Nice, that is a great outside layout. What about the inside? Has there been a decision on whether or not to put varied environments in the wall or a giant city? Well i probably am getting ahead of my self.

I didn't say I was on the design team. That was just my (rough as) idea.

But actually, I would like to help with the level design. You want it?

Yeah I was just saying it was a good idea for the outside of the map, now what about the inside?
Edited by Caboose 14 on Jul 5, 2012 at 01:14 PM

I'll post it later (sigh.)

Gah, I'm so sorry.. I was on a vacation irl and just got back.

Ally: Interesting idea -though that looks like it'd work better as a Black Ops (Vietnam War) or WWII-style map?
Leg. of Shadows: Thanks! I'll be looking forward to your ideas~

If you're looking for inspiration on structures behind the wall, you can always look to Halo Wars.

good point

Kozakuu: Those are actually really interesting ideas, thank you!
I've always kind of ignored Halo Wars and thought that their vehicles (and basically everything except the core storyline) was somewhat out-of-canon so I ignored them. Looks like I made a mistake :P

I need to catch up with real-life stuff (take my advice: never fly on late-night flights from New York/LaGuardia with De**a Air****s. ever.), so updates'll have to wait a few days... sorry!
Edited by renegade343 on Jul 11, 2012 at 01:37 AM

That looks like an awesome idea for an RPG map base. I'll think about what it could be (I doubt we'd fit something of that magnitude and complexity in, but you never know.

I'm sorry to disappoint y'all, but I decided that it may be better to make urban warfare the theme for a different map.
For now, I decided to use my original idea of a giant seawall under siege, instead. (However, I DID make it more invasion-like). Here's my final model on SketchUp.
Once I look over this one more time and make final adjustments, I'll start converting it and *gasp* start using GMax for the first time in my life.

When that time comes, I'd like to ask all of you a huge favor to help me with texturing this model.
The textures you will see below are all temporary, and will NOT be the final coloring.
So what is...? I dunno. That's where I will need your help -I'll post more details when I get there.

But in the meantime, what do you all think of the model? Please feel free to give me your best and/or harshest opinions. Thanks!



An overview of the current version of the map.



Red Base will be one of the towers on the wall and this amphibious carrier.
("Uchinaa" means "Okinawa" in their native dialect)
The carrier will house one Falcon, possibly two Hornets and a one-way teleporter to the wall.



Sadly, that means my custom Longsword here is just decoration.



Blue Base, on the other hand, is made up of a tower on the wall and these two battlecruisers.
Each ship will have a Falcon, possibly a Hornet and one-way teleporters to the wall.



There are also Longsword wreckage floating around on both sides, where some players may spawn.
Jet skis and one-way teleporters will also be there for you to access the wall.



The UNSC Nelson Mandela, a ship that was on the ship elevator to approach and attack the rebel fleet,
got bombed and destroyed -this wreckage will be the rebels (Red team)'s target and what the UNSC (Blue team) must defend.



The wall with the Mandela and a crashed Longsword in the background.
Once you're permanently teleported to this wall, this will be your new home and battlefield.



Two new features on the map.
LEFT: There are ladders connecting the bridge and small docks for jet skis on the bottom left.
This is your third land route to retrieve the flag.
RIGHT: The middle hole in the wall now has a bridge you can cross... on foot or with a Mongoose.
Sorry, Hog-lovers. You're screwed.
Don't forget that you can take a tunnel and walk across flooded floors to cross the hole, too.



Basic layout of the map (turned to be geographically accurate).
Most team spawn points will be focused on their teams' fleet (Reds will mostly spawn on the Uchinaa, while the Blues will spawn on their cruisers).
However, some will spawn in other places, such as on the wall and on Longsword wreckages.
Either way, once you're on the wall, you're expected to stay near the wall (unless you have a flying vehicle).



Proposed spawn point layout for the wall area, other than weapons.
I still need to choose what weapons to use, now that I think of it...

EDIT: Corrected typo.
Edited by renegade343 on Jul 23, 2012 at 08:37 PM

Looks Awesome

Thanks.

Oh yeah, and I finally decided on a name for the map, too~

-Well anyways, now for the (more) serious problem: who in here is good at texturing and unwrapping and has some free time right now?

I like this idea a lot better. *throws money*

The ships look great, very sci-fi. Could you release them as scenery files too, when you're done?

