My next terrain project

[+Gepard]

Right now I'm thinking about which project to start next.

I have 4 in mind.

1) Poland

2) Borderwar between China and Vietnam in 1979

3) version of Battle of Britain terrain for the 1960th or 70th

4) Diego Garcia

 

Poland is an area with a lot of possible scenarios. World War 2 in 1939 and 1945, a possible Warsaw Pact invasion in 1981, a modern Suwalki Gap scenario, or a hypotetical what if the former german province Ostpreussen would have become the homestate of the jews: Israel in Central Europe.

 

China and Vietnam Borderwar is an interesting scenario, because both sides have similar planes and weapons, so that only the skill of the player decides of an outcome of an air battle. I like the idea very much.

 

"Modern" Battle of Britain terrain has two major possible scenarios. One: The Soviets have taken control over France and UK is in the same situation as 1940, but with other enemy. Two: A conflict between the European Community and UK, a scenario with its own flair, because blue vs blue and to be honest true friends the Brits and the French never were.

 

Diego Garcia. Its an other naval map with one base on an island and carrier operations.

Edited December 30, 2021 by Gepard

[EricJ]

I like the Vietnam/China border war. It would be interesting to see modern jets or old ones fighting. Diego Garcia would be really limited with one airbase and so on. You would be limited to striking one airbase, and just something to make like a Range map really in my opinion.

[Trotski]

Vietnam China for me, with Poland coming in after that.

[+GKABS]

7 minutes ago, trotski00 said:

Vietnam China for me, with Poland coming in after that.

I agree and I think Poland is an interesting one to see.

[Gatling20]

I am more a 1940s-era person, so the Poland terrain for both 1939 and 1945 looks very interesting. 

[+daddyairplanes]

count another vote for China/Vietnam. it would be really interesting to see say MiG-21s escorting A-37s

although who would be red and who would be blue?

[Wilches]

Well, is it an election? My vote goes to Poland 45.

[+allenjb42]

2 hours ago, trotski00 said:

Vietnam China for me, with Poland coming in after that.

My preferences too..

[Nightshade/PR]

If I may place a vote, I like the idea of Diego Garcia. It offers a wealth of potential flashpoint scenarios for an extremely interesting part of the world. Especially for bomber operations.

Edited December 30, 2021 by Nightshade/PR

[macelena]

2 hours ago, daddyairplanes said:

count another vote for China/Vietnam. it would be really interesting to see say MiG-21s escorting A-37s

although who would be red and who would be blue?

I guess Vietnam, with all the US stuff they kept using after the war. Not that it would really matter, but i would still go with the theorical "underdog"

[clim995]

The battle of Britain in the 1970s sounds fun. sort of a final NATO stand when the rest of Europe has fallen to the Warsaw pact. Or an alternate timeline in which NATO fell apart and an anti-British (possible Bonapartist or monarchist) rises to power and there's a war between France and U.K. I like all your scenarios, can't wait!

[+GKABS]

All of them as a New Year gift that will be nice. 

But really they all sound good I wish we can have them all.

Happy New Year to you all

[dsawan]

China/vietnam; that can still flare up even today.  Id prefer 80's and early 90's scenarios or campaigns with it

[DaniloE31]

14 hours ago, Wilches said:

Well, is it an election? ...

Jeee... not that word!
I would go for China vs Vietnam... but which one should I shot down then?
Anyway: happy new Year everybody!

[+angelp]

My vote is for China vs Vietnam, I have a couple of ships and some chinese ordance that could be helpful in a campign in this place of the world

[+Menrva]

Whichever one Gepard will choose in the end, I will always be grateful. Many end-users underestimate the amount of work that is required to create a quality terrain addon. As a terrain modder myself, I know of all the time and efforts required to make one with detail, especially from scratch. It's no easy feat, it's a very long process that can be easily exhausting sometimes.

If I'd have to choose, I'd say Diego Garcia. It would be a very original addition, with a tileset made entirely from satellite imagery, much like the Midway Atoll terrain I was working on. That kind of texture work pays off in the terrain engine of Strike Fighters.

I wish all modders of CombatACE a productive and happy 2022! 

