Kilkakon

It is very pretty :O I need to finish my internal one now

Nice to see some civie buildings again Reminds me to finish my own...

Thanks guys! :laugh: As far as release dates go, I can really only say "When it's done". Life can flare up with all sorts of nonsense sometimes and honestly motivation was an issue (I don't like mapping!) so that's why I chose to do this interior instead. I'll make the whole map soon as I'm pretty pumped to see how it goes. I've got to make a few more civilian buildings, finish the contest maps (none of them had finished AI), playtest a lot, make a sound for one of the defences, cast some voice actors, make cinematics and remake my website. All of that could be done in 3 weeks or 2 months... I am taking some time off work later this month so I can work on mods

Today I worked on the theatre for the final map of the Company of Answers campaign... check out this preview!

Always loved your Barren tileset man :laugh: The roads still seem a bit bright for my personal taste. Does the water animate now?

Hi guys, just letting you know that I'm alive! :laugh: I've had a pretty hectic 2 weeks so I've not had much time to allocate to C&C. I do intend to get cracking though--my first priority will be to finish off the submitted maps and let the contestants have fun with them!

A bit late, but to answer your question--yes, in one of my playthroughs of your map, by failing to kill all the guards and running off in the chinook beforehand they will go and kill the construction yard instead. Incidentally the fix will be to reinforce the MCV--in C&C, one uses cliffs or shore tiles to restrict where they can come in from off map. It's my intention to finish off the tweaks to the submitted maps this week so you contestants can enjoy them!

Ah, yeah my winter theatre doesn't seem to agree with modding the xif files. It crashes pretty hard... I'm glad some people figured it out. Thanks for helping in the past Nyer (well you kinda help generally all the time you helpful man haha)

It's all good Jacko You did a cool job, others just managed to get that extra bit of AI work done. Let me guess... GDI mission 5 and 8?

Thanks for getting back in touch Karpet! I'm quite content with the Construction Yard as is as it looks fine ingame. I did consider boxes at the time but I liked the simple look. Also, although it's not really shown, the boxes would be inside the building and lifted out with the crane. As far as work for the project goes in general, I've had a few delays in that I've had to stop and judge the map contest, which took a bit longer than expected. Rest assured I'll be working away and it'll be released as soon as it's ready

I officially announce the map contest to be closed and can now announce the winners of the contest after much play testing and deliberation. At the outset I'd like to thank everybody who took part. Really, means a lot to have submissions for such an ambitious project, and I do apologise for the technical difficulties getting set up. Onto the maps themselves! There were three submissions, and I'll go through each in detail from third to first! 3. JACKO - CIVILIAN COUNTER Oddly, this map doesn't involve playing as Civilians--this is a map that pits USA forces against a moderate Tomorrow presence. It starts off as a non-production mission, giving the player a limited amount of troops to locate an abandoned USA installation which contains a barracks , a repair bay and a few other minor structures, but notably no Construction Yard. There's also the option to capture an airstrip which will allow reinforcements of Light Tanks to supplement the frequent free Medium Tanks which reinforce the player off the map edge. I always like maps which give the player a limited amount of buildings to try and hold on, and Civilian Counter promises a cool concept. It is unfortunately let down by a non-functioning AI and being too spacious. The map could have been reduced in size by about 25% and been the better for it. Non-existent AI and constant player reinforcements make the map all too easy to complete. The absence of a win trigger also hurts the gameplay experience, and the airstrip is located in a very difficult to access area (it would also be near impossible to defend if AI was implemented). I reiterate in that I think the concept behind the map is rock solid--with some added AI triggers and a few tweaks here and there, I am quite prepared to have Civilian Counter included in the full package when it is released next month. 2. GOATMESSIAH - TOMORROW NEVER DIES Tomorrow Never Dies is a fun and dynamic map which pits The Protagonist, shot down behind enemy lines, against a significant Japanese entrenchment. It starts with some highly skilful Commando-style action, having to bait away Flame Tanks with the Sniper Rifle so Engineers can capture a Chinook, as well as using The Protagonist as a shield against enemy rocket fire. Once the Japanese Communications Centre has been captured, a flare is lit on nearby island which has a structure which must be destroyed. After successfully doing so, the mission changes again, revealing a Tomorrow Construction Yard and instructing the player to wipe out the remaining Japanese presence. Japanese in the desert--bet you weren't expecting that! Goatmessiah delivers a strong entry into the contest with Tomorrow Never Dies. Judging this map was very challenging--it's as good as the ultimate winner in many ways. Both maps have two phases and both maps have interesting things going on. I also have to give Goatmessiah credit for managing to figure almost everything out on his own, whereas the other two submitters had asked for greater assistance. Of course this is counted a bit by being submitted later than the others. The map itself is not without fault--the AI starts to put up some resistance when the production side of the mission kicks off, only to stop a few moments later as one of the Tank Hunters blocks the ford. At the end of the day deciding factor for me is a fine edge, but one I'm happy to make. Put simply, in this map, as good as it is, can have situations occur in which the map is rendered unwinnable through no fault of the player. I find this to be unfun. There's two situations in which I had "Well that wasn't my fault" losses. The first was the Gunboat, not revealed to the player at all by this point of the map, one-shotting the Chinook as it flew to the island. Ow. The second, and a more serious one, is the placement of the Tomorrow Construction Yard. By having it pre-placed where it is, AI units will beeline straight to the Construction Yard and destroy it before the player can react (I did try to repair and build defences, but the AI will kill the Construction Yard too quickly). This particular issue could have been resolved by reinforcing an MCV from off map when the time comes to give the player production capability. It is a shame that one river crossing brings down this map to second place (if the AI consistently launched attacks successfully, then it would have automatically won). At the end of the day, I did really enjoy this map. It's a very close second, and with a few tweaks here and there I think it'll be one of the clear strongest maps in the post campaign missions set. 1. SCIONOX - THE ISLAND IN THE MIDDLE OF NOWHERE An unknown organisation has stolen technology from all other factions and holed themselves up on this privately owned island. It's up to the fledgling rebel factions to clear out the island for themselves--a combined effort from Russian, American and Japanese forces against this unknown foe. The mission instantly starts out with a large naval assault already underway, with allied Russian and American troops invading the coast and charging inland, leading the Japanese player to follow suit with his own Tank Hunter group. As the combined arms forces head north, smashing containment lines, they enter a run down Japanese installation which the player can capture before taking on the rest of the stolen technological fortress. As mentioned in the previous map entry, judging between these two maps was hard. Why? They both are pretty awesome in their own ways and both of them have AI implemented that gets stuck pretty quickly. But this map is a little more robust in that it doesn't just break if the player attacks the wrong thing and it's a little more ambitious. The start is just fun and the mixed tech is handled decently. While it's a shame the AI breaks so easily, it's a great map and one that I'm happy to include (with fixed AI) into the map set proper for the final release. Not a fan of the name though, haha! So there you all have it! The winner, Scionox, a friend of mine narrowly escaping with victory after Goatmessiah's well played submission! And Jacko put in a solid concept too, just needs a little bit more refinement and it'll be in with the best of them. Thanks again so much guys, and I'll be in touch if there's any changes I want to make to your maps so you can be satisfied.

