Leaderboard

Fair enough, as long as it flows smoothly! Also fair enough. Once you have a lot of experience with pure single-player, you'll find it easier to make a co-op map, I'm sure. Knowing intimately what you're capable of allows you to work around the limitations in co-op maps in various ways. Briefing doesn't show up in-game in Gruntmods version, but it does in Dunemaster. Weird limitation of Gruntmods version, which otherwise is extremely useful for testing new maps because of its debugging toolkit. You CAN, however, read the briefing before the map begins via the mission launcher, which we use to launch the maps anyway! Some people don't read the briefing AT ALL. Even native English speakers. I've had folks fail my maps and complain that they didn't know they were supposed to capture X building, or could expect Y to happen. So, I've taken to putting the mission objectives above the briefing, like so: https://prnt.sc/rl8cv3 I know it's weird, but the format seems to help folks not get themselves killed for no reason. Some people don't even read the objectives. lol Anyway, you can assign a text file to the mission. Put a line like this in the .ini: TextUib=FeyTextS011.uib Or write it in the editor, here: https://prnt.sc/rl8gjc And then you'll just need to save a .uib file by that name. If you have trouble finding the right editor, I can send mine. Anyway, the in-game text for custom messages used by the .ini seems to ignore this file, so don't worry about what number you use for events. The .uib is there to change other stuff you see in-game, such as "<Faction> has become hostile!" messages, or unit names. Here's a Sardaukar unit in-game that acts as the player commander: https://prnt.sc/rl8jjf So it works! The "<Faction> has become hostile!" messages are the ones you'd want to change to make your ally go, "Hey, you're shooting at the wrong target. >_>" My maps tend to do something similar to alert the player to the sandworm. If you use an allocation index between 0-6 for the sandworm, and make the sandworm neutral towards the player (but not the other way around), it will generate a "<Faction> has become hostile!" message the first time it's attacked. Not perfect, it can swallow a Harvester before the player gets the "Wormsign!" message, but hey, the commanders are only human. They miss stuff like that sometimes. Remember, a neutral faction being attacked will not only generate such a message, but it will also make both factions hostile towards each-other. If the units at the base should not attack their commander AT ALL, then having them become allied with the player (and vice versa) when the base is discovered is probably the best idea. And using a "casualties greater than 0" triggered message is the best course of action. It is "greater than," by the way! So if you want it to happen after 1 unit is dead, the casualties threshold should be set to 0. On some of my maps, an allied MCV will fly in from off the map to start building a base with you, but this requires an MCV off the map so the AI doesn't think "I have nothing, I must go into berserk mode." When the AI flies its 'real' MCV in and deploys it, units off the side of the map become hostile to the off-map MCV and destroy it. Then, when the AI has base structures, but no MCV, they become allied with the player. At this time, because the MCV off the map is destroyed, no strange terrain will be revealed to the player and the AI ally can begin to function as normal. In the brief window they have a unit on the map somewhere and are neutral towards the player, they don't have anything that can fire back at the player, so the message about your accidental attack fits. If you want them to get combat units along with their MCV, you can have those arrive after the player is allied. https://prnt.sc/rl8qnu Hopefully that answers your questions. Ahh, it sounds like a character-driven story! My campaign is also character-driven, focusing on individual commanders and stuff to bring more identity to each faction. I'm quite excited to see your style develop! I gave it a quick run. "Knightfall," I like that. It's very evident that you have experience with mapping and balancing. You have a keen eye for details. This was a well-balanced first map rich in aesthetic and story. Still some misplaced tiles, but again, you'll get used to spotting them. Here are where they appear: https://prnt.sc/rl947t https://prnt.sc/rl964v https://prnt.sc/rl9cev https://prnt.sc/rl9ebv https://prnt.sc/rl9ijs I also pointed out the tiles you might want to replace the funny ones with. Regarding the balance: You give the player enough to work with, even if he makes a mistake. The incidental dangers you can avoid are not too dangerous that they eliminate your ability to complete the mission. The three Light Infantry just before you get to the friendly base were surprising, but not unmanageable. A good sort of surprise. Revealing the last group of Harkonnen infantry to fight, and giving the player some reinforcements to handle them, was a good call. The map is also small enough and not dangerous enough to warrant more map reveals around the terrain - the player could explore on his own and not run into extreme danger, and that's good. If we HAD to fight the Trike and two Light Infantry, revealing them ahead of time so the player could plan was definitely the right thing to do. Regarding the aesthetics: There's a good balance of dunes, rock, open sand, and doodads around. Very strong aesthetics, definitely feels like a winding Arrakis mountain range. For the sort of map it is, the narrow pathways the player's units must take are not concerning in the slightest, but I am obligated to remind you that due to unit pathing being funny, I recommend using wider pathways on any standard maps, or any maps where the player really needs to be able to micro his units effectively. It can be a bit tricky to make things aesthetically pleasing and functional, but as long as you keep in mind how the map is expected to play out, you can design the terrain around that expectation. Just as an example, here's one of my maps: https://prnt.sc/rl9wbn The player sets up his own base atop the ruins of the Atreides base. The basin is surrounded by cliffs, but there's plenty of flat, open space where the action will take place. There's some infantry rock in convenient spots. And, more subtly, there are dunes that slow the enemy advance to not only give the player more time to react, but help to keep the light vehicles closer to the heavier ones since light vehicles are slowed down more by dunes. Also, there is enough space for the worm to go wriggling all around the main rock island. We all have our own styles and what you do is up to you! I just hope to provide an example of "functional and aesthetic," if it helps you out at all. FYI, I played at the default resolution of 640x400. I noticed the messages were sometimes fairly long, but never clipped into the sidebar. Which is good! This is a common mistake and I recommend continuing to write messages that fit the default resolution. That's about all I've got to say for now. Hope that helps!