Temple of the Tain © 1998 Remus Shepherd.

-Map design and artistry, Remus Shepherd.
-Unit Design, Remus Shepherd.
-Grunt Work, Implementation, and general Miracle Worker, Loshadh. ;)

Greetings all! This map features the following:

-Completely new height map.
-Completely new passabilities.
-A reasonable balance of unit types.
-One completely new unit, the Dwarven Journeyman!
-5 game possibilities (BC, Bacon, LMOTH, Terries, and Flag Rally).


Instructions:

If you're reading this, then you have successfully extracted the archive (whee!). 

Comments/etc can be directed to Loshadh (if you have his email address), or to Remus
Shepherd (remus@netcom.com).


Notes about the map:

The geometry of this map is quite interesting, forcing players to rethink some of their
normal "let's just walk in this direction" methods of engagement.  Position can mean the
difference between a win and utter annihilation.  Lack of height can kill.

Spiders love this map. :)

Dwarven Journeymen (gotta love their names and flavor text!) are very interesting units.
They have the throwing abilities of a dwarven hero (or thereabouts), the toughness of a
normal dwarf (or thereabouts), and no satchel charges.  Instead of those lovely satchels of
explosives, each D.J. carries with him four healing bottles, which he can throw at targets
(units, the ground, or whatever).  When a healing bottle strikes (and goes off... sometimes 
they don't), units within a radius around the bottle are healed, just as if a journeyman had
walked up to them.  Do not send your Myrmidons charging towards a Dwarven Journeyman;
the D.J. will almost certainly win unless you have an incredible numerical advantage.

And, because I was asked -so- many times during playtesting...

The red stuff on the ground is not lava.  It is not a pool of blood.  It is a bloody stain.
In other words, it ain't supposed to behave like water! ;)



Version History:

v0.1 - Basic map design.  Mesh heights implemented.  No passabilities set.
v0.2 - Map graphics pretty much finalized and implemented.
v0.3 - Passabilities implemented.  Gradient implemented (sorta).
v0.4 - Dwarven Journeyman implemented
v0.5 - Playtesting commences on small scale, games selected, units and objects placed
        on map.
v0.6 - Changes to unit balance, removal of Ghols, inclusion of Warriors instead.
v0.7 - Unit mods complete, pregame and overhead map implemented.  Map released for
        wider playtesting.
v0.8 - Removed the water mask.  Now explosions and "move to" circles appear everywhere
        on the map.
v1.0 - Minor unit tweak.


Things we know about:

-The gradients are still a bit screwy.  Sometimes objects bounce in strange directions...blame it on the weird properties within the Tain (at least, until it gets fixed). ;)


How we did it:

Maps were created by Remus Shepherd using Adobe Photoshop and GraphicConverter on a PowerMac 8500/180 with128 megs of RAM.  The Dwarven Journeyman was created by 
Remus on his home PC (Pentium 200, 32 megs of RAM) using plain-ol' hex editing.  The mesh
was created on Loshadh's home system (PowerMac G3 266, 160 megs of RAM) using a 
combination of Photoshop, custom written Matlab scripts, and HexEdit.  Insertion of the
map textures and .256 file generation was performed by Loshadh.  Unit and object 
positioning was performed on the 8500/180 using Cameroon's kick-butt editing program 
"Mesh Inspector Gold 2.1.2".  Overhead map was simultaneously created by both Remus
and Loshadh, and insterted by Loshadh.  Pregame screen created by Loshadh.

 
README file created by Loshadh while Remus packs his stuff to move out to the boonies. ;)

05/29/98

