Strat map beauty

**Sab99** · October 09, 2009, 07:08 PM

Hi,

I was hoping that you guys could tell me (us) some more about the strat map.
What are your changes in the strat map that can really blow us away when looking at it?
I speak for myself when I say that most of the time I spend on the strat map, like a big digital board game. Eye candy would greatly improve the feeling of the map and make it more enjoyable to play.

Some of the things I really liked about Third Age total war is the presence of important structures in the map (for instance: the two big statues they pass when travelling in the boat, dont know the name right now)
Can this be done with DotS? Like important places in medieval history, pilgrimage places, you name it.

**Subuatai de Bodemloze** · October 09, 2009, 10:50 PM

you mean The Gates of Argonath on the River Anduin.... We would love to make the strat map sexier than Resurrection is already making it.. but Without modelers we are at a standstill.

**Resurrection** · October 10, 2009, 04:24 AM

Define beauty :-) No seriously, the graphical design of map is least of my concerns. It is easily changeable if you have something to change to (textures). Also placing various features like Hadrian wall and stuff is relatively easy if you have their models. We have neither so the graphics will be vanilla for beta and first release most likely. Anyway the map WILL blow you away, because despite the vanilla graphics it will be completely different and never seen before. It will be extreme tactical challange and I am giving it as much care as possible to create THE map.

In the future though we definitely plan to alter the graphics of the map, it just isn't the priority.

**Giorgios** · October 10, 2009, 05:24 AM

How about using the Lighthouse of Alexandria, Mausoleum of Halicarnassus, and Pyramids of Giza from RTW Vanilla? All were still standing in the eleventh century, and it would be a nice little touch for DOTS. Ignore if it's too much work though.
Also, speaking of, will the Romans get new strat map cities? I'd suggest using those for IBII, if the team are willing to share. Again, if it'll delay release by a lot, ignore this.
Eagerly anticiptating a map preview!

**Sab99** · October 10, 2009, 09:29 AM

How about using the Lighthouse of Alexandria, Mausoleum of Halicarnassus, and Pyramids of Giza from RTW Vanilla? All were still standing in the eleventh century, and it would be a nice little touch for DOTS. Ignore if it's too much work though.
Also, speaking of, will the Romans get new strat map cities? I'd suggest using those for IBII, if the team are willing to share. Again, if it'll delay release by a lot, ignore this.
Eagerly anticiptating a map preview!

Great examples!

Beauty is ofcourse something that can be debated, a lot

But I trust the creative minds in the DotS team to come up with many, many great things that blow us away.
I understand that it has no priority in your work on this mod, but that sort of eye candy makes me smile when playing a mod. Isn't that the main point anyway of playing a game

And ofcourse eager to see ANY previews of the map

**Subuatai de Bodemloze** · October 10, 2009, 01:44 PM

We plan on adding map candy yes but at this stage we are just aiming for Beta 0.1 with the bare map. If we can get the RTW strat stuff working great.. but that will come in beta 0.2-1.0 and when we can get a modeler.

**Sab99** · October 12, 2009, 07:27 PM

I am a big fan of the eye candy on the strat map, even if it delays a bit. How much work can it be, if you put this in perspective looking at the time it took to develop DotS as a whole. Never mind my rage about this, I believe you guys put a lot of hours in to this mod and who am I to tell you to keep on working

That 'modeler' stuff.. How does that work?
Maybe I am not that of a creative mind (or maybe I am

), but data input, checking data and codes, basically the boring stuff is something I enjoy doing if it concerns something like DotS!

**sumskilz** · October 12, 2009, 07:53 PM

The answers you seek can be found by looking through the tutorials or asking questions here: http://www.twcenter.net/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=272

Also, it would be cool at some point if we had someone willing to learn how to convert battle models into strat map models for generals, captains, etc.