j0g32

Not necessarily. I was using the RenX HESCO Barriers, which are the modern equivalent to sandbags: you unfold the grid-supported bag and fill it with sand/dirt from the top. This allows to build entire structures within minutes.

update: radar dome prefab draft

Thanks for your feedback and input guys! It seemed to me that it just took the middle of the selection - might have been a coincidence. I will have to work out how to do the pivoting properly, as some of the elements might not have an actor on the grid. I know that if you use groups, you can set the pre-pivot to snap with the grid, which I found really helpful when rotating the fences. Along similar lines I was thinking if it was possible to save this pivot in a snapped position, kind of... I will definitely consider some of your suggestions, but as Schmitzenbergh said: So, if you feel that the sandbags/barriers around the helipad look stupid, feel free to disassemble it. I was thinking of these landing pads in Bad Company 2 - Vietnam: In general, I wanted to take some references from the Battlefield series (tank shelters, barracks, supplies etc.) and how their "static" buildings still give you a feeling of "belonging" to a home base... From what I have experienced, gun emplacements can hardly be usable when they are placed inside a building, e.g. the smaller watchtowers, as their angle of fire is very confined and might just hit the walls. Yet, this may be desired by the level designer. I literally just got the idea of stationary artillery/turret emplacements, i.e. placing GDI/Nod vehicles in a boxed-in position, surrounded by some walls or sth. like this: let's see But for now, I will focus on rather simple things, (made of existing assets), which might have more use across levels, such as watchtowers (somewhere between TD and TS ;-) ), lightposts, radar domes, tech buildings, and maybe building construction sites... My take on watchtowers: Similar to your map C&C Arctic Stronghold, I would like to set up the searchlights to be moving in an arc... edit: would be cool to have a detection/tracking system that rings the classic whoop whoop sound when an enemy is spotted^^. It might be possible to have the light cone target enemies, if you code it similar to a gun emplacement. In fact, I was playing around with this watchtower for C&C Reborn back in the old days... Cheers

I like the look and overall atmosphere of the map (at least from what I can see on the screenshots). It almost feels a bit Tiberian-Sunny. One can really see how you have improved your mapping skills, Thommy! Good job, keep it up and make use of some of Ruud's input and you're almost there.

Probably, it would be too early to say "I am back", but at least I finally finished my studies, got a job, and secured a flat with my lovely gf for the next year -* yay*. Hopefully, I can pick up this "abandoned" project at some point, but I will definitely have to revise my strategy. As much as I love the original C&C RTS series, I finally agree that porting its elements 1-to-1 into an FPS like RenX does not work easily... Instead of recreating the map from Tiberian Sun as closely as possible, I would only focus on some key recognisable elements, i.e. the story/setting and maybe the rough base layout, and then develop the whole map based on a balanced gameplay. Some of these tutorials about choke points, pathing and balance were quite helpful to me: Also LevelCap's bash on BF4 Map design provides some good insight about pathing, cover and gameplay: Although I am more that kind of realism/authenticity mapper-type, balanced gameplay is obviously crucial, and I fear if it would actually play out the way I imagined it on my map... For example, the idea of the first stage Nod airdrop in combination with their primary objective of securing the airfield by destroying all AA-Gun Emplacements, is nice on its own (likely more suitable for a team coop or singleplayer map), but I now think it would set back the Nod team too far behind GDI, who already have a fully equipped base, can harvest tiberium and are ready to roll out tanks... That's why I am considering of re-working most of the map (yes, again) and will try to postpone the fancy works - as hard as it will be for me. :-P The main objective for Nod is to steal the "sonic crystals", which are used in the research for the firestorm generator (and the disruptor technology?), and are therefore stored somewhere in the inner perimeter of walls. The obvious "chokepoints" would be the GDI gates - both in the outer and the inner line of walls. Nod infiltrated a nearby harbour with an airfield, a small fishermen / industrial village similar to real-life Hammerfest, where they have set up an outpost on the opposing shore of the peninsula. There will be 3 main paths leading from the Nod outpost to the GDI Base: the central path is the shortest one which leads over a mountain ridge to the two front gates, heavily defended by the AGT. Additionally, there will be two substantially longer side paths, leading to either side of the base. Some smaller (infantry only?) paths ("connectors") on both sides of the frontline allow to shift forces between the choke points (gates). Maybe the "wall-break" segments can form part of some "dynamic" paths. Additionally, 1 or 2 silos can be captured along the side paths, as well as a communications centre, which are all easier to access for Nod than for GDI. To balance both teams, the general setting is somewhere between stealth, surprise and siege: The 3 main paths in combination with the extensive range of the GDI base should make it difficult for GDI to defend on all fronts simultaneously. Nod can use its stealth units with distraction strategies to break through one of the choke points. I was also thinking of spawning mobile artilleries for Nod - behind cover, out of sight from the GDI base, and with confined manoeuvrability. Similar to the UT3 map VCTF-Kargo, where you can spawn a battle tank on a cargo ship, but can only drive it back and forth on the ship - effectively serving as a stationary gun emplacement. There might be multiple spots that are randomized. Along similar lines I was thinking of spawning Airstrike pick-ups for Nod in some remote sniper locations with good view over the GDI base. The whole idea is that Nod has some tools from the very start of the level to create pressure on GDI defences, and that GDI must use their mobile forces to neutralize this threat. Nod engineers/technicians would have to capture the firestorm research facility to steal the sonic crystals, and/or simply bring them home in a CTF fashion. The Nod team would be given a tremendous point bonus for the crystals, if it was not possible to end the game instantly. GDI Base destruction would only be a secondary objective, but obviously facilitates to access the inner perimeter. I think, that's it for now. Firstly, however, I will work on the Base Building Prefab Kit. Cheers