My only complaints are with the carrier, and it's due to technical aspects rather than aesthetic ones: the lower deck on the side would be very, very difficult to land on, and the main runway would probably be angled (since the shortest distance between two points is a straight line, you can get more distance out of an angled runway). Here are two reference images of the UNSC aircraft carrier from Longshore, if they help.

http://www.halopedia.org/images/e/ed/Longshore_Carrier.jpg
http://www.halopedia.org/images/1/1a/UNSCAircraftCarrier.png

Hornets, Falcons, and/or Sparrowhawks might make better carrier-bourne craft than Longswords, considering Longswords are exo-atmospheric fighters (they can fight in-atmosphere, too, but are not confined to it, as the Hornet, Falcon, and Hawk are).

In addition to Jet Skis, will there be larger pilotable watercraft as well?

Will there be a water route that offers passage from one side of the wall to the other? Perhaps a few destroyed sections of the barrier large enough for jet skis and boats to pass through to engage enemies on the other side?

And turret emplacements, those would be nice. Especially on the ships.
Edited by Echo77 on Jul 24, 2012 at 02:02 PM

lol okay, let's admit it. This does look like an epic version of Battleship.


Yay, money! I like money. :D


Thanks! Sure, I can do that (as soon as I figure out how)!


Thanks for pointing that out -though I'm aware of that.
This is actually something I've kinda felt conflicted about, since this was the original design of a different model I based the carrier on.
I was hoping noone would notice the angled runway problem, but I guess I got caught xP -I suppose the carrier could use some redesigning. Thank you, again.


Right, that's a good point...
But then again, I think I could make the Longswords carrier-borne with folding wings? "Large" aircrafts with folding wings like the C-2 Greyhound here can also be stored in carriers, so if I can pull that off, I think they can stay in the carrier.


Has anyone made one yet? If they have, then I'd be more than happy to use it! If not... ...then this map will probably take a very long time to make.


I was thinking about keeping each sides of the wall quarantined, but the more I think about that, the more I feel like that's a better idea.
The one problem I have is a technical one: how could I make jet ski ramps and/or climbable waterfalls in Halo?
I'm not sure if this is visible in the pictures, but the water levels on the two sides are actually different -one side's water level is 5 meters higher than the other. To make this possible, I'll need a working way to let the ships cross or jump enough to reach the other side.


That totally slipped out of my mind -I shall do that once I get into the right stage.

It did look vaguely familiar, although I couldn't place where I had seen the original (if I'd ever seen the original.) In that case, you could use the lower decks for smaller VTOLs, seeing as how they don't need a runway, they just need a platform to land on.



If you want to use Longswords, you probably wouldn't even have to give them folding wings. I doubt you're going to cram so many onto the deck for them to be entirely necessary. The main reason I was suggesting the other fighters is because Longswords are capable of spaceflight, which means they have enough range that they wouldn't need to be launched from carriers. Hornets, Falcons, and Sparrowhawks, however, would be shorter-ranged fighters, and would need to be carried within range of the target before deployment.



There's a map called Hydrolysis with a two-man boat/jet ski called a "Shark". The driver has a nose-mounted chaingun, while the passenger sits in a rear-facing seat on the back. That's the only good boat I know of. Maybe you could make some gunboats or something to supplement those?



Ooh... um... the only solutions I can think of are vehicle teleporters (like Extinction), or semi-sunken vessels near the sea wall with angled bows that just happen to form ramps



Anti-aircraft guns and heavy artillery pieces would be appropriate (if the artillery detonated upon impact with water, it would be even better).

Not that I exactly intended the lower decks to be playable areas, but good idea. Thanks.


Probably. -I guess the carrier'd have like five Longswords at a time, max.
Then again, I'm using a custom Longsword (I based it off a model someone ripped off of Halo Reach, but only five polygons from the original model are still in use; the rest is all original), so I guess it could be an atmospheric flight-only version...? Eh, I dunno.


Good idea -I've played on the map before, but forgot all about its Shark -I'll look into that then, thanks!


....... Halo, say hello to jet ski ramps. :D


Yay, explosions! -Good idea, I'll implement those when the time comes.


But for now, I need to fix the Uchinaa (carrier) and go through the long, tedious steps of exporting to Gmax...

-and I need help texturing too! o.o

I can't texture, but I can continue dumping wall-of-text commentary on everything if you'd like. I can nver tell if I'm being annoying or helpful when I do that. :s

I can help if you need me.

Awesome, thanks! -but first, just out of curiosity, can I see what kind of things you've made/textured before?

Looks really cool, hope to see it in game! :D

lol thanks, that's still perfect for me~
-I'm originally from FlightGear (an open-source flight simulator project), and several people there write like entire novels on every post they make. I can handle it ;)
Besides, I think I'll need your experience and help to figure out how to make this work, since this is my first map and all.