I'm aiming for early March, which is ambitious but possible. I have the following areas to complete: Finish the campaign (one map) Finish the maps that have been submitted Test making cinematic... if it works, then make one for each faction of the logo appearing and/or being destroyed, as well as the campaign ones Cast a few voice actors Playtest EVERYTHING and make fixes as necessary Thanks for the interest though hey

Haha it's okay! I appreciate the submission! :laugh:

So far I've had two maps submitted and I have played them both. :laugh: While they are both a bit rough it's great to have some cool submissions! I'll most likely incorporate both of them into the game with some AI changes. Otherwise, I'll give people a little bit more time for last minute entries before posting the maps and the winner as I've yet to hear from Karpet.

Aww sorry to hear that. It sounds like things didn't work out :O If you do get time, awesome, if not, I appreciate you playing the game and having fun with it! Well Jacko seems to be about half way through finishing, hard at work (PMing me away, haha). My Steam buddy's working away on his map, trying to understand triggers. I'll probably bump things out by a few days if people are close but not yet done.

How's things coming along guys? :laugh: I've yet to receive any entries so I hope everybody is doing well and getting close to finishing things off!

Your wish is my command

Thanks Nyer! I finished it off today! It's a big moment for me... this is the last building I needed to make. Sure I might need to go back and do a few office buildings for urban but yeah... stuff of dreams that.

I have decided to increase the economy rate to 2x. I will also be making changes to the EXE to fix a bug (currently the Mammoth Tank can't be built by players, whoops!). I also concede I did a really bad job with Sunrise, the AI getting stuck on the choke point all the time. What I will say is that because I've made this change just over a week before the contest deadline, I will judge the map based on the economy rate it uses-- be it 1x or 2x. If you do want to change it to 2x, just change your money trigger to reinforce 2 minigunners instead of one.

Just to keep you guys updated, here's the progress on the buildup animation so far!

And what, flip the airstrip horizontally if it's built on the west too?

Please let me know what you think RE: the two maps I sent you all also I am actively considering increasing the economy rate (probably to 2x rather than 3x). If I do you'd need to change the money trigger in your maps, but I am happy to help you with that if you need it.

Okay, I'll get those organised now.

Just to clarify, do you want installers or just the folder in a zip?

I'm happy to organise this for you when I get home White. From memory the installation requires a lot of admin rights, installing not to C and the old version of the tools are required. I'll get that sorted for you soon. Hope everything's going well all :laugh: