Kuwait Theater - progress update

[Malc]

Before I go any further - any chance of a separate sub-forum for Kuwait Theater please?

Thought I’d give you all a heads-up on the progress so far.

Here are all the segments I’ve tiled so far:

Basically, Kuwait, Iraq, and Saudi Arabia are done.

I have tiled the theater using tiles derived from the old Iran tileset and new ones I have made myself. By todays standards they are very poor, but the hard bit is done and replacing the poor with today’s standard tiles will be easy.

From left to right, Wasteland (Desert), Rough Grazing, Sand, Irrigated Farming, Arable, Pastures, City. Naturally, there transitions between each as required. Again some from the Iran tileset, some new as required. They have been applied to the terrain as thus:

If you concentrate on the tiled area, this was made from the land-use charts available on the internet. Obviously no where near accurate, but close enough to offer an approximation, which is plenty for our purposes.

I have tiled the Euphrates and Tigris rivers, but that’s it. I want to keep bridges to a minimum, so desert rivers, rough grazing rivers, etc are being left out. They are no loss anyway, and just lead to 1000s of bridges being needed. Plenty variation in land-type tiles will keep the boredom to a minimum hopefully (not that there is much to say at Angels 25 anyway).

I am currently about 85 percent through building the te_new.tac file for the three countries mentioned. When I am happy with that, I will consider a limited release to perhaps have a campaign built for testing purposes, at which time we can start to look to add skins and stuff to it too. When I have done with this, I will work on Iran to expand the campaign possibilities.

One thing not done is nice tiles for airbases - I am no artist. Currently the airbases are simply base tiles different to the terrain on which they are located. This is simply to make eventual placement of airbase tiles quick and easy. Funny enough, it doesn’t detract hardly at all when flying!?

Still lots to do, no promises on public release dates, but be sure it is happening, and will end up being the Middle East/ODS theater we have all wanted for years…

[NIL]

Very nice work there Malc.

Greetings

[Scheintot887]

Would be DAMN nice. I´m waiting the whole time for something like this. I hope you will release it. Thank you.

[Drakko]

Kuwait will be a must if you finish it!!!

Thx a lot!!

[Falcontower]

Hi Malc,

Kuwait,

lot a work you´ve got ahaed, great that you started this project.

" keep it up "

[sorcer3r]

Great news!
Will we have Prince Sultan Airbase there?

[Guest]

Great idea… Why not? I wish you success…

[neystratiou]

Great start my friend Malcolm.
Keep on that…
Nikos.

[Polak]

I lived in Kuwait and Iraq for some time in the 80this and I think that I know the area pretty well.

One thing which sticks out in the landscape of Kuwait is modern highway network with ellaboarate intersections and quite few shore refineries with interconnecting pipelines from the oil fields and many, many powerlines. While perhaps there is no way at present to model powerlines or pipelines, at least modern road network should be present in this theater project.

Iraq on the other hand has just few main roads and only date tree and orange orchards close to the roads. I do not remember any arable swaths of the land, which can be confirmed looking @ Panoramio photos of this particulary region of the world.

[jamrhodes]

Hope to add this to my campaign list. I was stations at Prince Sultan Airbase for six months.

[stingray_SIX_TWO]

Looks good and great choice. This area would give grounds for some very interesting scenarios!

Keep it up and good luck!

[Malc]

I’m currently putting the finishing touches to a campaign between Saudi and Iraq, a la ODS, but overall the theatre is a long way from done. Terrain tiles are awful by today’s standards, but if you can get over the ugliness it’s rather a fun place to fly.

Also tiling Iran now and once this is done it will make a fantastic place to fly - the terrain and its long deep valleys will make for some excellent low-level tactics. I’m very excited about this theatre, and with support from the community could be great.

[toonces]

[toonces]

Malc,
Just something to consider. To cut down on dev time, or to better utilize your time, I wonder if it might not be feasible to focus on only the terrain around a small Desert Shield/Kuwait scenario first. You can always tile Iran later when you’re ready to build a campaign there.

Just because there are 3 campaign slots, it’s not necessary to build 3 campaigns initially, you know?

[Stratos]

Hello Malc, any update on the terrain? I’m really interested on this one.

Thanks.

[Sherlock]

Hey Malc,
check your PMs.

[Malc]

Hi, replied

Cheers!

[darkarrow]

@Malc:

Hi, replied

Cheers!

Are there any news for the rest of us?

[Malc]

@darkarrow:

Are there any news for the rest of us?

Nothing new, other than I continue to work away…

[Malc]

Got my ass handed to me courtesy of Saddam’s elite Republican Guard this evening. It was on Day 8 around 09.00hrs when Iraq finally captured the required objectives to hand me defeat.

In other words, I have played a campaign to completion in Kuwait Theater. I was so happy I forgot to screenshot the UI!

The downside to all this is I gave up making notes and tweaks long ago - how I have managed to make a working campaign is long since forgotten!