[canonuk]

Ok, following my poll I've decided that I will extend my map so that it covers more of the English Channel. The map will look like this:



My plans for it are as follows. Firstly, I'll develop it as an extended version of my current online Battle of Britain map. That means a few more airfields and towns. In the interest of a small actors.static some of the cities will be very sparse, but mission builders can always add to them.

Following that, I'll change the actors.static to represent the state of play when the RAF and USAAF were conducting fighter sweeps and bomber raids over this area of France. (I've been inspired by Pierre Closterman's 'Big Show' ) Since I have plenty of info on the airfields in 1942/43 I'll be able to make a nice accurate updated actors.static.

So that means two different maps from one map, if you catch my drift

I know the same area is being covered by other teams and I applaud their efforts, but since I'm fond of smaller maps that are friendlier to my old PC I quite fancy an online version of this area.

With regards to the current Battle of Britain map, once my beta testers have got back to me fully I'll release a 'beta' for public download but I won't put any improvements into it if there are any bugs - the extended Battle of Britain map will supercede the beta. At least this way you don't have to wait too long to bring down a Spit MkI over Dover

I'm looking forward to this!

Joe

[fabianfred]

It is certainly very absorbing and rewarding, creating new maps, so i think many map-makers will be on the look-out for places to continue their new found interest.

[Gambler]

I've already started my DCG research for the first version that comes out, as far as units and equipment go...looking forward to reliving a bit of the EAW days, so to speak.

[canonuk]

It definitely is, fabianfred I feel pretty excited about this extension.

Got my height maps all sorted now

[Rammjäger]

Love the online BoB. Will this one be 1:1 scale? Because then it will look very similar to the other BoB map already in development, which is also a very good candidate for Channel front and (late war) noball missions.

[canonuk]

No, it won't be 1:1 - it's an extension of my online BoB map so uses the same scale and actors.static

[Rammjäger]

Okay, then I see the point of this map I have also just finished 'The big Show', an "online" Channel map will be more than welcome!

[I/ZG52_Gaga]

:OO

Respect!

[Guest]

looking forward to this

[canonuk]

Ok. a bit of an update

I've decided to almost start again with this. I've learnt so much from working on my BoB map that this extension is almost like a chance to re-do some of the things I didn't know or bother with before. I will be using chunks of my BoB map, but there'll be lots of re-done and new things to. FOr example, I'll be using:

- airfields and specific cities/landmarks
- height map (with extra for new area)
- Inflight map (with extra for new area)
- map_c (with extra for new area)

However, I've decided to completely re-do all the textures, as well as my approach to them. I'm heavily utilising the Romanian textures and I've also downloaded Gimp. Wish I had done so sooner since it gives so much more control over grayscale and textures than Photoshop can. I've thought really carefully about texture placement and variety and I think it's already given lots more to my map. I'll also be using Gimp to do the roads - something which caused major headaches in PS.

My plan is to use AutoPop to sparsely and generically populate my cities/towns and then copy and paste things from my BoB actors.static that I want to keep.

Anyway, some pictures to show you how it's looking. All taken from France (various locations)







Comments welcome

Joe

[Gambler]

Outstanding is all I can say... hock:

[fabianfred]

I have also started to use gimp after a long time with photoshop

Yesterday I used Adobe Acrobat Professional to create a pdf of the whole Manual.....and I'll send it to my download site

[Steve T]

I applaud your ambition and dedication!

One comment though, the Romanian fields don't look much like the south of England and northern France -- have you thought about using some custom textures? You might even try to achieve something like this from BoBII:



You could ask Stiz, the original creator of some of the above textures if he'll allow you to use them?

If not, there are other Terrains out there for BoBII by Cellinsky and Pelican72, and they might let you use their tiles as a basis for some custom textures?

Even though it's extra work, this would add so much to the Battle of Britain experience...

S!

[canonuk]

Steve,

I should have posted shots from Pas de Calais and southern England - there are fields textures up there that look lots like England and France.

The area I've taken screenshots from is higher terrain, which tends not to be overly cultivated

Joe

[CKY_86]

All the same it looks fantastic. I am really looking forward to the battle of britain online map & this new one.

Im getting a real urge to fly a 110 & attack Manston & fly a spitfire patrol over Dieppe