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[nenjin]

Download it here.



This is a large-size 4v4 map for Company of Heroes, entitled "Sumpf (Swamp) Valley." It consists of a deep valley wherein lies a small town that's been flooded by the river. Narrow, canyon-like roads wind their way up the mountain to either side's deployment area, and lines of hedgerows, marshy areas and choke points galore provide ample opportunities for ambushes and stubborn defense. For those who battle over the flooded town and surrounding islands, prepare for waist-deep water slowing you down and leaving infantry exposed to enemy fire.

November, 1944 - Seeking a way into Germany through mountain passes from the North, the U.S 8th Infantry and 7th Armored Divisions encountered elements of the 12th Germany Infantry and 6th Panzer Divisions at Sumpf Valley, a marshy low-lying valley split by a shallow river. Securing the valley would ensure a path for Northern Allied forces to invade straight into the heart of Germany. Failure would mean giving the German Army a secure pass from which they could launch attacks into the southern flank of the Allied invasion force pushing East.

Neither force wanted to fight in the valley. Under normal conditions, it would prove difficult for an army to navigate through its winding and ancient roads. With the onset of a wet fall, roads turned to sludge and the valley became a quagmire as the river level rose, slowing infantry and armor to a crawl as both armies fought savagely across the wreckage of a small fishing town.

"We were soaked from the minute we got there until the day it ended. Between the rain and the fog you couldn't see clearly more than 20 yards in front of you. With the thunder and the artillery going on day and night, no one slept. Couldn't. I thought we were in Hell. But Hell was when we finally pushed into the town. The gore and horror of war mixed with the mud into a paste, a film that coated the town's water ways. We fought through every inch of that stuff until our clothes were caked in it, saturated. All the rain in the world couldn't wash the death off us. -Cpl. Josh Wilks, U.S. 8th Infantry"

Spoiler: The battlefield (click to show/hide)

The Allied Forces deploy to the West. The Axis, the East.

Spoiler: The Men of War (click to show/hide)

Spoiler: A hilltop Redoubt (click to show/hide)

Spoiler: THERE WAS A FIREFIIIIGGHHTTT!!!! (click to show/hide)

Spoiler: The average tactical situation (click to show/hide)

Spoiler: The Allies entrench this sad little town (click to show/hide)

Spoiler: Mortar team goes to work (click to show/hide)

Spoiler: The Allied Horde (click to show/hide)

Spoiler: Whole squads of soldiers died to Axis defensive artillery to establish this fire base. (click to show/hide)

Spoiler: By the time my Allied Engineers go to work, each island is a little fortress unto itself. (click to show/hide)

Spoiler: The Axis tankers are to be feared for their skill and the quality of their weapons (click to show/hide)

Spoiler: Or not (click to show/hide)

Spoiler: Nothing....is a match for the Allied Artillery (click to show/hide)

Spoiler: The back bone of Allied infantry (click to show/hide)

Spoiler: But the Axis artillery is nothing to laugh at either.... (click to show/hide)

Spoiler: Delicious gibblets! (click to show/hide)

Spoiler: The tactical situation changes...sort of (click to show/hide)

Spoiler: Rangers here! When do we get to kill Jerry? Now? Outstanding! (click to show/hide)

Spoiler: Rangers here! Put us in the fight! (click to show/hide)

Spoiler: Jerry is out of his depth (click to show/hide)

Spoiler: Sherman is God! (click to show/hide)

Spoiler: Steady....wait for it.... (click to show/hide)

Spoiler: MABASPLOOM! (click to show/hide)

Spoiler: The pride of the 3rd Reich (click to show/hide)

Spoiler: Soon to be the former pride of the 3rd Reich (click to show/hide)

Spoiler: More gratuitous displays of artillery powah! (click to show/hide)

Instructions for installing the map are included in the d/l from Moddb. Questions, comments, criticisms are all welcome.

Spoiler: Older development blah blah (click to show/hide)

So I've been making maps on and off for my friends and I for Company of Heroes for years. I think I've come a pretty long way and I wish more games had map editors up to the quality of the Company of Heroes World Editor. Because man, you can do just about anything your brain can cook up with this puppy.

My friends and I love a good comp stomp in Company of Heroes, so I build maps with those primarily in mind. But I try to keep things very even as far as # of control points and the distribution of choke points, barracks-level structures, and so forth, so people that enjoy pvp have a nice, big, detailed map to play on. The World Editor is perfect for me because it allows you to pack so much detail into a map. So while my maps tend to have a mirror effect, they're wildly different on each side as I turn each control point into a quasi-art project.