Hi guys, While discussing a potential development of RenX towards RTS mode, the idea of using a grid for base building stuck with me. @Schmitzenbergh's feedback on my project C&C Hammerfest was very inspiring. Finally, I got hit by nostalgia of designing levels, outposts and bases for Battlefield 2 / 2142. I guess, this is how I eventually ended up with this idea of a "Base Building Prefab Kit" ... The goal was an easy system which allows to add a more modern military look and more function to the box-standard team bases. In particular, I wanted to make it more attractive and easier for infantry to defend their base. I started with the 3 basic wall systems in C&C Tiberian Dawn: sandbags, chainlink fence, concrete walls. Every element takes 512x512 UT units, i.e. they perfectly align with the 512 grid. Therefore the "sandbags" (or the modern equivalent HESCO barriers) with the grid walkway were adjusted such that infantry is covered when crouching, but can engage when standing. The same walkways were also placed behind the concrete walls and they already align with the thickness of the walls on the top. The sandbags in between the gaps give a more defensive look - moreover, they perfectly smooth the transition between concrete wall and the bunker. To be honest, I never really liked the bunkers in Renegade (X): they do not provide additional cover, quite the contrary, as shells cause splash damage when hitting the interior, they have become a death trap. That's why I added some sandbags and the quad cannons in the "windows" - unfortunately, those are just skeletal meshes, but I hoped that it might be possible to dig out the fully functioning ones from Black Dawn. With the rocket emplacement on top, a bunker would now be a very nasty defensive position. Another addition are fully functioning automatic gates (kismet & sound). The cool thing is, once I fiddled with the proper scaling of the individual static meshes, such as hesco barriers, or the grid-walkways, it was very easy to combine them and create e.g. trenches or helipads. In the background you can also see a mock-up construction yard - I was thinking of adding a kismet animation for the crane. Within minutes you can build forward outposts like this one, which provide strategic value on the battlefield - maybe one could use the capturable MCT-mechanics to spawn vehicles or gun emplacements: And finally another motivation was to balance the style of the stock RenX buildings, e.g. you can only see sandbags (a somewhat temporary defence) on Barracks and Airstrip, and some flying buildings. In line with the idea that in bases in command and conquer are built on the go, I wanted to create some deco prefabs for all buildings, to give a more in-field / outpost-like feeling. This might also add to gameplay, for example some cover next to the doors (sneak & defence), or additional beacon hiding options. So yeah, the final goal is to save all those elements as prefabs (just like the current buildings) so that they can be used in a similarly easy fashion across different levels. I did not yet upload anything, because I was not sure how to split the elements, e.g. the walkways and the sandbags on top of the concrete walls could be saved as separate prefabs... Another problem is that the prefab pivot stays in the centre of all objects. For the grid-usage of the kit it would be better to set the pivot to align with the grid. Especially when loading a Prefab into the level it is usually completely off... Does anyone know how to adjust the prefab pivot / spawn location? I know that I am not re-inventing the wheel here, I just thought it might come in handy. So, please, feel free to give your feedback on this idea of a prefab building kit. What items would you like to have in such a kit? Or do you think it is completely unnecessary endeavour? cheers j0g32

