[Abandoned] Alamo

[Seamus76]

Easier way for glows. Click on the text layer you want the glow for and go up to script fu. Find outer glow and put in the color you want the glow to be. Then decrease the sizes down to 2 pixels for both, or play around with them. Then just adjust the opacity to where you want it and there you have it. Just lower that layer to under your text layer. I start around 75% opacity and see how it looks.

[generalhead]

I was studying for an algebra test yesterday and will be in class tonight. After class tonight or tomorrow I should have time to work on the glows and work on the officers more. I am trying to take my time with the officers like I did with the walls and the cannons. Thank you for your understanding. GH

[koontz1973]

I was studying for an algebra test yesterday and will be in class tonight. After class tonight or tomorrow I should have time to work on the glows and work on the officers more. I am trying to take my time with the officers like I did with the walls and the cannons. Thank you for your understanding. GH

This is great news all round. Being busy is one thing but to try and rush the graphics is a bad thing. Glad to hear you are taking your time.

[generalhead]

cleaned up the officers
changed highlights on all names
worked on the rivers

Click image to enlarge.

next i'll work on Remember the Alamo to try and bring it out more
Cos Duque Romero and Morales officers shoulder's are too rounded
need to darken the river in the legend
Does the bottom legend look ok, does any one have any suggestions
do the officers look better

[koontz1973]

generalhead, you have worked long and hard on this map. About time you got some encouragement in the main foundry. Remember, this is not the end, it is not even the beginning, but it is the end of the beginning. Good luck with the others, but do not worry, I will be keeping an eye on you as well.

koontz

[generalhead]

Yay! Thank you so much. I hope the people in the next room are as nice and helpful as you have been. I think I have said this before but this map wouldn't be what it is without you.

[DoomYoshi]

Hey! Welcome to the Big Boys Club. Here is where we get really picky.

First: The objective is pointless. For you to control all 8 officers, you would need to hold pretty much the entire map. All this means is that there are some tournaments which reward players for winning by objective. The other players will be held hostage.

Bowie is far too powerful. Here is how I am calculating power: Number of non-bombardable territories. Bowie gets 5. If Ceza bombed Cuthbert instead of Elder and Ortega bombed Ward instead of Winchester AND/OR Price instead of King, it would be better.

Now approaching this problem from the other way I think there are too many bombardable territories. I say this as an avid trench player. For example, I can't get from Cos to Davis without first being bombed by Davis. Also, as it stands now, Cos is the worst general.

I realize that Romero also has 4 non-bombardables and may be my new favourite. I am going to keep running scenarios through my mind and get back to you.

[tkr4lf]

Congrats on the stamp, generalhead! You definitely deserve it.

Hey! Welcome to the Big Boys Club. Here is where we get really picky.

First: The objective is pointless. For you to control all 8 officers, you would need to hold pretty much the entire map. All this means is that there are some tournaments which reward players for winning by objective. The other players will be held hostage.

Bowie is far too powerful. Here is how I am calculating power: Number of non-bombardable territories. Bowie gets 5. If Ceza bombed Cuthbert instead of Elder and Ortega bombed Ward instead of Winchester AND/OR Price instead of King, it would be better.

Now approaching this problem from the other way I think there are too many bombardable territories. I say this as an avid trench player. For example, I can't get from Cos to Davis without first being bombed by Davis. Also, as it stands now, Cos is the worst general.

I realize that Romero also has 4 non-bombardables and may be my new favourite. I am going to keep running scenarios through my mind and get back to you.

Haha, I told you gameplay would probably change later on.



One thing I also notice now that I didn't before...In Duque's area, having the cannon at Ortega means nobody can pass from Duque to Gonzales or Barro without going around through the Alamo. There are two ways to fix this...the first, simply move the cannon to Gonzales or Barro, and move the target to Ortega...the second, change the terit borders so that Gonzales and Duque connect (this would make Ortega a pretty small terit, but as long as you can fit the name, the cannon and the army numbers, then it shouldn't be an issue).


Other than that, it looks good. I like the glow you have around the cannons, although Patch is a bit hard to see, maybe because the glow color is so similar to the background color. I think the officers look much better, but as you have said, the shoulders on some of them are too rounded.

All in all though, great work!

[generalhead]

Moved cox target to cuthbert
moved winchester target to ward
eliminated one target at cos
fixed shoulders on duque, cos, romero, morales
fixed territories in duque
changed win objective to 5 officers

Click image to enlarge.

Is holding 5 officers for the game objective ok or should it be six or something else
I removed one target from cos, but with the ladders being one way attacks and the canons being bombards only does that leave cos as desolate
or is it ok

[MagnusGreeol]

Wow Guys,,I started on page 1 and went through them all up to here,,What a transformation, The cannons look great, Love the glow look,,very sharp,,names on the territs instead of Letter codes,,perfect,, One Question--- Are the ramp bridges going to be considered as a standing territs also- or could they be? Like a last stand of defense b4 entering Alamo? Even if not it still looks Great--- For General- and all who took part in assisting on this-- Salute-------)
Sincerely-->>>>-----MAG-OUT------->

[koontz1973]

OK generalhead, here is a new list of things for you to do.

Glows around the names are too large. Make the smaller.
Opacity of the glows is also too high. Reduce some.
Shadows of the ladders in the Alamo, erase.
Shadows for men and cannons do not align. Add to the list of things to do.
Black territ has a black spot, remove.
Bottom left legend needs another look at it. The left side is black and cannot read the text. Bottom of story text is cut of by the rope.

Have fun.

koontz

[tkr4lf]

Also, just noticed that the same cannon problem is present at Castilla. I like how you just adjusted the borders with Gonzales/Ortega/Duque, so you could probably do that again with Pena/Castilla/Rivera.

