Thank you for that good tip!

This boy has some promise (and an infinitely superior gfx card)!

Agree totally. Clearly, he needs to prove this without a doubt, by posting some more screenies.

Cortés arrives at Río Grijalva:

Nice and simple. I have to say the first one was better, mostly because it's got a clear focus. Cortes and crew look kinda lost in all the tallgrass.

Keep up the great work everyone. Ive handed over some of the Spanish cities to my husband, and he's busy with Salamanca right now.

With all of these great shots, I might have to join in. Are those shots from an actual scenario, Saffah?

Are those shots from an actual scenario, Saffah?

Yep, working on mapwork now. Probably will finish in about a month, then run some pathing tests, then write triggers and place cine cubes and whatnot.

Online or beta testing - not for a little while.

Having a helping hand with the terrain and testing is sure a blessing. I can study and go about the household chores while Matt struggles with the crappy Editor. He's got a great eye for detail and knows the historical background of the scenario. So I don't have to intervene much at all.

I hear some swearing from the other room. I think he needs a hand...:P

Installment #3 in the PENINSULAR WARS previews. Today's preview features the work of Gen_John_Ross, who took over for me during exams weeks.

Before the heroes even leave Portugal, they are in grave danger. The very first landing they encounter an urgent plea to help the citizens of Coimbra. The French, or perhaps the retreating Portuguese, have put it to the torch.



As soon as this is done, the allies enter Lisbon and start construction on the Lines of Torres Vedras. Then they push north and east to secure the border with Spain. This proves rather tricky, since every hilltop, pass, and manor is packed with Soult's retreating troops. Finally the allies clear out the French all the way to Badajoz.




Further adventures await to the north. General Moore retreated and tried to evacuate his regiments of Highlanders and cavalry but the port town of La Coruña declared allegiance to Napoleon and trapped them there. The allies must learn where they are imprisoned and save them.



Meanwhile, in Algarve, the allies come upon an eccentric Frenchman, who will sell them a hot air balloon. "She fly over land and sea, and I only ever took her up on a few Sundays. They don't make them like her anymore. Very dependable!"



The British forces take Ciudad Rodrigo and use it as a springboard for further Spanish exercises. They meet a nemesis in Salamanca. Spanish collaborators fire at them from cover in the winding streets as their boss swivels a giant machine gun in the cathedral square. "Say hello to my little friend," he cackles.



The fighting in Madrid is long and bitter. As the shells fly, the churchyard fills.



Across the river, the allies find the famous ironworks of Toledo hell-bent on forging cannons for the French. A show of force, and the production foreman sees the error of his ways. The allies confiscate the scarce and precious cannons for use in defending Spain.



After meeting up with El Empecinado in Cadiz, the allies clear the Strait and land at Málaga to bring aid to starving resistance fighters. They are told of a secret stronghold in the mountains, atop a cliff that overlooks the sea. After a long and arduous climb from the beach, the allies are seemingly transported back in time as they are led captive to the secretive Sultan of Cordoba and to the restored Alhambra. Here they must win the support of the Moors or be forever imprisoned within the mountain fortress.



The Spanish general sends the hot air balloon ahead to scout out the positions of the French. He returns reporting dire news. The French are retreating past the Ebro and building a citadel on the mountains. It is accessible only from the Bay of Biscay (controlled by French fleets) and from a long, rugged switchback trail up the side of the mountains. At the top, the French have constructed a line of guard towers and cannon emplacements. To lead our men up there would be sheer suicide. But try, we must.



Once the allies breach the walls, they find the French have stockpiled a huge arsenal of ammunition and powder - right up against the fort walls. If they can only reach the spot below the towers to blow them, they can bring down the fort.



Coming soon: A cave leads to the frontline. A deadly trap at Cartagena. A great rescue effort. A sheep roundup.

EDIT: We have bigger, better, and just plain cooler screenshots of Madrid and Sagres up. Please check the previous Installments to look at the NEW Capitol NEW lighthouse and navigation school.

[This message has been edited by As_Saffah (edited 04-26-2009 @ 11:06 AM).]

this looks pretty nice

I want to play the scenario sooooo bad now...

I want to play the scenario sooooo bad now...

