Raap

It's NOT a helipad as you are used to, they are purchase landing pads, with no refill capabilities. The reason I added them was to better communicate to players where aircraft land on purchase, and avoid a lot of "accidental" deaths.

Siege is looking awesome and I'm looking forward to seeing Frostburn Cove as well! I just hope those prototypes aren't too crazy or unfitting. I know where the boundaries are when it comes to pushing the fiction in various directions, do not worry. You won't suddenly see alien space ships or walkers (I'm serious, this is NOT a hint, any custom units will suit the APB Delta adaptation of the Red Alert universe).

Heh, shame it's not very snowy or festive, though!

Good to know. Pushwall is currently hard at work integrating Siege into APB Delta, which involves essentially re-checking every little detail on the map to ensure it all functions correctly. The problem with my maps is that they feature non-standard gameplay, so things can always break when moved around from one work environment to another. He's making solid progress, and I think he is getting close to completing it. I'll try to be present the 17th.

I'm not sure if Siege will be done yet by then, fingers crossed Pushwall can make that happen, but do not count on it since a patch needs to also be deployed.

Glad to do it, Raap. Good stuff. Did you find the purpose of those orbs? You probably shouldn't spoil the solution if you did...

Nope, a barrier prevents aircraft from going into places that they realistically shouldn't.

I could have pushed things quite a bit more, visually, but Siege is a very large and open map with a lot of open "background" space (also, flight enabled with underground sections, AKA the recipe for VIS disasters), so for performance concerns I opted to focus the detail on the most played regions of the map. My last map will be MUCH more compact, so I won't be forced to choose which areas get to be more detailed, I simply get to make everything Delta-level detailed. Edit: Regarding some sort of ETA for the map, Pushwall ran into a few issues that didn't exist on my end. This is presumptuously the side effect of having two different working environments, since myself and a select number of people who previewed the map, never encountered problems. I'm sure however that things will get resolved soon.

Thanks for the highlight, Fraydo.

The persistent self repair mechanic has another main purpose not really related to repairing damage; An active Construction Yard raises the TTK on all structures, excluding the Construction Yard itself. Now, I do think that the self repair functionality is not very high right now and that it could do with a bit of a change to encourage prioritizing the Construction Yard as a target. Without upsetting balance, this can happen by splitting buildings into three groups; Group one, slow auto repairs (current repair rate): Construction Yards should be the only thing in here, granting it minor slow auto repairs more for consistency purposes and general QoL. Group two, slow auto repairs (current repair rate), with 60 second delayed repair rate increase: Base defenses should not become too much harder to destroy in active combat due to balance concerns, but they are easily forgotten and a burden to repair since they are rarely close to a purchase terminal. Therefore adding a delayed repair effect to base defenses, that boosts the repair rate by ~100-200% after one minute, seems like a logical tweak to gameplay. Group three, slightly faster auto repairs (~50% more than the current repair rate): Anything that isn't a Construction Yard or base defense can be placed here. The net effect of the change would simply be a raised TTK on core buildings, that will encourage prioritizing the Construction Yard, or improved focus fire from attacking units, or C4 based destruction (which has become a bit of a rarity in Delta due to the ease of destroying buildings with conventional weapons). As for why no delayed repair rate increase here? I personally think base repairs should still be something a team has to look out for, and not forget about entirely, because otherwise poor defense attempts don't get punished enough. The above changes would change the overal APB Delta gameplay by slightly reducing the base destruction rate, and encouraging a bit more use of tactics. Maps without a Construction Yard would of course not be affected, but then that's a good thing, since the presence of a Construction Yard will actually start to be noticeable, like not having a Radar Dome... Which leaves just Power Plants out as the odd building everyone can do without, currently, but that's another topic entirely. To counterbalance these changes, the Construction Yard health pool can be lowered to match similar structures. Edit: I feel that prioritizing the CY as a target is good for APB gameplay. Currently the priority is almost always the War Factory, which then cripples the losing team and things generally snowball from there. By adding the CY as a bit of a "buffer" in between, you prolong matches slightly and give less good teams another chance at finding their feet.

Huh, how strange, it indeed worked. I'm not going to bother asking how this works, since I'm clearly too convinced it was magic. As for auto backups, those always worked for me.

I pushed for that direction when I was still with BHP. People mostly disagreed on this approach so it was never done. If I had the time, rights, and access, I would have added objectives to some of the existing maps in APB Delta, but unfortunately I got none of those things. Perhaps someone else one day picks the idea up... But for that, we need a larger playerbase. Edit: I guess with Siege released (soonish according to Pushwall), my forum title can get changed to not refer only to HostileWaters? Maybe you'll find some time? . But yeah, it will depend on the playerbase, that's right. I simply want to keep my options open, as I might explore other paths beyond APB Delta. Three maps I promised, and three I intend to deliver.

I pushed for that direction when I was still with BHP. People mostly disagreed on this approach so it was never done. If I had the time, rights, and access, I would have added objectives to some of the existing maps in APB Delta, but unfortunately I got none of those things. Perhaps someone else one day picks the idea up... But for that, we need a larger playerbase. Edit: I guess with Siege released (soonish according to Pushwall), my forum title can get changed to not refer only to HostileWaters?

