Well Gorbachev, with this map I'm going to attempt a more playable layout while at the same time keeping as true to the actual location and historical data as possible.

Here is a rough layout of the map I knocked up. It's still under work of course, but yuo get the basic idea of layout etc.

red boxes are houses/barn, circles with crosses are main guns, circles are mg pits, lines connecting are trenches.

There are two spawns for the germans, first spawning in the barn, closer to the first main guns, but when they are destroyed they start to spawn at the manor. The hedge/gap in the middle was added by me as a vis blocker, and the laneway and barn at the bottom were also added by me for connectivity and the spawn system. Apart from those it's fairly accurate. There should be enough connectivity to allow for variety in play (which is what pegasus lacked), yet it sticks to most of the historical fact.

These shots show the lay of the land a bit better. I think the problem with many DOD maps is that often it is too easy for an MG to control the map. I've played online where it was literaly impossible to move forward due to the other team placing a number of MG's around the place. There's nothing wrong with that of course, but it can get a bit tedious and annoying.

The ground is fairly open in the map, allowing for good fields of fire for MG's. The distance factor also makes it somewhat better for MG's, who aren't on the firing line as much. As the new screens show however, it isn't biased towards them. There are tenches for safe movement, and plenty of mortar craters for cover when moving over open ground. The distance also works against the MG's, as they are less accurate over distance. Over all the effect should be that the MG's can cover the map with a fair amount of accuracy, but not enough so they dominate the map.

The cfg file will also limit the player classes to even it out further, with no snipers allowed on either team. The axis will have 4 MG's, compared to the allies 2. The axis will have no heavy assault and a limited number of unterofficers, where as the allies will have a limited number of heavy assault.

This Pic illustrates the use of craters for gaps in hedge rows, allowing for some cover when running through.

Well at the moment the R's are about 1200 w_poly, which is a touch high by some standards, but well below the 1500 limit I set for myself.

As this is a DOD map you'll find many maps that are around that mark, some official maps get to about 2000 w_poly in some places.

So far my vis blocking in the hedges seems to be working, so hopefully it shouldn't get too much higher than what it is already.

Maybe DoD is designed to have a higher W_poly limit? (is it?)

? posted by Agent Smith

Most PC's seem to be able to handle 1500 w_poly nowadays, in DOD at least, I know mine can without a hitch, and its only midrange. I think the thing with DOD is that it requires a higher level of detail and realism, as its portraying real events. People are willing to suffer a tiny amount of lag or lower than perfect frame rates to experience something thats as real and as involving as possible. Unfortunately WW2 didn't take place in concrete corridors.

don't get me wrong here, i feel that realism is paramount if the theme requires it, BUT if the engine cannot cope, then you postpone the map till you find one that can.

saying a pc can handle 1500 so offhandedly is very... it goes against all my principals of proper mapping techniques.. PC's cannot handle them any more now, than last year, nor the year before.. What has changed is people.. People have so little to chose from that they have dropped their standards to a level that accommodates 1500+

the only constant throughout these 5 years is... the HL engine. PC's grew, people altered their outlook but the engine is exactly the same.

*flog,flog,flog*

hear it.. we're doing it again.. *sighs*

play your mod, you have little choice ATM.. you do however have my complete sympathy.