NOTE to mappers

[Lt. Havoc]

Work out your overall theme, bases and geographical issues in the beginning. I've been playing FH steady since its release and 1 thing I've really noticed is that airfield seem to be an afterthought on several maps. Both the Battles of Orel and Valirisk (however its spelled) barely provide enough room for take off. Especially in the Russian planes.

This is the part where someone says "They're reworking flight dynamics for .6, hopefully it won't be a problem then". In any case future maps should keep everything in mind during conception.

FH prides itself on detail and realism but too often some FH maps aren't up to the same standards. Will we see patches for any of the Fan maps? 1 for Kaukasus to maybe get the trees on the ground and have better fortifactions for player main base starts. Even a variety of trees would be nice too. Operation Bagration could use 1/3 less open buildings to improve framerate. Other maps look way to Super Mario/Candyland-like, with their nice rounded hills and surreal terrain texturing. If you play the maps and can imagine hearing the mario music then you know what I'm talking about. Battle of Orel is so complex that 3 maps could be made from it. Don't start flaming me over this, just opinions and I love & appreciate all the work involved. I know how it is.
As a mapper you could tweak a map from now until the end of time or death. Every mapper wants their work to be the best it can be all I'm saying is pay attention to detail, put thought into layout and respect that there is variety & reason in nature. Don't go over crazy either, an art teacher once told me if you can leave something out and it doesn't effect the overall piece then it should stay out. Formulate reasons for why structures are where they are and what purpose they fulfill. Sorry everyone for going off. I love gaming but like to see things which are well thought out not giant boxes like in Counter Strikes Dust series or a crater lake like the map Ural foothills.

[Kingrudolf]

Don't we all want that..?

[D-Fens]

Operation Bagration is a lost cause. A complete rework is required if it's ever gonna be enjoyable.

[LIGHTNING [NL]]

and another thing - also goes for FH mappers:

thumbnail.dds and the ingame.dds MUST NOT HAVE MIPMAPS!!!

(same goes for icons)

[B.F. Pierce]

Not sure of the reason for this post, did you feel that people needed help that badly?

Not sure of your complaint about Orel being complex either, who said that's a bad thing?

Everybody who maps should keep this in mind, and this only. Gameplay is judged by the players who play on the map, everybody has their own opinion of what makes a good map, there is no one single formula to use. Sometimes you nail it and othertimes you don't. That's why computers have a "delete" option :P

[LIGHTNING [NL]]

You're right, I'll edit it...

[=Boche Buster=]

what he means is its all good and proper for a map to look fan dooperly tastic but lag like a muther of all maps... its not so much pcs cant handle it servers cant, and the less lagg the more fun... also another tip. dont make flat maps place objects then make the terrain around it.. make the terrain first then place some objects.

[B.F. Pierce]

The map plays fine on around a 40 person server with no lag for the most part (apart from the normal lag associated with using the internet), that's all it was intended to do really. It's called pushing an engine to it's limits, if you can't run it that's fine, there's others to choose from.

That kinda gives some proof to my point, not everybody will like a map so don't /ever/ take one persons word for it.

About terrain, under no circumstances should your terrain /EVER EVER EVER/ become static. You should be working with the terrain before, during, and after placing objects.

[Lt. Havoc]

good point. I get my terrain to about 95% of what I want prior to object placement then adjust to fit certain objects and tweak things to break up uniformity. I never said Orel wasn't a good map. I love it and the scope is huge. When there's a ton of action though my FPS drop like a rock.

Machine (yeah its about 1.5 years old)
Athlon xp 1800
768mg PC2700 ram
7200 rpm HD
128 9600 Radeon

I keep my resolution set medium too.

Desert maps of equal size definitely play smoother because of the lack of statics. That's what I'm meaning by complexity (the industrial area, forest, ruined city).

Still looking forward to whats to come.

[=Boche Buster=]

I didnt mean dont change any terrain, i meant dont make the map to fit your objects.. of course you'll need too add cuts in a hill to fit a house etc.