I tried to design in a way that gives infantry a heavy advantage in getting around. There are a couple control points that can't be reached by vehicles and the areas off the road ways are intentionally kept narrow to keep larger vehicles out. Of course, being CoH, tanks will eventually plow paths through the hedgerows or artillery will blast new pathways out, but initially at least armor can't go where ever it wants outside of the center area.

I've already play-tested this map with 7 AIs, and so far it runs smashingly. I've still got boatloads of detail work to do (detail work in CoH = game play), pretty much the whole center of the map, but now that I've tinkered with it in game (played about 40 minutes just watching the AI tear itself apart) I'm pretty fired up to get it finished and ready for d/l.

Notice the 100+ pop cap and the rat's nest of allied troops occupying the (totally unfinished) center town area. Words can't really describe the carnage that was left behind after 30 mins of the AI going to town. But pictures will! In time.

---

Some pictures of the town in the valley. The map is technically playable now, but it's not quite up to snuff yet. Resources are a bit over the top at the moment, some areas still lack a lot of detail work and there's all the atmospheric stuff to fool with. But it's shaping up nicely! I'm trying not to show too much of it until its really finished, but I'm pretty pleased.

[nenjin]

The file may not be approved on moddb for a little while, but keep checking back if it's not.

[RF]

Don't have Company of Heroes, but this both looks nice and seems like a pretty original idea.

[freeformschooler]

Whoa, this is an RTS? At first I thought this was some awesome FPS map.

[nenjin]

Yep, it's an RTS. This is the reason I still play Company of Heroes YEARS after buying it and finishing it. Its map creator is un-paralleled, and you can take the camera down to that level in the game as well as in the editor. I've never put as much time or effort into so many maps as with this thing. The WC3 Map Editor seems like an Etch-A-Sketch compared to it.

If you think it looks neat now, just wait til there are 75 Nazi troops and vehicles crawling all over it, and artillery raining down from the sky exploding them into hamburger.

I plan to do some "before/after" shots once it's completed.

[freeformschooler]

Question: did you draw all of dem dere textures yourself?

Anyway, the map could certainly be improved with one thing: more smooth, realistic shadows. Well, not the map, the viewing of it, but you get the idea.

[nenjin]

Question: did you draw all of dem dere textures yourself?

Oh hell no. All that is in game assets (another reason why the editor is so great. More objects, splat textures, tile textures, looks, variations....than you can shake a stick at. It's the reason I've made 4 complete maps and never exhausted the artistic possibilities.)

Anyway, the map could certainly be improved with one thing: more smooth, realistic shadows. Well, not the map, the viewing of it, but you get the idea.

A few things.

1. The editor allows you to view at at a height scale that you can't do in the normal game. so all the textures, objects, shadows ect...suffer severe scaling. In game the camera is locked to under a certain height, so 80% of everything you see in game is rendered to a higher standard. I cropped the last set of images, but if I hadn't you'd have seen those are editor screen shots, unlike the first, which is in-game.

2. All the atmospheric and lighting properties of the map haven't been fooled with yet. The default is high noon and some fog value, and that skybox. While the shadows don't get much higher quality than that, they can and will get more dramatic as I fool with the angle of the sun and tweak the sunlight color value. Shadows look pretty decent at the in-game level at the correct height. At lower (in-game) or higher (in the editor) zoom levels they tend to break down.

[freeformschooler]

About what I figured, just was interested in whether or not nicer shadows and rendering would be available in game.

[nenjin]

Getting close to the 1.0 version of the map. Still a bit of detail work to do, lighting and effects to fool with, and then going over the map with a fine tooth comb for last minute additions and tweaking. So here's the last couple screen shots you'll probably see without all the rain, lightning and yadda yadda.

Spoiler: There's a storm brewing (click to show/hide)

Spoiler: A storm of....WWWWAARRRRRRR!!!! (click to show/hide)

[metime00]

This is a pretty sexy looking map. I love fighting through towns in CoH. All that carnage and all those craters...

[nenjin]

Veeeeerrryyyy close to being done, just want a full day of tweaking and stuff and it should be ready for d/l.

In the mean time....LIGHTNING! THUNDAH!

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

I'll have some more game-y screen shots to go along with the release.

[nenjin]

Ok, it's ready (more or less.) I debated doing more detail outside the playable area, but figured it's bogging down my PC pretty bad when you pan out for long views....less is probably more in this instance. Still, I'll revisit the map as I and others find problems.

[nenjin]

Well that took way longer than it should have

It's now finally available for d/l in the link in the first post.

[freeformschooler]

Congrats, nenjin! Getting my new laptop soonish, gonna possibly try this game out. Only problem is I'm terrible at RTS games.

[nenjin]

Just put the AIs on easy. Basically the AI seems unable to get much farther than the central town without help, even up to normal. There's so many guys running around on this map, it's pretty easy as the only human player to sit back and take it at your own pace.