Kothlis: Sea Haven [Final Version Released]

[GAB Profile Website]

Well, I have a lot of ideas for maps for Battlefront II. That's why, despite having to study quite a bit currently, I couldn't resist staying away from ZeroEditor.

Anyway, one of these ideas is a sort of calm tropical resort in the middle of an ocean. The kind of place where a lot of people would go to relax with their families and friends. A heavenly place with a soothing atmosphere. This map aims for that idea.

It takes place on Kothlis, a "largely oceanic [planet] with many scenic islands, covered in palm trees and dotted with beaches", according to Wookiepedia. A suitable place for the environment I am creating.

I've been working on it for about a month. It will have four Time of Day/Weather variations. Dawn, rain, dusk and night. Below there are four screenshots showing each variant respectively:

Hidden/Spoiler:

Check page 2 for the Night variant update

So far, this is what I've got. Please, let me know what you think and feel free to give your suggestions. They are always welcome.

[JazzMaster Profile]

Beautiful! Excited to see what the gameplay will be like.

[willinator Profile]

Man GAB, this is only your second map, but I think you can be officially crowned "King of Atmosphere/Lighting." Seriously, all those variations look amazing! Of the four versions, I personally think dusk is the best. Keep up the great work.

[GAB Profile Website]

Thanks! And actually, this is my third map (fourth if you count Alzoc 3 - Blizzard 2.0).

[Kingpin Profile Website]

Woah
This looks amazing! I love to see creative use of stock assets mixed with custom models. Good work!

[Locutus Profile WebsiteICQ]

...Still waiting for Alzoc 3 :p

No, honestly, this map looks amazingly well made. The atmosphere is - once again - stunning. All weather settings seem to add an unique feel to the map and all of them look great.
Kinda mean you always post pictures that look as if everything was already done;) Looking forward to it's release!

[Generalfacu Profile]

Wow! It looks beautiful . It would be the perfect place for a vacation.....it's a pity it will be sieged by war

[MileHighGuy Profile]

beautiful map, GAB!

[SpartanA259 Profile]

I have to agree with the others, the atmosphere really does look amazing.

[Marth8880 Profile Website]

Holy freaking oh my goodness. That looks...just wow. Simply, absolutely stunning and magnificent. Bravo, chappie! (lol)

[neapolitan Profile]

It looks *wordnotallowed*ing amazing, man! Keep up the good work!

[The Nasal Abyss Profile]

Be sure to make your ambient colors match your skies; after all, the sky is the biggest reflector of ambient light! So naturally, ambient colors should match the sky! Blues for clear daylight skies, dark blues for dusk!

Also, I had no idea Zero Engine could handle that amount of dynamic lights. (in reference to the nighttime lighting) Very nice!

[MikeTheBeast55 Profile Website]

Dang GAB, the lighting is fantastic and the shadows look good as well. The time of day is perfect as well, not too dark but not too light. Can not wait to see what the units look like!

[thelegend Profile]

Wow. This is the best tropical map I ever have seen. The palm trees fit to the Kashyyyk buildings and the atmosphere of this map is amazing and beautiful. Good job

[hunpeter12 Profile]

I of course agree with all the others. Keep up the good work!

[AQT]

Ah, reminds me of Southeast Asian/Pacific islands resorts. Very awesome!

I only have a minor complaint with a couple of the sky texture choices: Dawn and dusk fit incredibly well (if you could fix that odd color distortion in the latter, though, it would be a tenfold improvement!), but rain and night seem a bit...how do you say it...unnatural? I understand that they are the stock Kamino and Coruscant skies, repsectively, but I'm sure you can find much better alternatives to them (maybe here?). I'd personally go with a slightly brighter/more grey, cloudy sky for rain, and a darker, almost black sky with a touch of clouds for night. And according to Wookieepedia, Kothlis does have three moons, so perhaps you could make any or all of them visible during nighttime as well? Just some ideas.

