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Re:The lay of the land

Posted: Fri Oct 17, 2008 12:20 pm
by estabu2
That's awesome PC!!

Re:The lay of the land

Posted: Fri Oct 17, 2008 1:49 pm
by JC Edwards
Phantom Captain wrote:
:laugh: :) :laugh: :) :laugh:

Thanks Norb!

Example:

Surface area of X pond times depth equals X gallons of water. Rainfall in inches overnight across a surface area of X feet increases overall volume of pond less 12,852 canteens filled on average to .75 of their volume over a period of 8 hours the following morning equals, etc. etc. etc...

:blink: :P ;)
The Whisky!!! You cannot forget the "fine appropriated Pennsylvania whisky"!!:woohoo:

Re:The lay of the land

Posted: Fri Oct 17, 2008 2:08 pm
by estabu2
JC Edwards wrote:
Phantom Captain wrote:
:laugh: :) :laugh: :) :laugh:

Thanks Norb!

Example:

Surface area of X pond times depth equals X gallons of water. Rainfall in inches overnight across a surface area of X feet increases overall volume of pond less 12,852 canteens filled on average to .75 of their volume over a period of 8 hours the following morning equals, etc. etc. etc...

:blink: :P ;)
The Whisky!!! You cannot forget the "fine appropriated Pennsylvania whisky"!!:woohoo:
More whiskey, did someone put JC in charge of requisitions???:P

Re:The lay of the land

Posted: Fri Oct 17, 2008 2:22 pm
by JC Edwards
X amount of gallons, divided by X amount of flasks (NO CANTEENS DAMMIT!!.....well, with the acception of your's truly :) ) divided by how many of your comrades you share a snort with = a mad rowdy bunch looking for a fight :evil: or........just a mad bunch lookin' for more!!!:woohoo:

Re:The lay of the land

Posted: Fri Oct 17, 2008 4:43 pm
by louie raider
Amish John wrote:
Hopefuly people will remember this is a game and not someone's doctoral thesis on Gettysburg topography and mid 19th century agricultural patterns. From the responses I've seen from the team when we've talked about the map, they seem really dedicated to giving us the best possible representation of the field on which to command our troops.

Oh, and here's a link to a copy of the Warren map for those of you who want to start measuring those fencepost locations.

http://www.simmonsgames.com/tools/mapvi ... Frame.html
Without giving away the location of the game, i will say that your link reveals a map that, had i been tasked to create Gettysburg, is very well-known to me, and i would be using this map in conjunction with Gottfried's excellent book on the maps of Gettysburg, as well as Frassanito's volumes of photographic history at Gettysburg. i think i would have had enough information at my disposal, had Gettysburg been chosen as the battlefield.

i only offer this information because i was on my way to release my own version of Gettysburg for TC2M early this year, before i signed on to NSD and had to drop it because of time constraints, therefore i'm well aware of the map.

however, it should be noted that you can take any 2 sources of information about the same battle and you'll invariably get discrepancies between them as far as fence placement, roads, etc. My job as the Map Artist is to provide a 'happy medium' and to create the best-looking map, with the most accuracy possible, with the least amount of detail acceptable to maximize gameplay. A beautiful map can have every haystack and barrel in place, but if your gameplay slows to a crawl, what's the point?

I try to keep in mind that my solution will not be perfectly accurate, but i also take comfort in the calculated risk that there's not going to be many people out here who can remember what the actual battlefield looked like. :P

Re:The lay of the land

Posted: Fri Oct 17, 2008 4:58 pm
by estabu2
I think in gaming it is always gameplay/playability comes before realism.
(bad gameplay = bad sales)

Re:The lay of the land

Posted: Fri Oct 17, 2008 11:49 pm
by Amish John
You're right, Louie, about different sources showing differnt information. I have a good friend who is one of the NPS historians at Gettysburg. He has mentioned to me that his fellow historians are constantly reviewing and revising their interpration of how various areas of the field looked at the time of the battle. Unless someone invents a time machine, no one will ever know for sure, except for those areas that were photographed shortly after the battle.

Once we have a Confederate brigade bearing down on our flank, there won't be much time for measuring fences, regardless of which battlefield NSD releases.

All this talk of minute details is probably stressing you out. You ought to relax by sitting back and posting some more screen shots.

Re:The lay of the land

Posted: Sat Oct 18, 2008 1:18 am
by louie raider
Amish John wrote:
All this talk of minute details is probably stressing you out. You ought to relax by sitting back and posting some more screen shots.
God is in the details... i have no problem with them where it concerns maps; you learn to train your eye to where something should be added or left alone -- there's only so much you can take in visually while getting your orders to deploy troops, nicht?

as far as screenshots, i leave that in the capable hands of my cohort, Bedbug; he has another map ready to show when he can get to it.

Re:The lay of the land

Posted: Sat Oct 18, 2008 5:30 pm
by bedbug
I got a c**p load of screenshots of maps 1, 2 and 3 but am having trouble getting them up. The image settup for this #$@%^&*%#$%^ aint workin for me.

play with this for a while: http://www.norbsoftware.com/Portal/medi ... 8_copy.jpg[/img_size]

Re:The lay of the land

Posted: Sat Oct 18, 2008 6:17 pm
by Amish John
Wow, that sky looks great. Is that corn or some other crop? Can't quite make it out since the pic is low res.

Have we only previewed screen shots from map 1 so far?

Quick! Someone help him figure out how to post those screen shots!