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Your Soviet map is very nice, and those Arctic trees give the map a very different effect to what it usually has. Interesting. You realise that there's already Soviet flat tiles in the game that could be used for that building (though they don't have those nice balconies you have)?

As I've mentioned elsewhere on the forums, we're going to be releasing some new maps for community testing and feedback this week. You should have a play with those when they arrive. If you have improvements or ideas for the maps that I think work well I can always have Aaron generate official equivalents of your tiles for us to use.

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Also, yes, that jungle screenshot looks lovely. I'm sorta tempted but we've already got enough to do to get Xenonauts finished without adding more entirely new tilesets to the game...

Will it be possible to mod stuff like this into the final game as an end user with a little technical knowledge and artistic ability?

If not then at least rape our wallets with some future DLC :)

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If that's a general question to everyone,

I would happily pay 8-10$ for a new tileset with similiar number of submaps that we have now.

If new level maps were released by themselves without new submaps, even in large volume, I would not be willing to pay for that.

If new submaps were released by in large volumes with supporting level maps but not new tilesets, I would be willing to pay. I would expect to get 15-20 submaps with supporting level maps for around 10$.

If a new tileset were released without submaps, I would expect that in a patch.

I'd prefer to have a first pay content add new tilesets. After 3-5 new tilesets, I'd like to see expansions to current submaps/levels.

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silly chris... there are no trees in the arctic :P

pine trees grows in temperate climate zones

I'm not too much botanic person, and may be for actual arctic it's true, but Ingame "arctic" is whole alaska and finland (and lot of siberia) there enough trees and pines(or something conifer), I assure you.

thumb.png

4819417-646216-winter-forest-with-frosty-trees-aerial-view-kuopio-finland.jpg

Will it be possible to mod stuff like this into the final game as an end user with a little technical knowledge and artistic ability?

So far as Chris always wanted modability I didn't see why something can dramatically change in release, may be will need to somehow pack files

Edited by zzz1010
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I'm not too much botanic person, but Ingame arctic is whole alaska and finland (and lot of siberia) there enough trees and pines(or something conifer), I assure you.

thumb.png

I live in Sweden (just west of Finland, north Sweden shares the same climate) and I assure you that while part of the country is inside the polar circle the country does not have polarbears walking the streets (despite the rumors :P). Nor does it have arctic climate.

The Arctic region consists of a vast, ice-covered ocean, surrounded by treeless permafrost.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arctic_climate

478px-Arctic_big.svg.png

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Climate_zone

According to Mr Wladimir Köppen the listed areas Alaska, Siberia and Sweden are "continential/microthremal" climates. (subarctic to be precise) but not really Tundra or Polar climates which are the climates I associate with "arctic".

(serching wikipedia for pine trees says they grow in temperate climates)

A bit nitpicky I know. It dosn't really matter, and I wasn't really trying to correct Chris. I was trying to joke about there being no trees on the northpole (unless you belive in Santa and that he has Christmas trees all over his workshop) but it came out a bit poorly and confusing.

PS. I want trees in the cold regions that is ingame defined as "arctic". This is in no way an attempt to talk anyone out of trees in the "arctic" tileset.

Edited by Gorlom
my keyboard is on the fritz
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I live in Sweden
Didn't noticed this.

I just look on things from "game side", and badly understand jokes maybe

Well, I think we figured out

I was trying to joke about there being no trees on the northpole

But there no northpole in game. No any poles

Edited by zzz1010
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Didn't noticed this.

I just look on things from "game side", and badly understand jokes maybe

Well, I think we figured out

No, I think that was all on me. infact reading back it was very hard to understand what I was trying to do and overall I probably have a more nitpicky attitude rather than jovial.

But there no northpole in game.

sssh!

There is, but just like the Philipines and Tazmania and a series of other islands it has been kidnapped by the aliens. The last fight is to save Santa. He and his magic/advanced technology is the biggest threat to the aliens so they got rid of him first. But after recruiting him to the Xenonauts cause we will finally be able to fight off those pesky alien invaderss for good.

Edited by Gorlom
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If you were to get a Map DLC, would you prefer lots of variations around either a central theme (military bases) or area (Deserts of the Middle East) or would a steady stream of releases adding a little variation to each be best ?

Forgive me for not knowing the technical terms you guys use here (submaps, tilesets etc), I haven't done my homework on it yet. As long as the look and tactical layout of the maps changed enough, I'd certainly be willing to throw my money at DLC.

If given the choice between a reskin and more map layout variation, I'd have to go for the variation as that is what truly adds replayability for me.

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Forgive me for not knowing the technical terms you guys use here (submaps, tilesets etc), I haven't done my homework on it yet. As long as the look and tactical layout of the maps changed enough, I'd certainly be willing to throw my money at DLC.

If given the choice between a reskin and more map layout variation, I'd have to go for the variation as that is what truly adds replayability for me.

Tileset is the theme of the map. Arctic, Desert, Industial, Alien Base, etc.

Level map is the layout of what is placed where on the map (where the chinook goes,where the UFO goes, where the roads are placed, where the 10x5 whateverbuilding goes and where tat open area goes.

Sub map is the elements of the level map. The Chinook, the UFO, the barn, the field, the road, the hedgemaze, the office building.

submaps are somewhat interchangable on a levelmap. meaning that any barn of a number of barns can show up where you placed the "barn here" spot on the levelmap.