This should give your fancy pants graphics card a run for its money. Last night we reached the point where it will NOT playtest in editor mode on my husband's comp. The only way we got to see it upgraded w/triggers is through the single player scenario menu. (Good luck testing triggers with that limitation)

omg! You know I just wanna see your map I offer you to help :P

[This message has been edited by Mister SCP (edited 04-26-2009 @ 04:20 PM).]

As always, great screen shots As_Saffah.
I especially like the pool with the court.

Feel free to post a special thread about your scenario.

Last night we reached the point where it will NOT playtest in editor mode on my husband's comp.

Sounds to me your are overdue for a new computer with a new video card.
What video card do you use now?

[This message has been edited by MosheLevi (edited 04-27-2009 @ 10:22 PM).]

@As_Saffah
My graphics card is utter shit. To play online I need to set shader to bare bone. During screenshots I don't have to move much so I set my graphics card as high as it can go (disregarding the fact that my mouse can barely advance one cm a second) to take a screenshot. Might be because I play AOE3 on a Vista with a shitty glued-in graphics card that couldn't even run the Spore Creature Creator.
Maybe I should upgrade...

@Moshe
lol you typed pots.

We both have on-board integrated graphics so we both play in lo-fi mode at all times (except for screenies).

Yeah, we both could use a new comp. Hopefully his tax refund will allow him to upgrade and get something that can handle AOE3 and also other high end graphics games.

I'll probably just upload the scenario for the contest with the caveat "Requires 2GB RAM and 64+ MB dedicated graphics card to play" which sucks, because a lot of players will get left out. I suppose they could run it at very low settings like we do, but online it will most certainly cause some people issues. The map alone is 950 KB and we haven't even started writing triggers for it. That said, most of the mapwork was done on my laptop, and we don't expect to be adding a lot more eyecandy from here on out, so it should still theoretically be manageable.

[This message has been edited by As_Saffah (edited 04-26-2009 @ 10:04 PM).]

Nice. How did you do the stairs on this screenshot?

Instructions for making stairs are in Twoq's portion of the Eye candy guide.

I got a similar problem with my one if i add a simple trigger like unit create the game works not anymore in editor but it is at least NOT my graphic card (Radeon HD 4800 Series). I will 1st try to short triggers (Move from location, teleport from location) and if nothing works I go to make 2 scnarios out of one. Since my PW System works and it is able to safe e.g. gold count and life count

As_Saffah I have never seen any of your work...My god those towns look great!

Cant wait for it to be released XD (I guess this could be a while.)

Yea, it realy looks awesome!

This is Pro Eye-Candy

I have to say, As_Saffah, that is some pretty amazing work.

And lol @ BurningSushi: Mine couldn't run it either until I got an upgrade recently

This thread gets so lonley... So I had a go at makeing my own eye-candy.




Annoyingly I had to crop the mini map and the menu bar out. And even more annoying is that you can see a health bar. How do I get rid of them for a screenshot? (this was shot in playtest)

I'm looking for constructive critisism so go ahead...

I used paint.

The overall setup is quite nice. Though now I'm sad, because that little red bar ruined the effect. Try mixing IGC Target amongst the units so it looks like the xbows are firing at them while also not causing any ugly health bars to appear. Just disable the special objects in the misc bar and the xbows will be firing at invisible targets. Also, if you want to achieve a good cavalry charge motion, set the cavalry to Gaia in a scraggled, tight formation, then click directly behind the place they're about to charge. It will look great.

To get rid of the interface, go to file, then screenshot, then click remove interface and voila!

Edit: My Vista has recently had a fatal death crash (irony) so when I eventually get a new computer I'll make some more eye candy. Nooby tech question: Wiping the memory drive on a compromised Vista uninstalls the games entirely correct?

[This message has been edited by BurningSushi460 (edited 05-09-2009 @ 05:46 PM).]

I'm also in hiatus. My laptop fan is dead and I can't run AOE3 on it. I'm looking for a new fan but it's hard to find aftermarket fans for laptops especially HP (lol). We're simply too broke to replace my computer right now. My husband needs a new computer soon and since he is the only wage earner, his takes priority even tho I need mine for school. So depending on what he does/gets, I'll be limited to scenario design and eye candy only when he is not home/using the computer. Again.

I'm still working on Isanti and although it's not as eyecandy friendly as the Peninsular wars, it will have a few areas of interest.

i know this is off topic, but how can i make a normal unit regain health automatically? is it in modify protounit?