My final suggestion would be to include some rock formations sticking out of the water surrounding the resort. Looking forward to seeing more of the map!

[GAB Profile Website]

I only have a minor complaint with a couple of the sky texture choices: Dawn and dusk fit incredibly well (if you could fix that odd color distortion in the latter, though, it would be a tenfold improvement!)

Actually, dusk will probably be improved greatly. The image I'm currently using a scaled down version of this image I found on Google images. Since it looked good, I'm considering getting the full sized 9000x4500 image, which shouldn't present that color distortion when scaled down to Battlefront proportions.

but rain and night seem a bit...how do you say it...unnatural? I understand that they are the stock Kamino and Coruscant skies, repsectively, but I'm sure you can find much better alternatives to them (maybe here?). I'd personally go with a slightly brighter/more grey, cloudy sky for rain, and a darker, almost black sky with a touch of clouds for night. And according to Wookieepedia, Kothlis does have three moons, so perhaps you could make any or all of them visible during nighttime as well?

Well, my inspiration for the rain variant was the Paracel Storm map in Battlefield 4 and in this picture, it has some really dark clouds while there still is sunlight to light the overall environment. That was the kind of effect I intended with the Kamino sky. The rain variant also has some grey rain spray going which brightens the sky a little. I'll see if I can post a video of it later. Regarding the night variant sky, I personally don't think it is... unnatural. But maybe trying a black sky like Theed's maybe worth a try. And I'm definitely adding those moons.

Dang GAB, the lighting is fantastic and the shadows look good as well. The time of day is perfect as well, not too dark but not too light. Can not wait to see what the units look like!

Sorry to dissapoint you, but the units will be the stock ones. It is just that, I can't make sides . I'll probably add support to Mav's Dark Times 2 and ARC_Commander's Battlefront Extreme, like in my Alzoc 3 map.

I had no idea Zero Engine could handle that amount of dynamic lights. (in reference to the nighttime lighting) Very nice!

Well, on most of the map it is doing fine, but on some parts the engine struggles a bit. There are some situations where the light disappears when close to the edge of the screen which is kind of annoying and happens only on certain objects.

[Marth8880 Profile Website]

Ah, reminds me of Southeast Asian/Pacific islands resorts. Very awesome!

I only have a minor complaint with a couple of the sky texture choices: Dawn and dusk fit incredibly well (if you could fix that odd color distortion in the latter, though, it would be a tenfold improvement!), but rain and night seem a bit...how do you say it...unnatural? I understand that they are the stock Kamino and Coruscant skies, repsectively, but I'm sure you can find much better alternatives to them (maybe here?). I'd personally go with a slightly brighter/more grey, cloudy sky for rain, and a darker, almost black sky with a touch of clouds for night. And according to Wookieepedia, Kothlis does have three moons, so perhaps you could make any or all of them visible during nighttime as well? Just some ideas.

My final suggestion would be to include some rock formations sticking out of the water surrounding the resort. Looking forward to seeing more of the map!

QFT.

Adding -format A8R8G8B8 to the dusk texture's .option file should fix that distortion issue. Might also need something in the sky file as well.

Well, my inspiration for the rain variant was the Paracel Storm map in Battlefield 4 and in this picture, it has some really dark clouds while there still is sunlight to light the overall environment. That was the kind of effect I intended with the Kamino sky.

Oh! I LOVE the atmosphere in that map! I can totally see the inspiration in your rain variant!

[GAB Profile Website]

Moons added!

Hidden/Spoiler:

I think they looked nice. Just the current layout that kind of bugs me, but I can't think of anything better now. Any suggestions?

[thelegend Profile]

Looks awesome. I have still one tip for the moons. Some parts of them are tansparency. You can see the stars behind of the moons. Maybe you could add a black circle behind the moons. For example here: http://static.ddmcdn.com/gif/moon-phases-08-131008.jpg
Not exactly the same but I hope you know what I mean.