Edited by Gorlom
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Forgive me for not knowing the technical terms you guys use here (submaps, tilesets etc)

Tileset - it's set of themed lego pieces (dinosaurs or factories)

Submap - it's something constructed from it (different separate dinosaurs or factories or what you construct from this sets)

more submaps is means you will meet more different dinosaurs or factories on maps ingame

Map - is themed composition of dinosaurs or factories

more maps is mean you meet dinosaurs more differently placed(and there also can be some randomisation)

slap together a decent level map without roads or other alignment squares (fences,hedges) in 30 minutes.

Probably 30 seconds

Edited by zzz1010
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Submaps take the longest to make, you have to manually place individual tiles like walls, doors, windows, barrels, grass etc.

You can slap together a decent level map without roads or other alignment squares (fences,hedges) in 30 minutes. You can probably do the alignment stuff just as fast if you know what you are about.

The reskin is what the tilesets are. That's really what would be the most content. Level variation is something the community could do in the bazillions. I'm sure some nifty modder is going to write a quick proggie for replacing spectres in batches so you can swap submaps between tilesets quickly.

Edited by xcorps
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If that's a general question to everyone, I would happily pay 8-10$ for a new tileset with similiar number of submaps that we have now.

That's probably true of diehard fans (and that's most people here), but an average customer would be alienated by that. Lessons should be taken from Bethesda's (who started this whole DLC craze) failures with early MW plugins and horse armor.

For an indie release like Xeno, $10 would be expansion pack pricing.

In one, you would expect, for instance in a "Tropical Pack":

* New major alien race [previously mentioned in game lore!] or 2-3 minor species [like Celatid]

* 2 new tilesets - Jungle, Coastal [can share some tiles]

* Full sets of submaps and maps for these tilesets, hawaii shirt civilians for coastal

* 1-4 new weapons for jungles - Battle Rifle [has HV tag], incendiary grenade/rocket, smth. researchable

* New alien mission type, interrogation info, etc, to extend the game's length a little

* Game-wide extras that can be a new UFO type, new faces, other new items, etc.

That looks like a lot, but it needs to feel like keeping up with original value/price ratio, else you'll have displeased players who don't feel the DLC is worth buying but don't like that their game is now less than complete.

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Thanks for the info on the mapping terminology guys :)

I think HWP hit the nail on the head above with what any well priced DLC should contain. I would still much rather it be openly moddable though as that gives a well grounded game infinite longevity.

I've stopped playing xcom:eu because I know the maps like my own backyard. Not knowing for sure where the spawns will be doesn't change the fact that the cover spots around the deployment zone are always identical.

The more maps, submaps and (IMO less importantly) tilesets we can get in xenonauts - the better.

How does everyone else feel? Do you want map variation from a tactical or purely aesthetic standpoint?

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I'm not too much botanic person, and may be for actual arctic it's true, but Ingame "arctic" is whole alaska and finland (and lot of siberia) there enough trees and pines(or something conifer), I assure you.

http://rghost.ru/41420137.view

http://www.colourbox.com/preview/4819417-646216-winter-forest-with-frosty-trees-aerial-view-kuopio-finland.jpg

So far as Chris always wanted modability I didn't see why something can dramatically change in release, may be will need to somehow pack files

I know. I know. I know. Look at me. I know the answer to this one. This region (forested North) is known as Tiaga (originally a russian name for forest, I think) or Boreal Forest. It is the largest biome in the world, stretching across Alaska, most of Canada, Scandinavia and northern Russia. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taiga

taiga_location_map001.gif

So I guess we could easily mod it in as an extra region - so we'd get Arctic in the Arctic and Boreal Forest in the Boreal region. Well I say it is easy, but I am basing this on the earlier post by zzz. zzz1010, assuming you are the same person who made the original post (zzz), have I understood correctly that there is just a jpeg map, that links location to tileset, or is it something in the xml?

taiga_location_map001.gif

taiga_location_map001.gif

taiga_location_map001.gif.efcd4a2ac68c85

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I think it would be cool if the regions could be divided into subregions that use the same tileset but from the tileset different maps, so that the northern arctic region would have only snow and ice plains, but southern arctic region would use boreal (taiga) forests and snow.

It would also make it possible for the city maps to have special buildings that are only used on certain parts of the town region. For example: towns in asia could have a buddhist temples and european towns gothic churches and north america... well maybe quick food restaurants. :)

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So I guess we could easily mod it in as an extra region - so we'd get Arctic in the Arctic and Boreal Forest in the Boreal region. Well I say it is easy, but I am basing this on the earlier post by zzz. zzz1010, assuming you are the same person who made the original post (zzz), have I understood correctly that there is just a jpeg map,

Yes, I'm same person who forgot his password and use temporary email for registrations It easy to edit where what tilset is on color map, Yes it's just picture and masks, but I didn't see how we can add new "colors" tilsets there, I think they are hardcoded.

originally a russian name for forest, I think

No, this is exactly this conifer siberian forests, not just a forest

Edited by zzz1010
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without a 3dimensional globe (neccesary for north and south pole. I assume) the arctic would be restricted to Iceland, Greenland, part of Canada and the northern shore of Siberia. I think it would be too small an area and unlikely to ever get any UFO shot down in it :P

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Small addition

thumb.png

It's nothing special and there no any additional content( but if you have Raakku's river map instaled - there sometimes will be some of his tiny trees)

It's two small(50x50, if it's something say for you) farm maps for early scout and lightscout battles. It didn't have special layout but can be every time slightly different. Just if you want to vary early farm battles.

http://rghost.ru/41523427

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