Quite sure that this should be possible In my Landscape Material, I usually employed the same texture for close-up Detail and distance based LowDetail (with higher scaling and lower contrast). You take the Terrain Coordinates and divide them by your scaling factor. In addition I used a colormap to for variation, and obviously a normal map. You can also use e.g. the red channel of your diffuse texture for a specular input, and the blue channel of your normal map for height blending of layers. This gives 3 texture inputs per layer, and I was using 4 Layers in total: generic soil, grass, rock, snow. See the screenshot below (dunno why it says 5/12 texture samplers). Maybe you have to convert the texture samplers into "parameters", which means that 2 samplers can refer to the same parameter, i.e. the texture that is loaded in this sampler will be the same for both, whereas two simple texture samplers don't restrict you to chose the same texture for both... Maybe that's way

Good summary of the mining system dilemma. My first suggestion: How about simply increasing the mine limit, which gives "accidental" overmining by newcomers or trolls less impact. Serioisly, calculate the optimal number of mines (e.g. 3 per door) and then add 10% to that limit, this way you can also use some mines in the field e.g. in tunnels. Obviously, the damage would have to be slightly decreased per mine... Anyway, I think this wole discussion about mines shows how reliant the current gameplay may be on the mine system. Maybe we should simply split the functions that mines currently fulfil: 1) stop rushes (by killing unwary enemies) 2) slow rushes and alert defenders (by mine limit drops, in case of disarming mines, or in case of sacrificing the first intruder) @Madkill40 already mentioned placable turrets, but I feel they would not actually change the nature of the problem, namely that mines or turrets are placed manually and by multiple players. However, I like the idea of introducing turrets as internal building defence mechanism. Personally, I was never a friend of using "proximity mines" in friendly structures for defence: why could enemy C4 placed in the interior blow up the whole building, but friendly explosive mines would only damage enemies? In general, I think that friendly fire should be enabled, also to stop like artillery whoring into tunnels etc. ... Everyone who has played the original Renegade Singleplayer campaign knows how annoying security cameras and ceiling turrets can be. I think @TheDeadlyWolf worked on a Ceiling Turret, and @DoctorAnubis wanted to use it in his map Paradise. (My apologies if the credits are incorrect - I see @MajorLunaC also suggested something along similar lines) My second suggestion: Bring back ceiling turrets (and/or security cameras), and install them in designated places in every building. The gameplay would then rely less on mines as an intruder alert system. In fact, I would add an audio announcement whenever a camera/turret spots an enemy, alerting every team member, without a dedicated "mine-limit observer". This alarm system would only tell "INTRUDER ALERT!", but not in which building, causing similar panicky searches to the current mine limit. Ceiling turrets - as opposed to security cameras - would also slow down or prevent unwary rushes, as they deal some damage to the intruder (similar to mines), but are easy to eliminate. Both ceiling turrets and security cameras would be placed by the Devs/Mappers in the buildings, and can be deactived by EMP, or simply destroyed. Once destroyed they can be repaired by engineers, but are only re-activated with 100% health - thus similar to re-mining a building after a rush. Turrets/cameras can co-exist with mines in the current system, but they reduce the "over-reliance" of gameplay on the mining system, as they fulfil a similar function. What do you guys think?!

I thought the limiit was 12 textures... ?! edit: but I agree, you can do a lot with only a few textures

Just wondering, if spies could disable enemy mines?! I mean, that would be the perfect Troy move... - or Troll, hehe^^

True, nonetheless I like the timeline of the unread content, cool feature! Feels almost like a social media platform :-P

impressive! you have got some serious modelling skills there, Kalle!