I thought I had spotted all of those, but pretty sure that's all of them now. Looking good.

Oh, I do have to say that it seems weird only having one target in Cos' area when there are 2 for every other cannon. Seems like you should either make each cannon have either 1 target, or make them have 2 targets, not a mix like it is now. I guess with there being so few terits in some of the bonus areas, it does go a little overboard having 2 targets for each cannon, so maybe just 1 is needed. That's a shame, I liked having more targets, it made the cannons that much more valuable, but such is life. Compromises and all that jazz.

Keep it up, gh!

[DoomYoshi]

Why can't some cannons have one target and some cannons have 2?

[koontz1973]

Why can't some cannons have one target and some cannons have 2?

They can. As long as one does not become too powerful over the others, they can all have different abilities.

[tkr4lf]

Why can't some cannons have one target and some cannons have 2?

Why can't some cannons have one target and some cannons have 2?

They can. As long as one does not become too powerful over the others, they can all have different abilities.

Yes, they certainly can. I was just giving my opinion that it seemed weird to me. But it's not that big of a deal, I will still play the map either way.

[generalhead]

Why can't some cannons have one target and some cannons have 2?

They can. As long as one does not become too powerful over the others, they can all have different abilities.

Is there a way to code it so that the cannons with two targets can only bombard one target per round?
that would allow some cannons to have two target but reduce the power.
It would have to be <a bombards either b or c> not <a bombards b and c>.
because in real time they would have had to turn the cannons to attack another spot which would have taken time.

[tkr4lf]

Why can't some cannons have one target and some cannons have 2?

They can. As long as one does not become too powerful over the others, they can all have different abilities.

Is there a way to code it so that the cannons with two targets can only bombard one target per round?
that would allow some cannons to have two target but reduce the power.
It would have to be <a bombards either b or c> not <a bombards b and c>.
because in real time they would have had to turn the cannons to attack another spot which would have taken time.

Don't trust me on this, because I know very little about xml, but I don't think that's possible.

[koontz1973]

It is not.

[generalhead]

Lessened the glows by 1 pix and lessened opacity
Removed ladder shadows
changed men shadows and moved cannon shadows a little
Moved all of the names below the highlights (The ones in the folder were above)
removed black spot from black territory
removed white spot from upper legend
changed color of the dark purple targets
removed some shadowing from both legends
realigned items in bottom legend
changed and darkened impassible river in the legend
fixed some walls at the doorways
Added grayish highlight to Remember the Alamo
fixed shadow at center wall where it bulged out
moved territory borders in Cos area

Click image to enlarge.

Waiting on Doom Yoshi for more input on game play
Should Duque only have one target on it?
Will keep checking graphics
Remember the Alamo needs moved to the right
more input on graphics please

[DoomYoshi]

Well, I was hoping someone else would bring something.

Elimininating the Gonzalez target makes sense from a gameplay sense, but also creates something really weird.
It means that the cannons outside are more useful than the cannons inside. A weird attackers adavantage. I guess it would make sense if we assume that since the building stays put, and the attacking troops keep moving, the offensive cannons can have greater accuracy? Right now there are 4 cannons inside and 5 outside. Is that the correct proportion?

[koontz1973]

gh, men are getting better but keep working on them or start looking for an alternative way to show them. When I said to get rid of the shadows for the ladders, I meant the shadow that was inside the alamo as it did not fit with the rest. Just rub that bit out.

What fonts are you using?

[generalhead]

Font=Duality
I will return the ladder shadow and fix it
The men, I will keep looking

I did this as a quick mock draft, do you think either a flag or a profile pic would look better or should I continue with some kind of figure?
In a better version of course I would size every thing and have only the flags with no background. I could even do that with the profile pictures too. I don't know what would look better if the profile pics had backgrounds or not. Any ways what do you think about either of these?

Click image to enlarge.

[koontz1973]

Men are better than those but the old photos might be nice for the legend some how.

Going to log of for the night so let me have a think on this for you and see what we can come up with.

[koontz1973]

gh, some ideas to try and bring this away from rorkes drift.
Think about using conditional borders some. Hold a Mexican general to be able to get into the Alamo and hold an American general to attack out.
Allow the cannons to bombard a complete region, this would get rid of the targets all together but a higher neutral needs to be placed onto them.
Hold a complete region to be able to use the ladders/bridges going into and out of the Alamo.

The men might be the way to go, but another idea might also to use rank insignia as well. Give each territ a rank and think of a bonus to go with that rank. General with 2 privates +1, with two sergeants +2, with 3 officers+4. You could then have a unifying colour for both American and Mexican armies ground. I am sure the site would not mind if you used their insignia so players will recognize the ranks really easily.

[generalhead]

gh, some ideas to try and bring this away from rorkes drift.

o man, I was thinking about having an 150 yard line.

Think about using conditional borders some. Hold a Mexican general to be able to get into the Alamo and hold an American general to attack out.
Allow the cannons to bombard a complete region, this would get rid of the targets all together but a higher neutral needs to be placed onto them.
Hold a complete region to be able to use the ladders/bridges going into and out of the Alamo.

The men might be the way to go, but another idea might also to use rank insignia as well. Give each territ a rank and think of a bonus to go with that rank. General with 2 privates +1, with two sergeants +2, with 3 officers+4. You could then have a unifying colour for both American and Mexican armies ground. I am sure the site would not mind if you used their insignia so players will recognize the ranks really easily.

As always Koontz great suggestions. I will definitely implement these into the map. I have been checking around to see if I can find something better for the men. I will keep looking.