in. More developed in the centre then huts further out from the centre.

2. Perhaps replace the roads with tracks that blend in more with the sat map and to make the country seem less developed apart from the Cemtex areas.

3. Perhaps remove some of the marsh/wooded areas and replace with more savannah to fit in with the general feel of the island from the sat map?

[Nightrain 10]

Sorry for the delay in the mirror, it was actually released on the frontpage alot earlier.

Release frontpaged on the Armaholic homepage.

[ADO] Tropica

[kheiro 10]

Thanks for the very nice map.

real place

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Edited June 14, 2010 by kheiro

[Smurf 12]

Edit those pics ASAP, they are WAY above the (silly) 100kb per pic limit.

[jay316 0]

Great map so far really enjoying the swamps and desert.

[oldbear 390]

YouTube video by [ADO]Corsair83 added on 1st post ^^

@Darkhorse 1-6 : speaking about boat ... I am eagerly waiting an updated bisigned LCU to be used as ferry between Palmera and Tropica, and between Banga and Banga Airport. The boat as it is ... even if a bit crude ... will nevertheless be great for the purpose but we need a signed LCU to have some fun in MP ... thanks ;).

[Darkhorse 1-6 16]

Ah np. I'll find out how to do that and get it done in the next day or two. Also, if you know anybody who is willing to do a quick and dirty reskin, i could release a new version by the end of the week.

[icebreakr 3157]

Congrats on the release Old Bear! I like the size of it, I almost got lost when flying around with AV8B :)

[minimalaco 30]

great map :D

[WallyJas 10]

WOW what a sensational map .... well done Bear.

I love the way you haven't over complicated it (which in my opinion is Duala's biggest downfalls). The way you have used the terrain and the towns is excellent as well as points of interest and vital assets. It's larger than it sounds too, you can really get lost in some of those gullies and river beds. I would have thought this would a near perfect map for the ADF / Aussie boys to use, looks very much like home.

Like a lot of the other guys I would like to see more detail, especially in the urban areas. Rubbish and smaller details would do alot for making the towns looked 'lived in'. Also some longer grass in areas, the short spinfx style grass is great but it would be nice to have some longer as well. The colour looks a little too yellow middle eastern to be in Africa to me, is it possible to make it slightly redder with perhaps reddy/greyish rocky hill tops everywhere?

Put the terrain colours and grass from Duala on here and up the detail in the urban areas and I reckon it would be perfect. I know it's only early days but this has really got the makings of a truly epic map ....... one for the serious mission builder.

PS: I think it also has Private Security Company (PSC) style missions written ALL over it.

Edited June 14, 2010 by WallyJas

[massi 772]

wonderful island !!!

i really love the vegetation around the small rivers crossing the island, and the whole island is also well organized, in a realistic way :)

thanks a lot, and keep up the great work !!!

cheers

massi

[quicksilver67 10]

(as posted at Armaholic):

I particularly like the work done to the river system. However, I would suggest some rough hills or a lake, springs, or some such thing as an origin point for the rivers, as they seem to come out of the middle of the desert in some instances.

I can see the point of going easy on the vegetation for most of the map... really good frame rates. However, the island sea shelf needs a bit of attention, and I really think the surrounding water area prior to the map edge could have been more extensive. This map seems to lend itself to three things: armored warfare, flight, and river traffic. To that end, I'd be really careful to make the rivers as navigable as possible, while having enough shallow areas for the AI to find a pathway. I'd transfer this island onto a larger map, if possible, and extend the sea. I would also break up the plains with some low hills/swamps near the source of the rivers. If I were to pus a scenario on this map, I would certainly script areas of movement delays around the rivers, if they were not native to the map itself. Overall, I like it, and I look forward to adjustments in the future. A nice addition to the map archive.

In addition, I think the texture of the ground around the mines needs some changing... to raw dirt mixed with rocks, that sort of thing.