SC2Mapster

Alright, so people don't like recreating things from memory. Lets try something different.

Weekly Terraining Exercise #29

Did you guys know 29 is the number of atoms in copper? Because of this, I intended to make WTE #29 be about 'creating a coppermine', but I realized this would yet again force people into the Mar Sara tileset. While it's awesome, we've done so much stuff with it lately that I'd like an opening for a different idea. Thus I came to something we haven't at all done before or even came close to: a Military Space Compound.

I want to see a military compound on the Avernus, Braxis Alpha or possibly Castanar tilesets, located on a platform in outer space. This will give people a chance to show what they can do with a great number of doodads and textures we've never really used before. You can make the project as large or small as you want - it can be a small landing point for spacecraft or a whole scientific research facility. Do with it what you will!

Good luck, hope for some more submissions this week!

The Global Information/Idea thread for Terraining Exercises can be found here:
http://forums.sc2mapster.com/development/terrain/14658-terraining-exercises-global-information-idea-thread/

I think I can do something with this. Also there's a typo in the link on the front page at current events, it says''hhttp''.

@Scbroodsc2: Go

woah woah woah.... hang on that first picture is in the sc2 editor and you made that???? bigger images and more if so :O

I enjoyed this one. Enough to take a page out of Scbroodsc2's book and make a video.

I call it Damocles Shipyards and Naval Space Command (N-SCOM).

Editor time: 8 hours. Finding music that wasn't too over-the-top epic: 2 hours (Sigh...)

This video is outdated. Scroll down for the new version

Music: 1) Two Steps From Hell - Surveillance, 2) Two Steps From Hell - Coup D'Etat

And a few screenshots, since the video's a bit fuzzy after compression.

usually it takes me more than a week to do these... Anyway, now THIS is more like it! *goes to eat breakfast, then editor* *ahh who am I kidding, goes to computer*

I can answer ur question Brood. He used "Play animation(Animation name)". The work animation of the scv looks like that i believe.

Could someone please tell me what I could fill the empty spaces with? I would really love it if someone could. I am really trying to do this but it's my first or second WTE...

Also question. What theme does "space platform cliff doodad medium" go to. I haven't seen that color combination before.

Holy awesome submissions batman. Feedback time!

@Scbroodsc2: Go

How did that 'fail', dude? You created a building out of goddamn building doodads. You could use that in a cinematic campaign map and it would be completely epic. Your actual 'project' is alright (too much colours all over, no consistency, can't really understand it's "function"), but it bleakens in the light of that first picture. Really nice work!

@Telthalion: Go

Some of the walkways are a bit empty but I guess that makes some sense, seeing as the whole thing is in space. All in all I really like that, though. There's some awesome stuff in there. Also luuuved the engineers working on the cruisers and the little build-in command centre. Little touches like that make me happy.

I'm going to get Sixen to post this on the news page, as these submissions deserve showing off.

@Reaper872: Go

The thing is Reaper, we can't really 'tell you' what to fill the empty space with - that's the idea of the WTE, you need to make up a theme for the platform you've built. Is it going to be an outpost? A forward base? Military focused? A docking bay? Add structures, units and doodads accordingly - if it's an outpost you'll want lots of radars while using perhaps a massive radar as focal point. If it's a forward base, add lots of defensive structures, as it if were a perimiter-guard station. If it's a military base, add ports, garages and stuff like that, to store equipment. If it's a docking bay, add ships, ship construction areas and jazz like that.

@Mozared: Go

I was hoping for more of a repair facility/army outpost feel but idk what a repair facility/army outpost is "supposed" to look like :( You can't use garrages in outer space. It makes no sense...

That would work. Then think about your project. What is needed in an army outpost/repair facility? Probably a 'repair wing' with SCVs, cranes and that jazz. For the outpost part, barrackses, perhaps a pub, stuff where the soldiers can live. Possibly propaganda bullhorns and flags and stuff like that. It's not hard to come up with ideas and then trying to recreate them.

Well I spruced up the work zone (I think). The SCVs are being guarded by the warpig security guards while they dig through the debris.

In theory, the SCV repair animation should be a simple trigger like what Tekaichi posted, but for the life of me I couldn't get that to loop the animation, even with things like Play Forever checked.

After that I moved into the data editor to give it an Actor Creation event to play the animation. But again, same problem. It would never play more than once.

So... in the end I used a pair of actor events that bounced off of each other to create an infinite loop: Upon actor creation, it plays the Work animation. When the Work animation finishes it plays Work2 with a random starting offset, when Work2 finishes it plays Work again. (Work and Work2 being my animation set name in the event editor, not the name of the actual animation - they both use the SCV's standard Work animation).

The problem was way too involved for how simple it should have been in theory... but on the plus side, you can see the animations in the editor, unlike with a trigger-driven animation.

Also, working on my updated version. Should have it done and posted sometime tonight. Adding a bit more detail, breaking up open spaces a bit more. New skybox. A few tweaks to the camera path to highlight some areas that got mostly skipped. That kind of thing.

@Telthalion: Go

in data actors you can have your own timers and create an infinite loop.

And here's the updated version. As usual, playing with the lighting made the scene.

(If you can ignore the flickering skybox...)

Quote from Scbroodsc2:

Your camera sometimes needs more fluidity. Personnaly, I use the Set camera object for 4 sec and the wait, only for 3 sec. So the camera dont have the time to stop and slowly move to the next one.

Yeah, that's how my cameras are done too. Most of the issues (that I detected) were with the camera's movement speed being inconsistent, or too abrupt of a view angle change. It's been smoothed out a bit in the new version.

Quote from Telthalion: Go

And here's the updated version. As usual, playing with the lighting made the scene.

(If you can ignore the flickering skybox...)

Quote from Scbroodsc2:

Your camera sometimes needs more fluidity. Personnaly, I use the Set camera object for 4 sec and the wait, only for 3 sec. So the camera dont have the time to stop and slowly move to the next one.

Yeah, that's how my cameras are done too. Most of the issues (that I detected) were with the camera's movement speed being inconsistent, or too abrupt of a view angle change. It's been smoothed out a bit in the new version.

Ok, I quit. That just is not possible. It makes whatever I can do look like a fail. O WHY IS IT SO HARD FOR ME WHEN IT ISN'T FOR YOU GUYS!

@Reaper872: Go

Because there is this thing called inequality. Some people can just make things like this easier than others. I envy all of you in here. I come to these threads so I can see how amazing you guys can do, I can't do anything in terms of terrain. I've tried and unless I'm completely just going freehand I can't do anything. If I have something planned it won't look good.

@Reaper872: Go

Honestly, it's just a matter of practice and experience. I've been terraining with Blizzard editors since Warcraft 2 - that's a long time to gain a lot of little insights and ideas about how things should look and how to make them look that way.

Don't give up, or you'll never improve. That's the whole purpose of these exercises - to improve and bounce inspiration off of each other.

Don't think of it as "Wow, I can never do that", think of it as "How did he do that and how can I do something similar?". Find a particular part you like, analyze it, figure out how it's made and try to apply it to your own work.