Discussion about the Desert map | Forums

[Jabo22]

Hi
in this Topic i want to start a Discussion about missionbuilding on the Desert map. The map is very smal and i think it will be not easy to find a good Topic for a campaign on it.

So I want to start with four Questions

1.) Where do you think the map would find its best place Tunesia, Lybia or Egypt? Sure, it isn't historical but for missionbuilding we should find it's best historical position.

2.) Which city should the little town be?
Which things have to be manual build

3.) Is the map big enough for a campaign?

4.) Which Topic would you choose for a
Mission or campagin
(historical/unhistorical)

[Jabo22]

Hi
in this Topic i want to start a Discussion about missionbuilding on the Desert map. The map is very smal and i think it will be not easy to find a good Topic for a campaign on it.

So I want to start with four Questions

1.) Where do you think the map would find its best place Tunesia, Lybia or Egypt? Sure, it isn't historical but for missionbuilding we should find it's best historical position.

2.) Which city should the little town be?
Which things have to be manual build

3.) Is the map big enough for a campaign?

4.) Which Topic would you choose for a
Mission or campagin
(historical/unhistorical)

[pacettid]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Jabo22:
Hi
in this Topic i want to start a Discussion about missionbuilding on the Desert map. The map is very smal and i think it will be not easy to find a good Topic for a campaign on it.

So I want to start with four Questions

1.) Where do you think the map would find its best place Tunesia, Lybia or Egypt? Sure, it isn't historical but for missionbuilding we should find it's best historical position.

2.) Which city should the little town be?
Which things have to be manual build

3.) Is the map big enough for a campaign?

4.) Which Topic would you choose for a
Mission or campagin
(historical/unhistorical)<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

I am glad we have a desert map, and here are some thoughts:

- I do believe a small campaign is possible, as long as you do not get too hung up on an exact historical location and context. The limitations of the AEP graphics engine does not really allow you to build missions with all the objects you would need to display, for even a small historical scenario, without ending up with totally unacceptable frame rates.

- I think the biggest limitation is not the size, but the fact that you cannot place stationary aircraft (with the exception of some Italian planes) with correct desert skins. This really limits you in terms of providing the correct ' desert atmosphere' on your bases. There is no real solution to this problem, so press on.

- I recommend you just try to capture the flavor of the airwar in the desert. I try to do this when I build scripted dogfight maps for the 'Fallen Angels Server' by always ensuring the plane sets, mission briefings, etc., are historically accurate. Just build small, manageable, campaign missions that will run smoothly, and I think you will have a great campaign.

There are only a few default skins that work in the desert, so if you decide to release your campaign to the public you might want to consider including some of the truly great desert skins available at Il2skins.com. Just make sure to credit the designers.

Good luck, and let me know how it works out

All the best, Don

[Jabo22]

Yes you are right. the ground skins are a big problem.
I have decided only to take the Hurricane Mk1 (green brown standart)and italian fighters as ground planes. The rest beginns on the runway.

I always cut the map into east lybia and west egypt which looks nearly historical and gives everyside three airports.



The city is showing (in my oppinion) Tobruk
with some additional buildings and harbour.
I always have done another city at the eastern cost showing Al Alamain and lets say 30 small ground camps of a few palm trees, tents and
tanks.

Sure you could not use a 1000 tanks like in reality but 16 per front part could do the job too.
You see them moving on the map and many smoke on the ground.

[DarkHunter_69th]

Excellent discussion on the "online MT" map. As for the skins, we are at the mercy of the defaults for the stationary aircraft, however, for your flyable I'll be releasing tommorow and hopefully the rest of this week my updated "Libya" skins. These will include Stuka, He-111, Spitfire, P-38, and P-40. The reason I'm updating them is that I'm actually pulling the colors from the map to give those schemes a realistic cammo effect.

These will be released on IL2skins.com

The Stuka series will be the first. I can only upload 3 skins per day, so keeping checking through this week to get the entire collection. As I write this post, I will also include the collection in a single upload, so if you want to wait...that should be completed by no later than next week. S!

Salute!

Dark

[pacettid]

Dark, where do plan to upload your skins? Would like to get them when they are released

All the best, Don

[pacettid]

[QUOTE]Originally posted by Jabo22:
The city is showing (in my opinion) Tobruk
with some additional buildings and harbour.
I always have done another city at the eastern cost showing Al Alamain and lets say 30 small ground camps of a few palm trees, tents and
tanks.QUOTE]

I'll see if I can find us some WWII period aerial photos of Tobruk, so we can at least know what 'flavor' it should be.

All the best, Don

[RxMan]

I like the proximity of the mountains, did a Rommell raid, coming out of the mountains using truck columns and tanks, on the fuel depot at the small town (oasis) protected by a few tanks and artillary. B-25's with the big guns protected by P-38s attack Rommell from the island bases, Rommell gets some 109s for protection and 129s to soften up the town. Great fun to just watch the action. BTW the B25s with just the 50cals do not press the attack after bombing, but the big gun ones do.

[plumps_]

If you are trying to recreate a historic setting remember that it's a very small, non-historic map (50 x 50 km). Naming two towns on this map 'Tobruk' and 'Al-Alamein' would be as unrealistic as anything as these places are 500 km apart in the real world.

This map only allows you to create very limited sceneries, but these can be situated almost anywhere at the North African coast.

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[cpirrmann]

I am building missions based on the Israeli Independence War from May 1948 - Jan 1949 and am using the desert map to represent the med coast of Israel and the Negev desert. I will be very interested in skins for British planes used by botht the IAF and the REAF. I already have skins for the BF109's used by the IAF (S-199).