River Crossings

While I understand some like and some dislike rivers on maps and using water the wrong way on a map can kill it. I want to ask people for their opinion of river crossings.

I'm currently working on a 2v2 map with a river running through it. The playable dimensions for it are 416 by 480. The map has a land bridge near the center of the map and shallow river crossings towards the exteriors. All in all there are 6 points to cross the river. Heavies can cross using all but two of them (Yes this was intentional).

From what I have explained here, in your opinion have I included enough ways to cross that you would feel like the map is as open as if there was no river in it?

Or would it be better if I made the whole river into a shallow crossing?

I have considered the latter but I'm not sure if it would kill the map just as well as if I hadn't added 'enough' crossings.

how wide are the shallow crossings? the smaller the better

take look at the map Crossing in the woods = it is the best example how it should be.

You could always do two versions of the map. One with blocking water, the other with shallows and mud. Crossable Shallows being the only water, where the deepest part of the river is located, and the shallowest area's just mud. (cosmetic only if you don't like mud tech) Complete the map with one version, and then convert the other for consistency. It wouldn't take much work to convert a river into a riverbed.

@Sarantini Well the widest one would be no more than 15-20 metres

@some one Crossing in the woods is close to the effect I'm after.

@Srinidhalaya As it turns out this IS the converted one. I already made a version (yet to be released) where it is impassable. The map is good but I wanted to take it a step further. The other version is 192x416 and is designed as a choke point map. I've stamped the playable area and extended its borders to 416x480 to make it much more open. Basically doubling the map in size and tripling the ways to cross the river.

I only got around to buying CoH2 at the start of December and I'm getting pretty close to releasing this map but some areas still need a lot of work before I'm going to be happy with it. and I really don't want the river to be what kills the map.

From my experience, there are a couple of things that make or break a map.

1. It must be pretty. This, in my opinion, will break a map no matter how balanced it is. If it is just painted textures, and no splats, or detail objects, or just doesn't look natural or realistic, it will not be well received. The same thing goes for the mini map, and the splash screens. This is one area, where a book IS judged by its cover, as well as the first two pages. In the end, it should look as professional looking as possible. I cannot stress this enough.

2. While looks are number 1, a great looking map with balance issues wont play over so well, for obvious reasons. But, overall opinion does seem to lead towards competitive design based on Flanks. There is a Coop vs AI crowd, and while choke point maps are well received, they usually are done so silently, but vocally opposed by the competitive crowd as unbalanced.



Sarantini is a very talented mapper, and nailed it with the question of width. Smaller is better. Another thing to consider, balance is usually built around symmetry, and it can be difficult to make a symmetric river look realistic. You most certainly have a challenge, as many have made river maps, and making it unique will be the most difficult part of all.

Considering its current state of progress I still need to do a lot of work on it before even I will be satisfied with it (I've always taken this as a good thing).

When it comes to beautification I can sometimes go a little over board and have to pull myself back a bit so as not to clog things unnecessarily (majority of maps I made are industrial or urban) this being one of my first rural maps I'm really trying to watch that I don't clog areas up too much object wise and get more or a natural realistic look as you say.

Changing the map in the way that I have seriously screwed with its territory balance, I've been meticulously changing and testing but I think I've nearly got it nailed now.

Dont be shy on the SPLT's. I think the rule is, no more than 5 overlapping, if im not mistaken.

Look forward to seeing the fruit of your labor.

SHY? Hell No! I'm trying to use "more" splats, splines, land shapes, bushes, small trees, a few buildings here and there anything I can really so I'm not clogging areas, that are supposed to be open fields. I especially love using action marker fx to add depth to areas. You'll see