Divide and Conquer: Campaign Map, Remade for 3.2 - v3.0 previews on page 83, region changes on page 84!!

[FireFreak111]

Thanks all. I have taken all the feedback, and made various improvements. The Emyn Uial got a new texture to fit it's climate. Ithilien is loosened up, more paths and less dense forest, more sparse. I finished the last of the major rivers, adding the Gondor rivers, the Gladden and the Forest River.

Here is some previews of the work on the whole map. Harad, Rhun, Gondor and Mordor have no polish, and the Blue and Grey Mountains need to be redone.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Ground types


Heightmap


Summer render


Winter render

@Araval
On some maps, including this one: http://www.glyphweb.com/arda/maps/ithilien.gif, Minas Morgul is north-east of Osgiliath. In most maps though, its either level or between the two extremes. I'll have to find a balance. It does make it longer to march to Osgiliath though, making it a bit easier on the Gondor player

[smoesville]

Just a question about Mirkwood, are you going to break up the mass of trees in the inaccessible areas? It's just that the repetition of all those trees doesn't look that nice in the M2TW engine. Perhaps put some inaccessible clearings and stuff throughout the forest if you want to retain the few paths?

[Dutch-Balrog]

I thought that one of the books stated that Minas Morgul is the same distance away from Osgiliath as Minas Tirith.

[FireFreak111]

@smoesville
I have noticed that, especially for the type of forest in Eriador and Gondor. I will try my best to make the forests look nice. I am thinking of a ton of paths throughout the forest, would solve this issue and make it interesting. Less entrances, lots of paths to navigate through.

@Dutch-Balrog
Nearly every map shows Minas Tirith 3/4 to half the distance from Osgiliath compared to Minas Morgul.

[Arǭmēz]

the Hills of Arnen should be more defined... they were high hills rocky with little vegetation on them...

[Thorïn II Oakenshield]

Perfect ! Except snow in summer...

[smoesville]

You mean in the polar north? There is a thing called permafrost you know.

[Drorin]

I think that's missing the marshes east of Mirkwood, which is said to block the way they were going to take the dwarves in The Hobbit

[FireFreak111]

@Arǭmēz
Will touch up the hills, make them the correct height.

@Throin II
The only snow in summer is the Northern Wastes which was polar.

@Dronin
Will research and implement.

[smoesville]

...beyond that a track led to the skirts of the wood and to the entrance of the old forest road. But Beorn had warned them that that way was now often used by the goblins, while the forest-road itself, he bad heard, was overgrown and disused at the eastern end and led to impassable marshes where the paths had long been lost.

- the Hobbit

[Thorïn II Oakenshield]

Justly, the desolation is too small.

[FireFreak111]

I have been taking a break from the mapping, to work on the climates and the battle-map translation more. I have nearly completed sound, adding snow effects in new snow affected climates, no snow in those where it's removed. Lorien will sound like summer in winter. This will increase the file size, but is completely necessary for the experience. Vegetation has taken a big step forward, with some awesome new stuff soon to be previewed (thanks EoH). Weather is complete, no snow in Lorien and all climates fixed up.

The file I am wrestling with is descr_geography_new. Lorien needs to be not snow in winter, and fixing this makes the game flash the loading screen when the turn is ended. I will find out a fix for the fix, somehow.... Just getting this to work makes me worry about fixing up all the other climates. If only this file would just cooperate....

This is more important than the strat-map IMO, as without this the immersion is completely broken when you for example begin a battle within the Golden forest and the battle-map shows a Mordor like land.... not fun After this I will work on getting the map's polish finished, redoing the last of the Mountains and adding the regions to make it playable.

But for your delight, Lorien and Rivendell in Winter....

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

[SandraDevilGirl]

ten thumbs up

[smoesville]

There's no way that Rivendell can have both a bridge and a ford? Probably not i suppose unless the ford of the Bruinen is part of a different region (which didn't have roads) which would be ruined once they built roads.

[FireFreak111]

The best I can do is making it wooden, there must be a bridge, if I severe the connection then there will be no road to the ford. I am not sure I can make new bridge models, unless I change the bridges to this: No bridge with no roads, no bridge with roads, bridge with paved. That would cause far too many issues. It's a shame, as there are many Fords which shouldn't have a bridge (I may have to remove Highways from Harad and make it use the same texture as dirt roads, while making it have no bridge, it would be used only in special provinces like the Angle (for the Ford of Bruninen) or the Sarn Ford, or the Gap of Rohan (best example).

[smoesville]

I thought of something but it probably won't work i'll test it and if it works i'll let you know. It occurs to me that if the Bruinen was the border then if the region west of Imladris had no road then you could at least start it as lore-accurate? It also means you don't see the border-line because the ford obstructs it. If it can't be done it's fine though, it's an engine limitation.

[FireFreak111]

I will find a way to implement fords properly once the map is done, if you find a way that would be awesome too. It is important and shouldn't be neglected. Non-automated roads would solve so much....

[smoesville]

I'll see what i can do On another note, how much will Rammas Echor be reduced? Won't it cause problems since the forts have to be a tile in size to allow armies to march through. Also were you able to use the Rammas Echor tile in your map? You know, the custom battle map.

[knight of meh]

just sharing my thoughts with you all

The file I am wrestling with is descr_geography_new. Lorien needs to be not snow in winter, and fixing this makes the game flash the loading screen when the turn is ended. I will find out a fix for the fix, somehow.... Just getting this to work makes me worry about fixing up all the other climates. If only this file would just cooperate....

didn't anyone else read this and get a mental image of firefreak brandishing a knife at his computer ... possible with crazy eyes saying "you will co-operate"

[FireFreak111]

@smoesville
It will need a full rebalancing, and I have not checked it's custom tile yet. I will get it to the right size with much trial and error, one of the last things I will do due to how much the terrain will affect it. TBH, with the small space there currently is between Minas Tirith and Osgiliath, would anyone want the Rammas Echor forts back in? (Or just the Osgiliath one)

@knight of meh
It nearly reached that point but I found help, and I am working towards the final solution.