[SUGGESTIONG/QUESTION] Xcom Intro city mod

[Ryskeliini]

Since terror missions takes place at the cities, is it possible to have ACTUALLY have city like sprites/landscape. Everyone who has fought in new york seems like faraway downtown land. Questíon (since i dont know nothing about map making) how limited you are to have sprites in one sheet? or are they limitless,like you can have 100+ sprites in one sheet to build a city? just asking before i continue do anything, and notice afterwards that it was all just waste.

second question. is it possible to have "regional" cities to be diffrend counties... like china being chinese architecture, euro be europian archtecture etc etc...

iv just been thinking that theres loads and loads of weapons,ships,armor mods, balancing, new ufos,but no really anykind of "newish" terrain mods.. new aliens would be awesome too :>

sorry for confusing text, beer is overtaking me. Have a quick scetch image to distract you!

[robin]

i love it!

1) for new terrains, there are Hobbes' mods, Terrain Pack (discontinued?) and UFO Redux, you cold look into them to see what can be done.

1b) what you should worry about is the limit of total MCDs for the MCD library of a map (in MapView), which is limited to around 250 (actually it's a bunch more, but yeah).
after those 250~ish MCDs, there can only be "destroyed versions" of the tiles, and you can't place them on map. see attachment (courtesy of XOps).
sort of confusing i know, my advice is simply to not have more than 250 total MCDs.
sprites aren't really limited, since a single MCD can use up to 8 sprites (if animated), so theoretically you could have 250 * 8 sprites.
the best thing is to just pick an already-finished terrain, and work on it. Hobbes' mods have some neat urban terrain that might be useful.

2) i think that regional cities should be doable. not 100% sure though.

[Dioxine]

As for the sprites, you're limited to circa 60kB per file, but you can have multiple files.

Regional cities - yeah, doable, easily. IF you have the maps

[davide]

I like the concept building image too

[davide]

Hobbes' mods have some neat urban terrain that might be useful.

Yep but we are waiting from long time your very special building such as the temple ....
 

[hellrazor]

Uhhh we can easily have other Version of the MCD files, for example the normal urban tileset.
Actually UFO Redux already has 2 Versions in it, the normal ones and a Snow variant.
I think that this concept could easily be expanded.

Also it is totally possible, to give only 1 city a specific geoscape texture, which others do not have.

[Solarius Scorch]

I've always wanted a downtown terror terrain with very high buildings.

Since we have so much computing power, it can happen now!

[hellrazor]

I've always wanted a downtown terror terrain with very high buildings.

Since we have so much computing power, it can happen now!

hm.. we could increase the 4 level building from the expanded Terror Mod to say 8 levels, would that be high enough for you?
Or based on the same concept i could make a 30x30 Map module, with 8 level gigantic skyscrapper

The only thing we would then miss are brainsuckers ^^

[davide]

... i could make a 30x30 Map module, with 8 level gigantic skyscrapper

The only thing we would then miss is ...

... the tileset extension ... 
a "simple" new MCD with tiles showed in the concept image 

... any volunteers ?

[Solarius Scorch]

hm.. we could increase the 4 level building from the expanded Terror Mod to say 8 levels, would that be high enough for you?

Oh please, I meant 15 levels at minimum!

... the tileset extension ... 
a "simple" new MCD with tiles showed in the concept image 

... any volunteers ?

I'm sure it's not a lot of work, at least the walls themselves. Perhaps taking any city theme (like Urban or Port or Dawn City) and changing only the tileset with walls would be enough?

[Hobbes]

Since terror missions takes place at the cities, is it possible to have ACTUALLY have city like sprites/landscape. Everyone who has fought in new york seems like faraway downtown land. Questíon (since i dont know nothing about map making) how limited you are to have sprites in one sheet? or are they limitless,like you can have 100+ sprites in one sheet to build a city? just asking before i continue do anything, and notice afterwards that it was all just waste.

Possible to generate Battlescapes with 8, 12, 16 levels? I wouldn't do them myself though but sure.

second question. is it possible to have "regional" cities to be diffrend counties... like china being chinese architecture, euro be europian archtecture etc etc...

Yes.

[hellrazor]

Possible to generate Battlescapes with 8, 12, 16 levels? I wouldn't do them myself though but sure.

I already use mapheight 8 in my Hardmode Expansion Mod. Its ok.

And if you make a Map with one building lets say 40x40x16 that should also be okish, as long as this map is totally alone.

[davide]

This is the idea

[hellrazor]

This is the idea

hm.. if you put these into proper spritesheet we actually could use them

[robin]

just a quick note Ryskeliini

the brighter side (of walls and other square objects, such as crates) should be the one facing south, while the one facing west is the darker (so the opposite of what you did your sketch).
both the original games are like that (my new terrains too).

obviously it is not required or anything; i'm just informing you in case you haven't noticed.