TC_Lunacy [v1 - 3/05] TSA_Lunacy [v5 - 10/31/11]

[=KoS= Finalizer]

TC_Lunacy is a conversion of TSA_Lunacy into a Terrain Control map. It follows a sector control style of gameplay similar to TC_Flatlands in that teams will fight over territory grids instead of capturable bases to drain enemy tickets.

General info (See TSA_Lunacy below for more):
-VTOLs added (Max flight altitude: 500m)
-5 territory sectors
-2 repair bases (no ticket value)

History:

[v1 - 3/05] - Initial release



>>>IMAGES AND DOWNLOAD HERE<<<

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TSA_Lunacy came about when I got the idea to take heightmaps from MW4 and load them into the Sandbox Editor. If any of you recall the map Lunacy from Mechwarrior 4, this is essentially it with a couple of terrain tweaks.

General info:
-Lunar setting
-3.5km x 3.5km playable area, 4km x 4km total area
--75 degree Celcius ambient temperature
-Slightly lower gravity
-Hilly terrain surrounding one large central crater (Snipe around the center crater or maneuver through the surrounding hills to flank)

History:

[v1 - 8/27/11] - Initial release
[v2 - 8/29/11] - Hotfix - Fixed road texture, added cave in the center crater's northern cliff for balance (Entrances to center crater for ground units from both the north and south)
[v3 - 9/03/11] - 1st major revision
-Added sky texture
-Reduced global fog
-Modified terrain in some locations
-Modified cliff textures to make traversable terrain more obvious
-Added green pools + crystals + smoke particles
-Added rocks & textures around cave entrances to make them stand out more
-Added hills around the OOB near the bases to make it more obvious that those areas are OOB
-Fixed a hole in the terrain near the lower entrance to the cave
-Fixed a spot near the clan base where Mechs could get stuck
-Added some rock objects around the southern part of the map for BA combat (will add more around the entire map later)
[v4 - 9/04/11] - Hotfix - Fixed floating rocks, modified green pool areas slightly (hotter, some crystals scaled down), adjusted fog color & levels
[v5 - 10/31/11] - 2nd major revision
-Modified terrain in areas; created new hills + valleys
-Overhauled terrain textures to make traversible terrain more obvious
-New rock objects placed throughout map for additional cover
-OOB reduced to increase playable area size
-Fixed a crater that the Thanatos could not leave
-Detailed base areas
-Modified green pool temperatures, added new blur effect for units close to & inside the pools
-Fixed shadows not appearing for buildings + objects

>>>IMAGES AND DOWNLOAD HERE<<<

[CHHš Deathshade]

Awesome! I always loved Lunacy in Mercs

[Snyp3r]

Where did you get the heightmap? Were you able to extract it directly from MW4 somehow, or did you just create it from scratch using the old Lunacy as a rough guide?

[=KoS= Finalizer]

Extracted it directly. When you open up a map in the MW4 editor, first click on Hide All in the Overview Properties window, then in the Overview Window, make sure that Show Bounds and Show Lattice are both deselected. Then, click on Display Height Field to give the heightmap overview. Make sure you move your ingame camera toward the edge of the map or somewhere flat, as that will also be copied into the image and should be placed somewhere it won't have any major effect. Finally, to export the image, go to Tools -> Export Overview to File, and it will generate a heightmap image.

However, you can't just import this into Sandbox, or you'll get a really ugly heightmap - It'll be all boxy, as the image being used is fairly low in resolution. You can import the image into an image editor of your choice (I use GIMP, but anything that can blur an image will be fine), scale the image to something suitable, blur it sufficiently, then import the new image into Sandbox. You'll still likely have to do some terrain smoothing after that (There's an option for that in Sandbox as well while in the Terrain window, but I don't recall what it is exactly, but it's easy to find and obviously named), but it should overall give you a nice heightmap to work with. Of course, for Lunacy, I went in and added several new hills and valleys to make it more suitable for MW:LL gameplay so that it actually has some semblance of terrain balance between teams, which is probably something anyone will have to do if he uses MW4 terrain for maps.

[Aidan]

I did about the same for TSA_Gatorbait. But I chose to use GeoControl to import the grayscale heightfield I exported from the MW4 Editor. Then I massaged it some in Geocontrol and then exported the heightfield as a grayscale 16 bit RAW file. Then imported it into SB2. Works like a charm.

[ELH_KillThemALL]

Awesome map!
Some screens:[spoiler]





 [/spoiler]

[AlfalphaCat]

This is a pretty fun map, should alleviate the folks missing old Extremity a bit.  You did get the floaty fixed, right?  Look forward to playing it more.

[Aidan]

In MW4, Lunacy was also a very cold map. Just right for a 6 ERLL Novacat! 

[ELH_KillThemALL]

should alleviate the folks missing old Extremity a bit.

This^^
I dream of a return to an older version (v2.0) of Extremity! This map will replace it to me a bit!

[=KoS= Finalizer]

You did get the floaty fixed, right?

Yup, got that obnoxious floating fixed. The gravity should currently feel a bit stronger than Extremity, but still lower than normal.

[CGB [Ancient Demise]]

Nicely done.

If you look close at paradise lost, you can see 4 mw4 maps crammed together.

Are you thinking about doing the other lunar maps?

[=KoS= Finalizer]

I think I recognized the two tropical maps + lakefront on it, not entirely sure about the last one though.

I've got another idea I wanna try out that would probably be a lunar setting, it would basically be like what you did with Paradise Lost, that I'd cram four of MW4's lunar maps together (Probably the ones from the Black Knight's expansion pack) and try to give it that blue foggy hue in some of the MW2 levels (Like the one where you defend the Tarantula mech) - I want to see if I can get a thick blue fog that stays close to the ground or something like that.

'Course, that's probably a ways off, I've still got Lunacy to finish first, and then I'll probably do something non-lunar in between to mix things up.

[Deathbane]

>Refine Lunar Maps
>Become next legend for providing league and community with much needed lunar maps
>
>Profit

[=KoS= Finalizer]

v2 is released.

It was supposed to be a quick hotfix for the missing road texture, but it ended up taking me a while to get it working properly. But now it finally freakin' works! Woohoo!

Also, I added a cave to the northern part of the center crater so that ground units from the IS side can enter/exit the crater as well. Before, the only *normal* entrance was to the south, giving the Clan team a bit of an advantage I think, so this should alleviate that. There are some other ways in and out of the crater for non-JJ units, but you'll have to kinda look for 'em...

There are a few issues in the cave area, but they're just graphical and have no impact on gameplay. Unless you're really sitting around and inspecting the cave, you'll likely never even notice them.

[MerfMerf]

Looks nice from the screens.
Any chance you might get it up on mwllmaps.com?

/Merf - Auto-downloading is a good thing