Something that may be a nice effect ... not quite sure how to achieve it, probably with some very talented 3d skybox work.

But, you can attach the world (nowhere the player can get to ... and not the water) to a simple rotating entity, that way it'd appear the boat is drifting off. It shouldn't be that demanding. The only reason I suggest moving everything except the boat is that the boat would probably get buggy with player interaction. I think, it may give an interesting effect if done properly.

But, it is just a suggestion.

Even something else like a lower bridge somewhere that draws up when the boat gets near would be cool. You could even have three or so rotating entities and have after so often rotations the parent changes to the boat appears to be traveling in an almost random path. It could be really cool.

Something else that'd be nice is if you put water in a 3d skybox around the map, put in some fog the farther "out" you can see.

Anyway ... that's probably some difficult stuff.

[EDIT]

Ha! Maybe I should have read the map description first. Sorry.

I guess the only other thing I could suggest is have a linear moving object somewhere in the map, nodraw'd of course, and parent the moving parent of the skyboxs, to give a slight "up and down" wavey effect.

I guess the 'foamy stuff' would be a waste of time anyway. You can't be able to see it if you are always on the boat, can you? I'm assuming the boat is the only area players can go?

Creating new water requerires much more artistic sense than I can
afford. Anyway, using valve's method we can't get much further I think,
it's a simple tiled texture. Enough for a pond, but really short for a
sea with brave water. Pirates of S.XXI will be a game with incredible
water, by the way.

one thing does looks a bit odd though, the water, sea water usualy has foamy stuff where waves break etc. , maybe you could try to invest in a new water texture and try to make waves 'break' at certain points.

The mountains are realistic yes, in fact they are taken from Washinton
state using real digital elevation data, so no surprise there. I did a
lot of research mysefl to get there, but once you know how is very easy.

It consist in processing a half million triangles model (cutting all
things that you don't need), then convert it to 5000 triangles, and
finally make a normal map comparing between the two models. I'm using a
1024x1024 texture, imagine what level of detail you can get using x2 or
x3 amount triangles and 2048 texture. I want to try that in another
map, one that isn't so big and open.

I wrote a tutorial for all the community here (in second page I explain that):

http://interlopers.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=4597

About the ship, don't want to make a clean ship, and in fact now isn't
very clean I think. Accommodation zone could fit with a lot of pictures
I saw (except isn't so narrow like real ships), other areas won't be so
clean of course. It depends on ship's age also, a 20 years old ship
doesn't look the same that another younger. My main preocupation is
giving it coherence, so one zone doesn't like a 40 years old ship, and
another looks like just made.

The map looks real nice. Particularly the skybox.

The one critisism I have is this: the boat is so bloody clean! You need some dirtied up textures, and the first screenshot is just... empty. There's nothing in there.

Once it's been dirtied up, and filled up a bit, you've got one hell of a good looking map.

That skybox is really realistic! A lot like Valve's ones :biggrin:
Also that boat is perfect almost :smile:

I love the idea. It reminds me of the part in FarCry :smile:

And definitely add some decals for some gritty look.

You can't see those details because they aren't made yet. I appreciate all criticism, but plz, don't ignore what I wrote:

I'm working on
basic brushwork. My aim is to complete all areas in a simple form, test
playability all I can and then complete with all details possible
without compromissing performance

Indeed, promising is the word. However, that first shot seems awfully bland. It just seems too.. finished. It looks more like a hotel than container ship! I don't see any water-tight compartment doors, exposed steel decking, pipes and wires... you get the idea.