Current Rating:
Incredible.....
As reviewed by Emperor Dracula.
Graphics:
Looks like a satellite photo.....
Behold, visual perfection has finally been achieved. The image you see is not a photo, nor even a painting, but the actual in-game minimap. When you load up the map itself you will find that even the full map is perfect right down to extreme details like "Tokyo Bay" and small island chains. In mainland China you'll find the "Huang He" River in the north, the "Yangtze" River in the middle, and the "Xi Jiang" river in the far south. Even the tiny inlets of Japan have been preserved for accuracy. I also took the liberty of making the water a little transparent so the sometimes rough bottom could add the the visuals. Futhermore, I used the closest vegetation for each area of the map as I could find. As such, you'll find pine trees in the extreme northeast, average trees in the central areas, and rain forest trees in the southern areas. In the northwest is the gobi desert, so vegitation is almost nil.
Mechanics:
Core Contingency required.....
Everything works very smooth. All areas of the map can be accessed. The AI is fully functional. Copy the map file into the main game directory. The only flaw worth mentioning is a stripe of "weird tiles" in the extreme southwest of the map. This could not be helped as Annihilator is rather crash happy with trying to add more unique image data into that area. Perhaps a hack can be found to fix it for a future release. We'll see.
Gameplay:
Land, sea, and air are critical.....
First, the start positions. Player 1 starts in Tokyo, Japan. Player 2 is in Central China. Player 3 is North Korea. Player 4 is Southern China. Player 5 is Mongolia. Player 6 is Northern China. Player 7 is Russia. Yes, a tiny part of Russia is in the map. The "pine tree area" on the extreme northwest coast of Asia is actually Russia, and does touch North Korea as well as China. Next, player 8 is the United States, starting underwater in the extreme southeast Pacific Ocean area. Player 9 is South Korea. And finally, player 10 is Taiwan. As such I have included all the main powers in the region, as well as Mogolia simply because a start position was needed up there. Anyways, as Japan it is critical to gain sea dominance. I can not stress this enough as mainland Japan has few resources, but the sea to the east is full of metal deposits. For the mainland players, heavy anti-air, and solid beach defenses is needed to keep the Japanese from getting a foothold on the mainland. If Japan has the sea, then gains a beach-head, they've almost won. For battles with lots of players, keep in mind only the Commander, and units that float, like hovercraft, can cross the treacherous rivers of China. They're just a bit too narrow for naval vessals though. Also, while northern mainland Asia is fine, the southern areas being a mountainous region makes travel very hard for some of your land units. It should be mentioned also that amphibious landings are possible along much, but not all, of the coastlines. Long range artillery will reach a little over a third of the map. The forests are thick enough to cover armies in some areas. And there are steamvents at each country's capital city. The exception being Taiwan with 3 steamvents because I wanted the tiny island to be worth fighting for. With those details in mind this map can obviously be played in many ways. To conclude, this map has endless gameplay potential.
Overall:
The bleeding edge of RTS maps.....
More to come tomarrow night!
Story:
Once upon a time.....
Far into the future a vast war breaks out across the region. Suit up, and prepare for battle!
Copyright:
Property of Emperor Dracula.....
This map is Copyright June 2001, by Emperor Dracula. You may not post this on your site, or mass distribute it in any way without his written and signed permission. Selling this map is not permitted without his authorization. He reserves the right to change the above at any time, at his fanciful whim, without notification of any kind.
