Project Reality Custom Map Pack

Post by **eggman** » 2006-01-06 05:42

Hey Gents,

I've been working with Requiem and Dedmon to put together a custom map pack for Project Reality.

This map pack will be distributed stand alone as well as with future versions of Project Reality. Permission from map authors will of course be obtained before we include their map in the release.

The maps will be selected from the community of mappers out there and will include AAS support and some of the server side tweaks that the community seems to like (such as removing armor from the smaller maps).

The criterion we've been working with are pretty loosely defined but are someting like:
- realistic conflict setting
- sensible CP layout in the context of AAS
- variety of terrain: urban, forest, jungle, desert, etc
- variety of play options: armor focussed, infantry focussed, air focussed, combined arms

Right now we have Strike at Karkand 2 and Wake Island 2007 running on the Gloryhoundz Test Server to validate the AAS support.

I have a list of about 10 maps I'm working with to add AAS support as well as prep them for PR play.

There's some specifics we'll need help with:
1. someone to build an installer so these map packs are dead easy to install and professional in appearance of the installer and the user experience when installing them

2. we'll need to arange for some beta testers to conduct some beta and play testing on the maps on the Gloryhoundz test server. A specific time will be arranged for a couple of "custom map testing days". Look for some kind of announcement in the near future.

3. map suggestions for this map pack or future PR map packs; hopefully we'll be doing a series of PR map packs.

Timeline
Adding AAS support is a bit tedious and time consuming. Aside from mapping out CP capture order, testing it takes quite a while. I would guess it's about 3 hours per map, tho that can vary depending on the map sizes and number of CPs. I reckon I'm about 20% of the way through the current map pack workload of getting to a "beta" stage.

My goal is to be able to release the PR map pack by end of January, beginning of February.

We'll probably give people about 2 weeks to download the maps before they start appearing on PR servers, so I estimate mid February before the inital map pack is completed.

Keep in mind this is volunteer work around a hobby (where my wife says I already have too many hobbies hehe) so that schedule may fluctuate.

Thanks!
eggman

Post by **requiem** » 2006-01-06 06:04

You beat me to it! This is confirmed, and I like to thank Eggman & Dedmon for helping out with this. Great work thus far!

Post by **Rhino** » 2006-01-06 06:05

how manny maps are we talking here?

EDIT: and will these maps be inlcuded in 0.3 as a chunck of the mod so ppl down have to download and install them?

Noetheinner · Post by **Noetheinner** » 2006-01-06 07:30

WOOT! I talked to Dedmon when he was making one of the maps..... sounds like they'er gonna ROCK!

oh and I'll test the hell outta new maps

Gaz · Post by **Gaz** » 2006-01-06 09:57

Sounds fantastic

Post by **Wolfmaster** » 2006-01-06 10:42

Fantastic, more fun to fill my pc!

da.SPAWN · Post by **da.SPAWN** » 2006-01-06 11:20

[quote=""eggman"]Hey Gents,
1. someone to build an installer so these map packs are dead easy to install and professional in appearance of the installer and the user experience when installing them
[/quote]

i would realy like to have a simple .zip file only and nothing more. keep it simple, works best

eggman wrote:Hey Gents,
3. map suggestions for this map pack or future PR map packs; hopefully we'll be doing a series of PR map packs.

same as in "Blaging maps for use in PR"

da.SPAWN wrote:i would suggest that you go and ask "would you like to design a map for PR". the key is that the guy will get full credit for his map (and he knows this). by asking "can we edit", i as map creater would not so sure if so. if you get "the stone to roll", maybe a few guys will permanent design maps for PR or at last get out a PR compatible version of their maps.

Strike at Karkand 2

Checkpoint Abadan

Operation Power Failure

Maszarqi Siege
This Map needs a refinish, in its current state it is a resource hog and a few objects are much to bright.
But if theese bugs are out it could be one of my favorites

Post by **Evilhomer** » 2006-01-06 11:23

No, I disagree, PRMM excells in it's professional way towards achieving it's goals, by going all out and creating an installer, its just an extra mile that adds to the Realitymod image.

Eden · Post by **Eden** » 2006-01-06 11:25

I could probably create an installer with NSIS mind you it probably would only be a simple thing i havent used NSIS much.

Post by **Rhino** » 2006-01-06 15:39

a installer makes it easy for every 1. You dont understand how much time somone can spend gettign confused or somone trying to help out a guy put it in the right place

also will these maps be included in 0.3 as part of the bulk installation if they are a sucess?

Post by **UK_Force** » 2006-01-06 16:56

'[R-DEV wrote:Evilhomer']No, I disagree, PRMM excells in it's professional way towards achieving it's goals, by going all out and creating an installer, its just an extra mile that adds to the Realitymod image.

Agreed !!!

Post by **eggman** » 2006-01-06 18:53

Hey Gents,

Thanks for the feedback thus far!

da.Spawn
We'll hopefully be creating an installer. IMO this should be branded like PRMM installers and should be well testetd so that yer average Bob can get it installed without having to think much.

All 4 of the maps on your suggested list are on the list. Great minds think alike

Eden
We could really use some help in creating the installer. I don't have time to learn that. And am probably too stupid.