Great work - some of those Slow-Mo shots really show off the level of detail and beauty in RenX

Fixed. And the reason it wasn't implemented as such. I see, fair enough. Was just reminiscing about those self-imposed pilot rescue missions in C&C Generals, just because they were veterans

Before you ground my comment on this, I have to say that I haven't experienced (i.e. played with) the veterancy system in game at all yet, but from what I understood, veterancy was meant to only reward more offensive gameplay, as defensive gameplay was already rewarded by score points and credits, leading to stalemates. Now it appears to me that this discussion is more about rewarding good teamplay in general. Please, keep in mind that this is ALREADY done by score points and credits, and can still be adjusted/balanced by these means. To be honest, I think it is a good idea to use different instruments to incentivise different playstyles, no need to load all incentives again into the same instrument (now veterancy point). Although I like Madkill40's idea about using the veterancy system for access to classes, which could give the game a more dynamic and versatile gameplay, you should be aware of potential cycles: it might be difficult for recruits joining the game at a later stage to catch up, if they would be restricted to fight enemy Mammooth tanks with low-tier buggies and shotguns... Also in the beginning of each round there are no mines available and the match might end quickly with infantry rushes. But again, it would be cool to see mixed armies, where e.g. Humvees and low-tier infantry support the frontlines. Additionally, striving for veterancy rank up is even more rewarding and could thus spur even more offensive gameplay, just to unlock the sniper... edit: on a completely different note - how about resetting veterancy upon death? This would be in line with the original RTS veterency mechanic, and would encourage people to fight for survival. Instead of wasting money and the veterancy experience points that the player has earned for attacking the base since his last respawn. Note that this would also benefit the defending team - when they crucially damage high-veterancy units, these units might retreat in order to safe their points. And this would reliev the pressure on the defending team...

Wow, this new installation method sounds very sophisticated and professional - great that you will include that! Didn't test the installer yet though... The videos look good, although I feel they might be a bit inconsistent: sometimes overviews are shown, sometimes only one team's base is shown, sometimes only landscape/field close-ups... Very excited for the new Field

Looking good - I like it, in particular the rocks. Feels a bit like Renegade Misison 1 Are you using a global texture mapping thingy? Could you give us by any chance an overview of the map?

cool idea. I also thought about using this feature for the Advanced Guard Tower and the Obelisk, i.e. when inside you can see on the big screens what the defence systems can see and target. Apart from being a nice cosmetic and atmospheric feature this does not really add to the gameplay... You could use the Comm-Center to "jamm" the enemy security system, i.e. the ceiling guns and cameras are offline. A rush through the tunnels would be more effective and unnoticed. Hence, the tunnels should feature a more strategic advantage than on most maps, e.g. multiple exits which cannot be defended at the same time, however, the CCTV system would help identify on which side the enemy is rushing to counter it in time.

thanks man, I feel honoured In fact, I had the same idea in minds when fiddling around with that - setting up a proper UDK package and turning these bits into "modular-ish" prefabs, but life's busy atm...

yes, for the time being I had to abandon the project, but I uploaded the unfinished WIP for everyone to check it out... I don't know if and when I might find the time to take it up again, but I was thinking that in such case I might give it a complete overhaul, possibly starting from the scratch with a proper layout/concept and to-do list. Maybe switching from the current barren environment to a frozen base, snowy blizzard (TS reference) - yet we already have a bunch of snow maps...

