New Terrain Under Development

[PFunk]

After a long hiatus, PFunkWorks Studios will be introducing a new terrain for users of the Strike Fighters 2 series, "Archipelago".

 

One of the most difficult things in making a terrain is proper scaling and placement,  "Archipelago" will be the first in a series of fictional terrains meant to mimic real-world combat.

 

This concept has two origins:

1.  Multiplayer titles like Battlefield 3 often contain maps that are generic portrayals of a location, and the combat is the focus.  They have names like "Metro" and "Operation: Firestorm".  While they have roots in real-world warfare, they are the kind of situations that can be found widely.  This terrain will be using that concept.  This island chain could be found in any tropical region, but it has its roots in Malaysia and Indonesia.

 

2.  The maker of the Third Wire series has already made a fictional terrain, so the precedent has been set.  It is also a fairly popular terrain.  Think of this new series of terrains as your own, private wargame.  The militaries of the West have long had a tradition of wargaming with fictional adversaries to imitate real-world conditions.  This is an extension of that.

 

Each terrain will have a certain era of combat or a certain sort of warfare in mind.  "Archipelago" was designed for the early jet combat era, you will not find a single SAM site entry.  This terrain was built around colonial warfare, with Eastern powers attempting to foment unrest among the colonies of the European powers and will attempt to mimic the response of their militaries.  Later terrains will be built around traditional Cold-War-turning-hot scenarios, wars of decolonization, and early efforts against terrorist states.

 

With that, enjoy some early screenshots of this new location for combat in the Strike Fighters 2 series, "Archipelago".

 

More...

 

I know the Skyhawks never served in the Royal Netherlands Naval Air Service, but they just looks absolutely stunning in their livery.

Edited July 20, 2013 by PFunk

[Wrench]

nice shots (of course, I like color better)

 

will we see the island of Taratupa???

 

what tile set? GH3??

Edited July 20, 2013 by Wrench
corrected island spelling

[PFunk]

Stock.  If someone wants to mod it for GH3, by all means, go to it.

[Stratos]

Realy interesting. Hope Whatif experts will trow a new marking set for "rebel" air force.

Congratulations Pfunk!

[+russouk2004]

Nice 1 Pfunk....

[+Dave]

Sounds good P.

[+JonathanRL]

Looking great !

[+KnightWolf45]

great more toys are always welcomed

[Gunrunner]

Sounds absolutely great but... will it be available on CA when done (and downloads are back up) or only on SimHQ to those with at least 100 posts ?

[+Stary]

looks good PFunk feel free to modify my Germany V3 (or any other in fact) tileset/treemod if that fits your taste

[+Piecemeal]

Good idea! I'll be keeping my eye on this one.

[PFunk]

Sounds absolutely great but... will it be available on CA when done (and downloads are back up) or only on SimHQ to those with at least 100 posts ?

It'll be here.

[Panjilucu]

cool, A-G penetrating mission will be much interesting 

[amariani]

Archipielago!!! Hmmm, sounds like a good place for Corsairs and Hellcats to tangle with Zeros!!! :-)

[Stratos]

Pfunk, are all the airfields "concrete" ones, or there are some dirt runways for helos, planes like the A-1 or the C-47??

[krfrge]

PFunk,

 

Very interesting and looking forward to this project.

 

Thanks

 

KRFRGE

[alex2000]

Hi everybody

 

It's possible see a map of this terrain?

 

Thanks and bye

 

Alex from Leghorn (Italy)

[PFunk]

Here's the planning map.  Still tweaking it.

Oh, and there are four friendly carrier stations and four enemy ones.

There is one rough friendly field, two hardened ones, one of which is an Australian air force base.  There are four enemy bases, all hardened, that may change in the near future, have not decided yet.

Edited July 21, 2013 by PFunk

[alex2000]

Hi PFunk!

Can you tell me which procedure you used to build this terrain?
I see an island that resembles the Sri Lanka island and another one that remembers the New Caledonia.

 

Thanks and bye

 

Alex from Leghorn (Italy)

[PFunk]

You guessed it.  The central island is Sri Lanka, off to the left is Sicily.  The island at the top left is part of the Indian subcontinent that got shrunken down a little.  Top right is....I can't remember where that is.

 

The middle right is the Greek peninsula and the western Turkish coast.

 

The bottom left?  No idea.

 

You use the Terrain Editor to export Height Maps as bitmaps.  Pick a few random places.  I just used Photoshop Elements to cut and paste islands, color in seas and coastlines, saved it.

 

When you fire up the Terrain Editor to import your edited Height Map back in (and this is important), there's a specific trick you have to do to get it work.  You create the new terrain, import DEMs to make a new map, and THEN import the Height Map back in.  I learned that the hard way.

looks good PFunk feel free to modify my Germany V3 (or any other in fact) tileset/treemod if that fits your taste

 

You, sir, are a mensch.

Edited July 21, 2013 by PFunk

[alex2000]

Thanks!

Edited July 21, 2013 by alex2000

[Wrench]

what tileset are you using?

 

I'm assuming tropical/subtropical??, so VietnamSEA?

if so, I definitely recommend the GH3 set. It's a straight drop-in, as they replace all STOCK tiles

 

if you need 'straight' beach lines (SG50-ish), I have VNSEA tiles for that (albeit in GH3 spec), along with a full set of VNSEA Road tiles --including all the transitions, again in GH3 spec. Unfortunately, the road tiles lack TODs. but those would be fairly easy to make (well, the jungle roads, and grass-to-jungle road would need some fiddling!)

 

Also new, straight-beach S-CG and S-GC, and small coastal city/village tiles of the 50 and 25 type. with TODs

 

All are easily remade to the original 'generic' stock flatness.

 

got sick and tired of those scalloped coastlines -- the Real World ™ don't look like that

 

[PFunk]

Yes, Kevin.  Using the VietnamSEA tileset, the stock one.

[+Stary]

Yes, Kevin.  Using the VietnamSEA tileset, the stock one.

then look into my Darwin (modern) or WW2 Okinawa visual updayes, you might like what you find there, example tile from Darwin tileset (downscaled by half):

 

[Centurion-1]

I can wouch for Starys darwin tileset, the best looking for SF2 so far in my opinion!