FrostburnCove is still in design stages, but I can give you at least a few quick facts, because these have been finalized a while ago: At its core, the map is set in cold and snowy Russia. The map is between 25% to 33% the scale of Siege, which means the map is much more compact and with limited open space. It will most likely be the most dense map in APB Delta, and the effect of that will be limited vehicle maneuverability. Roughly 1/3rd of the map is a Soviet R&D facility where MAD Tank technology was developed, and something else... The plot of the map is simple; Something went boom, and both factions have set up their base nearby to find out what happened. You can expect prototype vehicles present in this map. At least one of these vehicles is not native to the Red Alert universe. The map will feature small bases without base defenses. Aircraft is still something I'm undecided on; My focus is on good ground gameplay and great secondary objectives, and air vehicles may not necessarily add to this in a positive way. Expect lava, including new effects for it. That is all for now. I will not be posting as many updates as I did for Siege. I plan to keep most things a bit secret.

*takes a stab in the dark* so, Volcano (with an actual volcano) plus a frozen over cove? Nope, not exactly. It's quite a unique - outlandish perhaps - environment.

I wouldn't know what to put up there, because a single image never really represents my mood or interests... Unless I feel like trolling, which is probably a side of me that the W3D community has never seen.

The map has been delivered to Pushwall. What happens with it now, is entirely up to him.

Heh, I'm not sure if it is a masterpiece by any means, but I did implement a few new aesthetic designs that I think enhance Delta's art direction. I'm signing off on the map tomorrow (AKA delivery day). I look forward to being able to play the map alongside the rest of our players.

Alright folks, this is the very final preview screenshot of the work in progress on Siege. The map is very close to being finished now. Below you see the water caustics effect along with a shoreline effect, both of which are animated effects. You also see an expanded selection of water edge ground plants (a total of 5 different textures, 8 if counting aquatic plants). Hopefully the map will see a public release relatively soon.

The map is now feature-locked. The last thing I managed to sneak in, is a new underwater caustics effect. My hope is to deliver the map to Pushwall this week. No internal testing will be required. With some luck, despite all the delays, you might still see this map playable this year (the release of Siege may coincide with hell freezing over). I need a couple of days to fix a few bugs and do the final foliage pass. VIS will be implemented at a later date as I didn't want to delay the map even longer... VIS will only arrive if demand for it exists (AKA if too many people complain about performance). Pushwall may then opt to return the map to me for VIS development, however this will delay progress on my 3rd and final APB contribution. VIS is a true horror show for a map like Siege. Truthfully, the W3D engine doesn't handle open maps like this very well, especially not with air units available and various "disconnected" underground sections. Lessons have been learned on my part, but I was stubborn and really wanted to finish this project, which dates back to my BHP days during 2006-2008.

Why final? What if you get another idea, more free time and inspiration following all of the positive feedback you are definitely going to get for your amazing maps? Don't limit yourself (in your own mind) in advance since you don't know how you'll feel after the 3rd one. Just putting it out there. Can't wait to try out Siege! 3 maps was the plan nearly a year ago when I 'resurfaced', and that's the plan I intent to stick with. I was always going to do a HostileWaters remake, a Siege finish-up (originally that was supposed to be the 3rd project), and a publicly voted map based on forum polling, which turned into a hybrid industrial themed Fjord, a map which will see several map designs merged into one. When all is done, I'll see what happens next. Plans are always subject to change or delays, as you can see right now as well. Edit: To be clear, the final map is NOT a Fjord remake, it is an entirely new map called Frostburn Cove - I'll leave that name here so people can speculate what the theme is going to be.

I will pick up work again this week and finish Siege as soon as I can. I decided that I wanted to finish my planned contributions despite recent events. Testers can expect a QA release in the first week of december (possibly sooner). I hope to begin working on my 3rd and final map contribution right after I deliver Siege, the design of this map has already been prepared a while ago, and I can promise it will be an environment not seen before in APB.

Thanks for the kind words. The funeral was today, so what's left now is mostly paperwork and such. I'll see how things are in a week, if I remain creatively burned out, I'll hand over the files to Pushwall, or anyone who might volunteer for it.

A short update for a while; Today my father died at the age of 80 (he was to turn 81 on November 30th), due to a combined effect of a weak heart and a lung infection. The last two weeks I spend going back and forth to the hospital, yesterday there were signs of improvements, but suddenly he got a lung infection on top of his condition which proved fatal, essentially killing him within a 9 hour period. I was able to be present as he drew his final breath, although he was no longer able to communicate in any way. We never got to discuss the details of his funeral, so I find myself suddenly organizing one, with very few documents to go by. For this reason I won't be able to commit to this project for a while. If I think I need more time, I'll hand the files to Pushwall as-is.

Originally I hoped to utilize the 2nd SAM Site in some way. Doesn't matter though, as I said before, it's not part of the map (especially not now when ya'll just hating on something bigger than what you have!). (Edit: I also wouldn't like the aesthetic of a SAM mounted single V2).