BloodRiot

It even allows more control that way. Even though I loved the free roam style of CoP, I think there were too many Stalkers for the small areas. I actually love the desolate feel of the demo mission to kill the bloodsucker in this mod. Though a few groups of Stalker moving around isn't bad by any means... In fact i would like to meet a few from time to time as well as having to evade military patrols near the borders pf the Zone or patrolling Helis. Hopefully we can adapt the ambient life modules and Sec ops type of modules to allow for some randomness and life in our Zones.

makes total sense as in the Stalker universe, mutants are known to be more active at night. :) Will be nice if that's what you're after :) I wish some servers appear and good mission makers around here do take the time to create nice scenarios. Like Stalkers hunting for artifact missions, or guiding NPCs from point A to B, mutant killling ala call of pripyat's Lair of the Bloodsucker mission or even raid military outposts for equipment :p One thing about zombies though. In the Stalker games, they are like rabid humans, but they can still use guns, will these zombies be able to do that? The ones i've seen here are the more traditional "must eat brains" melee attack zombies.

I'm with Wiggum on the camp idea. Might be a good base for a future hunger/thirst/sleep feature. Sleep as it is now is basically a glorified compress time feature. If it was actually a necessity (at least as an option for the survivalists among us) along with the need for water and food I think this would kick so much arse!

Sounds awesome DAP. Can you give us an ETA on the next release? I can hardly wait :) One question though... is it possible to make anomalies spawn by a module or something so that old anomalies are destroyed and new anomalies created everytime there is a blowout?

Hey DAP... Any updates soon? :) No rush.. just wondering :D

I'm not sure if that alone did the trick... I also changed a couple more stuff but buldozer is now loading up a blank map(just elevation and nothing else) just fine. So this problem is hopefully over and I can start doing the actual fun stuff. Anyway, Thanks Mamba. As for water, I can live without flowing water on a slope, that's not really a big deal for me. What i was wondering was if it's possible to have bodies of water at different heights so i know if i can rely on actual DEMs or if i have take creative liberties to preserve lakes and rivers, by putting them all at sea level. Another thing I didn't fully understand by reading the tutorials was... Can i make a mockup satelite image to compile the map, but then actually export the map iamge from visitor to get the actual and hopefully the most accurate satelite image using the actual textures used in the map? The tut on sat maps seemed to say so but i didn't really udnerstand if that was the case. Thanks for the help so far. i'll keep on the small test map and see if i can make friends with visitor :p Cheers guys and thanks.

I've followed the advice on experementing on small maps. However bulldozer is already being very uncooperative. After following several tuts and other posts. I think I set up the P: drive correctly and still buldozer crashes often or simply doesn't load at all. The sample map from BI managed to load a bit but crashes on proximity to land.. loads somewhat ok over water and no land in sight. I'm guessing something in the CA folder(the assets we have to impor from arma) are not setup properly. But even a blank untextured map without any assets whatsoever crashes buldozer. it's gettign a bit frustrating :s I'm too tired to keep on battling this issue, so perhaps tomorrow i'll have a better run. Cheers.

BlackMamba: I understand and that's pretty good advice. It's hard to see things going and I'm indeed waiting a long time in Visitor and Bulldozer. The Photoshop part is done and SatMap was a nightmare with the waiting times. I'll probably just finish the basic terrain setup(landscape + textures)... if i'm not terribly mistaken and if all goes well i should be about done for an initial test... then i'll put this aside for a bit and work on a small island just for learning purposes. This is starting to look alot like the hell i go through with render times in 3d apps. Also i'll probably start working with pre split files for satmap and mask and just join them up at the very end so I have an easier time. Raptor 6: I'll try to keep things somewhat updated... sure thing mate. Thanks for the interest :) Cheers

Alrighty then, thanks :) Thats what i read... 225km2 for chernarus, but isn't that 15km x 15km? Anyway, i'll give it a shot as 30km x 30km and see how it holds up with 900km2. Right now the only thing bogging me down on my current progress is the sat map texture size hogging my pc like crazy :p I'm gonna give it a shot and if it proves too big or too intensive, i'll aim for scaling it down to a maximum of 225km2. Thanks for the input man. Now let's see how it goes. Cheers.

Hi everybody. I'm currently learning and building a map/island for Arma2/Arma2:OA, and not wanting to fall into beginner traps and pits, I decided to ask here to get the input of both what experienced builders have already learned, as well as what common players find fun or interesting, or what should be avoided. I'm currently building a map which uses terrain data and topography from an existing place. In order to include the locations I want on that map, the terrain size would have to be 30kmx30km... seems HUGE to me. The idea of a massive terrain sounds great at first, but I fear the map is going to be a potential resource hog, and I think that a map that huge will simply have too much wilderness and unpopulated areas which may cause the map to simply be boring to get anywhere from anywhere. I can possibly scale down the terrain size to half of that making it about chernarus's size (if i'm not mistaken), and use a representative scale of the towns present in the real map, and even so, it's probably gonna be to thinly spread out with lot's of wilderness. I could however populate those empty areas with fictional small, street sized towns here and there to fill the empty spaces. On another subject. Is it possible to create a marshland area, a lake, river on a slope? The only way i've managed to find to accomplish such an effect is keeping the water bodies at sea level. About the terrain segments. What exactly is the impact of the segment size? Smaller segments allow for diversity in terrain texture, but at what cost? That's it for now. I'll really appreciate the input i can get on these topics. And I'll post results as soon as I have something to show. Cheers and thanks.

Ah so I think i missunderstood you. We're actually on a very similar page on this one. I thought you meant that light distortion effect from SoC. Maybe the detector could be made into an option for the map builder/server... if they want it easier or hardcore :D About the AI navigating... I thoguht about mines... are the AI capable of detecting mines? If so they probably avoid it. Perhaps the same could be used for anomalies. This is just guessing mind you. Cheers.

Looking at Degtyarev's request, I feel i have to give my own input as well, though I feel it's more directed at mission builders/editors. I love the way Call of Pripyat grouped the anomalies in concentrated fields, as opposed to Shadow of Chernobyl, which had alot of anomalies seemingly placed randomly across the map. The anomalies being invisibile is actually something I like alot for a more exicitng traverse of a field, though i suppose for everyone's sake, it could be made into an option to have anomalies VFX on or off. I DO however think that the area of the field should have an indication of the presence of anomalies much like CoP. Example: The ground and objects inside a fire type anomaly field should have a burned and/or smoking effect, as well as perhaps an embers effect.

Hey DAP. Awesome start man.. really. I love STALKER and this mod has certainly captured my attention and I will be sure to follow it attentively. Can't wait to have actual servers up and running this :) Keep up the good work. Hope to see new developments soon. Cheers.