I am new poster and old lurker on these forums. I am not very active community member, but I have a group of friends with whom we play quite competitive BK. We only occasionally play with other people. So coming out like this on the forums is new for me. I do not know you people very well, or how PvP BK is usually played (meaning outside of our group). We like playing on large maps with room to manouvre. Best in BK is to surprise attack from an unexpected direction, or counter an attack because you had well placed scout. This shows in my maps. I don't know if you people would like these types of maps, as in my experience playing on a larger ones (2v2 on 3v3 map for example) is a very different experience than struggling for choke points, like with the typical CoH maps.
In our group the main problem is that we know too well all the worthwhile maps, and started to desire more content. Outside of Blitzkriegs own map pack there are very few maps which would be pleasing to the eye or interesting to play. Usually one downloaded from the webz has no preview minimap, no loading screen and the map itself is for instance huge swathes of nothingness dotted with empty flak 88s. Or something like that. Even better ones usually are very bland looking. I myself appreciate the visual pleasantness of a well designed map, which outside of relic made ones is in very short supply.
So I decided to pick up the editor and try doing something myself. It took me a long while, but I'm somewhat happy with the result. I have a problem though; I haven't been able to organize 4v4 games to test the map properly under stress. 7 Bots make it lag on my machine, although they'd make any map lag on my shit tier old box.
I'll provide screenshots + minimaps + thought processes behind design decisions. I won't immediately make my map immediately available, as I'd like to test it out, patch it and only release a worthwhile version. I'm not sure how well optimized it actually is, or if my design makes any sense. I have been slightly... unorthodox with my design approach:
You are looking at the fixed starting locations of "Benedictine Cider (8)".
As you'll all notice the starting locations are the main twist here. Both teams start in pairs on the opposite sides of the map, in an X formation. I hope this would lead to very interesting maneuvering. The map is also very large (Op goodwood long edge x Op goodwood long edge). There is also slightly too much things to focus on, so not every important area can be secured, ever. There is only one VP, in the middle, and large resource points on all edges and in the middle. This means there is always some place to push. The X starts means many surrounds and attacks from all sides, which in my opinion are way too rare on regular maps as they're loads of fun. This one is designed to create desperate defensive battles, which still aren't necessarily immediately decisive. Testing is needed to see if this works this way with human players (bots worked as intended).
Here's the minimap in colour from the editor:
Every area was cleaned up to make it as render light as possible (about 250 everywhere/regular coh view distance), and most detailing has been made through usage of splats and grass. The map also features large emptyish areas, but it is still very big map with lots of stuff on it, so I can't promise that it functions perfectly on any workload. My computer always lags even on minimum eye candy, so I can't make any conclusions with my testing alone.
This is how some of the most interesting areas look in the editor:
This represents The best this map has to offer. I have rigorously studied stock maps and ripped campaign maps to understand how the devs have made stuff. I have sought to imitate their styles, using as little objects as possible. I'm somewhat happy with the results, but there are areas that could be improved. I still think that this one serves well and provides excellent backgrounds for your blitzkrieg battles. You could even want to take a screenshot every once in a while without the map looking stupidly undetailed behind the nice textures/models the mod provides us with!
As far as map flow goes, I have sacrificed clear lanes in order to allow freedom of movement. I do have a few choke points/impassable areas however:
The water element in the middle can be utilized in defensive manner to control the map. There are also railroad canyons with destructible bridges near the edges of the map. Destroying these bridges would force the players on the other side to move all their forces through the town in the right flank. There's also a very dominating central area with the monastery itself, which helps to defend the victory point immensively. Otherwise the map is very freely traversible, and does not direct/force movement through certain areas. This is intentional as to avoid bogging down/camping (which is a legitimate strategy, but works differently on this map). Enjoy your tank manouvres.
Monastery area (the victory point, while not visible here, is behind the bushline and the tower in the top right corner):
I hope this sound/looks interesting. Would people here be want to try it out? I'd love to get some love for my work, as I put a lot of effort into it.
EDIT: Here is the download link:
http://www.mediafire.com/file/mco6s4be5 ... r_beta.sga
To install the map just put the file into "C:\Users\yourusername\Documents\My Games\Company of Heroes Relaunch\ww2\scenarios"
I appreciate all feedback!
Edit by Playmobill : renamed topic with name of the map, for clarity.
- Added poll for Spawn locations