[+Gepard]

Very early stage of China vs Vietnam terrain. At the moment i use Green Hell 2 tileset. And i'm not really happy with it. Green Hell 3.5 i dont get to run. There the _data.ini file is missing, so that i get strange TOD trees. It are only the first steps on a long, long way.

I have also played a little bit with the files for a modern Battle of Britain terrain in the timeframe of the 1960th or 70th. It is faster to make, because the majority of the terrain, the tiling, setting of rivers and roads etc is already done. So only the target areas must reworked.

I will sleep over the ideas, before i decide which terrain becomes the first in the development line.

 

BTW, today i got an other idea of a terrain. What if the Argentinians after the conquest of the Falklands would have sent their Carrier Group to Ascencion Island, the british base mid in the Atlantic Ocean on the shores of Angola? This base would become an important supply base for the british Falkland campaign. If the Argentinians would have destroyed the RAF base at Ascencion island, the Brits would have had big troubles.

 

Screenshot

vietnamese F-5E vs chinese J-7I

The insignias are very similar. Hard to tell who is who.

 

[Icarus999]

 

On 12/30/2021 at 3:06 PM, Nightshade/PR said:

If I may place a vote, I like the idea of Diego Garcia. It offers a wealth of potential flashpoint scenarios for an extremely interesting part of the world. Especially for bomber operations.

WOW...a massive terrain like this, with Diego Garcia as its center point would be an epic playground. The number of scenarios that could unfold from a terrain like this  mindboggling .....if it could be done.  

[EricJ]

It would also take a long time too. I mean it would be cool for sure, but given the limitations of the game I'd pass personally.

[+Gepard]

I got Green Hell 3.5 to run. As usal it was a simple typo which had me let fail a couple of times.

To be honest, really happy i was not with the tileset. Thatswhy i have started to merge four 512 pixel tiles to one new 1024 pixel tile. Then i have changed the tiles from bmp to jpg, what allowes a better performance of the game. I also changed the sea tiles to darker color and modified one coast tile to have not anymore only bays beside bays.

Screenshots all WIP, a very early stage

Right side you see the darker sea tile. On the coastline you see from left two original GH3.5 tiles, then are following two new made tile

The new farm files are merged from 4 original GH3.5 tiles

Its still a long way to go. New rivers of different size are still to make, perhaps road maps.

So i can say, release date X-Mas. But dont ask which year.

 

[+daddyairplanes]

2 hours ago, Gepard said:

So i can say, release date X-Mas. But dont ask which year.

[yakarov79]

On 12/30/2021 at 7:56 PM, Gepard said:

I have 4 in mind.

1) Poland

2) Borderwar between China and Vietnam in 1979

3) version of Battle of Britain terrain for the 1960th or 70th

4) Diego Garcia

while Poland can give a variety of scenarios to play starting from 1939 up to the cold war what-if scenarios (maybe even east coalition against Big Brother) I would give my vote China-Vietnam border war. Mostly because of similarities in equipment.  

 

Although my ultimate vote would go for terrain that could cover hypothetical Sino-Soviet border war (For example Ussuri River, Damansky Island etc...)

[+Gepard]

16 hours ago, yakarov79 said:

Although my ultimate vote would go for terrain that could cover hypothetical Sino-Soviet border war (For example Ussuri River, Damansky Island etc...)

I had it in mind too, but i looked at Google Earth and found, that this terrain would consist of 95% forrest, some rivers and villages with small farmland.

[+Gepard]

After long studies of sat images from Google Earth i realized what i disliked on Green Hell. Vietnam is highly populated. Nearly all 1000 meters is a village, while the Green hill is nearly empty of villages. Thatswhy i thought i should make roads on each Farm tile.

This is what the first attempt looks like:

Unfortunatly i was not carefull enough while painting the roads. When i marked the end of the roads on tileend i had a calculation error of 18 pixels. Thatswhy some tiles does not fit and the roads have a gap on tileend. What means, back to start.

But the principle is confirmed. I must only adjust the positions more carefully. When the roads are good i will place villages on the map, so that the terrain will be heavily populated.

 

[+Gepard]

I did it again and this time the roads of two neighbor tiles fits much more better.

Vietnam has now a dense street network. Next step it will be to paint some villages on the tiles.