The installer should meet the following requirements:
- match the PRMM installer "branding"
- autodetect the appropriate BF2 install location and install to that location on the customer's PC
- also install a "prmp1_cpnames.utxt" file to the appropriate location (which is "\mods\PRMM_02\Localization\English"). This file will make the funky CP names for custom maps appear more normal.
- include a link to the "prmp1_readme.txt" and also install that file to the \mods\PRMM_02\ folder.

(note if anybody has questions / concerns / suggestions for the installer please add them into this thread).

Rhino
That's really not my call, up to the PR team. Requiem and I did discuss that. For sure it will be available stand alone and will be an obvious link from the PR website where the mod is available for download.

My concern about bundling them together is that the download size can get very large. Let's say we get 2 or 3 map packs... at 150MB each, we could end up with half a gig of maps to download on top of PR itself.

On the flip side, people may install the mod and not bother with the map pack, the get booted off servers and have a bad experience with the mod.

I think the most reasonable thing to do would be to:
- offer the map pack stand alone
- bundle the first map pack with 0.3 when that comes out
- offer a 0.3 installer that does NOT include the map pack for those who already got it
- see what happens for future map pack releases and PR releases

... just a thought.

Thanks again for the great feedback!
egg

Post by **JavaMoose** » 2006-01-06 19:02

Has anyone played around with InnoSetup and IsTool? I have seen (and chances are, so have you!) some slick installers done with these tools.

It is very easy to get up and running, and they look like any other 'professional' install package. Plus, they have a ton of features. Worth a look if you hadn't seen it...

Eden · Post by **Eden** » 2006-01-06 19:22

eggman wrote: Eden
We could really use some help in creating the installer. I don't have time to learn that. And am probably too stupid.

The installer should meet the following requirements:
- match the PRMM installer "branding"
- autodetect the appropriate BF2 install location and install to that location on the customer's PC
- also install a "prmp1_cpnames.utxt" file to the appropriate location (which is "\mods\PRMM_02\Localization\English"). This file will make the funky CP names for custom maps appear more normal.
- include a link to the "prmp1_readme.txt" and also install that file to the \mods\PRMM_02\ folder.

(note if anybody has questions / concerns / suggestions for the installer please add them into this thread).

-Do you have a screenshot of the RPMM installer, I cant remember where I put mine (or if ive deleted it) and I dont want to redownload it.

That way I can make it look as similar as posable.

-I can set it up to install in the default BF2 directory, I'm not sure how I would go about making it auto detect the BF2 directory.

-That shouldnt be a problem.
- same, shouldnt be a problem.

JavaMoose wrote:Has anyone played around with InnoSetup and IsTool? I have seen (and chances are, so have you!) some slick installers done with these tools.

It is very easy to get up and running, and they look like any other 'professional' install package. Plus, they have a ton of features. Worth a look if you hadn't seen it...

I've heard of Inno Setup, the main reason I use NSIS is because its used by a lot of major software developers you can take a look here for more info on it http://nsis.sourceforge.net/Users

EDIT:

BTW, add me to MSN/AIM/YIM it will be a lot easyer to sort out the installer.

also is there any need for any licence text? GNU, Creative Commons, etc.

dawdler · Post by **dawdler** » 2006-01-06 20:19

eggman wrote:My concern about bundling them together is that the download size can get very large. Let's say we get 2 or 3 map packs... at 150MB each, we could end up with half a gig of maps to download on top of PR itself.

As long as they are seperate I dont think there is a problem. One thing everyone hate to see (except those with really fat pipes) is a 1.5-2gb install file.

Simply make a better download page on this site (which btw need to have the hotfix added). Make it very clear that you need:
The mod
Patches (if any)
Mappacks (if any)
And then list what the latest "full" version of PR is and what you should have. And of course, it would be nice if there also was a full install consisting of the latest version and all the mappacks.

Eden · Post by **Eden** » 2006-01-06 21:57

OK, ive made an installer which just now includes Strike at Karkand 2. It installs fine so im just going to make sure the map works, if everything works then all I need to do is add the rest of the maps to the installer when there finished.

(along with a few cosmetic changes)

I need the following.

an image to replace the one on the left of the installer.
164x314

A header to replace the one above (that fades to transparent)
150x57

And an icon for the installer.

It would be great if we could use the same uses used for the PRMM 0.2 installer.

Post by **eggman** » 2006-01-06 22:04

That's AWESOME!!!

I really think the assets should come from the PR team so we've got "brand integrity".

I can send you a localisations file so you can test the installation of that. Right now it's only got Strike at Karkand 2 16 player in it, but the test will determine whether the installer is putting it in the right place. I'll send you a PM about this.

Given your OUTSTANDING progress on it, I would suggest that when we are arranging a PR Map Pack beta test that we also test the installer (meaning we'll package up the maps with the installer and distribute them that way).

I am hoping that we could do some kinda test day within a couple of weeks.

GREAT work!!!

egg

Eden · Post by **Eden** » 2006-01-06 22:13

thanks, the only major problem (its not really bad) is you can deselect what you dont want to install, I cant remember how to just install all of it but im looking into fixing that.