Thanks! -Maybe I should put some of your weapons in-game too...? I just saw them on YouTube, and they looked really fitting for this :P

EDIT -IMPORTANT: I'm thinking of naming this map either "Second Sun", "Bakumatsu" or "Homefront"... -Yes, I know I took the first and third names from.. two certain video games... but what do y'all think of the names?
Edited by renegade343 on Jul 24, 2012 at 10:22 PM

Yay, helpful! :D

I decided to remake the carrier from the ground up because I found several major asymmetry problems (I'm a bit OCD about "symmetrical" models not actually matching up), so I tried implementing that.

The problem is, because of the sleek, stealthy shape of the hull, it actually gives it a more teardrop-like shape rather than a regular rectangle -because of this, the "tip" of the teardrop actually makes a straight runway about 30 meters longer than a diagonal one.
(though with roughly 400 meters of landing space, the carrier is looking less like a futuristic carrier and more like a floating airport..)

I'll make a couple of carrier deck versions and show them here, then.
This map (and the maps that I have in mind that will follow this one) will really depend on realism, so I really want to get this right.
(Besides, it's a good way to make Halo seem more fun, right? :P )


REALLY IMPORTANT EDIT

So here are my current deck ideas; I can literally just snap the deck onto the rest of the model; I just need to know which one to use, exactly. Which one would (probably) be better?
-I will add deck elevators later depending on the deck layout. The bridge will be at the front of the ship, rather than at the starboard side like traditional ones.

CHOICE 1:
3 landing runways (240, 330 and 430 meters), 4 100-meter catapults, 2 150-meter catapults, 19 VTOL landing areas.


CHOICE 2:
1 landing runways (430 meters), 4 100-meter catapults, 2 150-meter catapults, 48 VTOL landing areas maximum (number may decrease depending on elevator location).


(Compare to 1 300-meter landing runway, 3 100-meter catapults and 28 VTOL landing areas on the original carrier)

Also, I added a dry dock on the carrier for a larger raft.

Now, I just need to ask two very important questions.

1: Would it be better if I go ahead and model the skybox (sky dome) in SketchUp, before I start exporting? If so, what exactly do I need to model? (The tutorials I saw were... not the best at explaining this)

2: Is there anything I should keep in mind when or after I export from SketchUp to Gmax through Kerkythea and Blender in the method shown here?
Edited by renegade343 on Jul 25, 2012 at 04:51 PM

I think I like #2. Most UNSC aircraft seem to be VTOLs, so the additional landing areas could come in handy more than the additional runways.

As for moving the bow to the front of the ship, it may be best to retain the "island":

"The superstructure of a carrier (such as the bridge, flight control tower) are concentrated to the starboard side of the deck in a relatively small area called an island, a feature pioneered on the HMS Hermes in 1923. Very few carriers have been designed or built without an island. The flush deck configuration proved to have very significant drawbacks, complicating navigation, air traffic control, and had numerous other adverse factors." - Wikipedia

Basically, the island also serves as an air traffic control tower, which is why it's best to have it up overlooking the flight deck.

I also found this top-down reference showing the layout of a conventional carrier if that helps.
Edited by Echo77 on Jul 25, 2012 at 06:11 PM

Haha, which weapons because I'd have to ask m16 :b
Edited by flameomega on Jul 25, 2012 at 06:41 PM

Got it -added and edited! Say hello to the Uchinaa's new deck with seven catapults, four elevators and 32 landing areas!

I also made underside docks for an amphibious landing ship... I'm going to need help figuring out how to make vehicles, though. (Or does anyone want to do it for me? :D)


Hm... the M60 LMG looks pretty good. Might be interesting to have one or two "vintage" weapons in-game. (...this is assuming machine guns can still function after being left alone for nearly 600 years)


The biggest problem now is the jet ski ramp.
Sadly, the amphibious assault ship on the carrier will have to stay on the Rebel-controlled side of the map.
However, the jet skis (Hydrolysis' Sharks or a custom version... idk yet) will use jet ski ramps to climb INTO the holes in the walls, and rely on gravity to get down.
The problem is how the jet skis will get from the wall to the rebel-controlled side.

-Once I get that solved and finalize some texture stuff, I'll start exporting.


Depressing Edit:
Turns out, not only are climbable waterfalls impossible, but different water levels are not accepted in Halo.

...back to SketchUp, then x.x
Edited by renegade343 on Jul 26, 2012 at 11:56 AM