I am glad we are getting to common grounds However, we still have to discuss some aspects of the concept and get potential flaws out of the way (at least on the drawing board) before we (or anyone else interested) can delve into coding and prototyping. Unit-Limit? I would go for a dynamic unit-limit, which can be extended by building relatively cheap* depots (land-vehicles) and outposts (infantry), beyond BAR/HoN (infantry) WF/AirStrip (vehicle) and Helipads (aircraft). Depot: Outpost: *compared to respective production facilities A static limit (currently for vehicles) would result in stalemates, because a resource superiority cannot be brought to the enemy gates when the capacities are already filled with high-tech units, and no-cap on units could result in MOBA-style low-tier unit-spams with potentially performance lags... In particular a unit limit has to be aligned with a (potential) building limit, otherwise it could become impossible to destroy a wall of Obelisks with a limited amount of units. Levying an army by gathering resources, and expanding your base/unit capacities is one of the core elements in RTS. And we should give teams the possibility to make quantity/quality tradeoffs: e.g. riflemen rushes with chinooks (à la C&C Generals) would require a lot of space for Barracks/Outposts and some Helipads, whereas Mammooth "rushes" are quite expensive, yet only require some space for vehicle depots/WF and "Silos needed"... ^^ Purchasing AI Units? When a Squadlead (SL) / Commander (CC) buys AI-vehicles, should they be equipped with a pilot? Would they have to buy vehicles just like any other (empty) and then buy their pilots separately? Or are AI-vehicles always manned, but once destroyed no pilot would jump out? What is the implication for interacting with the vehicles, i.e. human players entering the vehicle => gunner seat? Driver seat? => imho, best would be to buy vehicles (empty, like now) and buy AI-infantry separately. That way we have no problems with current mechanics and how it would interfere with player interaction. For example a very rich SL (or collecting the squad funds as a whole) with 3 other human players in his squad could buy 2 APCs and 6 AI-soldiers. All humans (+1 AI) would enter one APC, all the other AI-squadmembers will be ordered to enter the other APC. The first Bot to enter the 2nd APC becomes the driver, and the Squadleader can give him precise orders where to drive and what to target. Giving the order to disembark to his whole squad would result in all 6 bots leaving both APCs - and the human players would just get the notifaction about this order, they wouldn't be kicked out of course... I would take inspiration from ArmA for these mechanics. Maybe it would make sense to introduce a pilot class (similar to these civilian-like units in Tiberium Dawn when you destroy vehicles or buildings), which only has a gun and the personal repair tool and virtually costs nothing. Their only purpose is to man (and maintain) vehicles. Capture Enemy Buildings? It is somewhat a must in C&C (RTS) to be able capture enemy buildings to steal resources and/or technology... But how (if it all) to implement that in Renegade? The sneaky component of Engineer rushes is already somewhat present by destroying buildings at the MCT with C4. Arguably, this could have replaced the capturing feature entirely... How about hacking the MCT? Only Hotwires/Technicians would be allowed to hack an MCT, either by using "alternative firemode" on their repair guns, or by pressing e.g. [E]. They would have to stand still (or forced to freeze) while hacking (similar to calling in airstrikes), which would take as long as charging a superweapon, and would similarly produce alerts and noises. Only 1 can hack at a time. That way it is very rewarding, because it would be quite difficult to get into the building and survive without defending yourself for 1 minute or so, and yet not too overpowered... Extending building range? In C&C Tiberium Dawn it was possible to build sandbags to extend the building range and then place a turret at the enemy's gates. (selling structures in between) In later iterations you could still do that with Silos or Powerplants. Should and if yes - how can we prevent that? 1) with the latest concept it is quite time-consuming to construct a building in the first place, i.e. get the blueprints and then repair it until full health. Only then the range would be extended. Maybe this already disincentives this exploit enough? 2) Building range is ONLY determined by distance to the Construction Yard (CY). This would put a lot of value/importance on placing a second MCV somewhere else strategically. 3) Hybrid: CY extends the building range quite far, and other "functional" buildings extend it only by 2-3 blocks, such that outside the range of the CY buildings have to built directly adjacent to one another. 4) Buy/level building range: concrete has to be laid out as a foundation, similar to C&C Tiberian Sun, and buildings can only be placed on such a foundation. ... to be continued and discussed Uhm, yeah, after final exams I started exploring this little project which was supposed to serve as a Tutorial Mission for GDI (to cover potential features incl. new buildings), and also to test out Building a Base on a 512x512 grid - the size of a (scaled) concrete wall element. I think it could work out quite neat, given that the maps are large enough. Check it out: Also, I tried to go for a more coherent building style similar to the US Army in "Act of Agression" where every building is fortified by some walls, barriers etc. Get them feedbacks coming

Think I have seen some videos for the UDK Version back in the days - quite interesting ;-)

The armour, minigun, or slow-mo? Anyway, Henk, loving the environment - a refreshing setting, feels pristine like the UDK Demo Level - too pristine, time to roll out some tanks out there^^

Does it mean that a vote accounts abstentions as such? To give a generic example: 10 players online, 5 "participating" in the vote, thereof 3 yes, 2 no => 60% yes, of 50% participation. Would that yield a positive vote? If that was the case change it to 50% of online players, hence counting abstention as a no... Also for the surrender mechanic: how about allowing the "winning" team to accept or deny the surrender - sounds cruel, but could do the job, even as a preventive measure - after loosing 1 building the surrender is unlikely to be granted, whereas after stalemates both teams are happy with ending the game.

Wow - looks great, especially the layout! Looking forward to how it plays out Hehe, you could add a PostProcess Volume around the 'shrooms - one purpose, one vision^^